How the Brain Works

Michael S. C. Thomas is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Birkbeck, University of London and Director of the Centre for Educational Neuroscience. One of his main interests is the translation of research between neuroscience and education. With Cathy Rogers, he recently published the book `Educational Neuroscience: The Basics¿ (Routledge). The focus of his research laboratory, the Developmental Neurocognition Lab, is to use multi-disciplinary methods to understand the brain and cognitive bases of cognitive variability, including the use of behavioural, brain imaging, computational, and genetic methods. He has published over 150 scientific papers and book chapters, and his work has been cited over 10,000 times. He is a Chartered Psychologist, Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Fellow of the US Association for Psychological Science, and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Chapter 1: Introduction (and some puzzles)
Chapter 2: Where the brain comes from: evolution
Chapter 3: What are the bits of the brain and what together do they do?
Chapter 4: How does a neuron work?
Chapter 5: The brain is a computer, obviously
Chapter 6: The brain is a biological organ, not a computer
Chapter 7: How it gets to work this way: development and learning
Chapter 8: Working better, working worse, working different
Chapter 9: Humans apart
Chapter 10: Saving the planet
Chapter 11: Conclusion (and answers to those puzzles)