Brain Plasticity, Health and Fitness Books

As you may have noticed, we just changed a few things in our site, includ­ing prepar­ing a more sol­id Resources sec­tion. Please take a look at the nav­i­ga­tion bar at the top.

One of the new pages, that we will update often, is an expand­ed Books page. Here are the books that we are rec­om­mend­ing now.

Fas­ci­nat­ing books on neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty (the abil­i­ty of the brain to rewire itself through experience):

Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Sci­ence Reveals Our Extra­or­di­nary Poten­tial to Trans­form Our­selves — by Sharon Begley.

 

The Brain That Changes Itself: Sto­ries of Per­son­al Tri­umph from the Fron­tiers of Brain Sci­ence — by Nor­man Doidge.

 

Great pop­u­lar sci­ence books by our Co-Founder and Chief Sci­en­tif­ic Advisor:

The Exec­u­tive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civ­i­lized Mind — by Elkhonon Gold­berg (Inter­view notes here).

 

 

The Wis­dom Para­dox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Old­er — by Elkhonon Goldberg.

 

 

User-friend­ly sci­en­tif­ic books on the brain:

Best of the Brain from Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can: Mind, Mat­ter, and Tomor­row’s Brain by Floyd E. Bloom (Review here).

 

 

A User’s Guide to the Brain: Per­cep­tion, Atten­tion, and the Four The­aters of the Brain — by John J. Ratey.

 

 

In Search of Mem­o­ry: The Emer­gence of a New Sci­ence of Mind — by Eric Kandel.

 

 

Map­ping the Mind — by Rita Carter.

 

 

 

Phan­toms in the Brain: Prob­ing the Mys­ter­ies of the Human Mind — by V. S. Ramachandran.

 

 

Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: An Updat­ed Guide To Stress, Stress Relat­ed Dis­eases, and Cop­ing — by Robert M. Sapolsky.

 

 

On how to apply all this to edu­ca­tion and learning:

Mag­ic Trees of the Mind: How to Nur­ture Your Child’s Intel­li­gence, Cre­ativ­i­ty, and Healthy Emo­tions from Birth Through Ado­les­cence — by Mar­i­an Dia­mond and Janet Hopson.

 

The Art of Chang­ing the Brain: Enrich­ing the Prac­tice of Teach­ing by Explor­ing the Biol­o­gy of Learn­ing — by James Zull (Inter­view notes here).

 

 

On how to apply cog­ni­tive and pos­i­tive psy­chol­o­gy to solve oth­er real-world problems:

Thanks: How the New Sci­ence of Grat­i­tude Can Make You Hap­pi­er — by Robert Emmons (Inter­view notes here).

 

 

The Beck Diet Solu­tion: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Per­son — by Judith Beck (Inter­view notes here).

 

 

Enhanc­ing Trad­er Per­for­mance: Proven Strate­gies From the Cut­ting Edge of Trad­ing Psy­chol­o­gy — by Brett Steen­barg­er (Inter­view Notes here).

 

With a health/medical angle:

The Brain Trust Pro­gram: A Sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly Based Three-Part Plan — by Lar­ry McCleary (Author essay here).

 

 

The Mem­o­ry Pre­scrip­tion: Dr. Gary Smal­l­’s 14-Day Plan to Keep Your Brain and Body Young — by Gary Small.

 

 

Brain Longevi­ty: The Break­through Med­ical Pro­gram that Improves Your Mind and Mem­o­ry — by Dhar­ma Singh Khalsa.

 

Ref­er­ence manual:

The Dana Guide to Brain Health: A Prac­ti­cal Fam­i­ly Ref­er­ence from Med­ical Experts by Floyd E. Bloom, M. Flint Beal, and David J. Kupfer (Review here).

 

Good com­bi­na­tion of infor­ma­tion and activities:

Build­ing Men­tal Mus­cle: Con­di­tion­ing Exer­cis­es for the Six Intel­li­gence Zones — by David Gamon and Allen D. Bragdon.

 

 

For oth­er brain-relat­ed books, The Dana Foun­da­tion offers a com­pre­hen­sive anno­tat­ed list. And remem­ber you can down­load our com­pli­men­ta­ry eBook by click­ing on the title and sub­scrib­ing to our free month­ly newsletter:

Brain Fit­ness 101 eGuide — by Elkhonon Gold­berg and Alvaro Fernandez.