Hello, lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Mike Tranter, PhD and his new book, “A Million Things To Ask A Neuroscientist”! For other stops on his Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.
Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with Dr. Mike and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous giveaway!
A Million
Things To Ask A Neuroscientist
by Mike Tranter PhD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Popular Science/Brain
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
A Million Things To Ask A Neuroscientist answers some of the most asked questions about the brain, making the science fun and accessible to everyone. Inside, you will journey through some of the most interesting and strange things that our brain does every single day.
Have you always wanted to know just what a memory actually is, or why we dream? What is our consciousness? Why do some people seem to ‘click’ with others? And can our brain really multi-task?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT ONE:
The clearest idea about why we dream is that the brain needs time to process the memories and emotions that we experienced during the day and convert them into long-term storage. This makes a lot more sense when we look at the brains of people who are sleeping and see that the hippocampus, the part for memories, and the anterior cingulate cortex, which is involved in assigning emotional context, are particularly active. In fact, on days where we have lots of new experiences, the brain can still be processing this information up to seven nights later. This also partly explains why stressful and emotional events in our lives can significantly affect the quality of our sleep.
One team of scientists demonstrated this by having people play video games for several hours before sleeping. Over 60% of people reported having dreams about the game, suggesting that our short-term memory is particularly active during our dreams.
Furthermore, the actual events of the dream are believed to be the combination of the short-term memories we recently experienced, and the long-term memories that our brain thinks are relevant and need to be connected with each other. This supports the view that sleeping and dreaming help to cement our memories from short-term storage in the hippocampus to long-term storage all over the brain. This process happens mostly in NREM sleep and the application of emotional context – how we feel about them, occurs in REM sleep, our deep sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUEST POST:
Five Reasons You Should Read My Book:
1.) I am a neuroscience researcher and spend my days probing the brain, looking at brain cells, and chopping up bits of brain. It is definitely a different type of job, and I am really excited that I get to write a book explaining some of what goes on in the brain and science labs all over the world. Neuroscience, and research laboratories in general, are not really talked about much to people who are non-scientists themselves. It is a great book to let people see how exciting a time we are living in with the research that is going on, and how much we know about the brain and its weird ways.
2.) I am just like any other reader who likes to embrace their curiosity, and challenge themselves. I know a lot about neuroscience, but there are so many other things that I would also enjoy learning about, but haven’t been exposed to. If you have ever been curious about how the brains actually works, or why it does the things it does, then my book will encourage that curiosity to the fullest. I have put a lot of work into writing the book in a way that everyone can enjoy it, without any need for scientific background. I just thought to myself, “what would I like to read if I was new to a subject?” and I think it came out really well.
3.) A big part of this book, is answering questions that were submitted by the public, meaning that I explain things that people actually want to know. The questions were wide-ranging but also very interesting. For example, do women have a different brain compared to men? Does a genius have a different brain? What actually is brain freeze, and is it ever dangerous? What actually are dreams?
One of the best chapters in the book also explores some of the really amazing and futuristic things that companies are building, that interact with our own brainwaves. Devices and headsets that will soon be coming to market, where we can control our tv with our mind, or type on a computer just by thinking the words.
It is a great book for anyone who wants to learn about a world often a little hidden from mainstream view.
4.) A fun fact that not many people will realise is that I illustrated the book myself using a design program. All of the images and diagrams, were made from my imagination. Some are useful for the explanations, and show the brain and different parts of it, but I also loved making some that are just fun ways to show something, and maybe give a little laugh here or there. They add a bit of fun to the chapters.
5.) When I was thinking about the cover design for the book, I had an idea of what I wanted, but I was happy to let designers send in their best ideas. It was a lot of fun. I loved the different cover art from the designers so much, that when deciding on which one to use, I found that I couldn’t make the final choice. I ended up getting two covers that are equally amazing. I will use one for the English version, and the other for the foreign language versions released later in the year. So, if you see the book with different cover art, now you know why.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR BIO:
Dr. Mike Tranter is from the North of England and studied how drugs work in our body, but it wasn't long before he found his true calling as a neuroscientist. After a PhD in neuroscience, he spent years in research labs all over the world, studying how the brain works. Although, it is his prominent rise as a science communicator, opening up the world of neuroscience to everybody, that he enjoys the most.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONNECT WITH DR. MIKE:
Website:
https://www.aneurorevolution.com
Email:
neurorevolution@protonmail.com
Teespring Store:
https://teespring.com/stores/the-english-scientist-2
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/RevolutionNeuro
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/TheEnglishScientist
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-tranter
Goodreads Author Page:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21173470.Mike_Tranter
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon Paperback:
Barnes and Noble Paperback:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-million-things-to-ask-a-neuroscientist-jodi-barnard/1139012177
The Book Depository Paperback:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFO:
Dr. Mike Tranter will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.**This post contains
affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase is made, I may receive a small
commission to help support this blog.
This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those awesome
giveaways on here**
Dr. Mike ~ Good morning! Welcome to FAB! It is so great to have you here! Congrats on your very intriguing new book and good luck on the book tour! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Ally. Your website looks great and the post is amazing. Happy to answer comments from readers. Thank you again for hosting. Mike
ReplyDeleteI liked the excerpt.
ReplyDeleteGreat post - I enjoyed reading it!
ReplyDelete