Summary

The brain is a complex and mysterious organ. When everything goes right, it is a finely tuned machine that serves as our body's central processing unit. But like computers on the fritz, things occasionally go haywire in the brain, and the effects can be crushing. What happens when things go wrong? The fields of psychology, neuroscience, and more recently neuropsychology are developing rapidly, offering more clues to unlocking the secrets of the brain. In the century and a half since railroad worker Phineas Gage's famous personality-altering injury, scientists have mapped out the anatomy of the brain and examined the pathology of disorders such as Down syndrome; Autism spectrum disorder; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); Parkinson's disease; and Alzheimer's and other dementias.