The Beautiful Brain

The Aesthetic Brain takes the reader on a wide-ranging journey through the world of beauty, pleasure, and art. Chatterjee uses neuroscience to probe how an aesthetic sense is etched in our minds and evolutionary psychology to explain why aesthetic concerns feature centrally in our lives. Along the way, Chatterjee addresses fundamental questions: What is beauty? Is beauty universal? How is beauty related to pleasure? What is art? Should art be beautiful? Do we have an instinct for art? Chatterjee starts by probing the reasons that we find people, places, and even numbers beautiful. At the root of beauty, he finds, is pleasure.

• Examines the experiences of those who have survived comas
• Demonstrates how a key element of the brain is switched off by coma-inducing sedatives, allowing the mind to break free from the body
• Shares proven alternatives to medically-induced coma that are safer for treating critically ill patients and kinder for the patients and their families

The most precise, cutting-edge images of normal cerebral anatomy available today are the centerpiece of this spectacular atlas for clinicians, trainees, and students in the neurologically-based medical and non-medical specialties.