Brain

Psychiatrist ANNA LEMBKE's new book Dopamine Nation is about the neuro transmitter - the chemical messenger released in the brain most involved in processing rewards.  It plays a big part in addictions.

Interested in learning a new skill in the new year? CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta says that will also improve your brain health. "The act of experiencing something new — or even doing something that's typical for you, but in a different way — can all generate these new brain cells," says Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon and associate professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. He has a new book about the brain.

Neuroscientist Judith Grisel studies how addictive drugs work on the brain and why they're so hard to give up - whether they're illicit drugs like heroin and cocaine, or prescription drugs like opiates and certain anti anxiety and insomnia medications. She is also a recovering addict -- 30 years sober.

Dean Burnett says the human brain is like a computer that files information in a way that defies logic. According to Burnett, brains can alter memory, cause motion sickness and affect intelligence.

Neuroscientist David Eagleman says everything we think, do and believe is determined by complex neural networks battling it out in our brains. His book Incognito, in which he explains what scientists are learning about this hidden world of cognition, is now out in paperback.

This interview was originally broadcast on May 31, 2011. David Eagleman's Incognito is now out in paperback.

In his new book, The Compass of Pleasure, neuroscientist David Linden maps out the brain's relationship with pleasure and addiction. From junk food to sex to gambling, Linden explains that addictions are actually rooted in the brain's inability to feel pleasure.

Anesthesiologist Emery Brown explains what physicians know — and what they don't know — about the effects of anesthesia. Unlocking its mysteries, he says, will help scientists better understand consciousness and sleep — and could lead to better treatments for pain, sleep disorders and depression.

Neurologist V.S. Ramachandran, a pioneer in the field of visual perception, explains how his simple experiments in behavioral neurology have changed the lives of patients suffering from a variety of neurological symptoms in The Tell-Tale Brain.

The constant stream of information we get through mobile and hand-held devices is changing the way we think. Matt Richtel, a technology writer for The New York Times, explains how the use of digital technology is altering our brains -- and how retreating into nature may reverse the effects.

Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain and How It Changed the World is now out in paperback. Author Carl Zimmer writes about Thomas Willis, the scientist whose research on the workings of the brain during the 17th century became the basis of modern neurology. (This segment originally aired Feb. 9, 2004.)