Neurology/brain science

Neurologist Carolyn Bernstein, co-author (with journalist Elaine McArdle) of The Migraine Brain, estimates that 30 million Americans suffer from migraines — and that most sufferers don't realize they have the condition.

The quest to understand what makes us us has long been one of humankind's great pursuits. Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga has made progress: He's the author of Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique.

Neurological researcher Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke 12 years ago. While the damage caused by a stroke is often devastating, Taylor was able to make a complete recovery after becoming her own experimental subject.

For all of us who have ever wandered into a room only to freeze, wondering blankly, "Why did I come in here, again?," Martha Weinman Lear has an answer. Lear, the author of Where Did I Leave My Glasses?, discusses the twin issues of memory loss and aging — what degree of forgetfulness is normal, and what can be done about it?

In the book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, neurologist Oliver Sacks explores the relationship between music and the mind.

Through a series of case studies ranging from songs stuck in one's mind to a newfound passion for concert piano after being struck by lightning, the professor of Neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the NYU School of Medicine examines the complexity of human beings and the role music plays in our lives.

Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, ranks as one of the U.S.'s leading addiction researchers. She's helped demonstrate that addiction is in fact a disease — a disease of the brain — and that all addictions, whether it's to drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, gambling or even food, are more alike than was previously thought.

Volkow, who's the great-granddaughter of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, grew up in Mexico City — in the house where her famous ancestor was assassinated.

Richard Powers recently won the National Book Award for his book The Echo Maker. Part mystery and part science, the novel is about a 27-year-old man who falls into a coma after a car crash and wakes up with a rare brain disorder. Powers' previous books include The Gold Bug Variations and The Time of Our Singing.

Neurosurgeon Katrina Firlik's new book is Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside. Firlik is now a private practitioner in Greenwich, Conn., and a clinical assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine. She is also the daughter of a surgeon

Dr. E. Fuller Torrey is a research psychiatrist specializing in schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness. He has authored many books on the subject of mental illness and is president of the Treatment Advocacy Center, as well as associate director for laboratory research at the Stanley Medical Research Institute.

Journalist Jack El-Hai is the author of The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness. El-Hai is the executive vice president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and a winner of the June Roth Memorial Award for Medical Journalism.