National Geographic's March 2005 issue has a full feature on the brain called "Beyond the Brain." 
In it they talk about:
- brain surgery while patient remains awake
- how different regions of the brain control different functions (front left, language; back of brain, vision, etc.)
- brain development starting from inside the womb (did you know that at the moment of our birth we possess more brain cells than we ever will again?)
- how the brain, at birth, is able to hear every sound of every langauge on Earth, but only the syllables of our native language fill our ears, then our brain becomes more sensitive to just those sounds, while losing their responsiveness to other langauges
- In the old days, people said the brain is like a computer, but it's very distributed, closer to the Internet. (Most activity occurs in both hemisphere's of the brain.)
While National Geographic doesn't offer the entire article on-line (even for subscribers; what gives!?), they do include some other fun and useful links.
My favorite is Paul Eckman's survey that is asking for volunteers to take an online test to see how good you are at identifying emotions. It takes about 10 minutes.
Using the link above, click on "Do Your Part for Science" over there on the right hand side of the page. Have fun! (You have until the end of 2005 to participate.)
More stuff from article (it's worth copying next time you are at the library).
- The hippocampus (seat of memory) can grow in human adults. Learning how to juggle for three months resulted in an increase of gray matter in two areas involved in visual and motor activity.
- But when the jugglers stopped practicing, the regions shrank back. Studies with the blind reading Braille show that the region of the brain responding to input from the reading finger is greatly enlarged.
- The juggling study also showed that new brain cells were actually created -- an idea thought proposeterous until recently. That's nerve regeneration! The field also refers to it as "neuroplasticity"; the brain is plastic.
- At the Univ of Wisconsin, researchers have been studying the brain activity in Tibetan monks to see if meditation can literally change the mind. The study shows that meditation increases brain activity in the farther left frontal cortext. (Is this where happiness lives?)
- Emotions are universal and evolved to prepare us to deal quickly with circumstances we believe will affect our welfare.
- Some emotional triggers are universal (a sudden invasion of your field of vision provokes fear), most emotional triggers are learned.
- Emotion, says Ekman, is the least plastic part of the brain. His suggestion on studying emotions is to be aware of what triggers our various emotions.
- Evidence shows that the brain is predisposed to dread natural phenomena that can hurt us (spiders, snakes). Natural selection may have hard-wired us to fear beasts, swooping invaders, and other natural perils, so that we could live long enough to pass on our genes.
- And it's the amygdala (deep inside the limbic system -- the most primitive and emotional part of the brain), that receives a first crude impression of the dreadful whatever, even before the visual areas of the brain can confirm its identity. This perception elicits an initial fear reaction.
- Music is native to the human mind. There is not a culture on Earth that does not have it, and our brains are wired to apprehend and be moved by its magic.
- Important to creativity is the temporal lobe portion of the brain. But having a special pattern recognition ability in this part of the brain isn't enough. More important to creativity may be the connections through the limbic system, which supply drive and motivation.
If you are still intrigued about this lovely organ, click here for diagrams and even more info.
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