A Million Things To Ask A Neuroscientist by Michael Tranter

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Michael Tranter PhD will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

FIVE THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT GUESS ABOUT ME

1. If you could hear me speak, you would probably guess that I am from the England, in the UK (although most people think my accent is Australian). I lived there all my life but now I have settled down in California, USA, where I do neuroscience research. I swapped the grey clouds and narrow streets for the sun, sand, and hills. My social media name is ‘The English Scientist’ but I have adapted well to the sun and swimming pools, so I might have to modify that name at some point.

2. I have climbed mountains all over the world at extremely high altitudes. I have climbed a mountain (6,189m, 20,305ft) next to Mount Everest in Nepal (I would love to climb Everest at some point), and climbed Aconcagua in Argentina (6,961m, 22,841ft). This is the highest mountain, outside of the Himalayas. For Aconcagua, the climb got called off when we were about to summit due to poor weather, so we never made to the very top. We got pretty high though.

3. I have played the guitar for the last 16 years. I started playing an electric guitar, anything from punk rock to blues, but I mostly play my acoustic these days as it is much quieter than the electric guitar. Which keeps me in the good books with my neighbours. I have had the same electric guitar all this time, and have not ventured into an upgrade one yet. Maybe some day.

4. I am learning 3 languages at the same time. I went to a summer school in Valencia, Spain, to help with the Spanish, but for the German and Russian, I just learn on my own. I reach out to others (in Germany and Russia) who want to learn English, and use skype calls to talk to people in what is called language exchanges. It will be a while before I can confidently speak in these languages, but I enjoy learning them and learning about other people and cultures.

5. Although I can play the guitar, it reminds me of a time when I was playing ‘air guitar’. Basically, jumping on my bed, music blasting, and pretending to play some overly complicated Guns N’ Roses song. Without a guitar, only my hands. Once it finished, I looked out of my window to see two of my friends staring at me, laughing like crazy, at just how odd I must have looked. Although let’s be honest, we have all done that at some point anyway.

A Million Things To Ask A Neuroscientist answers some of the most asked questions about the brain, making the science fun and accessible to everyone. Inside, you will journey through some of the most interesting and strange things that our brain does every single day.

Have you always wanted to know just what a memory actually is, or why we dream? What is our consciousness? Why do some people seem to ‘click’ with others? And can our brain really multi-task?

Read an Excerpt

There is no such thing as a perfect memory, but as far as neuroscience teaches us, we never forget anything. Although in reality, most memories cannot be retrieved by us at a conscious level, and so you may think that they are lost forever. However, this forgetfulness is simply a mechanism that our brain does so that we can easily remember the important things and not get distracted by the countless other memories we store. Some people do not appear to have that ability and instead live with a nearly perfect memory recall of their entire lives.

This is called hyperthymesia, and it gives people the ability to have a near-perfect autobiographical memory about their lives. To accurately recall every major news event, day by day, from previous years, or recall what day of the week it was on a random date from the past, even describing the menu from a restaurant they visited on that date.

About the Author:

Dr Mike Tranter is from the North of England and studied how drugs work in our body, but it wasn't long before he found his true calling as a neuroscientist. After a PhD in neuroscience, he spent years in research labs all over the world, studying how the brain works. Although, it is his prominent rise as a science communicator, opening up the world of neuroscience to everybody, that he enjoys the most.

Website: https://www.aneurorevolution.com/
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/TheEnglishScientist
Buy Link: http://www.aNeuroRevolution.com

a Rafflecopter giveaway