Ask the Brains

People behave in strange ways. We sometimes giggle when someone falls down, swear we've been to places we haven't or continue believing in something despite scientific evidence to the contrary. For more than a decade, Scientific American MIND's long-running feature "Ask the Brains" has addressed questions from our readers on the quirks and quandaries of human behavior, psychology and neurology. Here in Ask the Brains, Part 1 we've compiled some of the best and most interesting inquiries about the human brain.

From irrational phobias to a midlife crisis, we've all experienced moments of utter confusion about the nature of our own behavior, emotions or perception of reality. In this book, neurologists and other scientists share what they know about how the mind works, including some of these baffling psychological experiences.