Isabel Güell López

The Brain Revealed

Original title:

El cerebro al descubierto. De la emoción a la palabra

About the book:

The Brain Revealed

The gift of the word; the senses; the emotions; the complexity of movement; memory... constitute functional meshes that science is beginning to uncover.

How is language produced? What is there behind the miracle of falling in love? How are actions initiated? Where are memories stored?

These are some of the areas and issues that Dr. Guell investigates with an astonishing clarity and entertaining manner.  Thanks to her clinical experience and a masterly ability to explain things for the lay reader, the writer seriously questions the conventional wisdom that has it that the brain is the “great unknown” for science and the general public.

Step by step, the science is made clear to us, by means of certain discoveries which El cerebro al discubierto (the Brain Revealed) explains in a fluid and understandable way, without straying from the scientific rigour needed to appreciate the astounding truth about our brain, its evolution, organisation and functioning.

Being familiar with the biological processes involved in the brain's development will prove very useful in understanding and favouring our children's development.  And realising that despite the passing of time the brain continues to learn  (that is, is capable of modifying its microscopic structure with each new experience, always providing that there is motivation, and the stimuli to optimise its performance)  will help us to grow old better. Similarly, a knowledge of the field of genetics will enable us understand how life is perpetuated.

All these functions are explained by means of clinical case studies. It is the patients and their struggle to overcome illness – as a example and source of inestimable scientific and human value – which show us the way forward in understanding the brain.

About the author:

Isabel Güell López is a neurologist. For much of her professional career she has practised at the Institut Universitat Dexeus in Barcelona. She is the co-founder of Neurodex, and director of  its Memory unit, and also works with the Teknon Medical Centre. She takes part assiduously in scientific conferences and other meetings, and has published numerous articles on clinical research in her field. She is the author of two works of fiction.