David J. Linden

Por qué los alimentos grasos, el orgasmo, el ejercicio, la marihuana, la generosidad, el alcohol, aprender y los juegos de azar nos sientan tan bien. La historia de la humanidad se puede contemplar como una crónica del deseo. Desde Adán y Eva hasta Bernie Madoff, pasando por Anna Karenina y Cleopatra, la búsqueda del placer, sea cual sea la forma que adopte, es un impulso cuyo inmenso poder puede alterar el devenir de naciones y personas. Filósofos de todos los tiempos han intentado analizar y entender esta realidad básica de nuestra experiencia, pero su estudio empírico solo ha sido posible gracias a los recientes avances de la neurociencia. En La brújula del placer David J. Linden explica los estudios que han desvelado cómo nuestros vicios, y también nuestras virtudes, activan los circuitos cerebrales del placer. Decía Voltaire que el placer es el objeto, el deber y el fin de todo ser racional, y en La brújula del placer David Linden ofrece un análisis claro, provocativo y ameno de los impulsos más básicos de nuestro ser racional.

Touch by David J. Linden - The astonishing secrets of our senses, and how to harness them to change your personal and professional lifeWhy cant we tickle ourselves?Why do footballers who hug score more goals?Why does holding a hot coffee make us feel more positively about people?Touch is the sense that makes us human. It defines our experiences, shapes our sense of self, and bonds us together. It is the first sense to start working in utero. If you are deprived of the sense of sight or hearing from birth, you will still be able to live a rich and fruitful life. But depriving a baby of the sense of social touch has dramatic consequences: if they are not regularly touched and cared for, they will develop higher lifelong levels of stress, their personality will be more fearful, and they will be less likely to explore the world.In Touch, renowned neuroscientist David J. Linden shows how this overlooked sense actually shapes all our lives. Blending surprising stories and cutting-edge research on pleasure and pain, he takes us on a mesmerizing journey into our senses.From why brushing fingers with a waiter will make you leave a larger tip to why choosing a warm drink in a job interview improves your chances, Touch is full of astonishing discoveries. Reading it will change how you see - and touch - the world.It will be enjoyed by readers of Quiet by Susan Cain, Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin.David J. Linden is a professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the USA. The award-winning author of The Accidental Mind and The Compass of Pleasure, he served for many years as the chief editor of the Journal of Neurophysiology. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with his two children.

A leading brain scientists look at the neurobiology of pleasure-and how pleasures can become addictions. Whether eating, taking drugs, engaging in sex, or doing good deeds, the pursuit of pleasure is a central drive of the human animal. In The Compass of Pleasure Johns Hopkins neuroscientist David J. Linden explains how pleasure affects us at the most fundamental level: in our brain. As he did in his award-winning book, The Accidental Mind, Linden combines cutting-edge science with entertaining anecdotes to illuminate the source of the behaviors that can lead us to ecstasy but that can easily become compulsive. Why are drugs like nicotine and heroin addictive while LSD is not? Why has the search for safe appetite suppressants been such a disappointment? The Compass of Pleasure concludes with a provocative consideration of pleasure in the future, when it may be possible to activate our pleasure circuits at will and in entirely novel patterns.