A leading neuroscientist and a noted puzzle designer team up to reveal how solving puzzles improves one's brain function, giving readers the chance to work puzzles while learning how to boost their brain.

Memory. Working memory : brain juggling -- Long-term memory : imagining the future by remembering the past -- Perception. Perceptual skill learning : the sommelier and the hockey player -- Visual thinking : seeing, not just looking -- Spatial thinking : the challenge of mental rotation -- Listening : the foley artist and the cocktail party -- Motor skill learning : of mental maps and pickpockets -- Time : clock time vs. brain time -- Cognition. Thinking in words : the hammer, the saw, and the hatchet -- Logic : reasoning in uncertain situations -- Emotions and thinking : the anger superiority effect -- Mathematics : doing the numbers at the checkout line -- Illusions : shadows, balls, and rotating snakes -- Creativity : the magic matches of Carlo Reverberi.