Horror on the Brain: The Neuroscience Behind Science Fiction

In this fascinating exploration of fear and madness, neuroscientist Dr. Austin Lim recounts psychology’s most bizarre and haunting real-life cases alongside famous speculative fiction that stretched that science to the edge.

AUSTIN LIM is a neuroscientist and lecturing professor at DePaul University. His students are undergraduates and graduates in the departments of neuroscience, biology, and psychology. He developed and offers a course called ＂The Brain through Science Fiction,＂ which is an exploration into how science fiction authors such as Mary Shelley, Lovecraft, Philip K. Dick, and William Gibson have used the popular scientific advances of their time to inspire their creative works.

His work has appeared in Scientific American, U.S. News and World Report, the Illinois Science Council Blog Science Unsealed, and Northwestern University’s Helix Magazine. He is the author of the open-source introductory level neuroscience textbook Open Neuroscience Initiative for the general audience interested in learning the principles of neuroscience in a formal, yet easily accessible manner. Since its completion in mid-2021, the textbook has been adopted by faculty from more than 30 universities or colleges around the world.