Masud Husain – Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist’s Patients Taught Him About the Brain

Winner of the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize

What makes us who we are?

Through the stories of seven of his patients, acclaimed Oxford University neurologist Masud Husain shows us how our brains create, change and can even restore our identity. Husain introduces us to a man who ran out of words, a woman who lost all inhibitions and another who believed she was having an affair with the man who was really her husband. These compelling human dramas reveal how our identities are created by different functions within the brain. It will ignite new ideas about who we really are – and why we act in the ways we do.

Masud Husain is Professor of Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow at New College, Oxford. Unusually, he works across departments of neuroscience, brain imaging and psychology to understand cognitive functions in both healthy people and patients with brain disorders. Masud is Editor-in-Chief of Brain, a leading international journal of neurology. First established in 1878, Brain is widely considered to be one of the most influential publications in the field, with its monthly editorials being a key source of authoritative perspectives. His book Our Brains, Our Selves won the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize 2025.

Photo credit: Oliver Mayhall