India, Oct. 17 -- A man is slowly running out of words. A woman thinks she's having an affair, with the man who is really her partner. Another appears to have lost all control over one arm and leg; they have begun to do exactly as they please, when she isn't watching.

How changes in the brain slowly alter who we are, and then creep into social circles to tamper with our closest bonds, is the subject of a new book by neuroscientist and neurologist Dr Masud Husain, 63.

Earlier this month, Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist's Patients Taught Him About the Brain, his debut, won the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize. "I'm thrilled and very surprised. I wasn't expecting the prize at all," he says.

What stands out in the book i...