The Tailored Brain: From Ketamine, to Keto, to Companionship, A User’s Guide to Feeling Better and Thinking Smarter

by Emily Willingham

A candid and practical guide to the new frontier of brain customization

Dozens of books promise to improve your brain function with a gimmick. Lifestyle changes, microdosing, electromagnetic stimulation: just one weird trick can lightly alter or dramatically deconstruct your brain.

In truth, there is no one-size-fits-all shortcut to the ideal mind. Instead, the way to understand cognitive enhancement is to think like a tailor: measure how you need your brain to change and then find a plan that suits it.

In The Tailored Brain, Emily Willingham explores the promises and limitations of well-known and emerging methods of brain customization, including prescription drugs, diets, and new research on the power of your “social brain.”

Packed with real-life examples and checklists that allow readers to better understand their cognitive needs, this is the definitive guide to a better brain. 

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Psychology, Self Help, Mental Health, Health

304 pages, Hardcover

Published December 14, 2021

Reviews

[Sunz · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw The Tailored Brain Book on NetGalley, I downloaded it right away. The difference between this book and the other books I read is the emphasis on social connection as a factor in improving one's brain health. Improving our brain involves being around other humans.

There are so many things to learn from this book, both the technical side and the practical side. One of the things that I found helpful is understanding the three networks of our brain. The first one is the default mode network or DMN that works when we are not present, when we are daydreaming, or going down memory lane. The second network is the Central Executive Network or CEN that holds the information in front of us at the present time and deals with it to solve the problem at hand. The third is the salience network that works like a switch or a lever; when we are daydreaming or remembering the past and imagining the future, the salience network turns on the DMN, when our attention is on what we see, smell, hear, feel or taste in the now, the salience network turns on the CEN.

The DMN and CEN are said to be anticorrelated; when the DMN is operating, the CEN is muted, and vice-versa. This is why when we go to sleep, we think of hundreds of things because we don't use our CEN anymore. Knowing this, I practice being more compassionate with myself because I know when my mind thinks of a thousand thoughts, it's my DMN working. I let the thoughts swirl in my head, trying not to react, just letting them be, or I recall other things that don't trigger me such as the events of the novel I have read until I fall asleep.

The things I shared above are only the basics. The author explains further how these systems work when we use our attention and memory, when we do creative and non-creative things, when we are stressed and anxious, and when we collaborate with other people.

The author also explores the different interventions that addressed attention, memory, and mental health conditions. She is not imposing her own conclusions on the readers, but rather she encourages them to do more researches and to be wary in reading neuroscience studies. She also recommends seeking professional help for mental health conditions.

Other things I learned:

- The Intelligent Quotient (IQ) is not the sole measurement of a person's capability, even though it predicts the person’s success in adulthood.

- Reading fiction books can increase social cognition. Hurray for bookworms!

- Physical activity promotes better "working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control." I finally decided to go for a walk every day for 30 minutes.

The Tailored Brain is the best book I've read on brain health so far as it offers practical tips and meaningful insights. Even though it's challenging for me to read the technical part, I still enjoyed reading it. Actually, I'm going to read it again to fully understand the important and helpful sections.

The author said that reading this book is "encountering the things she had in her brain." She hopes that the readers' interaction with her through her book will be useful in the end. Yes, Emily Willingham, it's useful and it changed my life. It changed the way I look at interacting with others even though I'm an introvert, it changed the way I look at exercising, and it changed the way I look at my own capability as a human being.

Thank you Emily Willingham, Perseus Books, Basic Books, Basic Books, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Juan Espino · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 and a half stars, I rounded up

This book was not for me. I was looking for a more practical, tactical book on feeling better and thinking smarter. This book is very academic at times and a good overview of the modern state of brain science, but the takeaways are sort of only sprinkled throughout.
There were a few tho, brain games don't work, excersize is super good, stories and social connections are very important. Alcohol doesn't help creativity, and psychedelics don't make people smarter.
A big takeaway was info showing that poverty and too many obligations, tasks and responsibilities can make us dumber, considerably so. So personal finance, and a productvity system, are an underrated part of being smarter.
Overall, imo, this is a science book not a self improvement book, which is what I was looking for.

[Megan Mulhinch]

DNF this and just getting around to listing it. It’s written in a way that is probably only appealing to someone who knows nothing about the brain. Pop psychology by a non-psychologist is just hard to enjoy as a psychologist.

[Amanda Augustine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting. VERY science-y (even though the author is a journalist, not a scientist). The stuff about BCI (brain-computer interfacing) in the last chapter is wild!!! A world of “neuro enhanced” humans is not so far off in the future - it’s happening! Very interesting read!

[Dora Okeyo · Rating 5 out of 5]

If ever there is a book I wish I read when I taking my undergraduate studies in Psychology then it's this one because of how rich in content it is. It not only explores how the brain works but also gives insight on neurons, connections our brains make to our environment, food, senses and how it does this- so much so that I do not blame myself for some things I experience or how I react to things and remember some things.
Oh, and something that I learned that still goes to show how awesome we can be is that in reading fiction, we can increase our social cognition, no wonder the world of books calls out to me! I loved that most in this book!
Also about working out, about physical activity and what it means for memory and cognitive flexibility- so now that 30 day fitness challenge app is definitely going to be put in use every morning- I just have to start.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book but it feels so padded. There are so many long stories, so many studies, it took me three tries over a very long time to finally finish it. I really wanted more action steps and less fluff. The takeaways could be summed up in a page or two, and unless you’re stranded somewhere with nothing to occupy you, it’s going to be hard to spend this many hours on interesting chatter.

[Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

249 pages of fluff.

[Jo-jean Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting with implications far beyond today's knowledge and environment!

[Emily Chang · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written.