What do you think?
Rate this book
Your Brain, Explained: What Neuroscience Reveals About Your Brain and its Quirks
Sleep. Memory. Pleasure. Fear. Language. We experience these things every day, but how do our brains create them?
Your Brain, Explained is a personal tour around your gray matter. Neuroscientist Marc Dingman gives you a crash course in how your brain works and explains the latest research on the brain functions that affect you on a daily basis.
You'll also discover what happens when the brain doesn't work the way it should, causing problems such as insomnia, ADHD, depression, or addiction. You'll learn how neuroscience is working to fix these problems, and how you can build up your defenses against the most common faults of the mind.
Along the way you'll find
· Why brain training games don't prevent dementia
· What it's like to remember every day of your life as if it were yesterday
· Which popular psychiatric drug was created from German rocket fuel
· How you might unknowingly be sabotaging your sleep
Drawing on the author's popular YouTube series, 2-minute Neuroscience , this is a friendly, engaging introduction to the human brain and its quirks from the perspective of a neuroscientist--using real-life examples and the author's own eye-opening illustrations. Your brain is yours to discover!
Your Brain, Explained is a personal tour around your gray matter. Neuroscientist Marc Dingman gives you a crash course in how your brain works and explains the latest research on the brain functions that affect you on a daily basis.
You'll also discover what happens when the brain doesn't work the way it should, causing problems such as insomnia, ADHD, depression, or addiction. You'll learn how neuroscience is working to fix these problems, and how you can build up your defenses against the most common faults of the mind.
Along the way you'll find
· Why brain training games don't prevent dementia
· What it's like to remember every day of your life as if it were yesterday
· Which popular psychiatric drug was created from German rocket fuel
· How you might unknowingly be sabotaging your sleep
Drawing on the author's popular YouTube series, 2-minute Neuroscience , this is a friendly, engaging introduction to the human brain and its quirks from the perspective of a neuroscientist--using real-life examples and the author's own eye-opening illustrations. Your brain is yours to discover!
256 pages, Paperback
First published September 19, 2019
178 people are currently reading
1421 people want to read
About the author
Marc Dingman
8 books42 followersEver since my undergraduate years, I've been captivated by the complexities of the human brain—its mysteries, functions, and the science that unravels it all. This fascination has evolved into a lifelong curiosity about everything neuroscience.
Currently, I teach courses in neuroscience and the health sciences at The Pennsylvania State University. Outside the classroom, I'm dedicated to making neuroscience accessible and engaging for everyone who shares my passion for learning about the brain. Through my writing and my YouTube channel, Neuroscientifically Challenged, I break down complex concepts into easy-to-understand segments that are both informative and concise.
Currently, I teach courses in neuroscience and the health sciences at The Pennsylvania State University. Outside the classroom, I'm dedicated to making neuroscience accessible and engaging for everyone who shares my passion for learning about the brain. Through my writing and my YouTube channel, Neuroscientifically Challenged, I break down complex concepts into easy-to-understand segments that are both informative and concise.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
June 5, 2023
Addiction, food addiction and me, Ozempic
"Addiction is the uncontrollable pursuit of pleasure". And for the first time in my life, I'm free of it. "Addiction is a disorder that involves obsessions and compulsions. The obsession is with obtaining or using the drug, and the compulsion takes the form of a drive to seek out and use the drug. The obsessions eventually start to consume the individual's thoughts, causing them to be overwhelmed with cravings and preoccupied with thinking about how to get their hands on the drug. The compulsions cause them to use the drug even when that use is disruptive to their lives."
I never thought I was addicted to anything (since cigarettes, decades ago), but now I have to lose 20lb and went on Ozempic, and for the first time in my life I am not battling to control my appetite. I have always eaten healthy food, rarely fast food or prepared food of any kind, but I ate a lot. I couldn't eat a piece of chocolate from a bar, it has to be the whole bar. Every now and again the thought of food would pop into my head and it was difficult to suppress it, I would just get a snack. Life was a continual diet. When I was young, I was slim, by effort, by dancing (occasionally on stage) and because it was easy to lose weight. The older I got the less I danced, the more I ate and the more my body resisted losing it.
Then Ozempic. I've had three shots. The first thing that happened was I felt full after eating a small-reasonable amount of food. The second thing that happened was that I didn't think about food again until I was hungry. I don't have to have a starter and dessert in a restaurant. I can fill my WholeFoods hot bar box half full. I can leave cereal in the bowl when I've had enough.
This all feels so marvellous, so freeing, so fantastic that they are even better than the (rapid) weight loss. The side effects of my blood sugar not being controlled, which I will sort out, nausea and a general feeling of malaise for a few days after a shot (lessening each time) are unpleasant, but to be free of the addiction, the appetite, anything is worth it.
So now I really understand drug addicts and I didn't before, I only thought I did. It has nothing much to do with will power because the underlying need will (almost) always resurface. I have read that Ozempic also sometimes frees people from all sorts of addictions and bad habits, like nail-biting, drinking too much etc. No one has scientifically investigated this yet.
I believe that the key to curing obesity is not a gastric bypass which just limits the amount of food that can be eaten at one time, but curing the need to eat. I'm thinking that the class of semaglutides, of which Ozempic is one, might actually work. Are morbidly obese people simply people with a very strong addiction and if that could be fixed they, like heroin addicts, like me, would be free of the continual pressure to feed the part of the brain that doesn't work as it does in normal people?
From War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line, "Drugs, gambling, food, shopping, maybe even the adrenaline rush of escaping death from nearby bombs and pointed guns and knives." Are these all products of a malfunction in the neurological system that needs so much more stimulus than a normal brain and really addictions? I think we might be at the beginning of researching this in the light of people's experience with semaglutides.
"Addiction is the uncontrollable pursuit of pleasure". And for the first time in my life, I'm free of it. "Addiction is a disorder that involves obsessions and compulsions. The obsession is with obtaining or using the drug, and the compulsion takes the form of a drive to seek out and use the drug. The obsessions eventually start to consume the individual's thoughts, causing them to be overwhelmed with cravings and preoccupied with thinking about how to get their hands on the drug. The compulsions cause them to use the drug even when that use is disruptive to their lives."
I never thought I was addicted to anything (since cigarettes, decades ago), but now I have to lose 20lb and went on Ozempic, and for the first time in my life I am not battling to control my appetite. I have always eaten healthy food, rarely fast food or prepared food of any kind, but I ate a lot. I couldn't eat a piece of chocolate from a bar, it has to be the whole bar. Every now and again the thought of food would pop into my head and it was difficult to suppress it, I would just get a snack. Life was a continual diet. When I was young, I was slim, by effort, by dancing (occasionally on stage) and because it was easy to lose weight. The older I got the less I danced, the more I ate and the more my body resisted losing it.
Then Ozempic. I've had three shots. The first thing that happened was I felt full after eating a small-reasonable amount of food. The second thing that happened was that I didn't think about food again until I was hungry. I don't have to have a starter and dessert in a restaurant. I can fill my WholeFoods hot bar box half full. I can leave cereal in the bowl when I've had enough.
This all feels so marvellous, so freeing, so fantastic that they are even better than the (rapid) weight loss. The side effects of my blood sugar not being controlled, which I will sort out, nausea and a general feeling of malaise for a few days after a shot (lessening each time) are unpleasant, but to be free of the addiction, the appetite, anything is worth it.
So now I really understand drug addicts and I didn't before, I only thought I did. It has nothing much to do with will power because the underlying need will (almost) always resurface. I have read that Ozempic also sometimes frees people from all sorts of addictions and bad habits, like nail-biting, drinking too much etc. No one has scientifically investigated this yet.
I believe that the key to curing obesity is not a gastric bypass which just limits the amount of food that can be eaten at one time, but curing the need to eat. I'm thinking that the class of semaglutides, of which Ozempic is one, might actually work. Are morbidly obese people simply people with a very strong addiction and if that could be fixed they, like heroin addicts, like me, would be free of the continual pressure to feed the part of the brain that doesn't work as it does in normal people?
From War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line, "Drugs, gambling, food, shopping, maybe even the adrenaline rush of escaping death from nearby bombs and pointed guns and knives." Are these all products of a malfunction in the neurological system that needs so much more stimulus than a normal brain and really addictions? I think we might be at the beginning of researching this in the light of people's experience with semaglutides.
December 3, 2019
4.75 mind-blown stars ★★★★✬
This was literally me throughout the entire book. I couldn't stop telling people about all the stuff I learned. I'm sure they wanted me to shut up at one point, but this woman has stuff to share, y'all.
I mean, this is why I love science. My obsession with dogs is nothing but an attempt at preserving happiness. Dark chocolate, although rich in calories, is also highly nutritious and I love nothing more than hitting the gym after a long Tuesday to lift some weights (except reading, duh).
Of course, the information above - although greatly affirmative - is among the least enlightening things I learned from this book:
Well, If any of the above catches your attention, you better get your cute, nerdy butt to the library or an independent bookstore and order this baby.
Marc's writing style is very down to earth and understandable. He's very critical of dubious medicinal methods and the theories that are prominent in his field. I liked him especially from the moment on he made clear that those who consider an addiction a fitting consequence of poor judgment are a) heartless pricks and b) have absolutely no idea about the human brain.
⤐ The book is structured as follows.
Introduction
1 FEAR
2 MEMORY
3 SLEEP
4 LANGUAGE
5 SADNESS
6 MOVEMENT
7 VISION
8 PLEASURE
9 PAIN
10 ATTENTION
_____________________
This eArc was provided by Nicholas Brealey US via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you very much!
This book is for you if… you want to address your thirst for peculiarities. You will learn about extreme cases of brain-malfunction and interesting hypotheses about how the brain works. Be ready to be mind-blown
This was literally me throughout the entire book. I couldn't stop telling people about all the stuff I learned. I'm sure they wanted me to shut up at one point, but this woman has stuff to share, y'all.
‘Studies linked endorphin release to an array of things ranging from exercising intensely, to eating chocolate to petting dogs.’
I mean, this is why I love science. My obsession with dogs is nothing but an attempt at preserving happiness. Dark chocolate, although rich in calories, is also highly nutritious and I love nothing more than hitting the gym after a long Tuesday to lift some weights (except reading, duh).
Of course, the information above - although greatly affirmative - is among the least enlightening things I learned from this book:
⤐ Have you ever wondered what's behind people who suddenly lose their ability to read but are still able to write?
⤐ Did you know there's a syndrome called prosopagnosia, which causes people to be unable to differentiate faces from one another?
⤐ Have you heard of the baby that bit its own fingers to the bones because it didn't feel pain?
Well, If any of the above catches your attention, you better get your cute, nerdy butt to the library or an independent bookstore and order this baby.
Marc's writing style is very down to earth and understandable. He's very critical of dubious medicinal methods and the theories that are prominent in his field. I liked him especially from the moment on he made clear that those who consider an addiction a fitting consequence of poor judgment are a) heartless pricks and b) have absolutely no idea about the human brain.
⤐ The book is structured as follows.
Introduction
1 FEAR
2 MEMORY
3 SLEEP
4 LANGUAGE
5 SADNESS
6 MOVEMENT
7 VISION
8 PLEASURE
9 PAIN
10 ATTENTION
_____________________
This eArc was provided by Nicholas Brealey US via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you very much!
February 21, 2020
I took an introductory neuroscience class about 15 years ago, but this book explained some concepts better and more clearly than what I recall from the class. The author really loves this topic, and that shines through. Each unusual case that sheds some tiny bit of light is presented with enthusiasm and respect. There are a number of aspects of the brain's functions that can't presently be fully explained, but in reading this book, you gain confidence that perhaps someday we will understand our minds even better.
Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC.
Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC.
April 22, 2022
In a nutshell, simple and accessible. It is a good choice to be introduced in the intricacies of the brain. And even though it is educational, and I came to know valuable information about fear, depression, Parkinson, ADHD, and more, I still have that humble Socratic-like feeling that I know I don't know anything. I assume it might be in part due to simplification but also mainly it is a common thing in science and particularly with the 'brains', as its study is an ongoing learning process underpinned by diversity, plasticity and many times by ruling out old theories.
There are fun samples and astonishing historical evidences that make it also entertaining.
I received a copy of this book from Nicholas Brealey Publishing through Netgalley. All opinions expressed are my own and were voluntarily given.
There are fun samples and astonishing historical evidences that make it also entertaining.
I received a copy of this book from Nicholas Brealey Publishing through Netgalley. All opinions expressed are my own and were voluntarily given.
October 27, 2019
Seda raamatut julgen täiesti kindlalt soovitada kõigile, kes on vähegi huvitatud neuroloogiast ja neurofüsioloogiast.
Autor suudab väga-väga hästi edasi anda neurofüsioloogia algtõed ja seda ülimalt põnevalt (raamatut oli ÜLIraske käest panna). Ta teeb seda
Raamatus tutvume kuulsate ajalooliste patsientidega nagu Louis Victor Leborgne, tuntud ka kui Tan (sest ta suutis ainult "tan" öelda) ja tema arsti Paul Broca (kõnega seotud Broca piirkond ajus), patsient LM, kes ei näinud objektide liikumist (ta ei saanud näiteks aru, kunas täitus tass veega).
Ta kirjeldab põnevaid kognitiivseid häireid, nagu prosopagnosia, kus inimene ei suuda eristada nägusid, sellisel juhul pole ükski osa näost iseloomulik või omapärane. See oleks umbes sama nagu meie peaksime eristama tuttavaid nende küünarnukkide järgi.
Hoiatan ette, seda raamatut on väga raske käest panna!
Autor suudab väga-väga hästi edasi anda neurofüsioloogia algtõed ja seda ülimalt põnevalt (raamatut oli ÜLIraske käest panna). Ta teeb seda
Raamatus tutvume kuulsate ajalooliste patsientidega nagu Louis Victor Leborgne, tuntud ka kui Tan (sest ta suutis ainult "tan" öelda) ja tema arsti Paul Broca (kõnega seotud Broca piirkond ajus), patsient LM, kes ei näinud objektide liikumist (ta ei saanud näiteks aru, kunas täitus tass veega).
Ta kirjeldab põnevaid kognitiivseid häireid, nagu prosopagnosia, kus inimene ei suuda eristada nägusid, sellisel juhul pole ükski osa näost iseloomulik või omapärane. See oleks umbes sama nagu meie peaksime eristama tuttavaid nende küünarnukkide järgi.
Hoiatan ette, seda raamatut on väga raske käest panna!
August 6, 2022
As a Psychology teacher, I will definitely be using information & case studies from this book to teach my students about cognitive processes. It was good...
BUT The reason I gave it a 3 star is because the author, when explaining about fear, chose to give an example of a Palestinian construction worker who rammed a bulldozer into buses and cars in Jerusalem and killed 3 Israeli people. How interesting that Western writers continue to ignore Palestine and it's people being destroyed and erased by one of the most powerful militaries in the world. It doesn't matter to these Westerners. Nor does it matter to them that these Israeli people are settlers living on land stolen by the state mostly from Palestinian owners.
It's the searing hypocrisy of the West.
BUT The reason I gave it a 3 star is because the author, when explaining about fear, chose to give an example of a Palestinian construction worker who rammed a bulldozer into buses and cars in Jerusalem and killed 3 Israeli people. How interesting that Western writers continue to ignore Palestine and it's people being destroyed and erased by one of the most powerful militaries in the world. It doesn't matter to these Westerners. Nor does it matter to them that these Israeli people are settlers living on land stolen by the state mostly from Palestinian owners.
It's the searing hypocrisy of the West.
September 11, 2019
I absolutely enjoyed this book. As a nurse specializing in Neurology, this book will always remain to be a resource for me. It is a read that I feel even non - medical would love to read and learn from. This book covers every detail of the functioning of the brain and I thought that it thoroughly explained the functionality of this very complex organ. The topics covered in the Chapters are: Fear and the Amygdala, Memory and Alzheimer's, Sleep, Language and the Wernicke, Sadness and the Limbic System, Movement and the motor cortex and cerebellum, Vision, Pleasure and dopamine, Pain and Attention. The chapters begin with real life examples and case studies, latest research and even debunking some myths. I feel that the book is well organized and I appreciated the pictures that were added to help explain the location in the brain. This was definitely not a one sitting type of a read and it does get complex and some topics more difficult. I find that I did need to read this in small chunks and took plenty of notes. Again, this is a great resource and good to read through in the beginning and then go back to further understand each area of the topics presented. Thank you for writing such a thorough review about a very amazing and complex organ.
Thank you to NetGalley, Nicholas Brealey Pub and author Marc Dingman for the copy of this amazing book.
Thank you to NetGalley, Nicholas Brealey Pub and author Marc Dingman for the copy of this amazing book.
June 1, 2020
A fascinating and informative read. Your Brain Explained comprises of chapters dedicated to different topics such as learning, memory, sleep, etc. Each chapter contains an interesting case relevant to the designated topic and is often accompanied by basic illustration and anatomy. The writing style is easy to understand and follow. Plus, the diagrams are a great addition. The only thing that detracted from my reading experience was how certain words were disjointed (for example, like this: he – llo) throughout the text although, I think that may just be with my device.
Anyway, this was an enjoyable read and I’d recommend this book for people who are interested in neuroscience and/or popular science.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Anyway, this was an enjoyable read and I’d recommend this book for people who are interested in neuroscience and/or popular science.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
October 11, 2019
We have all got one, but how many of us have much inkling as to how it works? This book, written by a neuroscientist, is good place to start. Start what you may ask? I am talking about starting to have at least a basic understanding as to how our brain works. I found this book informative & pitched at the right level for someone, like me, who is not a medical professional but is just a general reader. I came away with renewed respect for this most important part of my body along with a desire to become much better informed.
December 14, 2022
I love this a lot. Been a fan of anything brain related and i like how comprehensive this was and still made it interesting. This is a great book if u want more on the topic
February 1, 2022
I was sent this book as an advance copy by the publisher via NetGalley for reviewing purposes, but all opinions are my own.
I loved reading this! This book was entirely readable for someone without any neuroscience background and I could understand pretty much everything. I liked how it was structured with each chapter opening with an example of what an extreme case of neuroscience gone wrong in someone's brain can look like, and from there it explained how the particular phenomenon (fear, pain, vision, etc) works normally. I won't pretend like I now know everything I read here but it's certainly a fun book to go back to in case I want to remember something specific. So I would say if you have any interest in how your brain works this is certainly the book to read even if you don't have any previous background.
I loved reading this! This book was entirely readable for someone without any neuroscience background and I could understand pretty much everything. I liked how it was structured with each chapter opening with an example of what an extreme case of neuroscience gone wrong in someone's brain can look like, and from there it explained how the particular phenomenon (fear, pain, vision, etc) works normally. I won't pretend like I now know everything I read here but it's certainly a fun book to go back to in case I want to remember something specific. So I would say if you have any interest in how your brain works this is certainly the book to read even if you don't have any previous background.
August 29, 2023
Uwielbiam tą książkę. Zawiera dużo wartościowej wiedzy, jest pisana, w taki sposób, że łatwo jest wszystko zrozumieć. Podzielam zafascynowanie autora mózgiem. Uważam, że jest to książka idealna, aby zacząć podróż po odkrywaniu jak funkcjonuje człowiek (moja pierwsza taka) i na pewno będę czytać takich więcej.
July 17, 2023
(The English review is placed beneath the Russian one)
Во-первых, лично мне книга напомнила другую похожую книгу о мозге «Мозг и душа: Как нервная деятельность формирует наш внутренний мир» (Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World) Крис Фрит (Chris Frith). Во-вторых, суть книги отлично передаёт название книги (название русского издания и оригинал на английском, идентичны). Т.е. коротко описывает функции мозга дополняя это какими-нибудь диковинными случаями, как например, женщина которая никогда не испытывала чувства грусти. Все эти истории людей, чей мозг, в силу разных причин, функционировал неправильно, помещаются в самом начале каждой главы. Каждая история призвана показать, что может случиться с человеком из-за малейшего физического нарушения (повреждения) головного мозга и как жизнь такого человека может радикальным образом изменится или даже привести к гибели. Уже по одним историям становится понятно, насколько же хрупка человеческая личность, ибо одно повреждение какой-то конкретной зоны мозга и человек на всю жизнь инвалид (личность как хрустальная ваза, упавшая на пол).
В принципе, первый совет который бы я дал по поводу этой книги заключается в том, что книга является хорошим первым знакомством с темой нейропсихологии. Автор относительно легко и просто объясняет материал, истории у него интересные и в целом, книгу приятно читать. Вот только беда с таким типом книг всегда одна – одни плохо запоминаются. Книга является солянкой совершенно разных тем – страх, память, сон, речь, грусть, моторика, зрение, удовольствие, боль, внимание – на каждую из которых уже написано множество книг. К примеру, в моей библиотеке есть очень хорошая книга, которая полностью посвящена такой теме как человеческий сон. И вот когда автор пишет только на одну тему, тогда книга намного лучше запоминается. В этой же книге, слишком много тем, которые ориентированы на людей, которые мало что читали по данной теме. Вот как можно запихнуть такую большую тему как человеческий сон в 20 страниц? Плюс к этому, информацию нужно уместить на этих 20 страницах таким образом, чтобы она максимально полно раскрывала тему и делала бы это интересно для среднестатистического читателя слабо знакомого с этой темой. Довольно затруднительно, не так ли? Чтобы добиться этого, нужно отобрать только самые интересные факты. В итоге у нас получается развлекательная литература типа глянцевого журнала, но не типа Cosmopolitan или Men's Health, а что-то типа научного журнала для всей семьи (в меру сложный, в меру доступный даже для школьников).
Вторая проблема заключается в том, что многие вещи на тему нейропсихологии кочуют из одной книги в другую. Эта книга эту проблема не смогла обойти стороной, и поэтому половина текста мне была уже знакома. Как я сказал выше, эта книга скорее ориентирована на ту читательскую аудиторию, которая практически полностью не знакома с нейропсихологией.
К чему я пришёл в итоге? С одной стороны, книга написана интересно и даже уже знакомый материал не вызывает раздражение или скуки, но с другой, книга очень незапоминающаяся вследствие обилия тем. Единственный момент, который автор повторяет из главы в главу, это что в мозге нет какой-то одной единственный зоны ответственной за зрение, память, моторику и пр. Как я понял автора, есть основные зоны, которые ответственные за те или функции, но в процессе задействованы и другие области мозга, что означает, что мозг всегда задействован весь. Чтобы быть более точным я даже процитирую книгу. Автор пишет, что современные исследования показывают что «модели речепроизводства и речевосприятия обычно не сосредоточены на зонах Брока и Вернике. Вместо этого они предлагают принять, что речевое общение задействует множество зон мозга, соединённые различными проводящими путями». Интересное замечание, которое я нигде ещё не встречал. В общем, книга предлагает такой небольшой дайджест последних открытий по данной теме или по поднятым в книге темам. Это её плюс.
First, the book reminded me of another similar book about the brain, Making Up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World. Secondly, the essence of the book perfectly conveys the title of the book (the title of the Russian edition and the original in English are identical). I.e., briefly describes the functions of the brain, supplementing it with some outlandish cases, such as a woman who has never felt sadness. All of these stories of people whose brains, for various reasons, did not function properly are placed at the very beginning of each chapter. Each story is intended to show what can happen to a person due to the slightest physical disorder (damage) of the brain and how the life of such a person can radically change or even lead to death. Just by one story, it becomes clear how fragile the human personality is because one damage to a particular area of the brain, and a person is disabled for life (personality is like a crystal vase that has fallen to the floor).
The first piece of advice I would give about this book is that it is a good introduction to the topic of neuropsychology. The author explains the material with relative ease and simplicity, his stories are interesting, and overall, the book is a pleasure to read. Except that the trouble with this type of book is always the same - such books are poorly memorized. The book is a hodgepodge of very different topics - fear, memory, sleep, speech, sadness, motor skills, vision, pleasure, pain, and attention - on each of which many books have already been written. For example, I have a very good book in my library that is entirely devoted to a topic like human sleep. And so when the author writes on just one topic, then the book is much better memorized. In this same book, there are too many topics that are geared toward people who have not read much on the subject. How can you cram a topic as big as human sleep into 20 pages? Plus, you have to fit the information into those 20 pages in such a way that it covers the topic as much as possible and makes it interesting for the average reader who is unfamiliar with the topic. Pretty difficult, isn't it? To achieve this, we need to select only the most interesting facts. As a result, we have entertaining literature like a glossy magazine, but not like Cosmopolitan or Men's Health, but something like a scientific magazine for the whole family (moderately complex, moderately accessible even for schoolchildren).
The second problem is that a lot of stuff on the subject of neuropsychology is migrating from one book to another. This book could not avoid this problem, so half of the text was already familiar to me. As I said above, this book is aimed more at a readership that is almost completely unfamiliar with neuropsychology.
What did I come to in the end? On the one hand, the book is interesting, and even familiar material does not cause irritation or boredom, but, on the other hand, the book is quite unmemorable due to the abundance of topics. The only point that the author repeats from chapter to chapter is that there is no single zone in the brain responsible for vision, memory, motor skills, and so on. As I understood the author, there are main areas that are responsible for certain functions, but other areas of the brain are also involved in the process, which means that the whole brain is always involved. To be more specific I will even quote the book. The author writes that current research shows that "models of speech production and speech perception typically do not focus on Broca's and Wernicke's areas. Instead, they propose to accept that speech communication engages multiple brain areas connected by different conductive pathways." This is an interesting observation that I have not seen elsewhere. In general, the book offers such a small digest of recent discoveries on the topic or topics raised in the book. That's a plus.
Во-первых, лично мне книга напомнила другую похожую книгу о мозге «Мозг и душа: Как нервная деятельность формирует наш внутренний мир» (Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World) Крис Фрит (Chris Frith). Во-вторых, суть книги отлично передаёт название книги (название русского издания и оригинал на английском, идентичны). Т.е. коротко описывает функции мозга дополняя это какими-нибудь диковинными случаями, как например, женщина которая никогда не испытывала чувства грусти. Все эти истории людей, чей мозг, в силу разных причин, функционировал неправильно, помещаются в самом начале каждой главы. Каждая история призвана показать, что может случиться с человеком из-за малейшего физического нарушения (повреждения) головного мозга и как жизнь такого человека может радикальным образом изменится или даже привести к гибели. Уже по одним историям становится понятно, насколько же хрупка человеческая личность, ибо одно повреждение какой-то конкретной зоны мозга и человек на всю жизнь инвалид (личность как хрустальная ваза, упавшая на пол).
В принципе, первый совет который бы я дал по поводу этой книги заключается в том, что книга является хорошим первым знакомством с темой нейропсихологии. Автор относительно легко и просто объясняет материал, истории у него интересные и в целом, книгу приятно читать. Вот только беда с таким типом книг всегда одна – одни плохо запоминаются. Книга является солянкой совершенно разных тем – страх, память, сон, речь, грусть, моторика, зрение, удовольствие, боль, внимание – на каждую из которых уже написано множество книг. К примеру, в моей библиотеке есть очень хорошая книга, которая полностью посвящена такой теме как человеческий сон. И вот когда автор пишет только на одну тему, тогда книга намного лучше запоминается. В этой же книге, слишком много тем, которые ориентированы на людей, которые мало что читали по данной теме. Вот как можно запихнуть такую большую тему как человеческий сон в 20 страниц? Плюс к этому, информацию нужно уместить на этих 20 страницах таким образом, чтобы она максимально полно раскрывала тему и делала бы это интересно для среднестатистического читателя слабо знакомого с этой темой. Довольно затруднительно, не так ли? Чтобы добиться этого, нужно отобрать только самые интересные факты. В итоге у нас получается развлекательная литература типа глянцевого журнала, но не типа Cosmopolitan или Men's Health, а что-то типа научного журнала для всей семьи (в меру сложный, в меру доступный даже для школьников).
Вторая проблема заключается в том, что многие вещи на тему нейропсихологии кочуют из одной книги в другую. Эта книга эту проблема не смогла обойти стороной, и поэтому половина текста мне была уже знакома. Как я сказал выше, эта книга скорее ориентирована на ту читательскую аудиторию, которая практически полностью не знакома с нейропсихологией.
К чему я пришёл в итоге? С одной стороны, книга написана интересно и даже уже знакомый материал не вызывает раздражение или скуки, но с другой, книга очень незапоминающаяся вследствие обилия тем. Единственный момент, который автор повторяет из главы в главу, это что в мозге нет какой-то одной единственный зоны ответственной за зрение, память, моторику и пр. Как я понял автора, есть основные зоны, которые ответственные за те или функции, но в процессе задействованы и другие области мозга, что означает, что мозг всегда задействован весь. Чтобы быть более точным я даже процитирую книгу. Автор пишет, что современные исследования показывают что «модели речепроизводства и речевосприятия обычно не сосредоточены на зонах Брока и Вернике. Вместо этого они предлагают принять, что речевое общение задействует множество зон мозга, соединённые различными проводящими путями». Интересное замечание, которое я нигде ещё не встречал. В общем, книга предлагает такой небольшой дайджест последних открытий по данной теме или по поднятым в книге темам. Это её плюс.
First, the book reminded me of another similar book about the brain, Making Up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World. Secondly, the essence of the book perfectly conveys the title of the book (the title of the Russian edition and the original in English are identical). I.e., briefly describes the functions of the brain, supplementing it with some outlandish cases, such as a woman who has never felt sadness. All of these stories of people whose brains, for various reasons, did not function properly are placed at the very beginning of each chapter. Each story is intended to show what can happen to a person due to the slightest physical disorder (damage) of the brain and how the life of such a person can radically change or even lead to death. Just by one story, it becomes clear how fragile the human personality is because one damage to a particular area of the brain, and a person is disabled for life (personality is like a crystal vase that has fallen to the floor).
The first piece of advice I would give about this book is that it is a good introduction to the topic of neuropsychology. The author explains the material with relative ease and simplicity, his stories are interesting, and overall, the book is a pleasure to read. Except that the trouble with this type of book is always the same - such books are poorly memorized. The book is a hodgepodge of very different topics - fear, memory, sleep, speech, sadness, motor skills, vision, pleasure, pain, and attention - on each of which many books have already been written. For example, I have a very good book in my library that is entirely devoted to a topic like human sleep. And so when the author writes on just one topic, then the book is much better memorized. In this same book, there are too many topics that are geared toward people who have not read much on the subject. How can you cram a topic as big as human sleep into 20 pages? Plus, you have to fit the information into those 20 pages in such a way that it covers the topic as much as possible and makes it interesting for the average reader who is unfamiliar with the topic. Pretty difficult, isn't it? To achieve this, we need to select only the most interesting facts. As a result, we have entertaining literature like a glossy magazine, but not like Cosmopolitan or Men's Health, but something like a scientific magazine for the whole family (moderately complex, moderately accessible even for schoolchildren).
The second problem is that a lot of stuff on the subject of neuropsychology is migrating from one book to another. This book could not avoid this problem, so half of the text was already familiar to me. As I said above, this book is aimed more at a readership that is almost completely unfamiliar with neuropsychology.
What did I come to in the end? On the one hand, the book is interesting, and even familiar material does not cause irritation or boredom, but, on the other hand, the book is quite unmemorable due to the abundance of topics. The only point that the author repeats from chapter to chapter is that there is no single zone in the brain responsible for vision, memory, motor skills, and so on. As I understood the author, there are main areas that are responsible for certain functions, but other areas of the brain are also involved in the process, which means that the whole brain is always involved. To be more specific I will even quote the book. The author writes that current research shows that "models of speech production and speech perception typically do not focus on Broca's and Wernicke's areas. Instead, they propose to accept that speech communication engages multiple brain areas connected by different conductive pathways." This is an interesting observation that I have not seen elsewhere. In general, the book offers such a small digest of recent discoveries on the topic or topics raised in the book. That's a plus.
July 29, 2019
NOTE: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my honest opinion of the book.
_______________________
Dingman has written a book that introduces the current state of neurosciene and what we know about the brain to readers that have no science or neuroscience background. The book is divided into ten chapters that cover a different function of the brain: fear; memory; sleep; language; sadness; movement; vision; pleasure; pain; and attention. Each chapter includes case studies, a brief summary of the function and specific area of the brain involved in that function and how that function was determined (i.e. experimental results), and a brief discussion of what happens when things go wrong in that section of the brain (e.g. Alzheimer's disease). The writing style is straight-forward with minimal technical jargon, which is explained and illustrated where necessary. The subject matter is interesting. However, I felt the book was somewhat dull (and rather superficial) and didn't convey the excitement the author felt about the subject.
NOTE: As a bonus, Dingman has a Youtube series (2-Minute Neuroscience) for additional information.
_______________________
Dingman has written a book that introduces the current state of neurosciene and what we know about the brain to readers that have no science or neuroscience background. The book is divided into ten chapters that cover a different function of the brain: fear; memory; sleep; language; sadness; movement; vision; pleasure; pain; and attention. Each chapter includes case studies, a brief summary of the function and specific area of the brain involved in that function and how that function was determined (i.e. experimental results), and a brief discussion of what happens when things go wrong in that section of the brain (e.g. Alzheimer's disease). The writing style is straight-forward with minimal technical jargon, which is explained and illustrated where necessary. The subject matter is interesting. However, I felt the book was somewhat dull (and rather superficial) and didn't convey the excitement the author felt about the subject.
NOTE: As a bonus, Dingman has a Youtube series (2-Minute Neuroscience) for additional information.
November 5, 2019
As someone who has been searching indefinitely for a good book about the brain (to the point of downloading anatomy and pathology textbooks and reading the chapters dedicated to it), I can say that this book is a good start. Previous nonfiction books (both textbooks and books written for the general public) have failed to keep me motivated to continue reading. They were stale and dense. This book however, was the opposite. The author reeled me in from the beginning. In addition to talking about the functions of anatomic structures, the author also discussed pathology, pharmacology and research. I really appreciate how the author used case studies and experiments to prove a point. my favorites were the woman who could not feel fear and the drug addicted scientist that removed the temporal lobes from two monkeys. The author tells the reader what he hopes to achieve at the beginning of the book (after reeling them in with interesting case studies and experiments).
Many books about neuroscience are written at a level that’s too difficult for the average person—or even a novice neuroscientist—to understand. To compound the problem, the material that is written for the public sometimes goes too far in the opposite direction: it oversimplifies descriptions of the brain to the point where they don’t accurately represent the organ or its functions
I think the author did a good job at achieving his goal, a difficult feat might I add (based on the various neurology books I tried). For this reason, I gave the book 5 stars
Many books about neuroscience are written at a level that’s too difficult for the average person—or even a novice neuroscientist—to understand. To compound the problem, the material that is written for the public sometimes goes too far in the opposite direction: it oversimplifies descriptions of the brain to the point where they don’t accurately represent the organ or its functions
I think the author did a good job at achieving his goal, a difficult feat might I add (based on the various neurology books I tried). For this reason, I gave the book 5 stars
May 3, 2021
Really interesting! Simple enough to understand but not so simplified that it’s meaningless 😆!
April 21, 2022
We all have a brain, we all use it and almost no one understands how it works. The funny thing is that what we thought we knew for sure after some time turned out to be totally wrong. In the late 80. the neuroimaging developed to the point where for the first time we were able to peak beneath the skull without cracking it open and see at least partially what is going on there. This was a massive step forward and yet the specialists don't feel any wiser.
So this book is for those who want to learn and understand the basics. What is where and more or less how does it work. For more advanced knowledge you would need to look elsewhere. Nevertheless, it´s still a good read.
So this book is for those who want to learn and understand the basics. What is where and more or less how does it work. For more advanced knowledge you would need to look elsewhere. Nevertheless, it´s still a good read.
February 27, 2022
Nice and quick introduction to the big questions in neuroscience. Given the length, all the examples and clinical tales are indeed well-chosen and fascinating. My personal favorite? Hemispatial neglect and the extreme confabulation some patient were going through:
"One 73-year-old woman who suffered from hemispatial neglect, for example, insisted that her left hand wasn't hers. She said doctors must have left it in her hospital bed."
I mean, wow! Doesn't this make one realize how fragile our rationality is?
"One 73-year-old woman who suffered from hemispatial neglect, for example, insisted that her left hand wasn't hers. She said doctors must have left it in her hospital bed."
I mean, wow! Doesn't this make one realize how fragile our rationality is?
March 3, 2022
I love neuroscience. The brain is wack. Really basic introduction to key topics of the brain.
December 6, 2022
A little dry at times, but a wealth of information!
November 29, 2023
This book was lovely to listen to! I feel like I learned a lot about the brain and how it functions. It used stories to explain situations and some of the information!
December 8, 2022
Each chapter of this book begins with a case study of someone with an unusual neurological disorder. The author elaborates on the history of the condition, the parts of the brain involved and sums up what we know today regarding its biological basis. But this is always unsatisfying; our knowledge is vastly incomplete.
We are able to identify regions of the brain and make associations between these regions and certain sensations, actions and emotions, and the author presents many of these connections. However, these are always qualified with the realization that it’s not that simple. Many parts of the brain are involved in every activity of the brain.
The book covers what is known about common conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s as well as very obscure disorders. There are many illustrations showing various parts of the brain (but it would help to have this presented altogether in a single diagram).
The book is quite interesting (especially the chapters on sleep and movement) and useful as an introduction, and to encourage further study because it leaves so much unexplained.
We are able to identify regions of the brain and make associations between these regions and certain sensations, actions and emotions, and the author presents many of these connections. However, these are always qualified with the realization that it’s not that simple. Many parts of the brain are involved in every activity of the brain.
The book covers what is known about common conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s as well as very obscure disorders. There are many illustrations showing various parts of the brain (but it would help to have this presented altogether in a single diagram).
The book is quite interesting (especially the chapters on sleep and movement) and useful as an introduction, and to encourage further study because it leaves so much unexplained.
August 25, 2019
This book is a mixed bag, with certain sections very easy to follow and some very difficult. However, one thing is certain — after you have finished reading this book, you would be better informed and feel glad at having learned something new and useful. You would wonder how could you take this most important part of your body for granted. No, this book doesn’t teach you everything on this subject, but it will certainly give you a solid, reliable and intelligent foundation. After that, all those newspaper and TV reports on neuroscience research would start making sense to you.
But yes, you the reader will also have to put in some effort. You cannot simply lie back and hope that all the knowledge would seep into your mind like vitamin D from sunlight. You cannot, and it means absolutely cannot, read this book while going to sleep. It is not very difficult to follow; however, you need to stay alert, active and attentive. The advantages are not just academic in nature; in fact, certain sections e.g., usage of electronic devices, effects of exercise and caffeine, understanding depression and addiction could be immediately used to modify your lifestyle.
I would recommend this book to my colleagues and friends, and specially to the students in my group.
But yes, you the reader will also have to put in some effort. You cannot simply lie back and hope that all the knowledge would seep into your mind like vitamin D from sunlight. You cannot, and it means absolutely cannot, read this book while going to sleep. It is not very difficult to follow; however, you need to stay alert, active and attentive. The advantages are not just academic in nature; in fact, certain sections e.g., usage of electronic devices, effects of exercise and caffeine, understanding depression and addiction could be immediately used to modify your lifestyle.
I would recommend this book to my colleagues and friends, and specially to the students in my group.
April 23, 2021
This is an interesting introduction to some fun facts and information about how your brain works.
I just reviewed Your Brain, Explained by Marc Dingman. #YourBrainExplained #NetGalley
I just reviewed Your Brain, Explained by Marc Dingman. #YourBrainExplained #NetGalley
September 18, 2021
Good starting point for everyone who wants to start learning about the brain. It covers some of the anatomy of the brain as well as some of the important brain functions. Very easy to read as well.
March 29, 2023
Our brain is as challenging as marvelous! Otherwise, mine would not make me write these things about itself.
Brilliant work Marc!!
Brilliant work Marc!!
May 27, 2022
Your Brain, Explained by Marc Dingman explores the weird and interesting ways in which our brains work. The author aims to find a happy medium between complex neuroscience and brain talk dumbed down to the point that it’s inaccurate, and I think he achieved that goal.
The author also aims to spark curiosity. He writes, “I hope this book will get you thinking enough about all the interesting, peculiar, and downright amazing things the brain does that, when you finish it, you’ll have more questions than you started out with—because those questions might prompt you to continue learning about neuroscience.” This is someone who’s clearly passionate about his field.
Each chapter is devoted to a kind of different brain function: fear, memory, sleep, language, sadness, movement, vision, pleasure, pain, and attention.
The book contained lots of examples of people with fascinating conditions affecting the brain. Did you know there’s a rare condition called fatal insomnia? Another example was someone who had lost his sense of touch and proprioception (the ability to recognize where body parts are in space) but learned to walk again by using visual information rather than proprioception to guide his muscles as he moved. Other examples included people with prosopagnosia, which is the inability to recognize faces, and hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy, which is the inability to feel pain. While the not feeling pain thing might sound good on the face of it, you could bite your tongue off or get your foot run over and not even notice it, which would be a problem.
The book explores some of the ways neuroscientists developed an understanding of how certain brain functions work. For example, research on sea slugs was an important part of understanding how memory works. I’ve gotta say, sometimes my memory feels like it’s regressed to sea slug level…
You’ll also learn about what neuroscientists have uncovered about how different illnesses like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s affect the brain. There are curious facts thrown in, like smoking is associated with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease for some unknown reason (still not a great reason to smoke, though).
The author acknowledges the complexity of brain functions without getting confusing about it. Something like language doesn’t happen in just one area of the brain or even one half of the brain, and even though the left brain plays a significant role, the right brain gets involved in certain aspects. He also acknowledges what isn’t known yet; for example, children can pick up new languages much more easily than adults can, but scientists haven’t yet figured out why this is.
There are some bits that are particularly relevant to folks like me who have depression. There’s an area of the brain called the subgenual cingulate cortex that’s linked to sadness, and both increased activation and structural abnormalities of that area have been observed in people with depression. During neurosurgery to implant deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes, stimulation of the SCC produced rapid drastic changes in mood. DBS is by no means common as a treatment for depression, but it’s something I would consider. The author also addresses the serotonin hypothesis of depression, and how it’s become clear that this is very much an oversimplification.
In the chapter on the pleasure and reward system, the author addresses addiction: “Whatever your opinion on the origins of addiction, we know enough about the neuroscience of it to suggest that we should be treating it as a disorder and not as a fitting consequence of poor judgment.”
I found this book absolutely fascinating. Granted, I’m a geek and love science and brain stuff, but I think that this book would be really interesting even for people who aren’t über-geeks. The concepts are explained well, and I don’t think limited foreknowledge would make the book hard to follow. The author’s enthusiasm shines through in the writing style; this is definitely not a dry textbook. The example patients that are included are particularly intriguing. I thought this was a great book!
I received a reviewer copy from the publisher through Netgalley.
The author also aims to spark curiosity. He writes, “I hope this book will get you thinking enough about all the interesting, peculiar, and downright amazing things the brain does that, when you finish it, you’ll have more questions than you started out with—because those questions might prompt you to continue learning about neuroscience.” This is someone who’s clearly passionate about his field.
Each chapter is devoted to a kind of different brain function: fear, memory, sleep, language, sadness, movement, vision, pleasure, pain, and attention.
The book contained lots of examples of people with fascinating conditions affecting the brain. Did you know there’s a rare condition called fatal insomnia? Another example was someone who had lost his sense of touch and proprioception (the ability to recognize where body parts are in space) but learned to walk again by using visual information rather than proprioception to guide his muscles as he moved. Other examples included people with prosopagnosia, which is the inability to recognize faces, and hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy, which is the inability to feel pain. While the not feeling pain thing might sound good on the face of it, you could bite your tongue off or get your foot run over and not even notice it, which would be a problem.
The book explores some of the ways neuroscientists developed an understanding of how certain brain functions work. For example, research on sea slugs was an important part of understanding how memory works. I’ve gotta say, sometimes my memory feels like it’s regressed to sea slug level…
You’ll also learn about what neuroscientists have uncovered about how different illnesses like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s affect the brain. There are curious facts thrown in, like smoking is associated with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease for some unknown reason (still not a great reason to smoke, though).
The author acknowledges the complexity of brain functions without getting confusing about it. Something like language doesn’t happen in just one area of the brain or even one half of the brain, and even though the left brain plays a significant role, the right brain gets involved in certain aspects. He also acknowledges what isn’t known yet; for example, children can pick up new languages much more easily than adults can, but scientists haven’t yet figured out why this is.
There are some bits that are particularly relevant to folks like me who have depression. There’s an area of the brain called the subgenual cingulate cortex that’s linked to sadness, and both increased activation and structural abnormalities of that area have been observed in people with depression. During neurosurgery to implant deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes, stimulation of the SCC produced rapid drastic changes in mood. DBS is by no means common as a treatment for depression, but it’s something I would consider. The author also addresses the serotonin hypothesis of depression, and how it’s become clear that this is very much an oversimplification.
In the chapter on the pleasure and reward system, the author addresses addiction: “Whatever your opinion on the origins of addiction, we know enough about the neuroscience of it to suggest that we should be treating it as a disorder and not as a fitting consequence of poor judgment.”
I found this book absolutely fascinating. Granted, I’m a geek and love science and brain stuff, but I think that this book would be really interesting even for people who aren’t über-geeks. The concepts are explained well, and I don’t think limited foreknowledge would make the book hard to follow. The author’s enthusiasm shines through in the writing style; this is definitely not a dry textbook. The example patients that are included are particularly intriguing. I thought this was a great book!
I received a reviewer copy from the publisher through Netgalley.
April 6, 2021
It’s fascinating to think that everything we know, everything we feel, our entire sense of self, our connection to humanity and the insights from the generations that have come before us, is the result of electrical activity spiking in a wrinkled 3 pound mass of cells that lives in the dark and cushioned recesses provided by our skulls.
More accessible than most of the books that are available on this subject, the author of “Your Brain, Explained” - neuroscientist and professor Marc Dingman, PHD- does a fabulous job at unpacking some of the deepest mysteries behind our brains and how they do their magical work.
The book is organized in chapters based on core brain functions, casting a very wide net including: language, memory, sleep, sadness, fear, pain, pleasure, movement, vision and attention. Drawing on the latest scientific knowledge, the author covers brain structure, neurotransmitters, and the networks and connections required to support each function, as well as debunking related myths along the way. Each chapter is augmented by interesting, (and sometimes downright eerie) case studies of patients with specific brain injuries caused by stroke or illness that have helped scientist identify and correlate affected brain areas to corresponding loss of function. Similar to a tiny version of the wonderful works of Oliver Sacks, (who was and still is, one of my literary heroes) I found these case histories incredibly engaging, not to mention perfectly suited to serve as the introduction to the scientific insights provided on the topic.
We are learning much about the brain, and at the same time learning more about what we still need to learn. Dingman’s basic premise is that the brain is much more complex than originally thought, and early theories that attempted to simplify brain functions to a single neurotransmitter or brain network are rapidly losing favor. Even this book, with its well-crafted and expert smattering of research and insight will likely prove itself obsolete before too long.
I loved this book, and found its well written and easily digestible content in a subject that is typically so impenetrable a breath of fresh air. I recommend it highly to anyone who is interested in a fascinating tour of current neuroscience, written entirely for the layperson.
A big thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advance review copy of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.
Note re Trigger Warnings: Unfortunately, many early brain studies were structured around pinpointing impact after the creation of horrific brain injuries in animals, a process which is thankfully no longer deemed ethical. The results of most of these studies are covered at only a high level in this book, however the author provided a warning for one section of this book involving motor cortex experiments on dogs which was several pages long, and at his direction, I skipped this section. The book also contains one case study involving child abuse, as well as a detailed discussion on depression.
More accessible than most of the books that are available on this subject, the author of “Your Brain, Explained” - neuroscientist and professor Marc Dingman, PHD- does a fabulous job at unpacking some of the deepest mysteries behind our brains and how they do their magical work.
The book is organized in chapters based on core brain functions, casting a very wide net including: language, memory, sleep, sadness, fear, pain, pleasure, movement, vision and attention. Drawing on the latest scientific knowledge, the author covers brain structure, neurotransmitters, and the networks and connections required to support each function, as well as debunking related myths along the way. Each chapter is augmented by interesting, (and sometimes downright eerie) case studies of patients with specific brain injuries caused by stroke or illness that have helped scientist identify and correlate affected brain areas to corresponding loss of function. Similar to a tiny version of the wonderful works of Oliver Sacks, (who was and still is, one of my literary heroes) I found these case histories incredibly engaging, not to mention perfectly suited to serve as the introduction to the scientific insights provided on the topic.
We are learning much about the brain, and at the same time learning more about what we still need to learn. Dingman’s basic premise is that the brain is much more complex than originally thought, and early theories that attempted to simplify brain functions to a single neurotransmitter or brain network are rapidly losing favor. Even this book, with its well-crafted and expert smattering of research and insight will likely prove itself obsolete before too long.
I loved this book, and found its well written and easily digestible content in a subject that is typically so impenetrable a breath of fresh air. I recommend it highly to anyone who is interested in a fascinating tour of current neuroscience, written entirely for the layperson.
A big thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advance review copy of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.
Note re Trigger Warnings: Unfortunately, many early brain studies were structured around pinpointing impact after the creation of horrific brain injuries in animals, a process which is thankfully no longer deemed ethical. The results of most of these studies are covered at only a high level in this book, however the author provided a warning for one section of this book involving motor cortex experiments on dogs which was several pages long, and at his direction, I skipped this section. The book also contains one case study involving child abuse, as well as a detailed discussion on depression.
March 11, 2020
[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]
A pretty informative read on what’s going on in our brains, I found this book to be a good introduction to the topic: it doesn’t go too deep into complex science, but it also provides enough to be interesting even if, like me, you already know a little. What I already knew was there, so that’s consolidated knowledge for me, and what I didn’t, well, now I have new things to mull over.
On top of anatomy, the author also covers current (and past) research about the brain—apparently, there was a time when people found it OK to experiment on dogs’ brains without anaesthetising the poor pups—as well as brain chemistry and pharmacology. Several case studies, usually found at the beginning of each chapter, illustrate each topic, the latter ranging from language to memory, from addiction to fear, and more. The part about sleep especially interested me, due to my own difficulties with that—I knew that I shouldn’t drink coffee too late in the day (in my family, we used to say “never after 1 pm”) but now I also know that it’s because of caffeine’s long half-life, and putting numbers on this definitely helps enforce the point.
One mistake I made with this book, though, was to not always read it at the right moments. So don’t be like me, don’t read it right before bed when you’re already half-asleep. It won’t do it justice. (I basically had to read a couple of chapters again the next day to make sure I’d get everything. It’s not complicated writing or concepts, but that’s on a fully awake brain, right!)
Conclusion: A strong “introduction”, that actually also has good nuggets for people who have some knowledge on the topic.
A pretty informative read on what’s going on in our brains, I found this book to be a good introduction to the topic: it doesn’t go too deep into complex science, but it also provides enough to be interesting even if, like me, you already know a little. What I already knew was there, so that’s consolidated knowledge for me, and what I didn’t, well, now I have new things to mull over.
On top of anatomy, the author also covers current (and past) research about the brain—apparently, there was a time when people found it OK to experiment on dogs’ brains without anaesthetising the poor pups—as well as brain chemistry and pharmacology. Several case studies, usually found at the beginning of each chapter, illustrate each topic, the latter ranging from language to memory, from addiction to fear, and more. The part about sleep especially interested me, due to my own difficulties with that—I knew that I shouldn’t drink coffee too late in the day (in my family, we used to say “never after 1 pm”) but now I also know that it’s because of caffeine’s long half-life, and putting numbers on this definitely helps enforce the point.
One mistake I made with this book, though, was to not always read it at the right moments. So don’t be like me, don’t read it right before bed when you’re already half-asleep. It won’t do it justice. (I basically had to read a couple of chapters again the next day to make sure I’d get everything. It’s not complicated writing or concepts, but that’s on a fully awake brain, right!)
Conclusion: A strong “introduction”, that actually also has good nuggets for people who have some knowledge on the topic.
August 21, 2019
What a wonderful book. Perfect for a layman like me to understand without being dumbed down like pop psychology usually does.
Two things that stand out:
1) The brain is not a simple organ. And it is ignorant to say that one part of the brain is responsible for one particular thing. It is a complex web and multiple parts of the brain are responsible for everything. So, depression isn't just a lack of serotonin, dopamine is not just the 'pleasure' neurotransmitter, amygdalae are not the fear center and so on.
2) What we know about the brain is a very small sub-section of things going on in the brain. Diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's will only be able to be treated when we understand what is happening much better. We either overestimate or underestimate, accurate guesses are far less common in neuroscience.
I also loved the stories. The author shares a lot of cases and then explains the concept. The stories made this book interesting. I wasn't bored once and I read this in one sitting, a stupendous feat considering that I am not a science student.
The organization of the chapters was well-made. Instead of talking about different parts of the brain and their functions, we talked about the major functions (like vision, attention, movement, learning, etc.) and then the brain areas that impact their functioning. It was much easier to grasp the text because of this organization structure.
All in all, good job. Well researched and well written. Certainly makes me want to pick up more such books.
I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley.
Two things that stand out:
1) The brain is not a simple organ. And it is ignorant to say that one part of the brain is responsible for one particular thing. It is a complex web and multiple parts of the brain are responsible for everything. So, depression isn't just a lack of serotonin, dopamine is not just the 'pleasure' neurotransmitter, amygdalae are not the fear center and so on.
2) What we know about the brain is a very small sub-section of things going on in the brain. Diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's will only be able to be treated when we understand what is happening much better. We either overestimate or underestimate, accurate guesses are far less common in neuroscience.
I also loved the stories. The author shares a lot of cases and then explains the concept. The stories made this book interesting. I wasn't bored once and I read this in one sitting, a stupendous feat considering that I am not a science student.
The organization of the chapters was well-made. Instead of talking about different parts of the brain and their functions, we talked about the major functions (like vision, attention, movement, learning, etc.) and then the brain areas that impact their functioning. It was much easier to grasp the text because of this organization structure.
All in all, good job. Well researched and well written. Certainly makes me want to pick up more such books.
I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews