W książce Mózg. Co każdy powinien wiedzieć profesor Gary L. Wenk zebrał najbardziej podstawowe, a jednocześnie rzetelne i aktualne informacje na temat ludzkiego mózgu, a następnie przedstawił je w języku i formie przystępnych dla czytelnika niespecjalisty. Poszczególne rozdziały zawierają odpowiedzi na następujące pytania: Jak wyewoluował mózg? Co to są emocje? Co to są halucynacje? Jak się uczymy? W jaki sposób nasza dieta wpływa na nasze myślenie i samopoczucie? Co się dzieje ze starzejącym mózgiem? W jaki sposób mózg tworzy wspomnienia? Dlaczego pacjenci z chorobą Alzheimera mają takie kłopoty z pamięcią? Jak leczy się utratę pamięci? Jak leczy się depresję? Dlaczego tak źle śpimy, kiedy mamy depresję? Dlaczego osoby chore na schizofrenię słyszą głosy? Dlaczego jestem uzależniony od kawy? W jaki sposób flora jelitowa wspomaga mózg? Czy przyprawy są dobre dla mózgu? Jak z wiekiem zmienia się sen? Czy istnieją cudowne leki na starzenie się mózgu? Czy mózgi kobiet i mężczyzn różnią się od siebie?
There have been plenty of books about the brain, but 'Professor of Psychology and Neurosciences and Molecular Virology, Immunology and Medical Genetics' (I bet he has a big business card) Gary Wenk is, according to the subtitle, out to tell us 'what everyone needs to know' about this important organ. (As the subtitle has a registered trademark symbol, I assume the book is part of a series.)
I found The Brain an easy read in terms of the language (though inevitably we get a string of labels for different parts of the brain), but sometimes I struggled to make sense of what was being said. For example, we're told: 'The brain is the organ of your mind; therefore, food and drugs can have a profound influence on how you think, act and feel.' There seemed to be something missing in the logical argument that allowed that 'therefore' to be used. Further down the same page we read 'Human behaviour has impacted [tobacco and coffee] plants as much as they have impacted human history; for example, the introduction of coffee and tea fuelled the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.' There's a similar logical disconnect. Even allowing for the dubious accuracy of the importance of coffee and tea to the Industrial Revolution, that 'for example' should presage an example of the impact human behaviour has had on the plants, not the other way round. It just doesn't quite make sense - and that happens a number of times.
The book is divided up into short segments, helping the easy reading, though sometimes the titles of these segments have similar issues with the wording. So, for example, there's one headed 'Why are close talkers so frightening?' (each heading is a question), but the text actually describes why some people get too close when they talk, not why they are so frightening. While we're covering writing style, though the book is an easy read, the wording can be very plodding. Take this example: In order to understand how your brain makes a memory, you first need to learn about brain chemistry and the roles specific chemicals play in the creation of a memory. First, you need to know about a chemical in the brain called acetylcholine. It's almost as if the text has been proofread, but not edited. An awful lot of it is made up of fact statements, without any narrative flow. However, I shouldn't be too hard on the book. Some sections are genuinely interesting, notably the part on how food and drugs (Wenk points out that there is no meaningful distinction - they're all collections of chemicals) influence the brain.
I end up, then, in a mixed frame of mind (an interesting brain state). I learned a lot and parts of the content were very interesting, but the writing could have been significantly better. You sometimes see a book by an academic that cries out for a co-author, and this is one such. Even so, despite the issues I have with it, it should be of interest if you'd like to take more of a dive into the most complex known structure in the universe.
The writer's attempt to provide reader with most accurate up-to-date information about the brain surely have reached me. Learning about brain and we can explain why we act the way we do with science.
Świetna lektura! Krótka lecz treściwa, można wiele dowiedzieć się w pigułce. Z edukacyjnego punktu widzenia żałuję, że nie mieliśmy samych takich książek w liceum, zamiast podręcznika.
Well of course it was all about how brain works. It was good in the sense of the way the writer gave brief explanation about different subjects about brain but since I am a practical person, I didn't like this amout of theoretical information but I kept reading it beacause of some practical info that the book had.
Very basic concepts of what people should know about the brain. If your interested in the topic, the author makes this book fun and easy to read for readers who don't know much about the brain. Highly reamend the book if your looking to learn something new or just for pleasurer.
This was super interesting and gave me a lot of ideas for the future on topics to research further and even applications towards the machine learning model project. My only issue was the authors perspectives on things sometimes and his tone.
A great layman's look at the brain. Wentk goes through the anatomy and function of the brain, as well as how things such as diet affect the it, all the while writing in an informative yet not overly technical style. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to more about the noodle.