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ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY
HUMANIST GALAXY
OF SECULAR SCIENCE STARS
LISA FELDMAN BARRETT
March 30, 2022
SEVEN AND A HALF LESSONS
ABOUT THE BRAIN
by Lisa Feldman Barrett.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020
(i-x, 180 pages)
Quote = "In seven short essays --- plus a bite-sized story about how brains evolved, this slim, entertaining, and accessible collection reveals mind-expanding lessons from the front lines of neuroscience research. You will learn where brains came from, how they are structured and why it matters. You will learn ow your brain works in tandem with other brains to create everything you experience." (Paraphrased slightly by webmaster from the publisher's blurb)
Quote = "Barrett's pithy exploration of the mysterious brain has a vividness that will make this book actually stick in readers' memories." Adrian Liang, Amazon Editor.
BOOK OUTLINE
note = Numbers in parentheses refer to pages
AUTHOR'S NOTE (ix-x)
THE HALF LESSON Your brain is not for thinking (1-12)
1) LESSON #1 --- You have one brain not three (13-28)
2) LESSON #2 --- Your brain is a network (29-46)
3) LESSON #3 --- Little brains wire themselves to their world (47-63)
4) LESSON #4 --- Your brain predicts almost everything you do (64-82)
5) LESSON #5 --- Your brain secretly works with other brains (83-97)
6) LESSON #6 --- Brains make more than one kind of mind (98-109)
7) LESSON #7 --- Our brains can create reality (110-123)
EPILOGUE (124-125)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (126-130)
APPENDIX --- The science behind the science (131-166)
INDEX (167-180)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, SUMMARY,
AND BOOK DESCRIPTION
ABOUT THE AUTHOR = Lisa Feldman Barrett is among the top 1% most cited scientists in the world for her revolutionary research in psychology and neuroscience. She is a University Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University with appointments at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Barrett was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in neuroscience in 2019, and she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada. She lives in Boston. More at LisaFeldmanBarrett.com. Twitter: @LfeldmanBarrett.
SUMMARY = In seven short essays and a bite-sized section about how brains evolved, this slim, entertaining, and accessible collection reveals mind-expanding lessons from the front lines of neuroscience research. You will learn where brains came from, how they are structured and why it matters. You will learn how your brain works in tandem with other brains to create everything you experience.
BOOK DESCRIPTION = Have you ever wondered why you have a brain? Let renowned neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett demystify that big gray blob between your ears. She is the author of the earlier book, How Emotions Are Made. This new book contains a captivating collection of short essays about your brain, in the tradition of such books as, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry and Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. And it is full of surprises, humor, and has important implications about human nature.
Along the way, you will learn to disbelieve popular myths such as the idea of a "lizard brain" and the alleged battle between thoughts and emotions, or even between nature and nurture. These dichotomies have been claimed to determine your behavior without your willpower needing to be engaged. The book is guaranteed to intrigue casual readers and scientific veterans alike. It is a book that you will want to savor again and again.
AMAZON CONVERSATION
WITH LISA FELDMAN BARRETT
Biography = Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ph.D. is among the top 1% most cited scientists in the world for her revolutionary research in psychology and neuroscience. She is a University Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University with appointments at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Barrett was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in neuroscience in 2019, and she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada. She lives in Boston. More at LisaFeldmanBarrett.com. Twitter: @LFeldmanBarrett.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
QUESTION 1: Why do you have a brain?
ANSWER 1: Brain's did not evolve so you can think, feel or see. They evolved to control bodies. Everything your brain does think, feel, see, hear, etc. it does in the service of controlling your body.
This is your brain's most important job. Understanding this illuminates mysteries like: How are your mind and body linked? How does chronic stress seep under the skin and make you sick? Why are physical illnesses like heart disease and Parkinson's disease so similar to mental illnesses like depression? And why there is a growing epidemic of depression and anxiety around the world?
QUESTION 2: How does your brain work?
ANSWER 2: During much of the last century, scientists thought your brain worked sort of like a muscle the world stimulates it, and it reacts. The stimulation would come from the outside world in the form of sights, sounds, smells, and other sense data.
But scientists have learned that the brain's billions of neurons are continuously in conversation, guessing what might happen next and preparing your body in advance to deal with it. Your brain issues predictions that launch what you do and see and feel, but it happens so quickly that you feel like you are reacting!
Here is one way to think about it: From the moment you are born until the moment that you die, your brain is locked inside a dark, silent box called your skull. It continuously receives scraps of data from the outside world, like waves of light (from your eyes), chemicals (through your nose and on your tongue), and changes in air pressure (in your ears).
Your brain has to use these scraps of information to figure out how to keep your body alive and well is that crash outside caused by a racoon in your trash can, someone dropping a box on the ground, or a car bumping into another car outside your home? Is that tightness in your chest a sore muscle from lifting something heavy, a feeling of anxiety, or a sign that you might be having heart trouble?
In every moment, it must figure out what caused the current barrage of sense data and what to do about it, using your memories of past experiences. So your brain is not reactive. It is predictive!
QUESTION 3: I have heard that the human brain has an ancient area, called the "lizard brain," which can hijack the rational part of the brain (the neocortex) and cause me to say and do things that are ill-advised. Is this true?
Answer 3: No. The only animal that has a lizard brain is a lizard!
The so-called lizard brain in humans is a "folk tale" that was popularized in the 1970s, though its roots stretch back to Plato in Ancient Greece. Scientists in the early and mid-1900s examined a bunch of animal brains and determined that the human brain had parts that other mammal and reptile brains do not have. So they crafted the narrative of a layered brain. Supposedly, the brain's core contains reptilian parts that give us instincts, wrapped in newer mammalian parts that give us emotions, wrapped in human parts that give us rationality. This story, called the "triune brain," says the human brain evolved in layers like a birthday cake, where the topmost layer, the icing, handles rationality.
Since the 1970s, however, scientists have been able to compare brain cells by their genetic markers, and it turns out that mice, rats, dogs, cats, horses, and every other mammalian species studied so far (and possibly the brains of fish, lizards, and birds, too) follow the same manufacturing plan. Basically, you have the same brain plan as a bloodsucking lamprey. -- From a special Amazon Editorial book review and Q/A discussion.
PROFESSIONAL BOOK REVIEWS
[1] This short, concise, readable, thought-challenging view of the complex brain will pique the reader and puzzle the mind wondering what reality really is. San Francisco Book Review.
[2] A deeply researched, compulsively readable, subtly philosophical tour through the human brain
. In just a few pages, Barrett dispels myths so deeply entrenched that many of us assumed they were indisputable scientific fact (goodbye, lizard brain!) And she does all of this with the effortless concision of a poet, not a word wasted
. The book deserves to be read and re-read and then, just as important, to be thought about deeply. Dan Pink,(author of many books).
[3] Highly recommended, this smart pithy primer on the brain is fascinating. Michael Pollan, (author of many books) via Twitter.
[4] An excellent education in brain science. Barrett deftly employs metaphor and anecdote to deliver an insightful overview of her favorite subject so short and sweet that most readers will continue to the 35-page appendix, in which the author delves more deeply, but with no less clarity, into topics ranging from teleology to the Myers-Briggs personality test to "Plato's writings about the human psyche." Outstanding popular science. Kirkus, STARRED.
[5[] What about that "three-pound blob between your ears"? In seven essays about the brain and a half-size one about its evolution. Barrett has crafted a well-written tribute to this "wow-inducing" organ. Booklist.
[6] A must-read science book. Neuroscientist Barrett takes readers on a journey from the first earthly creatures, through the musings of ancient philosophers, and to present-day neuroscience. Discover Magazine.
[7] Beautiful writing and sublime insights that will blow your mind like a string of firecrackers. If you want a rundown of the brain and its magic, start here. David Eagleman, Stanford neuroscientist, New York Times bestselling author of Incognito and Livewired.
[8] The book reads like a novel whose main character is all of us! In fresh and lively prose, Barrett provides deep insight into what brains are for, how they operate and are programmed, how they create the "reality" we experience, and how they ultimately produce our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Read this book! It will make you smarter about yourself, and your species. Leonard Mlodinow, New York Times bestselling author of The Drunkard's Walk, Subliminal, and Elastic.
[9] A radical and provocative look at a range of pervasive misconceptions, emerging discoveries, and enticing mysteries regarding our very nature as individuals and intertwined social beings. By illuminating our unimaginably complex, constantly changing brain/body networks, Barrett gets to the heart of the new understanding of who and what we are as people, and how much latitude and agency we have. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), author of Full Catastrophe Living and The Healing Power of Mindfulness.
[10] Lisa Feldman Barrett is a pioneer in neuroscience and one of today's most provocative thinkers about the mind. Get ready to have yours blown. Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take.
[11] A smart and delightfully breezy look at the things most of us think we know about the brain, but do not! Daniel Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness.
[12] Barrett writes with a scientist's eye and a storyteller's heart. A must-read for anyone who has a brain. Helen S. Mayberg, Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery, Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
[13] One of the best short whirlwind introductions to the human brain that I have ever read. Barrett is one of the most brilliant and bold thinkers and scientists I have ever had the pleasure of speaking with. Lex Fridman, from his Podcast.
AMAZON READER REVIEWS
[1] Doug D. Interesting, but a Little Scary Too = It is amazing how much of our world view is constructed by our brains. Topics described here are similar to, but more general than, constructed emotions described in Dr. Barrett's earlier book, How Emotions are Made. But, this realization is also a little scary, because reading this book increases our personal responsibility.
We can no longer say, "This is just how I am, I cannot do anything about it." Our brains are creating our view of the world, and our responses to the world, and we can change our brains if we do not like them. No more excuses. See the book, You Are Here by Thich Nhat Hanh for tips on being mindful.
The book is divided into two main parts: The Lessons and the Appendix. The Lessons are written in a conversational style that is easy to read and understand. Her examples are very useful and well presented. The Lessons can be read by anyone, whether they have a background in science or not. The Appendix gives scientific justification for the conclusions in the Lessons.
A reader does not need to read the Appendix to benefit from the Lessons, but I think it added a lot of useful information. So, my recommendation is to read the corresponding portion of the Appendix immediately after that Lesson, rather than reading all Lessons and then the whole Appendix.
[2] The topics in this book are very interesting. They will help you understand how your brain works and how much our understanding of the brain has improved in recent years. So, read it, and read it soon, because in a few years, more advancements will be made, and Dr. Barrett will need to write a new book.
[3] Gary Moreau, Author Sir Isaac Newton would have approved = This is a very readable, concise summary of what we currently know about the brain. And it is fascinating. "But you do not sense with your sensory organs. You sense with your brain." Or, "Your view of the world is no photograph. It is a construction of your brain that is so fluid and so convincing that it appears to be accurate. But sometimes it is not."
Perhaps the book's greatest point of distinction, however, is the author's clear explanation of what science is and is not. And it could not be timelier. You can't turn on the television or click on an internet news site these days without encountering the debate. "Follow the science," which is a sentiment I strongly share, particularly when it comes to pandemics, is often bandied about without a clear understanding of what it really means.
Not so long ago the words science and philosophy, the latter of which many consider not to be a science at all, were synonymous. One of the most important works in modern science, written by Sir Isaac Newton in 1687, actually used the word philosophy in its title. Science is not a body of knowledge or a simple set of irrefutable facts. It is a methodology for interpreting the reality around us. Or, as Lisa Feldman Barrett notes, "Scientists normally try to avoid saying that something is fact or is definitely true or false. In the real world, facts have some probability of being true or false in a particular context." Or, in a quote she attributes to Henry Gee, "Science is a process of quantifying doubt."
As a result, while this book provides a completely different view of the brain than most of us probably hold, I doubt even the author would claim it to be definitive or exhaustive. It marks a milestone along a very long path that is sure to become even more fascinating. You can read the book in a few hours. But you will think about it (although perhaps not in the way you have previously thought about cognition) for much, much longer than that.
[4] @BobbyGvegas A fascinating, quick, to-the-point read I downloaded this book and read it on one afternoon, inclusive of the ample Appendix. Very accessible for a lay audience --- with clear, engaging analogies and metaphors, but also concisely credible for those more versed in the neuroscience and evolution science literature. This one is going on my holiday gift list, particularly for those of my kin and friends with young children. A fun, illuminating read.
[5] Andreas Robert Stocker = Intriguing, revealing, entertaining and informative [Reviewed in Germany] = Is your brain your thinking device? And/or does it do what it does on its own? Why does it exist in the first place and how did its evolution come about ? Who is master in the house uphill ? For interested laypeople and seasoned experts alike, this is probably the best you have ever read about how your brain works and how it interacts with your body and your environment (and vice versa).
And that is guaranteed, provided you are ready to dismiss many a popular myth about the brain: your neocortex hosting your rational thinking, your owning a reptile brain', the left-right-side of the brain divide, the presumed ratio-emotio' combat inside yourself. And much more, including who you are and why you are who your are. Highly intriguing, revealing, entertaining and informative.
[6] Renee Have compassion for yourself! You are your experiences
[Reviewed in Canada] = Loved it! Lots of knowledge and neuroscience facts written in a fun and engaging manner. Perfect book to read after reading Lisa Feldman Barrett's first book, How emotions are made.
[7] Bhrigu Ensemble of the human brain [Reviewed in India] = This book is absolutely fantastic! This book has further implications than the author lets you know. Surprisingly funny and actionable. A must buy!
REMEMBER ALWAYS:
You Are Your Adaptable Memory!
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