A friend of my wife asked for some recommendations on books about the brain. Here are three.
Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonas Lehrer is a wonderful romp about how we perceive reality, told in a series of stories about artists who perceived how brains work fifty to a hundred years ahead of the scientists themselves. I read this in Sicily, a great backdrop for thinking deeply about memory, perception, language, art, and taste. The findings made my head spin.
While a great book on how the mind works, Proust is not a how-to manual. It’s for opening your own mind to new possibilities.
My friend Alvaro Fernandez’s The SharpBrains Guide to Brainfitness is a practical guide to what you should do for yourself: exercise the mind and body. Eat right, don’t stress, take on new challenges.
John Medina’s Brain Rules covers the latest scientific explanation of wetware through folksy, human stories. John is a masterful science writer. I am mid-way through Brain Rules. As I read, I jot down notes on how to inject its lessons into the cloud learning environments I call Learnscapes:
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Joseph LeDoux, Synaptic Self
http://www.amazon.com/Synaptic-Self-How-Brains-Become/dp/0670030287
Easily replaces all three of the pop science books listed above
Kia ora e Jay
Interesting you talk of the insight of the artist being ahead of the insight of the scientist when it comes to analysis of how the brain works. It’s (still) a popular misconception that science is King when it comes to investigative analysis; I’m not suggesting that you hold this misconception.
Catchya later
from Middle-earth
A few other excellent brain books:
“Mind Wide Open” by Steven Johnson
“The Brain That Changes Itself” by Norman Doidge
“The Head Trip” by Jeff Warren
If “Proust was a Neuroscientist” isn’t available on Kindle, does it still exist?
I did find Brain Rules and Synaptic Self though. Thanks Jay and Stephen!
I enjoyed “The Brain That Changes Itself” by Norman Doidge, about neuroplasticity. Also, Antonio Damasio, author of Decartes’ Error and Looking for Spinoza. (And I think pop science has its place if it makes information more accessible to those without a scientific background.