Seven & A Half Lessons About The Brain - Lisa Feldman Barrett

Science & Tech

Rating: 6.5/10

This book starts off with the observation that once upon a time the earth was ruled by creatures without brains.

Which immediately had me pondering, what is so different now?

I was hoping for something slightly less academic in tone and content, despite that there was still a lot of interesting nuggets about my personal favourite organ.

The author does ensure that her education in brain science is well structured and conveyed in short, digestible chapters with just enough detail to lure you to further research if you are inspired to do so.

The best lesson, in a nutshell, is this.  The brains most important job is controlling your body…not thinking.  Thinking is merely a consequence.  Huh.  I’ll need to ponder that…pun intended and shameless.

Here are the lessons:

THE HALF LESSON - Your Brain Is Not for Thinking
LESSON 1 - You Have One Brain (Not Three)
LESSON 2 - Your Brain Is a Network
LESSON 3 - Little Brains Wire Themselves to Their World
LESSON 4 - Your Brain Predicts (Almost) Everything You Do
LESSON 5 - Your Brain Secretly Works With Other Brains
LESSON 6 - Brains Make More than One Kind of Mind
LESSON 7 - Our Brains Can Create Reality

Footnote: Barrett debunks what she describes as one of the most successful and widespread errors in all of brain science.  I’m not going to tell you what it is…where’s the fun in that?