Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain Paperback – 28 Oct. 2021

This book about the brain includes a number of sessions about this subject that Lisa Barrett has presented and now written a book about. The book begins by talking about the popular idea of metaphors of the brain and exemplified in the chimp paradox whereby we think we have a lizard brain and then a cat brain and on top we have a human brain (all competing for one another - hence why your rational, outer brain says ‘just one more chocolate’ and your monkey brain has eaten the entire packet before you rational brain states ‘what the hell just happened’) but the book states this idea is wrong as we can see in many other animals that are mammals and have similar brain structure. Elephants have larger brains and owls and mice have smaller but they are all in context. The book then goes on to look at how the brain is structured and why it makes the decisions it makes.- The book describes how the brain is a network of systems. It contains 128 billion brain neuron cells which communicate with different parts of the brain to create a whole single perception of everything we experience.- The author explains how the neurons in the brain are constantly firing and behave in similar ways to planes in the sky constantly going between airports. Airports have many different functions, selling tickets and allowing planes to fly and take off and land as well as selling bad food. However there are also major hubs that can take on the vast majority of planes should one go down then this can disrupt the system. However the brain is complex and other systems will take over. Many different neurons will work in different ways to do the same task just does you might have different planes and pilots fly new from one place to another- The third lesson is about how the interaction between the outside world and our brain forms in our skull and discusses how our brains evolved. For example horses come out into the world and within a few hours are able to walk but babies have to develop this skill over 12 months. If a baby's eyes are not exposed to the constant rays of light they will not develop and be able to focus on what they see and construct what they see in their brain. The same is true of many other experiences such as cuddling and skin to skin contact as well as holding a babies face close to yours so that they're at the right distance so they can see and mimic and learn- The third chapter contains a fascinating description about how our brains begin to prune what they have seen and reduce connections in the brain - this is called pruning. One example of the babies are able to hear all sounds and then slowly the brain will filter out the one that it recognises as its own home language. It is also able to smell breastmilk which as soon as it's released from the mum's breast it will crawl and find its way towards just through smell. This is a chapter that is worth another read.- It's also really important that babies get social contact and an experiment which occurred by chance was where babies were observed in Romanian orphanages, where they had many babies due to the government asking for more manpower and increases in the number of babies born in Romania. However many families couldn't afford these babies so they were placed in institutions and did not receive cuddles and hugs and skin to skin contact they were just merely fed. Many of these babies grew up damaged and stunted and with learning difficulties. It's an important example of the importance of social touch regarding our brain development. These examples of neglect have been seen in many other circumstances as well. And if babies are neglected they will grow up more prone to a range of medical problems such as diabetes and heart attacks as well as difficulties in forming social attachment with other people. Similar impact has been shown in experiments on attachment using monkees where they are where they were given a model that was made of metal would give milk and another pretend mother that was more like a teddy and these were the monkeys that were attracted to the most - rather than the pretend monkey who was shaped from metal but did offer food. Social interaction is really important from the moment we are born.- The fourth lesson talks about how the brain is a prediction machine that predicts everything you're going to do next. The brain consists of neurochemicals and swirling electrical activity that makes sense of everything around it and gives it meaning. However it is also determined by memory and what it is already perceived an experienced to help it make sense of how the brain will wire and fire together to help us with the acts of living our life and being who we are and what we perceive and make sense - whether it be taste, vision, hearing, touch and smell.- The fifth lesson talks about how our brains are social brains and that they are changed and develop through the interactions with others. Being in a relationship that can help you to live a longer life than one where you are alone.- The brain is always looking for ways of saving energy and the metabolic cost that is required to run it. The average energy required to run a brain is equal to the amount that you might need to light a lightbulb as it is an incredibly efficient machine. However it is really important and there are lots of benefits to having others in your life to help you and support you and the brain needs other brains to develop and support it. People who are lonely will often die earlier and if they get an illness have less of a chance of recovery as those who are in relationships or have a close friend and even a pet. Even the words that people use can help to ensure support brains, or make us angry. When we are given a compliment we can feel good but when someone is threatening us we can also feel rage and anger. Words can impact our hormones and emotions. Words can change the physiology of how we feel by changing the hormones that control our heart rate and sending all sorts of hormones through the body to change how we feel and behave. Words are powerful.- Lesson six is about how we evolved with many different types and kinds of mind and not just one. Our culture and society and the people we surround us will shape our brains and how brains evolve and our structure can be dependent on the culture and people that surround us. This can include the culture, religion and beliefs that make up different countries.- There are many types of mind variation. For example a mind may be autistic or schizophrenia but also in less extreme cases minds can produce some people to be thoughtful and others to be more caring and empathetic what we need to do is embrace all these different kinds of minds because they are what helps humans to continue to develop a wide rang of skills on this planet. Having a wide range of minds means we can deal with a wide range of problems.- Even though people around us will have different types of mind it's also important to be aware that we can change our own mind. This might be temporary either through drinking lots of coffee or and taking vitamins to stay up all night to revise for something or when we drink and become more sociable and find other people more attractive - we have altered the state of our own mind. We can also do this on longer terms for example going to a new country and exploring different cultures as well as learning something new which again changes the structure and way your mind behaves.- Lesson seven is about how our brains create reality. The wavelength of light that bounces off something that we see and absorbs certain amounts of wavelengths that are then sent to our eyes and then evolve in our brain to create our perception of colour - this is created in the mind. The whole world is created as an illusion in our brains but this helps us to make sense of everything around us. Reality is an illusion created by our brains.- We live in a world where we give meaning to pieces of paper and little bits of metal that we call money. It's all made up but we give it meaning and reality and we all get together to help us buy things and create things and be paid. Made up illusions we create and they then become real.- With our brains being a prediction making machine we perceive wine that is more expensive is better than wine that is cheaper or real fair trade coffee tastes better than coffee that comes out of plain paper with no markings. We create this perception that changes how we feel towards something even though it is all made up. We create this reality through the five senses as described in this book.- A short fascinating book about how our brains work - I really enjoyed reading it.

In this very readable book, renowned psychologist, Dr Lisa Feldman-Barrett, goes through takes the reader on a whistle-stop tour of the current understanding of the mind and brain. Each bite-size chapter provides a bitesize introduction to a particular aspect of cognitive neuroscience. Rather than listing facts, Dr Feldman-Barrett focuses on broad conceptual and theoretical insights that have emerged over the last decade. For instance, she discusses how and why the brain is more interested in predicting features of the environment rather than providing an accurate representation of the world. Even though the topics are complex and represent the current scientific consensus, the book is very readable and would even be suited for interested high-school students. The author achieves this feat by replacing jargon with well-crafted analogies and metaphors. In sum, I think that this book is a shining example of science writing that makes complex topics accessible for the public. I think that this book provides the best introduction for anyone with an interest in the mind and brain who has no prior education in this area.

The book is very short, but all the material in it is valuable. No filler pages with never ending examples. Only takes an afternoon or two to read but totally worth it. Answer making questions about how the brain works.

This book has received a lot of praise, but I have reservations. It is quite easy to read and the author is clearly very well informed. But I am very unsure about the degree of support that the theory set out has amongst neuroscientists in general. Is the author making out the case for a theory that has a lot of support or very little? I don't know. The claim that our brains did not evolve because thinking - i.e. reasoning - has a big evolutionary advantage seems to me me very unlikely and I am not convinced by the author's argument.Quite separately, I found the layout of the book unhelpful. It is necessary to read the 35 page appendix bit by bit as you go, but these notes are not referenced in the main text. I had to go through the main text and mark it up in pencil so I knew when to turn to the appendix. Tedious.