LitArk » Books » Romance novel

Richard Restak - Think smart: a neuroscientists prescription for improving your brains performance

Here you can read online Richard Restak - Think smart: a neuroscientists prescription for improving your brains performance full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. City: New York, year: 2014, publisher: Riverhead Books;Penguin USA, Inc., genre: Romance novel. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

Book:
Think smart: a neuroscientists prescription for improving your brains performance
Author:
Richard Restak / MD
Publisher:
Riverhead Books;Penguin USA, Inc.
Genre:
Books / Romance novel
Year:
2014
City:
New York
Rating:
3 / 5
Favourites:
Add to favourites
Your mark:
- 60
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5

Description
Author's other books
Similar books

Think smart: a neuroscientists prescription for improving your brains performance: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Think smart: a neuroscientists prescription for improving your brains performance" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

From a renowned neuroscientist and bestselling author comes a book that shows readers how to improve and tone the brain. In the last five years, there have been exciting new scientific discoveries about the brain, its function, and its performance. In this fascinating, entertaining book, brain expert Dr. Richard Restak has asked his colleagues-the worlds leading brain scientists and researchers-an important question: What can I do to help my brain work more efficiently Their surprising answers are at the heart of Think Smart. In his characteristically accessible style, Restak explains the latest scientific discoveries about our brain and gives readers strategies on how they can keep their most powerful organ in top condition and fight off its decline. Read more...
Abstract: From a renowned neuroscientist and bestselling author comes a book that shows readers how to improve and tone the brain. In the last five years, there have been exciting new scientific discoveries about the brain, its function, and its performance. In this fascinating, entertaining book, brain expert Dr. Richard Restak has asked his colleagues-the worlds leading brain scientists and researchers-an important question: What can I do to help my brain work more efficiently Their surprising answers are at the heart of Think Smart. In his characteristically accessible style, Restak explains the latest scientific discoveries about our brain and gives readers strategies on how they can keep their most powerful organ in top condition and fight off its decline

Richard Restak: author's other books

Who wrote Think smart: a neuroscientists prescription for improving your brains performance? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

Think smart: a neuroscientists prescription for improving your brains performance — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Think smart: a neuroscientists prescription for improving your brains performance" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Table of Contents

Also by Richard Restak, M.D.

The Naked Brain
Poes Heart and the Mountain Climber
Mysteries of the Mind
Mozarts Brain and the Fighter Pilot
The New Brain
The Secret Life of the Brain
The Longevity Strategy (with David Mahoney)
Older and Wiser
Brainscapes
The Modular Brain
Receptors
The Brain Has a Mind of Its Own
The Mind
The Infant Mind
The Brain
The Self Seekers
The Brain: The Last Frontier
Premeditated Man

To my brother, Christopher

To remain mentally sharp, you have to deal with familiar things in novel ways. But most important of all, you have to have a sense of curiosity. If interest and curiosity stop coming automatically to you, then youre in trouble, no matter how young or old you are.

Art Buchwald

INTRODUCTION

What should I do to keep my brain working at its best?

Im frequently asked that question. It makes sense as Ive written eighteen books about the human brain. But I recently decided to undertake a personal odyssey aimed at discovering what I can do to improve my brain. This seemed especially important, since I will soon be at an age when brain function typically declines unless deliberate steps are taken to maintain it.

I come to this task from a unique vantage point, based on my experience as both a neurologist and an author. Over the years, Ive become acquainted with many of the worlds foremost neuroscientists (brain researchers). Ive talked with them during neuroscience meetings, observed them in their laboratories, and read their published writings in which they explain their discoveries. What could be more natural, I wondered, than to ask these brain scientists, the best in their field, What are you doing to keep your brain functioning at its best?

Their answers often surprised me. And I suspect they will surprise you.

Using their answers, coupled with my own work in cutting-edge brain research, Ive set out in these pages my personal program to improve your brains functioning. It can be used by anyone interested in developing and maintaining an optimally functioning brain. Whether you are young or old, rich or poor, male or female, these insights will help your brain to be more efficient, more effective, and more engaged.

PART ONE

Discovering the Brain

When I was a medical student, neither teachers nor students placed much emphasis on the brain. The curriculum included only a first-year course in neuroanatomy, followed two years later by a one-month rotation spent working with patients on the neurology wards. After graduation, most medical students tended to avoid specialty training in careers devoted to treating the brain (neurology and neurosurgery), based on the general perception that not much could be done to heal or even improve the lives of many of the patients afflicted by brain diseases. I remember vividly my fathers disappointment when I told him I was interested in neurology and psychiatry rather than obstetrics (his specialty). You cant do anything for most of the patients youll encounter in either of those specialties, and its awfully depressing to just diagnose and not treat, he told me.

A lot has changed since then. We have learned more about the brain in the past decade than we did in the previous two hundred years. If he were still alive, my father would be amazed at the effective treatments now available for many brain diseases such as multiple sclerosis, migraine, and epilepsy, to mention just the most common. Neuroscience (brain science) is currently one of the most popular career choices among students attracted to science. Psychiatry and neurology are in the process of merging into the hybrid discipline of neuropsychiatry. But these advances didnt happen spontaneously. The advance from nihilism and pessimism toward curiosity and hope was stimulated principally by new ways of imaging the brain.

Until the middle part of the twentieth century, what little was known about the brain consisted of a mlange of speculation and dogmatism based on hosts of hoary old men staring through microscopes at brightly colored dye-stained neurons. Thanks to advances in brain-imaging techniques over the last thirty-plus years, its currently possible for neuroscientists (many of whom are now women) to observe the development of the brain in real time and without any need for either speculation or dogmatism. The principle behind these illuminating (in both senses of the term) imaging techniques is straightforward: blood flow to the brain varies with activity. The greater the activity, the greater the flow of blood needed to replenish the oxygen and glucose used by the active neurons. This isnt any different from what happens elsewhere in the body.

When you lift a hundred-pound barbell at the health club in an effort to attract the attention of someone nearby in whom youre romantically interested, blood flow increases in the muscles of your arms and chest based on the increased need by those muscles for oxygen and glucose. Similarly, when you use a specific circuit in the brain, the components of that circuit will become more active and call on the circulatory system to provide additional glucose and oxygen. Positron-emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) detect the changes in blood flow within active parts of the brain and record them while the subject lies within a special scanner.

Thanks to fMRI imaging and other techniques, we know that the brain never wears out; it gets better the more we use it; it changes in structure and function throughout our lives. As a consequence of this plasticity we sculpt our brains according to our life experiences. As a result, no two brains are exactly alike, not even the brains of identical twins who, while they share the same genetic makeup, dont share identical experiences. Due to this diversity in the brains organization and structure from one person to another, its often possible to reach valid conclusions about a person on the basis of his brains organization.

For instance, while looking at an fMRI, a trained observer can distinguish the brain of a skilled pianist from that of a nonpianist. That trained observer will note that the pianists brain shows increased activation in the finger areas of the motor cortex while she listens to a piano concerto. The same thing happens if she just watches someone playing any musical composition on the piano. But it wont happen if she observes that person merely making random finger movements on the keyboard: under these circumstances, the pianists brain responses wont differ from those of a person with no special musical expertise or interest. A similar specialization occurs in dancers. A ballet dancer will show greater brain activation while he watches other ballet dancers perform. This wont happen if he watches ballroom dancers.

Nor is brain specialization limited to the arts. If that pianist at the conclusion of her performance takes a cab from the concert hall to her apartment, her cabdrivers brain is likely to have an enlarged hippocampusa brain area heavily involved in spatial visualization and navigation. The same is true for any specialized occupation: A surgeon will show greater activation in the hand area of the motor and sensory cortex than will a doctor who doesnt perform surgery.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Think smart: a neuroscientists prescription for improving your brains performance»

Look at similar books to Think smart: a neuroscientists prescription for improving your brains performance. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Sondra Kornblatt

Brain Fitness for Women

Richard Restak

The Complete Guide to Memory: The Science of Strengthening Your Mind

Ph.D. James Goodwin

Supercharge Your Brain: How to Maintain a Healthy Brain Throughout Your Life

Sandra Bond Chapman

Make Your Brain Smarter: Increase Your Brains Creativity, Energy, and Focus

Douglas David.

Brain Training: How to Train Your Brain Health with Neuroplasticity and Brain Plasticity

Dean Burnett

The Idiot Brain. A Neuroscientist Explains What Your Head is Really Up To

Richard Restak

How Puzzles Improve Your Brain: The Surprising Science of the Playful Brain

R. Douglas Fields Ph.D.

The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries about the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science

Richard Restak

Mozarts Brain and the Fighter Pilot: Unleashing Your Brains Potential

Majid Fotuhi

Boost Your Brain: The New Art and Science Behind Enhanced Brain Performance

Michael J. Gelb

Brain Power: Improve Your Mind as You Age

M.D.

Think Smart: A Neuroscientists Prescription for Improving Your Brains Performance

Reviews about «Think smart: a neuroscientists prescription for improving your brains performance»

Discussion, reviews of the book Think smart: a neuroscientists prescription for improving your brains performance and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.