Idiot Brain: What Your Head Is Really Up To

by Dean Burnett

Overview

A neuroscientist's delightful tour of our mysterious, mischievous, entirely fallible gray matter.

It's happened to all of us at some point. You walk into the kitchen, or flip open your laptop, or stride confidently up to a lectern, filled with purpose—and suddenly haven't the foggiest idea what you’re doing. Welcome to your idiot brain.

Yes, it is an absolute marvel in some respects—the seat of our consciousness, the pinnacle (so far) of evolutionary progress, and the engine of all human experience—but your brain is also messy, fallible, and about 50,000 years out-of-date. We cling to superstitions, remember faces but not names, miss things sitting right in front of us, and lie awake at night while our brains replay our greatest fears on an endless loop.

Yet all of this, believe it or not, is the sign of a well-meaning brain doing its best to keep you alive and healthy. In Idiot Brain, neuroscientist Dean Burnett celebrates blind spots, blackouts, insomnia, and all the other downright laughable things our minds do to us, while also exposing the many mistakes we've made in our quest to understand how our brains actually work. Expertly researched and entertainingly written, this book is for everyone who has wondered why their brain appears to be sabotaging their life, and what on earth it is really up to.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393253788
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/26/2016
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,062,136
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist and research associate at the Centre for Medical Education at Cardiff University. He writes a popular science blog called Brain Yapping for the Cosmic Shambles Network and dabbles in stand-up comedy. He lives in Cardiff, Wales.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Mind controls 5

How the brain regulates the body, and usually makes a mess of things

2 The gift of memory (keep the receipt) 34

The human memory system, and its strange features

3 Fear: nothing to be scared of 75

The many ways in which the brain makes us constantly afraid

4 Think you're clever, do you? 112

The baffling science of intelligence

5 Did you see this chapter coming? 152

The haphazard properties of the brain's observational systems

6 Personality: a testing concept 188

The complex and confusing properties of personality

7 Group hug! 222

How the brain is influenced by other people

8 When the brain breaks down … 263

Mental health problems, and how they come about

Afterword 303

Acknowledgments 304

References 305

Index 321

Editorial Reviews

05/30/2016
British neuroscientist Burnett, author of the Guardian blog Brain Flapping, packs an incredible amount of information into an accessible package with this breezy, charming collection of pop neuroscience musings on “how the human brain does its own thing despite everything the modern world can throw at it.” As the title suggests, Burnett highlights the dysfunctional results that occur when evolutionarily sensible systems engage with contexts that hominin ancestors would never have experienced, such as the motion sickness caused by the brain reading the mismatch between seeing a landscape move and the body feeling still, or the creation of conspiracy theories via the brain’s tendency toward pattern matching. Burnett also addresses many basics of human behavior—including anxiety, attention, memory, personality, and intelligence—with clear references to both classic and current studies in psychology and biology, while keeping a critical eye on the limits of studies and their possible misapplication. He shares a teasing love for the quirks of human behavior and adopts an appropriately serious tone when discussing actual mental disorders. Burnett’s smart, likable, self-referential, and very approachable personal voice permeates the text; readers will learn a lot from him, and will also just plain enjoy his work. Agent: Chris Wellbelove, Greene & Heaton (U.K.). (July)

Publishers Weekly

"We love a good brain book, and Idiot Brain by Dean Burnett might just be our new favorite."

Bookish

"I really admire Dean Burnett’s work. He’s very compelling and wise and rational. You know you can trust him and you know it’s going to be a great read."

Jon Ronson

"In Idiot Brain, neuroscientist Dean Burnett doesn't just explain the weird inner workings of our brain's most bizarre bits and pieces in terms that we can understand, he explains them in terms we can laugh at, and relate to. If you've ever wanted to sit down with a neuroscientist, have a few drinks, ask a zillion questions, and laugh until you snorted, read this book."

David McRaney

"An entertaining romp through the science of our mental processes . . . fascinating."

Gaia Vince

"Entertaining . . . offers illuminating discussions of the way the memory works, of fear and panic attacks, of our susceptibility to being conned or depressed, and of the marvels of the human senses."

Wall Street Journal

05/01/2016
Neuroscientist Burnett (Cardiff Univ.), who writes the Guardian's "Brain Flapping" blog and moonlights as a stand-up comic (which gives a hint about his treatment of the subject), covers all the psychological ground there is to cover, addressing the processes and structures responsible for the way the brain monitors the body and governs thinking and performance. Using copious (and mostly humorous) analogies, the author focuses on how previous theories have been proven inaccurate and how the organ functions against a person's better aspirations. Burnett is sympathetic to mental illness and addiction but happily skews the rest of human behavior. This title is an entertaining introduction or update to current research and explicates some puzzling and troubling actions. The lack of illustrations of brain regions is a drawback, as are the jargon-heavy explanations, which make it fairly easy to lose track of the gist. In addition, familiarity with UK idioms is practically a requirement. VERDICT Recommended for readers who like to consume everything in the popular neuroscience genre.—Nancy H. Fontaine, Norwich P.L., VT

Library Journal

★ 2016-05-03
A neuroscientist's irreverent guide to the brain. In this witty and informative debut, popular Guardian science blogger and sometime stand-up comedian Burnett (Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences/Cardiff Univ.) describes "the weird and peculiar processes" of the brain and the bizarre behaviors that often result. "You have only to look at the thing to grasp how ridiculous it is; it resembles a mutant walnut, a Lovecraftian blancmange, a decrepit boxing glove, and so on," he writes. "It's undeniably impressive, but it's far from perfect, and these imperfections influence everything humans say, do and experience." Sustaining that tone throughout, the author traces the habits, traits, and inefficiencies of the organ that defines us. In vivid, highly accessible language, he explains how the brain controls appetite, sleep, memory, hearing, touch, attention, and other processes and how it works when we fall in love, become delusional, or convince ourselves that we're brilliant when we are not. Why do we remember faces before names? Why do our egos often override accuracy? Why do emotional memories of negative events fade faster than positive ones? How is it that you can enter a room and have no idea why you decided to go there? Did you know that the thrill of fear and the gratification gained from sweets emanate from the same region (the mesolimbic pathway) of the brain? Whether describing the absurd inefficiencies of having both a primitive reptile brain (for survival) and a neocortex (governing advanced abilities) or explaining why less intelligent people are often more confident or why the Myers-Briggs personality test may not be that useful, Burnett manages to both entertain and inform in engaging ways that would benefit the performance of the most humorless pedant. In each instance, he piques readers' interest with some whacky or puzzling behavior and thoughtfully explains the underlying neuroscience. Burnett should give a TED talk. His book will appeal immensely to general readers and deserves a place on college reading lists.

Kirkus Reviews

"Burnett is a refreshing sort of neuroscientist in that he does not seem to consider the brain with any particular reverence; if anything, he seems mildly impatient about its many ridiculous failings."

New York Magazine - Melissa Dahl

"Don’t get him wrong: Dean Burnett loves the brain as much as the next neuroscientist. But if he’s being honest, it’s ‘really quite rubbish in a lot of ways,’ he says. In his book, Idiot Brain, Burnett aims to take our most prized organ down a peg or two."

Smithsonian - Libby Copeland

"A wonderful introduction to neuroscience [that] deserves to be widely read."

Independent Whig.

"A helpful and often hilarious antidote to current brain hype. Accessible and entertaining, this book explains why your ever-helpful brain can rewrite your history, make you overlook a gorilla, or lose an argument you should win."

Gina Rippon