Your Brain: The Missing Manual

By Matthew MacDonald

Book Overview

Puzzles and brain twisters to keep your mind sharp and your memory intact are all the rage today. More and more people -- Baby Boomers and information workers in particular -- are becoming concerned about their gray matter's ability to function, and with good reason. As this sensible and entertaining guide points out, your brain is easily your most important possession. It deserves proper upkeep.

Your Brain: The Missing Manual is a practical look at how to get the most out of your brain -- not just how the brain works, but how you can use it more effectively. What makes this book different than the average self-help guide is that it's grounded in current neuroscience. You get a quick tour of several aspects of the brain, complete with useful advice about:

Brain Food: The right fuel for the brain and how the brain commands hunger (including an explanation of the different chemicals that control appetite and cravings) Sleep: The sleep cycle and circadian rhythm, and how to get a good night's sleep (or do the best you can without it) Memory: Techniques for improving your recall Reason: Learning to defeat common sense; logical fallacies (including tactics for winning arguments); and good reasons for bad prejudices Creativity and Problem-Solving: Brainstorming tips and thinking not outside the box, but about the box -- in other words, find the assumptions that limit your ideas so you can break through them Understanding Other People's Brains: The battle of the sexes and babies developing brains

Learn about the built-in circuitry that makes office politics seem like a life-or-death struggle, causes you to toss important facts out of your memory if they're not emotionally charged, and encourages you to eat huge amounts of high-calorie snacks. With Your Brain: The Missing Manual you'll discover that, sometimes, you can learn to compensate for your brain or work around its limitations -- or at least to accept its eccentricities.

Exploring your brain is the greatest adventure and biggest mystery you'll ever face. This guide has exactly the advice you need.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596517785
• ISBN13: 9780596517786
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 273 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

An Informative and Practical Guide to the Brain

Opinion I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. After purchasing this book, I briefly skimmed through the pages of the book to get an idea of what it would be like. I was surprised to find the book was full of pictures and diagrams. It seemed like the book would be very lacking in actual scientific facts and more geared towards a shallow description of the brain. Surprisingly the book has a good foundation in science. The book is designed more as a practical guide to understanding and improving brain function, but it also provides the necessary scientific knowledge to understand what is happening in the brain. This books is a good mix of brain exercises and science and is worth reading. Section Synopsis The book is divided into three general sections titled: "Warming Up," "Exploring Your Brain," and "Understanding Other People's Brains." The warming up section focuses on the basic functions and needs of the brain. It covers the general anatomy and connections of the brain, the importance and results of eating on the brain, and the effects of sleep on the brain. This section of the book introduces the reader to the brain and focuses mainly on the science of the brain. The second section of the book explores perception, memory, emotions, reason, and personality. It looks at the specific regions of the brain that are activated when the processes are going on. It also analyzes how and what factors promotes and limits these processes. Common misconceptions, voluntary and involuntary control, and evolutionary context are all addressed when describing these various processes. The final section of the book looks at differences in sexes and development of the brain. The chapter on gender looks at genetic factors, relationships, and mindset in conceptual differences and relationships. It also goes into great detail mentioning the effects of various hormones. The development chapter gives a good, scientific description of changes in the brain at different stages of life. It describes the effects of aging on your brain and the age old question of nature versus nurture. Structure of Book As mentioned above, the book is divided into three sections. Within each section are chapters that related to the overall theme of the section. A typical chapter of the book begins with a brief overview of the chapter. It then briefs the reader on structural portions of the brain and the role and effects it plays in the process the chapter describes. For instance the chapter on sleeping begins with a description of the biological clock, "This time-keeping device is embedded in a region of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)." The chapter then typically describes the components of the specific process such as the different stages of sleep and what goes on during these stages. The chapter then ends on how best to utilize the process described in order to achieve certain goals. In the sleep chapter the book describes the amount of time one should sl

You don't need to be a brain surgeon to understand your brain...

When you think about it, the thing we think *with* is one of the biggest mysteries to us. In Your Brain: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald, you'll gain some level of understanding about how the brain works, what makes it tick, and how you can manipulate it to work better. Even better, you don't have to be a brain surgeon to understand it all. Contents: Part 1 - Warming Up: A Lap Around the Brain; Brain Food - Healthy Eating; Sleep - Taking Your Brain Offline Part 2 - Exploring Your Brain: Perception; Memory; Emotions; Reason; Your Personality Part 3 - Understanding Other People's Brains: The Battle of the Sexes; The Developing Brain Index The thing I appreciate most about the Missing Manual series is the way they are designed to be readable for a "normal" person. Part 1 takes you through more of the "hardware" part of the brain... what the different parts are, the roles they serve, and how they interact with each other. Couple clear writing with plenty of illustrations, and you end up with a firm foundation in Brain 101. From there, MacDonald starts digging into more of the "software" aspect of the brain, as in how are memories stored. He uses the most current studies and findings to explain what makes you, you. The items that made this exceptionally interesting to me are the examples of people who, through some abnormality in the brain, don't quite process things the same way we do. For instance, "Henry M." had his hippocampus removed in 1953 to prevent seizures. The side-effect was that he lost his ability to form long-term memories. Imagine your mind stuck in a time warp, where your last memory is as it was before your surgery. Anything presented to you since then only lasts a few minutes before you have absolutely no recollection of it. By tracking what he could and couldn't do in this state, researchers were able to draw conclusions as to what role the hippocampus played in memory. That kind of stuff is something that amazes me, and confirms the fact that we still only have a fraction of a clue as to how the mind works. If you're at all interested about your mind, or if you're simply curious about how such things as optical illusions work, this would be a great book to read.

Better than expected - recommended

When I picked up this book I thought it was going to be yet another one on memory and techniques for recall. I could not have been more wrong. This is an excellent book on understanding the brain and how it works in all its wondrous details. The author delves into the physical structure, the synapses, effect of hormones on the brain and the effect that diet has on those hormones, how it interacts with your appetite and other aspects of the physical brain. Not contented to stop there he then goes into other aspects of the brain including the effect of sleep or lack thereof, perception, emotions, and personality. Your Brain: The Missing Manual is very interesting and highly recommended.

Your Brain: The Missing Manual

I read a lot of books on science and the human body, so I expected the usual on this book. Matthew MacDonald's book, "Your Brain, The Missing Manual" blew me away. In this book MacDonald covers the entire brain from neurons, to glands, to emotions. The book starts out covering the brains biological workings. It covers neurons, synapses, the Endocrine system and the Nervous system. Next he covers how the brain uses energy and how it gets its food. In this section MacDonald includes the Brain-Friendly Diet and explains how Protein, Fat and even Chocolate affect the brain. There is a great explanation on how the Human Appetite works. In one chapter he discusses the brain and sleep. He writes how the human brain needs light and dark to regulate the sleep cycle. In the book, MacDonald, state how sunlight or bright lights can wake you up fasters. I tried it for myself, I got out of bed early one morning and stepped outside and faced the morning sun. I was amazed at how fast my mind woke up and how clear my mind was. The Sections on the mind's visual perception and memory were extremely interesting. I enjoyed the Optical Illusions that he included in the book. One thing I would like to point out is that MacDonald references several websites throughout the book were you can get additional information. I found this very useful and learned a lot on these websites. In addition, the section on how to improve your memory helped me significantly. There MacDonald lists several methods on how to boost your memorization powers, don't skip this section trust me. The author goes on to cover such topics as Emotions, Reason, Personality and more. MacDonald lays all the information out in an easy to understand format. This is one of those books that you're skeptical on getting, but once you've read it you know it was well worth the purchase price. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand the brain, or just wants to improve their memory. This books is a must have on every book shelf, you won't be disappointed with "Your Brain, The Missing Manual".

Interesting, Fun Read

'Your Brain: The Missing Manual' is a different book than most of the fare that Pogue Press puts out, but this doesn't mean that it's not a good read! The Missing Manual line of books is simply one of the best publishers I have ever had the PLEASURE to read. I stress the word pleasure because TMM books truly are what they say they are. Incredibly laid out, easy to follow, and enjoyable to read and hold in your hand, most of The Missing Manual books I have read I give 5 stars and it's no mistake. With 'Your Brain' this book looks at how the brain works from all different perspectives: logic, eating, aging, sex, stress, pleasure. It examines how the brain interacts with these subjects and why things work they way they do. If you like previous Missing Manual books or are curious how the brain works, you owe it to yourself to pick up this book. Jam packed with color pictures and a small footprint with a small size of 250+ pages, this is a great weekend read that will entertain and TEACH you something as well!! ***** RECOMMENDED