| | |  | Internal Medicine | Home » » » » » Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (Book & DVD) | | | | | | | Description: | | Most of us have no idea what's really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know--such as the brain's need for physical activity to work at its best. How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget--and so important to repeat new information? Is it true that men and women have different brains? In Brain Rules, molecular biologist Dr. John Medina shares his lifelong interest in how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work. In each chapter, he describes a brain rule--what scientists know for sure about how our brains work--and then offers transformative ideas for our daily lives. Medina's fascinating stories and sense of humor breathe life into brain science. You'll learn why Michael Jordan was no good at baseball. You'll peer over a surgeon's shoulder as he finds, to his surprise, that we have a Jennifer Aniston neuron. You'll meet a boy who has an amazing memory for music but can't tie his own shoes. You will discover how:
- Every brain is wired differently
- Exercise improves cognition
- We are designed to never stop learning and exploring
- Memories are volatile
- Sleep is powerfully linked with the ability to learn
- Vision trumps all of the other senses
- Stress changes the way we learn
In the end, you'll understand how your brain really works--and how to get the most out of it. About the DVD The Brain Rules DVD, included with this book, is a lively tour of the 12 brain rules. You will experience firsthand Medina's rare gift for making science fun, accessible, and relevant. The DVD will take your understanding of the book to the next level. | | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9780979777707
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| John Medina | | Hardcover:
| 301 pages | | Publisher:
| Pear Press | | Publication Date:
| February 26, 2008 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0979777704 | | Package Length:
| 9.2 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.3 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.4 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.45 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 98 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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 great for a teacher or a fatherMar 08, 2010
outstanding. I'm a teacher and a father and have found this to be a very useful and interesting book.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
easy readAuthorMar 06, 2010
Author, John Medina, explains how the brain works better than any other author I have read. And he writes in voice to be easy for understanding the subject well.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Excellent book, a pleasant surpriseMar 06, 2010
It's not a self help book. It's more like an FYI regarding your brain and memory. It is very informative and provides just enough jargon to educated. This is a well written book by a very intelligent scientist who knows a thing or two about research. It's hard not to come away from this book without learning something.
Excellent bookMar 04, 2010
This makes your change some of your lifestyles so that you could be more alert, remember more and be energized.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Mind Blowing! Must read for anyone who has a brainFeb 21, 2010
If I could give it a six star, I would. Definitely one of the most enlightening pop science book in the market right now. Great substance and excellent writing skill, esp the concise summary in the end of each chapter. The chapter/rule on 1) Exercise boosts brain power; 7) Sleep well, think well; 8) Stressed brains dont learn the same way, are outstanding. If you like Outliers, Freakonomics, Predictably Irrational and so on, you would love this one. Highly recommended!
Below please find some of my favorite passages for your reference.
Our brains were built for walking - 12 miles a day! To improve your thinking skills, move. Exercise gets blood to your brain, bringing it glucose for energy and oxygen to soak up the toxic electrons that are left over. It also stimulates the protein that keeps neurons connnecting. Aerobic exercise just twice a week halves your risk of general dementia. It cuts your risk of Alzheimer's by 60%. - Summary of Chapter/Rule 1 pg 28
What you do and learn in life physically changes what your brain looks like - it literally rewires it. pg70
The brain's attentional "spotlight" can focus on only one thing at a time; No multitasking. We are better at seeing patterns and abstracting the meaning of an event than we are at recording detail. Emotional arousal helps the brain learn. Audiences check out after 10 minutes, but you can keep grabbing them back by telling narratives or creating events rich in emotion. - Summary of Chapter/Rule 4 People dont pay attention to boring things. pg94
Our brains give us only an approximate view of reality, because they mix new knowledge with past memories and store them together as one. The way to make long term memory more reliable is to incorporate new info gradually and repeat it in timed intervals. pg147
One NASA study showed that a 26 min nap improved a pilot's performance by more than 34%. Another study showed that a 45 min nap produced a similar boost in cognitive performance, lasting more than 6 hours. pg160
Take an A student used to scoring in the top 10% of virtually anything she does. One study showed that if she gets just under 7 hr of sleep on weekdays, and about 40 min more on weekends, she will begin to score in the bottom 9% of non sleep-deprived individuals...sleep debt will be carried into the next week....Another study followed soldiers responsible for operating complex military hardware. One night's loss of sleep resulted in about a 30% loss in overall cognitive skill, with a subsequent drop in performance. Bump that to 2 nights' loss, and the figure becomes 60%....When sleep was restricted to 6 hr or less per night for just 5 nights, cognitive performance matched that of a person suffering from 48 hr of continual sleep deprivation...When people become sleep deprived, their ability to utilize the food they are consuming falls by about 1/3. The ability to make insulin and to extract energy from the brain's favorite desset, glucose, begins to fail miserably....If healthy 30 yr old are sleep deprived for 6 days (4 hr of sleep per night), parts of their body chemistry soon revert to that of a 60 yr old. And if they are allowed to recover, it will take them almost a week to get back to their 30 yr old systems. pg162
The perfect storm of occupational stress appears to be a combination of 1) a great deal is expected of you 2) you have no control over whether you will perform well. pg187
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