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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Optimize your brainpower and performance with practical tools and skills The human brain is constantly rewiring its 160 billion cells, continually and imperceptibly changing the way we think. Because of that, we can fundamentally change the way our brains work--for the better. Sort Your Brain Out shows you how to re-wire your brain to be more creative, make better decisions, improve your mood and memory, manage stress, and stave off senility. The book explains how the brain works and what you can do every day to subtly alter your behaviours, beliefs, and motivations to create positive change in your life and health. * Presents tools and exercises for maximizing your brain power * Written by brain scientist and television personality Dr. Jack Lewis and motivational speaker Adrian Webster * Includes brain-powered self-help advice that will improve your mood, help you deal with stress, and be better and smarter at work or in your everyday life In Sort Your Brain Out, you'll discover how to shape and control the most adaptable organ in your body to think more creatively, keep your memory sharp, and live a better life on a daily basis.
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Seitenzahl: 256
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014
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Table of Contents
Endorsements
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
What This Book Is All About
Introduction
A bit about us
Your Amazing Brain – The wonder between your ears
Flying Start – Five quick tips to get more out of your brain
BOP1: Water – Start every single day by rehydrating your brain
BOP2: Exercise – Vital for brain health (and holding onto your marbles)
BOP3: Stress – Control your cortisol to manage your stress
BOP4: Sunshine – Soak up the sun's rays to stabilize your mood
BOP5: Caffeine – Good for your brain in many ways, in moderation
Old Dogs, New Tricks – It's never too late to change
Rewiring needed
Bring it on!
Finding Flow
Chapter takeaways
Cyber Heads – Who's the boss, you or technology?
Brain for sale – no longer needed
I want it now!
External brain reliance
Will technology ruin our brains?
Staying in to play
Multitasking?
The buzz and bleep of modern living
Brain training ourselves to distraction
Chapter takeaways
Gone Fishing (for Great Ideas) – Are you receiving, over?
Dunking
Where in the brain do these creative thoughts actually come from?
Using novelty to jolt you out of set piece behaviours
Switch it up
Inputting relevant data to feed eureka moments
The night shift
Rest and play
Go jump in a few puddles!
Chapter takeaways
Perception Is Everything – Mind the gap
Now you see it, now you don't
Wiring up the senses
Division of labour
Bottom-up and top-down pathways
Do I know you?
Mind the gap
Impact of context and expectations on perception
Chapter takeaways
To Do or Not to Do – Making better decisions
Icebergs of hindsight
Got a hunch?
Reward Line
What do you fancy for dinner?
Emotion-flavoured decisions
Push and pull
Danger zone – excessive buy button activity likely
Losses loom larger than gains
The price of impatience
Experience really does count
Chapter takeaways
Food for Thought – Gastronomic impact for better or for worse
Don't wait for the leptin
The influence of bacteria
Fat filled and all sugared up
Sugar-coated vandalism
No vacancies
The best fuel
Pump that brain
Consistent high performance
Endorphins – natural opiates
Chapter takeaways
All Aboard the Stress Express! – Making sure you're in the driving seat
Cortisol the motivator
Holding back the pain
Who's driving your train?
“Trying” to get to sleep
Sixty crucial minutes
Chapter takeaways
“Smart” Drugs – Understanding your chemical assistants
Everyone's on drugs!
On top of the world
Not so smart drugs in schools
Whistle while you work
Nootropic drugs – big dilemmas, grave outcomes
The original smart drug
Brewing for survival
Wear and tear
Chapter takeaways
Hold On to Your Marbles – Keeping senility at bay
Over the hill
Putting the brakes on
Brain attack
Brain change activity
Building cognitive reserve
Alzheimer's disease versus Alzheimer's dementia
Chapter takeaways
What Next? – Your brain, your call
What could possibly hold anyone back?
The feedback we received and the impact it had
Repetition rules
Photo albums
Believing is seeing?
Acknowledgements
About the Authors
Dr Jack Lewis
Adrian Webster
Index
“This truly inspiring and fascinating book leaves you never wanting to waste a single second ever again. Everything you need to know about how your brain works and how to maximize it is contained in an easy-to-read way. The book proves you really can do anything and there are lots of simple ways to help ensure you too can make the most of your biggest asset – your brain! Without doubt, a book you cannot be without!”
Dame Sarah Storey, DBE
“For all the debate about governments nudging people to make better decisions or to adopt better behaviours, it is easy to overlook the fact that we can actually nudge ourselves. This book is a wonderful guide to how to do just that.”
Rory Sutherland, Executive Creative Director and Vice Chairman, OgilvyOne London and Vice Chairman, Ogilvy Group UK
“I thought it was accessible, thought-provoking and full of useful, easy-to-follow tips about improving your everyday life through a better understanding of the brain.”
Killian Fox, writer for The Observer and other publications
“A really great book that explains in layman's terms how the brain works and how you can then translate that knowledge to enhance your own performance. Thought-provoking and insightful, it will add considerable value to anyone still willing to learn, irrespective of which rung of the success ladder they are on. It's an enjoyable and extremely useful read.”
Mark Hussein, Global Head of HSBC Commerical Insurance and Investments
“Sort Your Brain Out is a must-read for everyone. It is a clever and thoughtful book designed to help the lay reader understand more about the brain's most intimate workings but most importantly it provides erudite yet easily consumed bite-sized gobbets of information on how to improve one's lobar lot. The fascinating examples are eminently readable and marvellously memorable; the reading of this book will stretch the brain in exactly the way the authors have devised. This is mental stimulation at its best.”
Chantal Rickards, Head of Programming and Branded Content, MEC
“As someone who has spent their life reviewing neuroscience material, I was struck by how the overview on offer contextualises some aspects of brain function in a novel and refreshing way.
In short, this is a delightful and illuminating read – it is the book that I would (will) give my family, when they ask searching questions about neuroscience – and what it means for them.”
Professor Karl Friston FRS, Scientific Director, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London
“Sort Your Brain Out is has clarity of purpose and many features that puts it ahead of its competitors in an expanding area of interest. Making the best use of the amazing brains we all inherit, even though they are destined to operate in a world far removed from the environment that shaped their evolution, is crucial. There probably is no more important a task for us as individuals or for the groups we live and work in than this. Help and the chance to expand our insight is at hand.”
Ian Edwards, Head of Strategy, Advertising Planning firm Vizeum
“Engaging, accessible, demystifying.”
Dr Daniel Glaser, Director, Science Gallery London
“This book explores the kind of topics we all think and talk about: Is the internet making us stupid? What do alcohol and caffeine really do to our brains? It provides you with exactly the kind of fascinating nuggets of information you end up reading out to whoever you happen to be with, as well as practical tips on how to maximise what we all have between our ears. Forget brainstorming, it’s all about brainshaking and dunking now. Neuroscience demystified and simplified without being patronising; a must-read.”
Olivia Walmsley, Mail Online
This edition first published 2014
© 2014 Jack Lewis and Adrian Webster
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Library of congress cataloging-in-publication data
Lewis, Jack,
Sort your brain out / Dr Jack Lewis and Adrian Webster.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-857-08537-5 (pbk.)—ISBN 978-0-857-08536-8 (ebk)—ISBN 978-0-857-08535-1 (ebk) 1. Brain—Popular works. 2. Neurosciences. I. Webster, Adrian, II. Title.
QP376.L47 2014
612.8’2—dc23
2013048672
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover design by Mackerel
ISBN 978–0–857–08537–5 (paperback) ISBN 978–0–857–08535–1 (ebk)
ISBN 978–0–857–08536–8 (ebk)
In memory of Susan Rose McColl and all those who were told they can't – but have.
What This Book Is All About
Every human being on this planet has the most incredible device in the known universe residing within their skull. Yet despite all of us having more or less the same make and model, the vast majority of users are completely unaware of its stunning capabilities; let alone its phenomenal ability to adapt.
The human brain adapts to the demands of pretty much any environment. It physically changes its own circuitry to improve performance in any behaviour that is regularly required of it. It will change in a manner that enables skills and abilities to become faster, more accurate and more efficient the next time you come to do them.
This process of rewiring for self-enhancement is so gradual that the day-to-day improvements are usually imperceptible. Only if you continue to perform that behaviour intensively, regularly and consistently – over an extended period of weeks and months – will your brain change sufficiently for the improvement in ability to become noticeable.
But brains don't only adapt to accommodate good behaviours, they adapt to perform any regularly repeated behaviour; without even thinking about it. Whether it is something useful like safely steering a car whilst your attention is consumed by an absorbing radio show, or not-so-helpful like helping yourself to that second slice of cake, your behaviour is largely controlled by a brain operating on autopilot, for better or for worse.
The aim of this book is to inspire you to consider the tremendous impact that neuroplasticity – your brain's ability to physically change to deal with any circumstances – can have on your behaviour. Current beliefs and behaviours were formed according to past events and notions regularly encountered in your daily life prior to now. Future beliefs and behaviours will be formed according to whatever thoughts, people and places you choose to regularly and intensely engage with from here on. Your brain is constantly upgrading and downgrading its circuits inside your head, every single day – for better or for worse.
By giving people a clearer understanding of how their own brains work and by changing the common but false perception that you “can't teach an old dog new tricks,” the main objective of this book is to harness the revelation that, throughout adulthood, we can fundamentally change the very fabric of our brains. As a result, we can subtly alter our habitual behaviours, beliefs, motivations and, eventually, bring about profound positive change. This book will provide you with a wide range of simple brain-enhancing tools and practical tips to do just that.
Introduction
Many people have a burning desire to be successful, some even have the know-how; and for those who don't there are literally thousands of self-help books out there, telling them how.
Yet, despite tsunamis of ambition and an abundant supply of well-meant advice, only a few people achieve real success and even fewer manage to maintain it.
The main reason is that despite being the most sophisticated piece of bio-wetware in the known universe, capable of running the most phenomenally complex software, your brain doesn't come with a user guide.
Incredibly, billions of people spend their lives scurrying around, all revved up, trying to get somewhere and devouring volumes of information on self-improvement. But they don't have a clue about the engine under their bonnet, its profound capabilities, or how best to use it.
In other words, they – as captain of the ship – may have all the drive, passion and heart's desire in the world to set and maintain a particular course, but if the engine room can't deliver, they'll be left wanting, drifting in the doldrums of success.
Most take their brain for granted, some even forget it exists, others spend hours at the gym working away on the bodywork, but only a few realize – that with a basic understanding and a small amount of care – just how much more they can get out of themselves.
In this book, we will help you to get a better understanding of how our brains work and explore ways of consistently getting more out of them. The eye-opening findings will explain the basic needs of our own – often idling but potentially brilliant – high-performance engines and, hopefully, help you achieve more from yours.
A bit about us
We first met in January 2011 when we were both speaking at a conference in Tenerife. The theme of the event was “Are You Ready?” Our task was not only to inspire those attending but also to offer useful guidance to help them as a team be prepared for the tough challenges that lay ahead and enable them to capitalize on any opportunities heading their way.
As two very different people we found ourselves working together to deliver the same messages but from completely different angles. It was then that we realized just how impactful our combined knowledge could be, and what a difference it could make.
Where Adrian's coming from
As a motivational business speaker I'd like to think that I am a highly motivated person, I'd be in the wrong job if I wasn't! I'd also like to think, having written self-help books, that I have a fairly good idea of what it takes to be successful.
However, despite being a reasonably fit, fairly intelligent and relatively successful person with bags of self drive and years of practical experience, especially when it comes to developing winning attitudes, I was keen to find out more about the hardware that supports the software – the engine that runs my mind.
I wanted to know more about my own brain, learn how to help it be even more productive and hopefully keep it in full working order for many more years to come.
Like you, I live in the real world. I run around at what often feels like a thousand miles an hour, juggling family, work and social commitments. There are times when, even as a motivational speaker, I feel a bit run down – especially when doing a lot of travelling. The gym can at times be very unappealing; and with my batteries running low I don't always feel as mentally sharp as I'd like to be.
As a writer I sometimes find it hard to be as creative as I know I can be, and despite having clear goals it's difficult to consistently stay focused. On top of all this, when I do get to spend time with the most important people in my life, my family, it can be a struggle some days to unwind; my overworked brain just doesn't seem to want to stop revving!
As an everyday person I wasn't under any illusion that overnight I'd suddenly gain the combined planet-sized intellectual skills of a mathematical genius, the creativity of a Renaissance master and the single-mindedness of an Olympic athlete. I just wanted to sharpen up a little, consistently have more energy, hopefully stay focused for longer, be a touch more creative and enjoy quality time with my family. At the end of the day, I just wanted to make the most of the one I've got.
As a lifelong learner I'm not ashamed to accept all the help I can get, so I decided to team up with TV's favourite neuroscientist, Dr Jack Lewis, to see just how much of an improvement I could make to my own brain. I'm pleased to report that his practical advice has had an extremely positive effect, and I have already noticed a tangible difference in my brain's performance.
As we progress through this book together and look at ways of optimizing the capabilities of brains, Jack and I are going to share with you all the practical advice that he had to offer me and, at the same time, draw on our diverse experiences to give you some helpful suggestions about how you too could improve the performance of your brain. Hopefully you'll take them on board, start using them and see what a difference they make to you.
For more information about Adrian – please visit:www.adrianwebster.comor tweet@polarbearpirate
Where Jack's coming from
At school I found biology absolutely fascinating and pursued this passion into the realms of neurobiology. I eventually ended up in Germany where I carried out post-doctoral research on the edge of the Black Forest, using cutting-edge fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanning technology to plumb the depths of the human brain. Yet, since starting my PhD at University College London five years earlier, I had begun to feel increasingly frustrated. The neuroscience literature was brimming with fascinating revelations about the mysterious organ between our ears, and it seemed clear to me that these could genuinely help everyday people to better understand their own behaviour and that of those around them. But the only people that appeared to be reading it were geeks like me, and I felt that the rest of the world was missing out on something really valuable.
Thousands of experiments were accumulating every year, providing snapshots of how our brains sense the world around us, think, feel and make decisions – in a manner that, throughout human history, was previously unknown or completely misunderstood. All of these invaluable insights into our humanity were locked up inside pay-per-view academic journals from which only rigorously trained researchers could extract any meaning from the dense scientific jargon.
I have presented brain-related insights to millions of viewers across the world via the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, National Geographic, Discovery, TLC, Teacher's TV and even MTV! I have always had a burning desire to write a book that explains to “everyday” people (that's what I call non-scientists) how their brain works but I'd never found the right time to do this. That is until I spoke at the conference in Tenerife and the world of neuroscience merged with the world of motivation to cut through complex theory, and pass on compelling, much needed information to everyday people.
For more information about Jack – please visit:www.drjack.co.ukor tweet@drjacklewis
Your Amazing Brain
The word “amazing” seems to be used pretty loosely these days to describe a lot of things, many of which often turn out to be disappointingly mediocre; but in the case of your brain there is no other word that comes close to describing it.
This pink coloured, wrinkled lump of pulsating wetware, with a texture not dissimilar to blancmange, is composed of around 85% fat and weighs in at around 1.5 kg. It contains a densely woven meshwork of 86 billion brain wires along with a further 86 billion support cells, all neatly packed away between your ears. It is truly amazing.
As the ultimate supercomputer, your brain is currently light years ahead of anything that man has so far managed to create. It works relentlessly, non-stop around the clock, continuously reshaping to adapt our skills and behaviours to suit an almost infinite variety of different real and potential future circumstances. Receiving and delivering data, analyzing information, performing complex, multifunctional tasks in parallel and monitoring billions of functions; all at breathtaking speed. Its capabilities are quite staggering.
But when it comes to performance, what does your brain look like?
The map in the illustration above shows some of the main stops on the underground system that is your very own brain. There would be no benefit in overloading you with unnecessary information by talking about every area of your brain, but it would be useful to start by pointing out three key areas that are most relevant to what we'll be discussing in this book.
You may be wondering why there is a seahorse in the illustration. The Hippocampus includes the DG (Dentate Gyrus) and EC (Entorhinal Cortex) tube stops on the lower part of the Limbic Line, a particularly dense area of networked brain wires that is interconnected with virtually every other part of your brain.
This part of your brain plays three key roles:
These two functions are closely related, as many of our memories of life events are closely intertwined with the places in which they were experienced. That way, when you return to that place, the relevant memories are triggered. Hence a visit to your old primary school can trigger a surge of long forgotten memories. In reality the Hippocampus cluster of tube stops in your brain is deep under the surface, at the core of your Temporal Lobe, which runs from behind your ear to behind your temples (hence the name).
Just to the right of the DG you'll find the Amygdala tube stop. This ever-alert brain area is responsible for, amongst other roles, generating various emotions, and constantly monitoring the sensory information spilling in from your surroundings for signs of potential danger. Like a military listening post for your brain, it is forever looking out for possible serious threats, always primed and ready to push the “fear response button” the split second one is detected. This is the part of your brain that, within less than a crotchet of time, having heard a loud bang or having spotted a rapidly approaching, incoming object causes you to freeze in your tracks or duck out of the way – before you are even fully aware of it. With your heart now pounding and your muscles flooded with blood, you're all set and ready for a confrontation or a hasty exit.
Just above the Amygdala tube stop is the Reward Line that passes deep through the very centre of your brain. It evolved to produce pleasure whenever you engage in behaviours that promote the survival of our species i.e. eating, drinking and having sex. Known collectively as the reward pathways – the VTA (or Ventral Tegmental Area), NA (Nucleus Accumbens) and OFC (Orbitofrontal Cortex) stops are also critical to decision making. As well as enabling us to feel pleasure in any given moment, the NA stop provides a reward-based prediction built around how much pleasure or benefit is likely to be derived from choosing one particular option over another. This means that not only are they instrumental in directing every single decision we ever make, they are also fundamental to the learning process. Without the reward system we would never learn from any of our mistakes.
To help give you a clearer perspective of what we're looking at here, the London Underground can, at this moment in time, proudly boast a combined track length of 250 miles, with tube trains travelling around between 270 stations at a top speed of up to 70 mph.
If all your brain wires were laid out end to end, they would be approximately 100,000 miles in length with hundreds of thousands of trillions of trains all travelling up and down, bang on time, at up to 250 miles per hour between 1,000 trillion connections; or synapses as they are known to science. And, if all these wires – the white matter of your brain – were laid out as an underground train network it would cover an area of 561,476 square miles, a surface area greater than that of South Africa, all tucked into a space smaller than your average pumpkin.
But what really makes the human brain so very special is NEUROPLASTICITY. Its ability to continuously change, learn and, perhaps even more importantly, its ability to adapt to unexpected and widely varying circumstances in new and creative ways.
Your brain can send up to one hundred, thousand, trillion messages per second using only the same amount of power as your average fridge light bulb. For a man-made supercomputer to send and receive that many messages per second it would require its own small hydroelectric power plant to provide the 10,000,000 watts needed to power it. Less than a litre of blood passing every minute through the brain of chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov was sufficient to keep his forehead cool to the touch, whilst his opponent – the IBM super computer Deep Blue – needed a fan-driven cooling system to prevent it from blowing up.
It doesn't come with a guarantee or any warranties, but if you look after your brain, it should remain fully functional and in good working order throughout your entire lifetime. And, if you're ever worried about running out of memory space, please don't! You'll be relieved to hear that it comes with the equivalent memory space of a one million gigabyte chip. That's enough memory to record over three million hours' worth of your favourite TV programmes.
Your brain is a phenomenal, unimaginably brilliant piece of kit and, please note, the emphasis on your brain – we all have the same make and model. Provided you are of this planet, that you are a human being, and your name isn't Albert Einstein, there would have been very little difference between the brain that you had and the brain the person sat next to you had when you both started out in life.
Yours may be the same make and model but when it comes to shaping your brain and differentiating it’s individual performance from that of others, there are three very big influencing factors:
Yes, our brains are all amazing but it is how we have made use of our brains over our lifetime so far that makes them so very different. More importantly, when it comes down to performance, it's what we now choose to do with them from here on that will determine just how well they continue to serve us in dealing with the daily demands of our own lifestyle.
Flying Start
There are a few things that you could start doing right now to instantly improve your brain's performance and get you off to a flying start. Let's call them Brain Optimization Tips, or BOPs for short. You can follow these simple suggestions to get your brain firing on all cylinders each and every day. Here are five for starters:
