Your Brain: The Missing Manual

"Science meets self-help in a survey for general-interest readers which covers everything from brain function to quirks, aging changes, boundaries between physical brain activity and psychology, and more. YOUR BRAIN is studded with color sidebars of information and plenty of color illustrations for maximum impact, making this a pick not just for high school to college level health and science collections, but for the general-interest library, as well.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
"
~ Written on 2008-08-17

"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."
~ Written on 2008-08-10

"Was initially drawn in by the title of the book actually.

Some portions are pretty interesting. On a number of occasions, gives you a quick laugh and makes you think "oh, that's why i feel that sometimes".

Though i find couple of sections are abit tough to digest cos they introduced a number of medical terms, but overall it's still quite good.

I would describe it as a good factual book (interesting facts that you don't even realise even as you do some of those stuff everyday)... and which at the same time, also has a number of tricks you can apply or look out for in your actual daily life.

Overall, not a bad read.. assuming if you can pull yourself past the medically technical portion."
~ Written on 2008-08-07

"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."
~ Written on 2008-08-06

"I heard of "Your Brain: The Missing Manual" from the technical podcast "The Java Posse". I wasn't disappointed.

This book gives the casual reader a detailed exposition of the brain, its parts and their functions. It mixes in quite a bit of fun facts about the brain functions, such as optical illusions, with practical ways for how to better use them, such as memory improvement tips.

This is a thin book, and can be read over a weekend."
~ Written on 2008-07-22