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CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
INTRODUCTION
COUNTRY MUSIC KILLS
COOL NEUROSURGERY PAST AND PRESENT: TREPANATION THROUGH TIME
SELF-TREPANATION
INTRO TO GAME THEORY: PRISONER’S DILEMMA
SOCIAL CONTAGION: HAPPINESS AND OBESITY ARE CATCHING
TOO DUMB TO KNOW IT
SMARTER EVERY DAY
THE KEY TO BRAIN TRAINING
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: COLONEL BLOTTO I
THE GUILTY PLEASURE OF SCHADENFREUDE
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: COLONEL BLOTTO II
MIRROR NEURONS: YOUR ACTIONS IN MY HEAD
SELF-TEST
NEURAL NETS KNOW ALL
BRAIN CHIP: NEURAL NETS AND THE ARTIFICIAL HIPPOCAMPUS
PIECE OF MIND: HIPPOCAMPUS
ABNORMAL PSYCH: HM (PATIENT)
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: THE TRICKY SECONDARY MARKET AND WHY ECONOMISTS HATE PSYCHOLOGY
COGNITIVE COSTS OF WINNING AND LOSING ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS
ROSHAMBO WINNERS GUIDE
THE HEDONOMETER
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: BRAIN-DEFLATING FALLACIES TO windows ANY ARGUMENT, PART I
THE CALCULUS OF COMPASSION
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: THE ORIGIN OF FAIRNESS
SELF-TEST
MAD PRIDE
HEAR WITH YOUR EYES, SPEAK WITH YOUR EARS
PIECE OF MIND: TEMPORAL LOBE
PSY-OP: FLEXIBLE MIND OF MASTERY
INMATES RUNNING THE PRISON: INSANE RULERS
PERSIAN COW PRINCE
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: BRAIN-DEFLATING FALLACIES TO windows ANY ARGUMENT, PART II
THE EXPRESSIVE BODY
SHORT AND STOUT, LONG AND TALL
PIECE OF MIND: HYPOTHALAMUS
GENIUS TESTER #1
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: ANCHORING
OUIJA TWEET BRAIN INTERFACE
GENIUS TESTER #2: BRIDGE AND TORCH
ALGEBRAIC EIGHT-BALL: AT WHAT AGE WILL TECHNOLOGY OVERTAKE YOUR ABILITY TO USE IT?
DEBUNKED: SELF-AFFIRMATION STINKS
THE ECONOMICS OF MATING I: MONOGAMY, POLYGAMY, AND POLYAMORY
PARASITE BRAIN PUNK
HANG UP AND DRIVE: YOUR BRAIN, SPLIT
GENIUS TESTER #3: MEETING IN THE MIDDLE
THE ECONOMICS OF MATING II: SNEAKY FEMALE REGULATION OF THE FREE MARKET
COOL NEUROSURGERY PAST AND PRESENT: PREFRONTAL LOBOTOMY
PIECE OF MIND: FRONTAL LOBE
THE ECONOMICS OF MATING III: FEMALE COMPETITION
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: BATTLE ROBOT
PIECE OF MIND: MIDBRAIN
THE ECONOMICS OF MATING IV: GENDER SCARCITY
CLOWNS’ SELF-PURPOSE
PSY-OP: MOVING WALKWAY
NAILS AND THE HUMAN BRAIN
PIECE OF MIND: CEREBRUM
JOCKS, NERDS, AND THE SECRETS OF SUCCESS
BUT JOCKS GET BETTER GRADES
ATKINS MAKES YOU DUMB?
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: BRAIN-DEFLATING FALLACIES TO windows ANY ARGUMENT, PART III
GENIUS TESTER #4: BOXES OF BARS
CORTICAL HOMUNCULUS
PSY-OP: CUTTING
EXPECTED VALUE, EXPECTED UTILITY, AND PROSPECT THEORY
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: LUXURY BLOODLUST
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: KUHN POKER
AUTHORITY AND THE STRIP-SEARCH PRANK CALL
AH, THE TEENAGE (Y)EARS
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: YOU CAN’T MAKE ME EAT PIE
YOUR PERSONALIZED HOROSCOPE
E-PERSONALITY
SELF-TEST: PERSONALITY SNAPSHOT
FUZZY LOGIC
ASCH CONFORMITY EXPERIMENTS
GENIUS TESTER #5: MR. SMITH’S CHILDREN
PSY-OP: NO SOAP RADIO
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: GUESS TWO-THIRDS OF THE AVERAGE
DEBUNKED: THE HAPPY HERD
GENIUS TESTER #6: FOUR SQUARES PROBLEM
THE ONE MUST OF HAPPINESS
SELF-TEST
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: BRAIN-DEFLATING FALLACIES TO windows ANY ARGUMENT, PART IV
GENETICS OF BEHAVIOR
MEMORY I: ALTERNATE REALITIES
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: SO GOD-AWFULLY BORING
MEMORY II: CREATING FALSE MEMORIES
MEMORY III: THE BRAINWORKS OF BAD MEMORY
HERE TODAY, GONE IN MILLISECONDS: ICONIC MEMORY
POST-STEREOTYPE
RACIAL BIAS IN STANDARDIZED TESTING?
PIECE OF MIND: CEREBELLUM
ACTION AND FREE WILL
DEBUNKED: MISDIAGNOSIS IMMUNITY
DEBUNKED: DIAGNOSIS BATSHIT
GENIUS TESTER #7: MISSING BOX
COFFEE AND CIGARETTES MAKE YOU SMARTER
HOT OR NOT
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: THE SHORTEST FUSE WINS THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES
ALGEBRAIC EIGHT-BALL: THE CHANCES THAT HE/SHE IS “THE ONE”
IF YOU SAY SO: MEMORABLE LIES, FORGETTABLE TRUTHS
THE EIGHT MENTAL DISORDERS OF 1857
ABNORMAL PSYCH: CLIVE WEARING
SELF-TEST: A SIMPLE MEMORY TEST
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: EL FAROL BAR
NANOTECHNOLOGY AND THE BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER
THE DIET PARADOX: OFF-LIMITS IS OPEN SEASON
ULTIMATE EVIL?: NEUROIMAGING AS MARKET RESEARCH TOOL
PIECE OF MIND: AMYGDALA
FUGGEDABOUTIT
BAD MONKEY. NO CUCUMBER.
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: PIRATE PUZZLE
BLINDSIGHT
PIECE OF MIND: OCCIPITAL LOBE
INTUITION TRUMPS REASON: THE IOWA GAMBLING TASK
OTHER COOL NEUROPSYCH TESTS
THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF THE UNEXPECTED
COOL NEUROSURGERY PAST AND PRESENT: CONSCIOUS NEUROSURGERY
HANDWRITING ANALYSIS
CRANIAL NERVE MNEMONICS
KNOX BOX
GENIUS TESTER #8: HOUSES AND UTILITIES
COOL NEUROSURGERY PAST AND PRESENT: CORPUS CALLOSOTOMY
PIECE OF MIND: BRODMANN AREAS
PSY-OP: INFARCTION
BRAIN SWEAT
YOUR BRAIN ON SPACE
AUTISM AND LEGOS
MALES’ RAT-BRAINED NAVIGATION
PIECE OF MIND: PARIETAL LOBE
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: NASH BARGAINING GAME
THE BRAINWORKS OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTION AND ECSTASY
SELF-TEST
I CHOOSE MY CHOICE
FEAR-THEN-RELIEF PRISONER COMPLIANCE
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: SIGNALING STRATEGIES IN BRIDGE AND IN JOB INTERVIEWS
PIECE OF MIND: MEDULLA OBLONGATA
PLACEBOS ARE GETTING STRONGER
MEERKATS, MACAQUES, MEN, AND THE HEALING EFFECTS OF FORGIVENESS
NEUROETHICS
I WOULD NEVER
SELF-TEST
MEMORIZATION 101
DOES SUBLIMINAL ADVERTISING WORK?
SELF-TEST: QUICK MEMORY CHECK
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: K WORDS
GENIUS TESTER #9: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GETTING SUCKERED
PSY-OP: PICK A NUMBER, ANY NUMBER
NEURAL DARWINISM
STRETCHING PHANTOM LIMB CRAMPS
SHEEPLE
PSY-OP: PHANTOM NOSE
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: DINER’S DILEMMA
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: FRUIT BAG
ABNORMAL PSYCH: PHINEAS GAGE
IS LAUGHTER THE BEST MEDICINE?
THE IMPACT OF TRAGEDY
FRUIT VS. VEGGIE PERSONALITY SMACKDOWN
DEFLECTING INCOMING BLOOPERS
PIECE OF MIND: PONS
ALGEBRAIC EIGHT-BALL: MEN, WHAT’S YOUR SEX APPEAL?
PSY-OP: VEGGIE MATH
ABNORMAL PSYCH: AHAD ISRAFIL
THE BURDEN OF CONVENTIONAL THINKING
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: PEACE/WAR
TIME TRAVEL: SCIENCE, NOT SCIENCE FICTION
ACTIVE FORGETTING: THE MENTAL BOXES OF SUPPRESSION AND REPRESSION
GENIUS TESTER #10: TIME TRAVEL
IGNORING IS EXHAUSTING
EXERCISE MAKES YOU SMART
DO CROSSWORDS KEEP THE BRAIN YOUNG?
I SHOP, THEREFORE I AM
GENIUS TESTER #11: THE MONTY HALL PROBLEM
PIECE OF MIND: THALAMUS
BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF ROSE-COLORED GLASSES
GENIUS TESTER #12: DEMENTIA QUIZ
THE FUNCTION OF DAYDREAMS
MEAN STUFF IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE: LITTLE ALBERT
THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS
ALGEBRAIC EIGHT-BALL: THE KARMOMETER—WOULD YOUR KARMA SURVIVE AN INTENDED PRANK?
BRAINWASHING THE EASY WAY
FOUR STEPS TO PERSUASION
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: THE END IS NEAR
WHIFFLE BALL CROTCH SHOT
SELF-TEST
MUSIC, COMMERCE, AND MURDER
ALGEBRAIC EIGHT-BALL: WILL YOUR HOLIDAY CHEER SURVIVE HOLIDAY DINNER?
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: CAKE-CUTTING PROBLEM
UN-APOLOGY APOLOGY
CHRISTMAS CAROLS FROM THE PSYCH COUCH
ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO BADDER
PSY-OP: HANDS AND FEET
GENIUS TESTER #13: GENDER BIAS
HOW TO REALLY SPOT A LIAR
RED BEATS BLUE AT THE OLYMPICS
NEUROLOGICAL SUPPORT FOR THE USE OF SHOE SMELL IN CONTROLLING EPILEPTIC SEIZURE
PUZZLE ANSWERS
REFERENCES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Remember the FDA food pyramid and your horror when you learned that it takes six
loaves of sprouted wheat bread to balance the e.ects of a thimbleful of sour apple Nerds?
The same is supposed to be true of your brain: to avoid vegetative zombiism, you need a
semester’s worth of particle physics to counteract that Dancing with the Stars marathon you
watched on Saturday. Make it two semesters if you scan the checkout-stand headlines.
Right?
Wrong.
This book has punk’d the pyramid.
In these pages, you can trick your brain into thinking it’s watching that reality-
television marathon when in fact it’s exploring cutting-edge topics in neuroscience,
psychology, behavioral economics, neuroanatomy, game theory, cognitive science, and
more.
In short, what’s here is candy. But it’s candy that’s good for your brain.
Did you know that country music leads to a higher suicide rate among whites? Have
you seen the neural signature of a daydream? Did you know that the smell of shoe leather
can arrest epileptic seizure? That mirror neurons create human morality, or that liars are
biologically di.erent from truth-tellers? That red beats blue in Olympic grappling
contests? If any of these topics intrigue you—or if you, like me, love geeking out on
puzzles and illogic and perception oddities and questionable morality, and want to
understand a bit more how the spittings of what is essentially a three-pound electric
sausage make us human—read on.
• • •
Ten years ago, this book couldn’t have been written. As recently as the mid-twentieth
century, neurosurgeons lobotomized patients by punching ice picks through their eye
sockets and waggling them back and forth. And psychologists were amazed when a dog
drooled to the soundtrack of the Westminster Bell Choir. Now neurosurgeons get an assist
from fMRI-guided robots and chat with patients during tumor surgery. And psychologists
have moved past drooling dogs to explore the basis of what it means to be human:
consciousness, cognition, reality, free will, and the very subjective ways we experience
the world.
Brain science is exploding.
And if brain science is exploding, then the niche of neuroplasticity—which describes
how and how profoundly our actions shape our brains—is a nuclear bomb. You can grow
your brain by ;exing it in the right way, just as surely as Gold’s Gym grows muscles. Your
thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds are more than ephemeral whims that happen and
pass—they’re encoded into the basic architecture of our brains as neurons grow, die, and
rewire, and as regions with different functions optimize or decay.
So ;ex your brain. Seriously. To put it bluntly, reading this book will make you smarter
—that is, if you use it to force your brain into new, challenging terrain (see the topics
“The Key to Brain Training” and “Do Crosswords Keep the Brain Young?”). A little
challenge to nourish your neurons can delay the e.ects of Alzheimer’s, and who doesn’t
need a little extra cerebral pop at home and in the office?
And nothing grows gray matter like disagreement. (The New York Times reports that the
best way for adults to stimulate their brains is by “challenging the very assumptions they
have worked so hard to accumulate.”) Fortunately, because the majority of these topics
are ripped from the headlines of leading academic journals, much is on the edge of
“proven” and you will almost certainly @nd topics that you disagree with. Please: think,
evaluate, decide, and then write me nasty e-mails—but before you take to the blogosphere
like a winged monkey, check the original studies, referenced under topic headings at the
back of the book. Also check the back of the book for scoring guidelines for the included
self-tests, answers to the genius tester puzzles, and discussions of the game-theory
dilemmas.
Now, sit back, get comfy (get a pencil!), and let this book turn a mirror to your mind.
LInk download cho anh em:
CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
INTRODUCTION
COUNTRY MUSIC KILLS
COOL NEUROSURGERY PAST AND PRESENT: TREPANATION THROUGH TIME
SELF-TREPANATION
INTRO TO GAME THEORY: PRISONER’S DILEMMA
SOCIAL CONTAGION: HAPPINESS AND OBESITY ARE CATCHING
TOO DUMB TO KNOW IT
SMARTER EVERY DAY
THE KEY TO BRAIN TRAINING
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: COLONEL BLOTTO I
THE GUILTY PLEASURE OF SCHADENFREUDE
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: COLONEL BLOTTO II
MIRROR NEURONS: YOUR ACTIONS IN MY HEAD
SELF-TEST
NEURAL NETS KNOW ALL
BRAIN CHIP: NEURAL NETS AND THE ARTIFICIAL HIPPOCAMPUS
PIECE OF MIND: HIPPOCAMPUS
ABNORMAL PSYCH: HM (PATIENT)
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: THE TRICKY SECONDARY MARKET AND WHY ECONOMISTS HATE PSYCHOLOGY
COGNITIVE COSTS OF WINNING AND LOSING ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS
ROSHAMBO WINNERS GUIDE
THE HEDONOMETER
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: BRAIN-DEFLATING FALLACIES TO windows ANY ARGUMENT, PART I
THE CALCULUS OF COMPASSION
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: THE ORIGIN OF FAIRNESS
SELF-TEST
MAD PRIDE
HEAR WITH YOUR EYES, SPEAK WITH YOUR EARS
PIECE OF MIND: TEMPORAL LOBE
PSY-OP: FLEXIBLE MIND OF MASTERY
INMATES RUNNING THE PRISON: INSANE RULERS
PERSIAN COW PRINCE
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: BRAIN-DEFLATING FALLACIES TO windows ANY ARGUMENT, PART II
THE EXPRESSIVE BODY
SHORT AND STOUT, LONG AND TALL
PIECE OF MIND: HYPOTHALAMUS
GENIUS TESTER #1
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: ANCHORING
OUIJA TWEET BRAIN INTERFACE
GENIUS TESTER #2: BRIDGE AND TORCH
ALGEBRAIC EIGHT-BALL: AT WHAT AGE WILL TECHNOLOGY OVERTAKE YOUR ABILITY TO USE IT?
DEBUNKED: SELF-AFFIRMATION STINKS
THE ECONOMICS OF MATING I: MONOGAMY, POLYGAMY, AND POLYAMORY
PARASITE BRAIN PUNK
HANG UP AND DRIVE: YOUR BRAIN, SPLIT
GENIUS TESTER #3: MEETING IN THE MIDDLE
THE ECONOMICS OF MATING II: SNEAKY FEMALE REGULATION OF THE FREE MARKET
COOL NEUROSURGERY PAST AND PRESENT: PREFRONTAL LOBOTOMY
PIECE OF MIND: FRONTAL LOBE
THE ECONOMICS OF MATING III: FEMALE COMPETITION
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: BATTLE ROBOT
PIECE OF MIND: MIDBRAIN
THE ECONOMICS OF MATING IV: GENDER SCARCITY
CLOWNS’ SELF-PURPOSE
PSY-OP: MOVING WALKWAY
NAILS AND THE HUMAN BRAIN
PIECE OF MIND: CEREBRUM
JOCKS, NERDS, AND THE SECRETS OF SUCCESS
BUT JOCKS GET BETTER GRADES
ATKINS MAKES YOU DUMB?
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: BRAIN-DEFLATING FALLACIES TO windows ANY ARGUMENT, PART III
GENIUS TESTER #4: BOXES OF BARS
CORTICAL HOMUNCULUS
PSY-OP: CUTTING
EXPECTED VALUE, EXPECTED UTILITY, AND PROSPECT THEORY
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: LUXURY BLOODLUST
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: KUHN POKER
AUTHORITY AND THE STRIP-SEARCH PRANK CALL
AH, THE TEENAGE (Y)EARS
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: YOU CAN’T MAKE ME EAT PIE
YOUR PERSONALIZED HOROSCOPE
E-PERSONALITY
SELF-TEST: PERSONALITY SNAPSHOT
FUZZY LOGIC
ASCH CONFORMITY EXPERIMENTS
GENIUS TESTER #5: MR. SMITH’S CHILDREN
PSY-OP: NO SOAP RADIO
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: GUESS TWO-THIRDS OF THE AVERAGE
DEBUNKED: THE HAPPY HERD
GENIUS TESTER #6: FOUR SQUARES PROBLEM
THE ONE MUST OF HAPPINESS
SELF-TEST
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: BRAIN-DEFLATING FALLACIES TO windows ANY ARGUMENT, PART IV
GENETICS OF BEHAVIOR
MEMORY I: ALTERNATE REALITIES
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: SO GOD-AWFULLY BORING
MEMORY II: CREATING FALSE MEMORIES
MEMORY III: THE BRAINWORKS OF BAD MEMORY
HERE TODAY, GONE IN MILLISECONDS: ICONIC MEMORY
POST-STEREOTYPE
RACIAL BIAS IN STANDARDIZED TESTING?
PIECE OF MIND: CEREBELLUM
ACTION AND FREE WILL
DEBUNKED: MISDIAGNOSIS IMMUNITY
DEBUNKED: DIAGNOSIS BATSHIT
GENIUS TESTER #7: MISSING BOX
COFFEE AND CIGARETTES MAKE YOU SMARTER
HOT OR NOT
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: THE SHORTEST FUSE WINS THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES
ALGEBRAIC EIGHT-BALL: THE CHANCES THAT HE/SHE IS “THE ONE”
IF YOU SAY SO: MEMORABLE LIES, FORGETTABLE TRUTHS
THE EIGHT MENTAL DISORDERS OF 1857
ABNORMAL PSYCH: CLIVE WEARING
SELF-TEST: A SIMPLE MEMORY TEST
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: EL FAROL BAR
NANOTECHNOLOGY AND THE BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER
THE DIET PARADOX: OFF-LIMITS IS OPEN SEASON
ULTIMATE EVIL?: NEUROIMAGING AS MARKET RESEARCH TOOL
PIECE OF MIND: AMYGDALA
FUGGEDABOUTIT
BAD MONKEY. NO CUCUMBER.
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: PIRATE PUZZLE
BLINDSIGHT
PIECE OF MIND: OCCIPITAL LOBE
INTUITION TRUMPS REASON: THE IOWA GAMBLING TASK
OTHER COOL NEUROPSYCH TESTS
THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF THE UNEXPECTED
COOL NEUROSURGERY PAST AND PRESENT: CONSCIOUS NEUROSURGERY
HANDWRITING ANALYSIS
CRANIAL NERVE MNEMONICS
KNOX BOX
GENIUS TESTER #8: HOUSES AND UTILITIES
COOL NEUROSURGERY PAST AND PRESENT: CORPUS CALLOSOTOMY
PIECE OF MIND: BRODMANN AREAS
PSY-OP: INFARCTION
BRAIN SWEAT
YOUR BRAIN ON SPACE
AUTISM AND LEGOS
MALES’ RAT-BRAINED NAVIGATION
PIECE OF MIND: PARIETAL LOBE
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: NASH BARGAINING GAME
THE BRAINWORKS OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTION AND ECSTASY
SELF-TEST
I CHOOSE MY CHOICE
FEAR-THEN-RELIEF PRISONER COMPLIANCE
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: SIGNALING STRATEGIES IN BRIDGE AND IN JOB INTERVIEWS
PIECE OF MIND: MEDULLA OBLONGATA
PLACEBOS ARE GETTING STRONGER
MEERKATS, MACAQUES, MEN, AND THE HEALING EFFECTS OF FORGIVENESS
NEUROETHICS
I WOULD NEVER
SELF-TEST
MEMORIZATION 101
DOES SUBLIMINAL ADVERTISING WORK?
SELF-TEST: QUICK MEMORY CHECK
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: K WORDS
GENIUS TESTER #9: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GETTING SUCKERED
PSY-OP: PICK A NUMBER, ANY NUMBER
NEURAL DARWINISM
STRETCHING PHANTOM LIMB CRAMPS
SHEEPLE
PSY-OP: PHANTOM NOSE
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: DINER’S DILEMMA
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: FRUIT BAG
ABNORMAL PSYCH: PHINEAS GAGE
IS LAUGHTER THE BEST MEDICINE?
THE IMPACT OF TRAGEDY
FRUIT VS. VEGGIE PERSONALITY SMACKDOWN
DEFLECTING INCOMING BLOOPERS
PIECE OF MIND: PONS
ALGEBRAIC EIGHT-BALL: MEN, WHAT’S YOUR SEX APPEAL?
PSY-OP: VEGGIE MATH
ABNORMAL PSYCH: AHAD ISRAFIL
THE BURDEN OF CONVENTIONAL THINKING
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: PEACE/WAR
TIME TRAVEL: SCIENCE, NOT SCIENCE FICTION
ACTIVE FORGETTING: THE MENTAL BOXES OF SUPPRESSION AND REPRESSION
GENIUS TESTER #10: TIME TRAVEL
IGNORING IS EXHAUSTING
EXERCISE MAKES YOU SMART
DO CROSSWORDS KEEP THE BRAIN YOUNG?
I SHOP, THEREFORE I AM
GENIUS TESTER #11: THE MONTY HALL PROBLEM
PIECE OF MIND: THALAMUS
BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF ROSE-COLORED GLASSES
GENIUS TESTER #12: DEMENTIA QUIZ
THE FUNCTION OF DAYDREAMS
MEAN STUFF IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE: LITTLE ALBERT
THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS
ALGEBRAIC EIGHT-BALL: THE KARMOMETER—WOULD YOUR KARMA SURVIVE AN INTENDED PRANK?
BRAINWASHING THE EASY WAY
FOUR STEPS TO PERSUASION
LOGIC OF ILLOGIC: THE END IS NEAR
WHIFFLE BALL CROTCH SHOT
SELF-TEST
MUSIC, COMMERCE, AND MURDER
ALGEBRAIC EIGHT-BALL: WILL YOUR HOLIDAY CHEER SURVIVE HOLIDAY DINNER?
GAME THEORY MAKE BRAIN BIG: CAKE-CUTTING PROBLEM
UN-APOLOGY APOLOGY
CHRISTMAS CAROLS FROM THE PSYCH COUCH
ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO BADDER
PSY-OP: HANDS AND FEET
GENIUS TESTER #13: GENDER BIAS
HOW TO REALLY SPOT A LIAR
RED BEATS BLUE AT THE OLYMPICS
NEUROLOGICAL SUPPORT FOR THE USE OF SHOE SMELL IN CONTROLLING EPILEPTIC SEIZURE
PUZZLE ANSWERS
REFERENCES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Remember the FDA food pyramid and your horror when you learned that it takes six
loaves of sprouted wheat bread to balance the e.ects of a thimbleful of sour apple Nerds?
The same is supposed to be true of your brain: to avoid vegetative zombiism, you need a
semester’s worth of particle physics to counteract that Dancing with the Stars marathon you
watched on Saturday. Make it two semesters if you scan the checkout-stand headlines.
Right?
Wrong.
This book has punk’d the pyramid.
In these pages, you can trick your brain into thinking it’s watching that reality-
television marathon when in fact it’s exploring cutting-edge topics in neuroscience,
psychology, behavioral economics, neuroanatomy, game theory, cognitive science, and
more.
In short, what’s here is candy. But it’s candy that’s good for your brain.
Did you know that country music leads to a higher suicide rate among whites? Have
you seen the neural signature of a daydream? Did you know that the smell of shoe leather
can arrest epileptic seizure? That mirror neurons create human morality, or that liars are
biologically di.erent from truth-tellers? That red beats blue in Olympic grappling
contests? If any of these topics intrigue you—or if you, like me, love geeking out on
puzzles and illogic and perception oddities and questionable morality, and want to
understand a bit more how the spittings of what is essentially a three-pound electric
sausage make us human—read on.
• • •
Ten years ago, this book couldn’t have been written. As recently as the mid-twentieth
century, neurosurgeons lobotomized patients by punching ice picks through their eye
sockets and waggling them back and forth. And psychologists were amazed when a dog
drooled to the soundtrack of the Westminster Bell Choir. Now neurosurgeons get an assist
from fMRI-guided robots and chat with patients during tumor surgery. And psychologists
have moved past drooling dogs to explore the basis of what it means to be human:
consciousness, cognition, reality, free will, and the very subjective ways we experience
the world.
Brain science is exploding.
And if brain science is exploding, then the niche of neuroplasticity—which describes
how and how profoundly our actions shape our brains—is a nuclear bomb. You can grow
your brain by ;exing it in the right way, just as surely as Gold’s Gym grows muscles. Your
thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds are more than ephemeral whims that happen and
pass—they’re encoded into the basic architecture of our brains as neurons grow, die, and
rewire, and as regions with different functions optimize or decay.
So ;ex your brain. Seriously. To put it bluntly, reading this book will make you smarter
—that is, if you use it to force your brain into new, challenging terrain (see the topics
“The Key to Brain Training” and “Do Crosswords Keep the Brain Young?”). A little
challenge to nourish your neurons can delay the e.ects of Alzheimer’s, and who doesn’t
need a little extra cerebral pop at home and in the office?
And nothing grows gray matter like disagreement. (The New York Times reports that the
best way for adults to stimulate their brains is by “challenging the very assumptions they
have worked so hard to accumulate.”) Fortunately, because the majority of these topics
are ripped from the headlines of leading academic journals, much is on the edge of
“proven” and you will almost certainly @nd topics that you disagree with. Please: think,
evaluate, decide, and then write me nasty e-mails—but before you take to the blogosphere
like a winged monkey, check the original studies, referenced under topic headings at the
back of the book. Also check the back of the book for scoring guidelines for the included
self-tests, answers to the genius tester puzzles, and discussions of the game-theory
dilemmas.
Now, sit back, get comfy (get a pencil!), and let this book turn a mirror to your mind.
LInk download cho anh em:
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