Brain Briefs: Answers to the Most (and Least) Pressing Questions about Your Mind
Reviewed By Ian Banks June 18, 2017
Author Art Markman, Bob Duke
Distributor: New South Books
ISBN: 9781454919070
Publisher: Sterling
Release Date: March 2017
Website: https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au
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There are always a thousand and one things there to be wondered, pondered or marvelled about or over, as we travel along the pathways of our lives. Sometimes the answers are there, but mostly, if they are, they are something that may, or may not be possible, or even probable.
In this lively look at what really may be going on in the brain, so many of the imponderables in life may be answered. Well probably!
How many times has a rhetorical question been posed, while seeking to find the solution to a problem; problems such as how to catch out a liar, or does multitasking really work, or does time speed up as we are getting older, are taken out of the closet and given a serious analysis with an entertaining component, in an attempt to answer what may be to many, unanswerable questions.
Now a thoroughly confusing hypothesis has been presented, settle in to enjoy, mind you in small doses, the revelations about to be forthcoming from this team of Markman and Duke, who really do know what they are talking about as far as the brain is concerned.
Clever little aphorisms are dotted throughout the book, generally as the summation to the question being discussed, such as chapter 15, where ‘Does time speed up as we get older’, is analysed and is answered, slightly tongue-in-cheek, with ‘time flies when you’re getting older’ which relates to learning cycles, memories and how the two change and combine to create a richness to your days and lives as you look back.
And then there is the seriously concerning chapter 23: ‘How much of what we see is real’, which opens up many, many doors in the mind and the psyche! This is answered in the short by ‘to see is to assume’ – perhaps you need to read the chapter to really get this one!
‘Can delusion be a good thing’, is something that only the deluded may be able to answer; that will depend on what is behind the delusion at the time, but is based on how you perceive your little corner of the world and how this is chosen to be used – as a motivation or an excuse.
So many issues, so many answers; by the time you have worked your way through the 40 questions posed, and the 40 sets of research based answers, all coming from a firm basis of the latest research across the fields of psychology, you are sure to have at least some of the answers to the world’s most vexatious questions and have enjoyed discovering just what it is that does indeed tease the brain!
A thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining and informative collection of bits and pieces of intrigue and interest presented to tantalise the mind!