Unlock Your Brain's Potential with Lisa Barrett's 7.5 Lessons on Neuroscience

Mandy K: This book is great. It's easy to read and includes so many mind-opening scientific insights very well explained in simple words.

Germany on Jan 18, 2024

Brijesh: The book starts with explaining why the most popular theory about the brain structure and its evolution is false and what’s true instead; the implications this has in our real world and our day-to-day life. It takes you a step closer to reality and in the process asks you what it means to be human being. Fantastic short read without any fluff. Worth every minute you spend reading this and maybe more.

India on Jan 15, 2024

Varghese Parakudiyil: It's a small book but with a great content!

Italy on Nov 22, 2023

George Young: I have listened to this book twice, as well as listening to Feldman-Barrett's more in depth, How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, book three times.
I have listened so often because I am determined to remember all this brilliant researcher has to say about the brain. Her debunking of silly views of the brain, and worse, sillier research on the brain, is so rich, sensible and clear that I am in AWE!

Feldman-Barrett's view of the brain is not just clear, but it allows for each of us to comprehend just how much we can control our behaviour, if we better understand the body/brain connection. Her views on networks, multi-useful neurons, and the body budget are so liberating that I have sent her books to teens I know. I am trying to get these teens to understand that they are NOT part lizard, that they can understand how sleep, nutrition and stress control all lead to better lives.

If you want an overview of Feldman-Barrett's understanding of the brain, get this book, but if you really want to learn the quality of her thinking about the brain, get How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain.

I am not promoting these books...

Canada on Aug 16, 2023

Sérgio: Livro curto, com ideias esclarecedores sobre parte da condição humana. Por exemplo, com elegência e clareza, mostra o básico de como nosso cérebro permite nós humanos sermos os criadors de nosso mundo social. Há bem mais de sete razões em meia para ler com prazer.

Brazil on Jun 26, 2023

G. C. Carter: The book entitled: “Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain” by Lisa Feldman Barrett provided its greatest value to this reader by challenging things that I had previously been taught and knew or thought that I knew about the brain. This book provides another explanation of how and why the human brain operates that way that it does. The book is worth purchasing and reading. The author, Professor Barrett writes
“Animals had gobbled one another before, but now the eating was more purposeful. Hunting didn’t require a brain, but it was a big step toward developing one.
The emergence of predators during the Cambrian period transformed the planet into a more competitive and dangerous place. Both predators and prey evolved to sense more of the world around them. With the arrival of greater senses, the most critical question in existence became Is that blob in the distance good to eat, or will it eat me?
When it came to body budgeting, prediction beat reaction. A creature that prepared its movement before the predator struck was more likely to be around tomorrow than a creature that awaited a predator’s pounce. Creatures that predicted correctly...

United States on Feb 04, 2021

YON - Jan C. Hardenbergh: 7&1/2 Lessons is brilliant, thin, metaphor laden, rich, frustrating, sometimes overly professorial and truly wonderful. If you liked her earlier book, How Emotions are Made (HEAM), you will like this book, too! Although it is a completely difference book. If you are new to neuroscience, this is the perfect place to start. If you know too much, this book will rustle the leaves in your dendrites.

A novel feature of this book is that you can follow along with the website to see the notes and references without having to flip to the back notes section. The 36 pages of notes seems to have more exposition that the website, but the references are on the website. You can always go back to the notes. Also, 11 pages of index.

Barrett is a master of what I'll "poke & pour" storytelling, starting with the Title: 7.5 Lessons... Wait! What's a half lessons. That's the poke. The pour is a flow of knowledge that can cling to the freshly poked curiosity. An example from p.10 - there is no why for our brains, "no why to evolution". Followed by a great passage on allostatis and what the brain is good for ... "so you can perform nature's most vital task:...

United States on Nov 30, 2020