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Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
BRILLIANTLY EXPLORING TODAY'S CUTTING-EDGE BRAIN RESEARCH, "MIND WIDE OPEN" IS AN UNPRECEDENTED JOURNEY INTO THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN PERSONALITY, ALLOWING READERS TO UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES AND THE PEOPLE IN THEIR LIVES AS NEVER BEFORE.Using a mix of experiential reportage, personal storytelling, and fresh scientific discovery, Steven Johnson describes how the brain works -- it...more
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published
January 27th 2004
by Scribner
(first published 1999)
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If I was to sign up for a religion it would really have to offer me much more than the chance to chant “Holy, Holy, Holy” at the right hand of God for the rest of eternity. One of the things that would nearly sway me would be if it gave me a change to do and be all of the things there just isn’t time in one life to be and do. And if I was converted to this particular religion one of the lives that would be on the top of the list would have to be some sort of brain scientist type person – you kno...more
OLD: some interesting bits, but a little too everyday and wandering for me? but only 1/3 done and won't judge until the end.
NEW:
It feels like Steven Berlin Johnson set out on a quest to understand his own mind, kept a diary about it, and decided to publish it when he reached a conclusion. He doesn't delve too deeply into either the science or the anecdotes, and I lost his train of thought several times. It's a neat exploration, but a bit too self-indulgent to be a really compelling story for a r...more
NEW:
It feels like Steven Berlin Johnson set out on a quest to understand his own mind, kept a diary about it, and decided to publish it when he reached a conclusion. He doesn't delve too deeply into either the science or the anecdotes, and I lost his train of thought several times. It's a neat exploration, but a bit too self-indulgent to be a really compelling story for a r...more
I really liked this book. Each chapter focused on a different aspect of the mind. For example, one chapter discussed our ability to "mindread" other people, referring to how we can read subtle cues about a person's mood, whether they are lying, etc. from their facial expressions, tone, etc. and we have no idea we can even do this. He points out that we DO usually sense that we enjoy conversing with some people more than others even when the content of hte conversations is largely the same, and p...more
3.5 stars
I enjoyed reading most of this book and learned a few things I didn't know about the brain and topics such as the fight or flight response, biofeed back, being in "the zone", and how hormones affect behavior. This book is mostly written for a lay audience, but there were occasional complicated science words thrown in to remind us that the topic was supposed to be hard. The metaphors and examples that the author used to explain some of the complex topics were useful, but on the other han...more
I enjoyed reading most of this book and learned a few things I didn't know about the brain and topics such as the fight or flight response, biofeed back, being in "the zone", and how hormones affect behavior. This book is mostly written for a lay audience, but there were occasional complicated science words thrown in to remind us that the topic was supposed to be hard. The metaphors and examples that the author used to explain some of the complex topics were useful, but on the other han...more
I’m fascinated by the mind/brain problem. How do we get from a set of molecules to consciousness? Probably why I used to find Nachmanides on Genesis 1:26 so inspiring even if I no longer feel it’s intellectually enough by any stretch of the imagination. That’s why I’ve started Daniel Dennett’s consciousness explained several times although I’ve never been able to get through all the way (even if it did lead me to several other really more accessible reads along the way.
That said, this is solid o...more
That said, this is solid o...more
What Johnson does well is break down complex scientific topics with clear prose and interesting real life examples. Sometimes I sense that he is oversimplifying things, but overall I like his style.
Here's the good news: we can read minds. Our brains can read subtle clues in facial expressions, body language and voice intonations. This happens in the subconscious, below our radar (or, outside of the "Executive Branch," as Johnson calls the conscious mind). Pretty cool.
We also are high on drugs...more
Here's the good news: we can read minds. Our brains can read subtle clues in facial expressions, body language and voice intonations. This happens in the subconscious, below our radar (or, outside of the "Executive Branch," as Johnson calls the conscious mind). Pretty cool.
We also are high on drugs...more
Feb 05, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine
added it
What would you learn if you "could see what your brain looked like when it was remembering a long-forgotten childhood experience, or listening to a song, or conceiving a good idea?" The answer: a lot, but we still have much to discover about the complicated circuits run by experience, memory, emotion, and brain chemistry. This topic could have scared away non-scientists, but Johnson (a non-scientist) explains technical terms clearly and enthusiastically, using personal examples to illustrate key
...more
Good book. I think I would have given this a higher rating if I had read it when it was published in 2004, since I've read a half-dozen books since then that explore similar material. Indeed the more recent books from contemporaries like Malcolm Gladwell and Jonah Lehrer, Blink and How We Decide (respectively) are good examples, get the benefit of more recent studies and analysis. None of this is Johnson's fault of course, which is why I feel compelled to note it here, but it affected my engagem...more
Oct 31, 2012
Mohammad Abdelkhalek
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
favorites
this book takes you on a journey through the reverse engineering of mind reading, adrenalin rushes, fear, love and attention, it gives non-scientists an idea of how the brain works though everyday activities. The book is also very rich in the famous "oh shit" moments, when you read about an idea that you've thought about for quite a long time (i was really amazed when the author started talking about the shivers of pleasure we get from listening to good music). Finally, the book makes a comparis...more
If you haven't read much about neuroscience's leaps in research on the brain over the past couple of decades and the evidence drawn from that research that forcefully makes the case that our brains are plastic organisms, this is an easy-to-read introduction. Sometimes I thought Johnson was superficial. In a fascinating chapter on face and affect recognition, he introduces Simon Baron-Cohen as an authoritive expert without barely a mention of the controversy stirred up by the psychologist's 'male...more
Nov 29, 2008
Darya
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mind-and-brain,
science
A nice introduction into neuroscience of emotions and social interactions: how and why we become afraid of presumably harmless things and what we can do to overcome these fears, how we "read" other people, neurochemistry of love and attachment etc. An easy to read account of the author's experiences with biofeedback, fMRI etc. and his interviews with prominent neurobiologists and behavioral biologists such as Joseph LeDoux, Antonio Damasio etc. The book is by no means overwhelmed by scientific t...more
If neuroscience sounds interesting to you...you're probably a little odd and you will enjoy this book. Johnson effectively teaches about the mind without relying on jargon that baffles the reader. Of course, as a first trip into brain science, the book is a brief and flitting survey of many topics, but I found it fascinating. One of the lessons I learned is that our memory, and even how our brains process information, is bound and heavily guided by emotion, and emotion can shape what we learn an...more
Steven Johnson is one of my favorite authors in the pop-science field. Surely he is up there with Mary Roach. He must keep his books short on purpose but on this one I wish he'd written more because it's all so good and there's a ton of stuff in the neuroscience field that he could expound upon. This is not a book for someone well-versed in the subject because it would be redundant but I will say if you read one general pop-science neuroscience book, make it this. The author is great at explaini...more
Dec 02, 2008
Trena
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
non-scientists with an interest in neuroscience
I wanted to get "Ghost Map," but the DCPL doesn't have own a single copy of it. I'm not sure if this is the same Steven Johnson that wrote Ghost Map, but I like neuroscience so I figured I'd check it out. I have to admit that I did not finish this book. I didn't time my wait list at the library well and ended up with a bunch of books at once and this one got pushed to the bottom. What I read was interesting, well-researched, and very comprehensible by the layperson. Maybe I'll check it out again...more
"The legendary phrase from the Reagan years—“This is your brain on drugs”—is ultimately misleading. Your brain is nothing but drugs—or put another way, it would be nothing without drugs. Certainly there is a distinction to be made between those that are endogenous and exogenous, between natural and artificial, but the fundamental truth is that artificial drugs work because your brain mistakes them for natural ones. Right now, as you read these words, you are under the influence of chemicals that...more
Dentro de las revisiones de las neurociencias, por personas, incluidos periodistas involucrados directamente con alguna área particular, sin la formación científica propiamente dicha, es a veces más disfrutable que leer los artículos médicos, porque como dice Chaitin, los teoremas son mentiras que te acercan a la verdad. Lo mismo digo. A partir de situaciones de vida: el bloqueo creativo, la fobia a las ventanas de vidrio en medio de tormentas intensas, te vas dando cuenta que hay científicos qu...more
In a nutshell, this is Johnson’s story about his foray into locating the secrets of the/his human brain (at least per available technology circa 2003) with the ultimate goals of both offering his audience a basic understanding of the chemical nature of mental activity and reframing Freudian thought in the context of a more sophisticated understanding of these processes (positioning the Freudian model as essentially empirical and necessarily metaphorical as a distant precursor to certain technolo...more
Johnson brings understandable, conversational language to one of the most imposing and important sciences of the modern time: the study of the brain. He's upfront about reducing his subject to a few chemicals and parts of the brain, making the five major chapters a sort of sturdy introduction to neuroscience. What he picks are some of the most fascinating bits, like oxytocin, a chemical found in high doses in the brains of new couples and women who have recently given birth. Is this the love dru...more
Given the opportunity to watch the inner workings of his own brain, Steven Johnson jumps at the chance. He reveals the results in Mind Wide Open, an engaging and personal account of his foray into edgy brain science. In the 21st century, Johnson observes, we have become used to ideas such as "adrenaline rushes" and "serotonin levels," without really recognizing that complex neurobiology has become a commonplace thing to talk about. He sees recent laboratory revelations about the brain as crucial...more
This is a really excellent look at how neuroscience relates to our everyday emotional lives. One of the most interesting bits to me was the discussion of the way that we remember trauma. Research now shows that a lot of conventional wisdom about trauma is flat-out wrong; in particularly, this book suggests that if "talking out" a traumatic event reproduces the fear response (increased heart rate, etc.), it may cause the fear produced by the memories to become more firmly etched, not less. This m...more
This is a pretty fascinating book. It gets a little annoying whenever Johnson tries to pimp it out as a self-help book ("learning about your brain can help you!" blah blah), but luckily, it's NOT a self-help book -- it's an informative book about how your brain functions and how he went about exploring (via MRI and neurofeedback, etc.) about how his brain works. (I'm guessing he thought trying to pass it off as self-help would increase his audience?)
The chapter on attention was a tiny bit dull f...more
The chapter on attention was a tiny bit dull f...more
The book starts out well and the author treats some neuro scientific topics very well e.g neurofeedback and laughter. The later chapters aren't as strong. In the chapter 'Scan Thyself' the author seems to support the 10% myth of brain utilisation and the final eponymous chapter tries to reconcile psychoanalytic theory with biology and doesn't do a great job.
I found myself repeatedly congratulating myself that I was not vulnerable to accepting some of the half baked. conjectures
Came off as being overly simplistic to me, with almost more about the author's idiosyncrasies and narrative of his "quest" than about the brain in general.
For a first book on neuroscience, this is excellent. For a third or fourth book, this offers very few insights.
The epilogue launches into an explanation of Freudian psychology that is slow at becoming relevant. It does ultimately tie up the book well, but the sudden jolt was surprising.
For a first book on neuroscience, this is excellent. For a third or fourth book, this offers very few insights.
The epilogue launches into an explanation of Freudian psychology that is slow at becoming relevant. It does ultimately tie up the book well, but the sudden jolt was surprising.
This is a fun read. The author breaks the brain into manageable chunks (figuratively speaking, of course), and talks about some "applied" functions of various structures. It's certainly written for the novice in brain science, which I appreciated, but which may disappoint readers looking for more technical information on brain functions. There are some fun studies and anecdotes to keep it readable.
BRILLIANTLY EXPLORING TODAY'S CUTTING-EDGE BRAIN RESEARCH, MIND WIDE OPEN IS AN UNPRECEDENTED JOURNEY INTO THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN PERSONALITY, ALLOWING READERS TO UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES AND THE PEOPLE IN THEIR LIVES AS NEVER BEFORE.
Listen to Mind Wide Open on your smartphone, notebook or desktop computer.
Listen to Mind Wide Open on your smartphone, notebook or desktop computer.
If you have a brain, this book is about you. Johnson explores and elucidates recent discoveries about how the human mind works. Out of the many insights that have come out of neuroscience, Johnson focuses on those that, as he puts it, pass the "long-decay test;" they stick with you, and each can change your concept of yourself in some important way. No previous knowledge of neuroscience is required to understand and enjoy this engaging book. Brain science can be a powerful tool for self-understa...more
After I started this book, I started having Trigeminal Neuralgia and I actually needed to delve into some research that went a little deeper and more specific than this. It might have been an enjoyable read otherwise, but I found it frustrating to be reading something so close to what I actually needed to know now, but just not close enough. So I didn't finish it.
Using himself as a subject, Johnson explores the current state of brain/mind exploration, using biofeedback, MRIs and chemical analysis, among other tools. He examines what creative thinking looks like in the brain, improves his facial expression reading skills and comes to grips with his own use of humour as a coping skill, as well as learns why sunny days and high, whistling noises are alert triggers for him.
The first few chapters are the strongest, as they document his experiments on himself...more
The first few chapters are the strongest, as they document his experiments on himself...more
Compared with the other brain book I read last month (whose name escapes me), this one is a vast improvement - mainly based on style instead of substance. Much of the substance was already familiar, and likely will be for you too if you take an enthusiast's interest in Brain stuff. But the way in which the information is presented - as part of a personal quest - mirrors so much of my own experience that it's easy to build a bond with the author. Since that sort of bond happens only rarely in non...more
I would probably have rated this higher had I not previously read Eric Kandel's In Search of Memory, which was published later and covered many of these topics in greater detail with a higher degree of scientific explanations. However, Johnson was there to write for a lay person, not an aerospace engineer.
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Steven Johnson is the author of the bestsellers Where Good Ideas Come From, The Invention of Air, The Ghost Map, Everything Bad Is Good For You, and Mind Wide Open, as well as Emergence and Interface Culture. He is the founder of a variety of influential websites—most recently, outside.in—and writes for Time, Wired, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in Marin County, Califor...more
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I wonder about that Valium thing, though. OK, he did say it all depends on the drug, but if that were always t...more
Oct 08, 2008 06:22am