My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
Think Smart: A Neuroscientist's Prescription for Improving Your Brain's Performance
A leading neuroscientist and New York Times-bestselling author of Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot distills the research on the brain and serves up practical, surprising, and illuminating recommendations for warding off neurological decline, cognitive function, and encouraging smarter thinking day to day.
In Think Smart, the renowned neuropsychiatrist and bestselling a...more
In Think Smart, the renowned neuropsychiatrist and bestselling a...more
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published
April 30th 2009
by Riverhead Hardcover
(first published 2009)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
261)
This is a very accessible book, written by an authoritative figure in the fields of neuroscience and neuropsychiatry. The book is well balanced in terms of presenting not just ideas and exercises to improve brain performance, but also presenting the latest scientific evidence to support, although in many cases only partially support, their effectiveness. The author provides day-to-day context to effectively illustrate his points to general readers. He touches on diet, physical exercise, and m...more
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines the brain as “the portion of the vertebrate central nervous system enclosed in the skull and continuous with the spinal cord through the foramen magnum that is composed of neurons and supporting and nutritive structures (as glia) and that integrates sensory information from inside and outside the body in controlling autonomic function (as heartbeat and respiration), in coordinating and directing correlated motor responses, and in the process of lea...more
My previous exposure to Dr. Restak's work was `Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot,' which to my recollection I wasn't very keen on and for those of you interested in reading that review I'd advise to scroll through my profile and find it.
The current book `Think Smart' is a little different and hence carries a different weight for me. Think Smart in a good introductory work for every fan of human brain functioning, maintenance and upkeep. The complexity of Dr. Restak's vernacular i...more
The current book `Think Smart' is a little different and hence carries a different weight for me. Think Smart in a good introductory work for every fan of human brain functioning, maintenance and upkeep. The complexity of Dr. Restak's vernacular i...more
Very interesting book on what makes our brain work and ways that we can improve brain function. Since my children have depleted me of many brain cells, I'm very motivated to preserve what little I have left. An interesting side note, Dr. Restak's advice on taking care of our brains reads like a mini word of wisdom. I think my very favorite new fact was that teenage brains are still so undeveloped that the frontal lobes are immature, resulting in lack of concentration, focus, motivation and p...more
view all 9 comments
A Mishmash of Information--
The book should be titled, Think Smart: Myriad Ways of Improving Your Brain Power Drawn From Various Sources since the author draws from NOT HIS OWN RESEARCH OR EXPERIENCE but from a wide range of sources like K. Anders Ericsson et al. In other words, the author might as well have been a priest or journalist, and him being a neuroscientist has little to do with the content.
The book is a veritable compendium of techniques and facts to boost brain...more
The book should be titled, Think Smart: Myriad Ways of Improving Your Brain Power Drawn From Various Sources since the author draws from NOT HIS OWN RESEARCH OR EXPERIENCE but from a wide range of sources like K. Anders Ericsson et al. In other words, the author might as well have been a priest or journalist, and him being a neuroscientist has little to do with the content.
The book is a veritable compendium of techniques and facts to boost brain...more
Cindy
rated it
This is a good book. I found my psychology teacher had already covered many of the topics he discussed as memory is her area of interest. The book contains many helpful tips for those sixty and over. I found the run down at the end of the book to be especially helpful. I like the way he stuck to the facts and wasn't distracted by fluff or hype.
He addressed moods as well.
It would be a good book to add to my reference library.
He addressed moods as well.
It would be a good book to add to my reference library.
This book was a very good read! Things that I found particularly useful were the types of foods, vitamins, and drinks that the book was suggesting to help improve/maintain brain function as we get older and it had plenty of suggestions. It also had some brain games/exercises that people can try to improve memory and functioning. Getting enough sleep, of course, is also important. Overall this was a good book!
This is probably the most accessible of the "brain books" I have read, and for that I rank it pretty high. This is not the book or you if you have already done some reading and want to go in depth, but this is a great book for someone who just wants to learn a little about how to improve the way they think and function. It is extremely well written.
This book is interesting, but I didn't find it to be very helpful--nothing really new. I give it three stars because the book describes a variety of exercises for the mind that may be useful to some people. I spend my days exercising my mind in a number of ways, so how can these additional exercises be helpful?
Good read about how to keep your brain healthy. It's a lot of common sence kind of stuff like eat healthy, exercise your brain, chalange yourself with different oppotunities. The guy talks a lot about the Wii and first person adventure games as a way to keep your brain healthy and develop hand eye coordination.
Science, minus the sleep.
Well according to him sleep is a key component of intelligence.
So is diet and dancing. Memorizing words. Rhetoric in learning.
He has a big bag of well-researched tricks to enhance the brain's abilities. He's funny, too. My brain feels a little less fuzzy.
Well according to him sleep is a key component of intelligence.
So is diet and dancing. Memorizing words. Rhetoric in learning.
He has a big bag of well-researched tricks to enhance the brain's abilities. He's funny, too. My brain feels a little less fuzzy.
Well written and practical, this book offers specific strategies for improving mental function (for all ages, not just seniors) and explains why they work based on current neurological research. Most of the suggestions come from experts in the field.
Some good stuff here, some of it surprising (action video games are good for your brain), some of it predictable (a heart healthy diet is a brain healthy diet, Mediterranean diet). Well written but a little plodding at times.
Amazing how the research of this book and Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" both are very consistent in terms of diet and how it effects your overall physical health but also your brain and longevity and usefulness of it.
Learn new words, take daily naps, exercise well, eat well, and of course, play video games.
"The effects induced by regular video-gaming can be compared to what occurs in the brain of a concert pianist."
"The effects induced by regular video-gaming can be compared to what occurs in the brain of a concert pianist."
I have not heard about Richard M.Restak before,but this book is an amazing one that joins neuroscience and every detail of your activities and thinking during a day! it is a super working book!
E X C E L L E N T! this is a book that needs to read and reread to fully comprehend the factors that will contribute to a more efficent brain!!
Cameron
rated it
Recommends it for:
newbies to brain improvement, fighters of Alzheimer's
Shelves:
non-fiction
Written for non-scientists, and explains just enough to base the exercises Dr. Restak recommends.
Great read for those just getting into brain improvement/preservation.
Great read for those just getting into brain improvement/preservation.
Very good so far. Describes learning as a lifetime process, and how your cognitive skills are something that you can improve with effort.
Eric_W
marked it as to-read
Goodness knows, I'll take whatever help I can get.
A very entertaining and accessible read.
I think that there was some valuable information in this book. So much so that I checked it out of the library in order to listen again so I can take more notes from it. I saw my father lose his memory and his sharpness. That broke my heart. I want to do everything in my power to prevent that from happening to me.
Sparked my interest in Neuroscience. Highly Informative and recommended to anyone interested in Neuroscience.
easy to read, practical info on how to keep your brain healthy for a long time to come. Witty writing and good narration overall.
Just started and already hooked ;-) very well written and really interesting...
Take-away fact (so far) : Stop being fat.
Very interesting. Don't think the organization of the book is how I would like it. Hard to go back and find information. I find the topic very fascinating. Not an easy read, however--takes quite a bit of concentration.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
