A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention and the Four Theaters of the Brain

by John J. Ratey

For the first time ever, discoveries in our under-
standing of the brain are changing anthropology, linguistics,
philosophy, and psychology--indeed, the brain itself may become a catalyst for transforming the very nature of these inquiries.
In A User's Guide to the Brain, Dr. John Ratey, best-selling co-author of Driven to Distraction, explains in lucid detail and with perfect clarity the basic structure and chemistry of the brain: how
its systems shape our perceptions, emotions, actions, and reactions; how possession of this knowledge can enable us to more fully understand and improve our lives; and how the brain
responds to the guidance of its user. He draws on examples from his own practice, from research, and from everyday life to
illuminate aspects of the brain's functioning, among them
prenatal and early childhood development; the perceptual
systems; the processes of consciousness, memory, emotion, and language; and the social brain.
As the best means for explaining the dynamic interactions of the brain, Ratey offers as a metaphor the four "theaters" of exploration: 1) the act of perception; 2) the filters of attention, consciousness, and cognition; 3) the array of options employed by the brain--memory, emotion, language, movement--to transform information into function; and 4) behavior and identity. Ratey
succeeds not only in giving us a compelling portrait of the brain's infinite flexibility and unpredictability but also in demonstrating how our very understanding of the brain affects who we are.

Genres: Science, Psychology, Nonfiction, Neuroscience, Brain, Biology, Medical

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 9, 2001

About the author

Dr. Ratey and Dr. Hallowell began studying ADHD in the 1980s and co-authored Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood through Adulthood (1994), the first in a series of books that demystify the disorder. Dr. Ratey also co-authored Shadow Syndromes (1997) with Catherine Johnson, PhD, in which he describes the phenomenon of milder forms of clinical disorders.

Dr. John J. Ratey, M.D., is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and has a private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

from johnratey.com

Reviews

[Lisa Duffy-Korpics · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book that explains all the aspects of the brain in an intelligent, yet accessible way that is easily understood by the regular person. No need to have a Neuroscience degree to grasp this book - however it never talks down to the reader. Written by John J. Ratey, M.D., a clinical professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, this book touches on memory, language, movement, emotion and social ability and how our brain is "plastic" or changeable througout our lives. A study involving a group of Nuns who lived on average, to be 100 years old and over, showed how this group had a much lower rate of Alzheimer's Disease and/or dementia associated with again, then the general population. The major difference? - learning. Constant learning throughout your life. Not only can an old dog learn new tricks - those new tricks can be the key to longer, more productive lives and a healthier brain. While practice may make perfect, it's new tasks that require us to master skills that we've never used before, that keep a brain growing and making new neural connections.

A fascinating read - I highly recommend it.

[Mohsen Rajabi · Rating 5 out of 5]

در روزگاری که هرکس حقیقتی را برمی‌گزیند و هرکس روشی برای رسیدن به آن می‌دهد، شاید شناخت واقعی مسائل و شناخت درستی یا نادرستی مسائل فکری و فلسفی کار آسانی نباشد. اما نکته‌ای که جالب است و تقریبا هر دیدگاه و مکتبی به آن معتقد است، ضرورت شناخت خودمان است. در این میان بی‌راه نیست که بگوییم از هرمنظری که نگاه کنیم شناخت مغز و کارکردهای آن شاید ضروری‌ترین جنبه‌ی خودشناسی باشد، چون وجود و هویت انسانی خودمان را مدیون این عضو حیاتی و بی‌نظیر خود هستیم.
مغز مهم‌ترین و پیچیده‌ترین عضو بدن است. بسیار پیچیده‌تر از سایر اندام‌ها. بدون شک رهبر و رئیس وجود جسمانی و غیرجسمانی ماست و همه چیز، از هویت و شناخت و آگاهی تا احساسات و عواطف ما تحت کنترل و اختیار مغز ماست. اصلا ادعای نابه‌جایی نیست اگر بگوییم مغز پیچیده‌ترین وجودی است که جهان به خود دیده است. کامپیوترها و سازه‌های انسانی هیچ‌گاه به پای مغز نمی‌رسند و حتا کیهان و شگفتی‌هایش نیز در مقابل مغز پیچیده‌ی انسان‌ها قابل فهم به نظر می‌رسند.
شناخت علمی مغز از قرن نوزدهم آغاز شده و در تمامی این سال‌ها متخصصین زیادی سعی در شناخت آن داشته‌اند. دانش شناخت مغز، دوره‌های مختلفی را به خود دیده است. از زمانی که چون ماشینی دقیق درنظر می‌گرفتندش تا زمانی که فروید و پیروان مکتبش گزاره‌هایی همچون ابرمن و من را وارد این حوزه کردند و در سال‌های جدیدتر که علم اعصاب و شناخت نورون‌ها پیشرفت‌هایی زیادی در این زمینه به دنبال آورده است. بنابراین برای یک خواننده‌ی ساده که هنوز با اصطلاحات تخصصی آشنایی ندارد، شاید دنبال‌کردن این مباحث کمی سخت باشد.
کتاب راهنمای کاربران مغز، در این زمینه شاهکار عمل کرده است. فصل‌بندی‌های خوب و موضوعات کاربردی و ضروری که در کتاب مطرح می‌شود، همه جذاب هستند. با خواندن این کتاب، تقریبا با چهارصحنه‌ی اساسی‌ای که ما به عنوان انسان با آنها درگیر هستیم و مغزمان عامل اصلی آنهاست، آشنا می‌شوید. این چهارصحنه چنانچه در این کتاب آمده‌اند عبارت‌اند از: ادراک، آگاهی، کارکردهای مغزی (مانند حافظه و عاطفه) و در نهایت شخصیت و رفتار. شناخت هریک از آنها و دانستن چگونگی عملکردشان حتا به صورت جزئی و ابتدایی می‌تواند تأثیر زیادی در شناخت ما از خود و ساختن زندگی بهتری برای خودمان و دیگران داشته باشد.
در تمامی صفحات و فصل‌های این کتاب ۵۰۰ صفحه‌ای، حرف‌های خوب و جذابی گفته می‌شود، اما به نظرم مهمترین حرف این کتاب آنجاست که می‌گوید مغز مانند یک دستگاه و یک ماشین نیست که از پیش بدانیم چگونه عمل می‌کند. به‌علاوه روان و شخصیت ما نیز ریشه‌هایش به صحنه‌های اولیه‌ی مغز بازمی‌گردند و یک رفتار ممکن است نه نشان‌دهنده‌ی شخصیت ما، بلکه نشان‌دهنده‌ی مشکل و یا بیماری‌ای باشد که در مغز ما وجود دارد. در واقع بهترین تعریف این است که بگوییم مغز مانند یک زیست‌بوم است. همان‌طور که حتا کوچکترین چیزها نیز اهمیت دارند و باعث تغییر زیست‌بوم می‌شوند، برای مغز نیز کوچکترین رفتارها می‌توانند بااهمیت باشند و هر جزئی در رابطه‌ای پیچیده با جزئی دیگر قرار می‌گیرد و ضروری است که مانند یک محیط زنده به مغز نگاه کنیم نه صرفا مانند یک ماشین و دستگاه.
مطمئنا خواندن این کتاب دریچه‌ی جدیدی است به نحوه‌ی تفکرمان نسبت به خودمان، و در کل نسبت به موجودی به نام انسان.

در مورد ترجمه نیز به نظرم خوب است بگویم که فقط با خواندن متن انگلیسی کتاب است که متوجه می‌شوید مترجم با چه کتاب و با چه لحن پیچیده و نسبتا دشواری روبه‌رو بوده است و می‌شود گفت که قابل قبول عمل کرده است، به خصوص که موضوع اصلی کتاب نیز یکی از موضوعات تخصصی علم پزشکی است. با اینحال قبول دارم که ترجمه‌ی کتاب تاحدودی سخت‌خوان و غیرروان است، اما اگر کمی به شیوه‌ی ترجمه و علائم نگارشی (به خصوص ویرگول که بسیار پرکاربرد است) توجه کنید، حتما لذت بیشتری از خواندن این کتاب می‌برید.

[Emre Turkmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harika bir kitaptı öğrenilecek çok şey var😎📖

[Amir Rajabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب هر چقدر هم برام خوب بود، صرفا یک پیش مقدمه بود برای اینکه کلیات ساختار مغز رو متوجه بشم (به دیتاهای ریزش اصلا اتکا نکردم چون کتاب قدیمیه) تا بعدا برم سراغ منابع علمی بروز تر و جذاب تر (احتمالا تصویری) و اونجا کارم راحت تر باشه برای مطالعه.

[Sarah Milne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the single best "pop-neuro" book I have read. It is a fascinating look at the four theaters of the brain that ultimately makes the point that biology is at the root of mental disorders, and while that does not excuse behavior, it is extremely liberating. A couple quotes:

“Despite all this activity going on in the brain, the treatment of mental disorders—extreme and mild—has centered upon the lone issue of “affect”: a person’s emotional state. Since the earliest days of psychiatry, every diagnostician has inevitably asked some version of the question “How do you feel?” Feelings are what hurt the patient, and the therapist is drawn to them, wanting to fix the hurt. But feelings are not the cause of the problems but the result, the outcome of an enormous amount of brain activity, including perception, attention, consciousness, and the brain functions.” (336-337)

“Problems in the fourth theater are the ones most readily apparent to ourselves and others, so not only are they the ones most likely to motivate people to seek treatment, they are often the sole focus of investigation and treatment. Many clinicians never even look at or through the other theaters of the brain. Personality is not a cause of problems; it is rather the expression of good and bad influences from the earlier theaters.” (346)

“When assessing a human being, almost everything merits examination.” (354)

“It will be the clinician’s duty in the new century to help and to teach patients to explore whatever modifications of neurochemical, behavioral, psychological, and environmental factors might compensate for an illness.” (354)

“Discovering creativity in one’s self can be a highly effective component of treatment. By thinking solely in terms of pathology, as if our Hippocratic duty required only that we restore the patient to some former, imagined state of perfect health, we faith to notice traits that provide not only a path to recovery but a means to progress beyond it. The brain’s processes can be utterly transformed by self-discovery and the right pursuits in life.” (354-355)

[Amari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very engaging at times, though I felt it dragged a bit in the middle.

Much fascinating information. Easy to appreciate, this relatively non-technical yet non-dumbed-down little introduction to the physiology of our noggins and, of course, selves.

Several tidbits that will stay with me:

If you've just learned some new vocabulary words or are trying to integrate information, you have to get some REM sleep in order to truly learn the new material.

Language development can be conceived as a simple result of humans' unique ability to create and understand symbols.

Ratey writes beautifully about infants' innate ability to understand beings as discrete entities with different information and the ability to deliberately share it.

I like Ratey's positive spin, which persists throughout, on our potential to rewire our brains and change ourselves throughout life. I believe him, somehow, probably as much because he writes as though convinced as for the facts he uses to support this argument.

I like the way this book has taught me to think more analytically about why I react to certain events as I do (why did I scream when I saw a mouse? why exactly do I have trouble with word recall when I am suffering from insomnia? how does my left-handedness define me?)

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well structured and precise introduction to Neuroscience/Neuropsychology.

I have been reading similar books, this one in particular was recommended from my Neuropsychology's professor, and though I didn't learn anything new, I quite enjoyed the way it was structured, every chapter covers a cognitive process or a psychological topic like development.

Therefore, if you are struggling with neuroscience or want to learn about it in a cool and easy way, this is a very good option, it covers a lot of topics (most of them are cognitive) and gives a good insight about the brain without going too deep about it. It's great for psychology students.

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ratey stresses the neurological, systemic, and plastic nature of brains. He argues that behavioral problems often start with perceptual ones.

[Allison · Rating 1 out of 5]

The idea for this book was excellent: take all of the intricate, ground-breaking information in neuroscience and psychology, simpify it as much as possible to educate every-day readers, and add a "how to" component to show the information's practicality, importance, and usefulness. Coming from an author and clinician as well established as John Ratey (he works at Harvard), I expected nothing less than an intelligent, compelling book.

A User's Guide reads like a condensed version of my freshman year cousework in Brain & Cognitive Sciences. Ratey provides explanations of each basic neuroscience concept (e.g. synapses, "use it or lose it," plasticity, etc.) as he goes through his material, all of which are essential to understanding and being convinced of his argument that we can change the neuroanatomy and therefore functionality of our own brains. However, Ratey may as well have physically taken his book and bashed his readers over the head with it repeatedly, because that is what he does with every point he makes. Instead of providing one paragraph of neuroscience explanation and then a follow-up paragraph or two about how this anatomy or functionality works in practical terms and/or how it can be manipulated by a "user," he spends pages going over and over each concept in every synonamous way he can conceive. By the end of the first chapter, I was less convinced of his argument that people can change their own brains by "thinking right" and more convinced that he was trying to create a memorization aid for neuroscience students.

Ultimately, I got so fed up with the repetition that I quit the book. (A reader can only skip so many paragraphs, after all, before deciding to "skip" the remainder of the book.) I am sure there are other books out there on this same topic that are more entertaining and less tiresome. Ratey seems like he knows his stuff, and--as I am already familiar with the material--he seems to explain it well. However, as good as his explanations might be, there IS something to be said for too much of a good thing. And A User's Guide was definitely too much.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up A User's Guide to the Brain from a library booksale. As someone with brain problems of some variety, I've developed a strong interest in finding out how brains actually work.

Ratey does a good job of balancing actual science with writing that is easily understandable. I appreciated his non-judgemental and hopeful tone, and I found some of his insights really useful, especially regarding the importance of motor centres in the brain and the connection between movement and thinking, the role of emotions in decision making, and the plasticity of the brain. I finished this book feeling like I understood more about myself, others, and will be able to use some of these insights to fine-tune routines in my life to help out my brain.

My dissatisfactions with the book are mainly these: after a throwaway comment that no one is born gay, Ratey never speaks of homosexuality again. This book was written in 2002, but it's still annoying, especially to myself as a lesbian. And a quick google search does show there has been evidence for homosexuality showing up in different ways in the brain.

Ratey also doesn't mention the impacts of gender socialization on the brain at all. Basically, if you read this book you also definitely need to read Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference!

[Tom S · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone with no prior background or experience in neuroscience or psychology I found this book a fascinating insight into the complexities of the brain.

The author initially sets out his goal of providing an accessible read to all by eschewing complex medical terms for easy to understand concepts through metaphors. These certainly provide a fantastic level of accessibility but at the expense of a certain level of repetition.

I think the intended target of this book is freshman undertaking studies in neuroscience, demonstrated by the significant amount of references to studies, papers and research.

This book provided me with enough information to grasp a solid understanding of the fundamentals of neuroscience whilst giving me ideas of where I can direct my efforts for further reading and study on related topics, some of which I intend to explore further.

For me, this book loses one star due to being overly dry in parts and having a significant lack of flow or rhythm; I would attribute this equally between the subject matter and the linguistic capabilities of the author who was acutely focused on a highly factual narrative.

[Kally · Rating 4 out of 5]

This audiobook was a daunting 16 hours or so, but it didn't seem like a chore once it got started. The overall tone of the book is positive and informative, as if you met a professor friend over coffee and they explained what they studied. As promised at the beginning, it was accessible and without jargon.

This is a book I'd like to come back to every so often, since I didn't absorb nearly enough of the interesting takeaways. I want to remind myself that:
~ The adult brain retains plasticity IF WE CONTINUE TO USE IT.
~ There can be a biological reason behind certain behaviours. This, while not excusing the behaviour, can be viewed with compassion and accommodations made to lessen undesirable effects.
~ The connection between the brain and physical movement. We need to MOVE!
~ We know so little about the brain and it is so integral to who we are.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

as a biology & psychology student, at one point in this re-reading detected some error - but then recalled this was written in 2001. The tools we have available, paradoxically, has us less sure now than we were then. An amazing opus of a book - basically a very readable textbook. Wish it could be continuously updated, like Campbell’s had been, & with references added. I would make it my job if I could make a living off it.

On the cover you see a blurb by The New Yorker calling it “An introduction to neuroscience which sticks to a man-on-the-street vocabulary.” - this is not something The New Yorker would call it now.

[Anna Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic read (listen for me, on audible). Whether you have a background in neuroscience or not, this can be understood and appreciated by anyone. It really puts into perspective how much the physiology of your brain affects your psyche, and it gives insight into both longevity and the developing brain of a child. So fascinating! As a neuro/stroke nurse, this novel has enhanced both my knowledge and interest in Neurology!

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved so many things I learned from this book. I wasn't half-way through it, before I started to feel really bad about my lack of patience for people who very likley suffer from maladies caused by problems with their brain. What I really love about Ratey's writing, is that though he explains the physiological aspect of things, he doesn't stand on the premise that people can't help their behavior. I added to my favorite quotes this passage:

"The point to remember is that the issue is not nature versus nurture. It is the balance between nature and nurture. Genes do not make a man gay, or violent, or fat, or a leader. Genes merely make proteins. The chemical effect of these proteins may make the man's brain and body more receptive to certain environmental influences. But the extent of those influences will have as much to do with the outcome as the genes themselves. Furthermore, we humans are not prisoners of our genes or our environment. We have free will. Genes are overruled every time an angry man restrains his temper, a fat man diets, and an alocholic refuses to take a drink. On the other hand, the environment is overruled every time a genetic effect wins out, as when Lou Gehrig's athletic ability was overruled by his ALS. Genes and the environment work together to shape our brains, and we can manage them both if we want to. It may be harder for people with certain genes or surroundings, but "harder" is a long way from pedetermination."

Ratey recounts several stories of patients who spent their life treated like they were dumb, afraid, slow, and or nervous...only to discover they had blurry vision for things that moved (so reading or catching a ball was extremely difficult), or lacked the capacity to envision long-term results. Some were tragic stories, some amazing. This book really opened my eyes to a lot of possible physiological reasons people might behave the way they do, which helped me get a grasp on why it is that I need to be a lot easier on people than I tend to be. It also gave me a great deal of education on matters of things to watch for that might indicate someone may have one of these issues.

I've never read a book about neurology before, and this one was particularly fascinating. At the end there was a list of suggested reading, and I will be adding some of these books to my "to-read" shelf.

[Stacie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain" by John J. Ratey, "lucidly explains the human brain’s workings, and paves the way for a better understanding of how the brain affects who we are. Ratey provides insight into the basic structure and chemistry of the brain, and demonstrates how its systems shape our perceptions, emotions, and behavior. By giving us a greater understanding of how the brain responds to the guidance of its user, he provides us with knowledge that can enable us to improve our lives." I loved this book, probably because I'm very interested in psychology and I love learning about the human brain. It was easy to understand what I was reading, and I loved how the author used real life examples and then describe what was going on and how they figured out what the problem was. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about the way we think and how we can improve our lives by having this knowledge and understanding.

[Dennis Littrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A revolution in the making

"Mental problems, from hot temper to laziness, from chronic worry to excessive drinking, all have roots in the biology of the brain." (p. 357)

This is a report on a revolution taking place in neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology and kindred disciplines. The old paradigms are crumbling under the onslaught of a new understanding of how the brain really works. Harvard Medical School psychiatrist John J. Ratey's "guide" (it's more than that) is an admirable exercise in bringing us up to date on what is happening in brain science--what we suspect, what we know, and how this knowledge is affecting clinical practice.

In a sense Ratey's book is a report on a new paradigm. It is biology-based and relies first and foremost on the physiology of the brain and body as they have developed over time. Gone are the artificial constructs of Freudian psychology and the very limited black-box psychology of behaviorism. The new psychology is based on opening that black box and looking inside. Of course what we find there is enormously complex, and we are, to use Ratey's expression (p. 124), "still on the first step of a very long staircase." Yet, because of the growing power of neuroscience to study and access the living brain in ways that were impossible just a few years ago, we are entering an exciting time, full of hope and wonder.

As Dr. Ratey explains in "Acknowledgments," this book began as a cooperative research effort by many people toward writing a "primer on the brain for mental health professionals." Then it was suggested by Pantheon editor Linda Healey that a smaller version "that would try to instruct the public at large" be written. A professional science writer, Mark Fischetti, was hired and schooled. The result is a book written in an engaging and very readable manner. However, its organization--neat and reasonable as it is--actually detracts from the book's effectiveness because the most interesting and helpful chapters are near the end. I realize that Ratey and his editors and writers came to the conclusion that the material in the last three chapters, "The Social Brain," "The Four Theaters," and "Care and Feeding" could be better appreciated after having read the more fundamental material in the first seven chapters. Nonetheless I believe that a lot of people who would benefit from this very fine book will not get to those chapters. Too bad. Ratey's metaphor of the four theaters is a powerful tool for incorporating and understanding the new paradigm, while the final chapter gives us some very excellent advice on how to live fully while keeping the brain and our systems healthy.

Consequently I would propose that when Dr. Ratey updates this book (and I hope he will; there is so much happening in neuroscience that some of the information here will be dated in just a few years) that he structure the book so that it begins with Chapter 9, "The Four Theaters," followed by Chapter 8, "The Social Brain," and then the first seven chapters, concluding with the advice in Chapter 10, "Care and Feeding." For the reader, I recommend reading Chapter 9 first so that you can immediately share in the excitement that is at the heart of the book.

The "theaters," by the way, should be understood as "theaters of operations" and not theaters where movies might be shown. (Originally Ratey had used "kingdoms of the brain" as his metaphor.) The theaters are (1) perception; (2) attention, consciousness and cognition; (3) brain function (memory, emotion, movement, etc.); and (4) behavior and identity. He sees a flow of consequence (like a river) from perception to attention to function to behavior. He argues persuasively that the brain is a holistically operating entity that is constantly being changed by its interaction with the environment, a dynamic organism that is forever learning, making new perceptions and adjustments. Things can go wrong in any one of the theaters and what happens in any theater affects the other theaters down river (and even up river). What I found particularly interesting is the new approach to diagnostics and therapy this understanding affords. A good example is on pages 347-349 where Ratey tells the story of Theresa who was slow to learn, unsocial and awkward in sports. Instead of some disorder out of DSM-IV being plastered on her forehead, Ratey found that she had a perception problem, and he demonstrated how her social and functional problems stemmed from that "first theater" problem. Ratey emphasizes freeing the patient from self-doubt and personal blame for whatever the problem may be, and always looks for a biological cause first. Some bits of wisdom from the best chapter in the book, from pages 353-355:

"Modern medical practice tends to regard patients' self-evaluations as too tainted by subjectivity, but this is a grave error."

"It is quite beyond the average patient's ability, within the framework of...insight-oriented therapies, to pinpoint the true source of unhappiness and frustration."

"Prozac is hardly a remedy for the self-blame, lost opportunities, and intellectual insecurity of a lifetime compromised by unrecognized perceptual and cognitive deficits."

"We have to begin to think of the brain as a self-organizing ecosystem, one of such staggering complexity and delicate balance that almost any aspect of a patient's life may be relevant to a diagnosis or essential to treatment."

"[T]he clinician's duty...includes devoting more time to looking for what is good in patients' lives, for the strengths and talents that are not yet being fully realized, and for the secret pleasures and sources of happiness that they have never allowed themselves."

"We in psychiatry continually risk mistaking our labels for the disorders themselves."

"The brain's processes can be utterly transformed by self-discovery and the right pursuits in life."

--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”

[Francesco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr John J Ratey's book clarified so many of my beliefs about learning, socializing, and regulating emotions. With his thorough explanation of the brain biology, he explained how each function of the biology of the brain influences our outward expressions of our personality. Ultimately, once we learn about our learning abilities or disabilities, he explains that can choose to self-regulate in order to manage our goals and life expectations. The common thread is through out the book is that if you are interested in self-improvement and see yourself as having greater gifts, then you must search for the answers from qualified healthcare professionals, due diligence of research, and do not get discouraged. Dr John J Ratey expresses that there have been many famous people whom have overcome their biological neuropsychology through perseverance. A wealth of insight and research that inspires one to share his knowledge.

[Heather Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating read. I learned so much about how the brain works, how easy it is to train (when you know what you're doing), and how one small thing in one small piece of it can affect everything else and have huge consequences. I highly recommend this to anyone who has a brain of their own and most especially anyone who is or knows someone who is ADHD, has dealt with any mental illness, or in any way falls on the spectrum of "different" based on their mental capacities or tendencies. It's written in a very easy to understand way that lets a lay person (even a not terribly science inclined one) easily understand all the concepts being discussed. You'll be amazed by your own potential by the time you get to the end of this book.

[Armin · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب خوبیه، اطلاعات درخور توجهی داره، اما ترجمه‌اش خیلی ضعیفه. خیلی. عدم استفاده از علائم نگارشی بدترش هم کرده.
فکر می‌کنم اگه کتاب "دنیای شگفت‌انگیز مغز" نوشته‌ی: «متیو مک‌دانلد» و ترجمه هدیه تقوی رو بخونید، خیلی بیش‌تر استفاده خواهید کرد و لذت خواهید برد. چون محتوای کلی، یکسانه اما ترجمه اون کتاب خیلی خیلی بهتره.

[Amela Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best and first psychology books I've ever read.
This book has transformed my life.
It has inspired me to immerse myself in the world of the human mind.
I absolutely LOVE this book!
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in psychology.

[Mikee · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The idle mind is the devil's plaything"

[Arman Behrad · Rating 4 out of 5]

اگر ميخواهيد فقط يك كتاب درباره ي علوم اعصاب بخوانيد، همين كتاب عالي است.

[Brenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

A User’s Guide to the Brain was written by a psychiatry professor named John Ratey and published in 2001. Found out from reading the acknowledgements that this book was actually ghostwritten - it started out as a 2000 page research overview John Ratey wrote for his students, and then he hired a ghostwriter to turn it into a book for the general public. It’s kind of a slog to read and it’s definitely dated (containing wrong information in parts), although overall I didn’t regret reading it. If you like pop sci books about the brain (like I do) a lot of the content will be familiar — split brain, Phineas Gage, the homunculus, nature vs nurture — but I thought there was enough new content and fresh perspectives to keep things interesting.

I enjoyed the descriptions in the book of some brain structures that I hadn’t previously read about (or at least remembered reading about) in other pop sci brain books, like the basal ganglia, which, together with the cerebellum, controls movement and automatic reactions, and the anterior cingulate gyrus, which, according to Ratey, gives us free will. Supposedly the anterior cingulate gyrus is the center for free will in the brain because some patients with brain lesions on their anterior cingulate gyrus lose the ability to initiate speech or action (although they can still respond when spoken to), and one patient who had recovered from damage in that area, described the experience as having “no will” (319).

There are, of course, other interpretations of these case studies rather than just that the anterior cingulate gyrus bestows us with spooky free will, but Ratey doesn’t mention them. According to Ratey: “We are not prisoners of our genes or our environment. Poverty, alienation, drugs, hormonal imbalances, and depression don’t dictate failure. Wealth, acceptance, vegetables, and exercise don’t guarantee success. Our own free will may be the strongest force directing the development of our brains, and therefore our lives.” (17) Ok then, I’d like to know the mechanism of action for free will, please? Certainly we should hope we operate as if free will does exist in our day to day lives (“Biological determinism, in recent years, has begun to erode our confidence in our knowledge of what is and is not an issue of morality” (8)) but this can definitely be taken too far, and Ratey does. E.g.: “An often overlooked aspect of the treatment of mental disorders is the connection between the mind and the body. The mind, or free will, can impact on the physical manifestation of illness. The famous case of Broadway actor Yul Brynner, who long starred in The King and I and who seemed to put his cancer into remission for a decade using only his will to counteract it, made many people aware of the strong powers the mind can have over the body.” (374) So I actually am a fan of holistic treatments (which, when they do succeed, ultimately succeed for physical reasons), but there aren’t any RCT studies which show free will can cure cancer yet so that anecdote reads more as offensive and dangerous.

Another main theme Ratey introduces is the idea that what we think of as mental illnesses or personality disorders may be caused by perception deficits or sensory sensitivities. For instance, he tells the story of Delores, who had amassed a long list of mental illness diagnoses, including schizophrenia and antisocial personality disorder. As John Ratey works with Delores as her psychiatrist, he discovers she has strong touch sensitivity, which he then concludes may have been the cause of all of her problems from the very beginning. While this may be true for Delores (or may not - I’m honestly skeptical a touch sensitivity caused schizophrenia-like symptoms), John proceeds to conjecture that perhaps most people who we look at as being “crazy” have all this time merely been suffering from differences in sensory perception. This seems unrealistically optimistic to me - like those books you read in elementary school where the bully was just “misunderstood.” The weirder part are passages where Ratey more or less says (paraphrasing here), what a relief it was to Delores and others like her to find out they weren’t actually ~~~crazy~~~, they just had perceptual disturbances. Weird vibes here, like, if your mental illness is caused by a perceptual disturbance, then you’re somehow in a better league than people who’s mental illnesses are caused by genes/environment. Mental illness, like perceptual disturbance, also is beyond the control of the individual suffering from it: neither need to be stigmatized? (Or if there is some critical social function to stigmatizing mental illness, then both should be stigmatized?)

Because this book was written in the early 2000s and because sometimes people do bad science, there are unfortunately a lot of studies Ratey talks about that have now been proven to be false or not replicable. A few examples: playing classical music to babies makes them smarter, the menstrual cycles of groups of women who live together tend to sync up because pheromones, babies who are taught to sign at a young age will have higher IQs by the age of 4. This is a huge ding for this book because it’s now basically a source of misinformation. Ratey, like most pop sci authors, is also sloppy when mentioning correlational studies, without always mentioning that correlation does not necessarily equate to causation. For instance, he states: “…Moh’s 1993 study of people ages seventy to seventy-nine found that those with more education had more efficient memories and experienced less memory change with the passage of time… Moh suggests that such mental exercising keeps memory strong by reinforcing synaptic connections in the brain.” (220) OR maybe people with brains that are less prone to aging are also more likely to get more years of education?

Another piece of out-of-date information: There is a section suggesting that the purpose of REM sleep is for consolidating memories. I’ve heard this hypothesis before, and there is some evidence suggestive for this, for instance, as Ratey mentions, spiny echidnas are the only mammal that do not have a REM stage during sleep, and they also have disproportionately large frontal lobes (so perhaps they are able to do memory consolidation during the day with all of their extra brain matter, instead of waiting to do it during sleep). However, I’m pretty sure David Linden disproves this in his pop sci brain book. (Unfortunately I don’t have the book easily accessible so I can’t check).

Also, to file under “misguided optimism that leads people to say things that are wrong”: Ratey says that Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein had dyslexia (105), and that for that reason, having dyslexia doesn’t mean you’re dumb. I agree that having dyslexia doesn’t mean you’re dumb, but there’s no actual evidence that either Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein had dyslexia.

Due to the high percentage of this book consisting of false statements, I almost rated it 1 star, but what redeemed it slightly for me was Ratey’s refreshing take on psychiatric drugs. For a psychiatrist, Ratey is unusually cautious about blindly supplying psych drugs to every patient and unusually forthcoming about their side effects. There’s an excellent, though lengthy passage which describes the ways in which psych drugs can impair patients: “In an era when Prozac is taken nearly as often as aspirin, clinicians find it tempting to attack any emotional or behavioral problem with a prescription. Too often symptoms are relieved but not cured, and the relief comes at the expense of other dimensions of the patients’ life. Sedating the overactive brain with medication may calm a patients fears and worries, but it often impairs cognitive ability. Stimulants may lengthen a person’s attention span but compromise creativity. Lithium can stabilize mood swings, but it cripples short-term memory. Neuroleptics can dampen the vivid and terrifying hallucinations of schizophrenic psychoses, yet they often erode motivation and narrow cognitive capacities. Although psychiatry has finally achieved recognition as a medical science, drug therapy is still a crude and primitive tool for treating an organ we are only beginning to understand. Which faculties and sources of satisfaction should a psychiatric patient expect to surrender for the sake of therapeutic convenience? … An individual can exhibit any combination of mild ADHD, OCD, mania, paranoia, depression, autism, or other ‘pathological’ traits to some degree, yet still lead a normal, productive life. Each trait may actually be an adaptive behavioral mechanism to compensate for a neurological deficit.” (338-339)

Ratey is right here. Mood is an additional sense, but for the social world, as opposed to the five senses which probe the physical world. Serotonin and the serotonergic pathways in the brain form the physical basis for mood. If you pour sulfuric acid in one of your ears, your ability to hear might change. If you do the pharmaceutical equivalent with your serotonergic system, your ability to navigate the social world might be compromised.


Misc parts:

“A previous study of Prozac found no effects on IQ, language, or behavior among babies exposed to the drug as fetuses. However, other research indicates an increased rate of ‘minor anomalies’ at birth, such as abnormal creases in the palm of the hand. Until more research is done, women who are taking antidepressants or any medication and are considering pregnancy should consult with their doctors about the risks of continuing or stopping medications on the health of mother and fetus.” (30)

“For their part, would-be fathers would also be wise to avoid exposure to smoking, alcohol, drugs, and toxins for at least three months prior to conception — the life span of sperm.” (30)

“…the ‘neural networks’ that were thought might grow so sophisticated one day that supercomputers could mimic and exceed the capacities of the human brain. These computers have proved terribly inadequate at achieving even the simplest cognitive tasks of the youngest child, such as understanding the meaning of everyday speech. These models fail because they assume that cognition is the result of a series of preset, preprogrammed rules devoid of both meaning and context. If consciousness is a set of programs, then how can you explain an organisms capacities for learning that involve adaptations and development? You can’t. It might be clearer, as suggested by Steve Massaquoi at MIT, for the artificial intelligence field to use the term ‘neuroid network’ to describe its instruments, because ‘neural network’ describes what is going on in the brain, which is simply a different game.” (140-141) Oops, another example of this book aging so, so poorly.

Edelman “neural Darwinism” theory, that neurons compete for connections and resources, and the ones that serve their organism best survive. Edelman also came up with the concept of “reentrant signaling” which as Ratey explains, seems to be the idea that there isn’t a one-to-one mapping of one brain cell corresponding to a person’s knowledge of, say, their grandmother; but rather there is a supermap with then internal mapping spread out over many brain cells and many areas of the brain, where these different maps in different parts of the brain contain different pieces of your grandmother, like a rocking chair, her voice, the concept of an elderly person. This shouldn’t be a terribly surprising to anyone who’s looked at the output of the activation functions for the hidden layers of trained neural networks.

“Damage to the ventromedial cortex is what caused the social problems for Phineas Gage and Elliot. Other historical cases also show the link between such damage and the loss of social skills. The neurotransmitter serotonin may be implicated in the results of damage to the ventromedial cortex. Serotonin has been shown to inhibit aggression in primates and encourage social behavior. Monkeys with good social behavior have more serotonin receptors in their ventromedial cortex than monkeys with poor social behavior.” (311)

Not only does thalidomide cause deformed limbs in fetuses, it also raises their risk of autism by a ton: “… in 33 percent of mothers who, before its use was banned in pregnant women, had ingested thalidomide between days 24 and 27 of pregnancy, their children developed autism, and that fetuses exposed at other times did not… The period between days 24 and 27 of pregnancy is exactly the time that brain neurons are just starting to form.” (327)

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another book that got more compelling to me as it went. The latter half of the book was filled with case studies and discussions that made me sit up straight and wonder about my own situation and that of other people I know. His four theaters idea makes a certain amount of sense. The overall sense of flow from perception to one's inner life is both intriguingly new and profoundly old (does he realize how much that sounds like Aristotle or Aquinas?). The dividing lines between the theaters get weirder, though. "Function" for "brain function" is a meaningless sounding catch-all that needed to be made more specific, and identity/behavior is an ugly hack. Better to observe one stream flowing to identity and one stream circling back to the outer world via behavior. His chapter titles are perhaps a better listing:

Development (this was the earliest and most rambling chapter, may have been better to break it up and split it to the relevant later chapters)

Perception
Attention and Consciousness
Movement (elementary behavior, and Ratey seems to argue that it is a more primitive [sub-]theater, thus it should be in the system fairly far upstream)
Memory
Emotion
Language
Social Brain (which is both identity and behavior, and again could stand to be split)

Four Theaters
Care and Feeding (another grab bag chapter, but it makes sense at the end as a call to action)

[Andy Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who is interested in neurology, neuroscience, and the brain, this is a classic. Ratey provides a depth of knowledge and theory in a manner that anyone can understand despite educational level. Ratey avoids the often exclusive jargon found in the neuroscience and science world in general. While dated today, this book can still help you understand central ideas, theories, concepts, and applications of the neurological function. If you want to peek into the confusing and complex world between your ears, give this book a read. Understanding the patterns of behavior within the brain can help you to take some control over it.

[Mike Doyle · Rating 1 out of 5]

A 1 star review for me means that this book was something I tried but couldn't get into or didn't enjoy and didn't want to punish myself by finishing it anyway.  I put a 1 star so I can keep track of these attempts to broaden my reading world by trying new (to me) authors and books I have never tried.

Who knows, maybe one day I will come back to this book at a different time as a different me it will be another story

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, most people would expect this to "just be another boring science book" but I in fact quite enjoyed it. Not only does it give factual info in a fun way but it also includes actual stories about what the chapters are about, not just cold hard facts. would I recommend this book to others? Definitely! Its a great book and interesting to boot.

[Alli · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was enjoyable and interesting, but very dense with information. It is not as accessible to the everyday reader as it markets itself to be. Still, there is a lot of fascinating research and the author’s voice is for the most part easy to follow. It has some pictures, but I think it would benefit from more diagrams illustrating each new brain structure as it is introduced.

[Eman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for layman research of the neuroscience as observed by clinical psychologists. Makes sure that the reader understands what all the big unfamiliar science words mean and brings you up to date on the last 5 decades or so of observations and research development. Certainly not the most modern, preeminent book on the subject, but a satisfactory impulse buy.