Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain Quotes

“Sometimes we're responsible for things not because they're our fault, but because we're the only ones who can change them.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“Your brain is not more evolved than a rat or lizard brain, just differently evolved.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“Think of the last time you were thirsty and drank a glass of water. Within seconds after draining the last drops, you probably felt less thirsty. This event might seem ordinary, but water actually takes about twenty minutes to reach your bloodstream. Water can't possibly quench your thirst in a few seconds. So what relieved your thirst? Prediction.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“Brains of higher complexity can remember more. A brain doesn’t store memories like files in a computer​—​it reconstructs them on demand with electricity and swirling chemicals. We call this process remembering but it’s really assembling.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“Today, many of us feel like we live in a highly polarized world, where people with opposing opinions cannot even be civil to each other. If you want things to be different, I offer you a challenge. Pick a controversial political issue that you feel strongly about. […] Spend five minutes per day deliberately considering the issue from the perspective of those you disagree with, not to have an argument with them in your head, but to understand how someone who’s just as smart as you can believe the opposite of what you do.

I’m not asking you to change your mind. I’m also not saying this challenge is easy. It requires a withdrawal from your body budget, and it might feel pretty unpleasant or even pointless. But when you try, really try, to embody someone else’s point of view, you can change your future predictions about the people who hold those different views. If you can honestly say, “I absolutely disagree with those people, but I can understand why they believe what they do”, you’re one step closer to a less polarized world. That is not magical liberal academic rubbish. It’s a strategy that comes from basic science about your predicting brain.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“The best thing for your nervous system is another human. The worst thing for your nervous system is also another human. This situation leads us to a fundamental dilemma of the human condition.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“The triune brain idea is one of the most successful and widespread errors in all of science.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“Social reality is an incredible gift. You can simply make stuff up, like a meme or a tradition or a law, and if other people treat it as real, it becomes real. Our social world is a buffer we build around the physical world. The author Lynda Barry writes, “We don’t create a fantasy world to escape reality. We create it to be able to stay.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“You can challenge the beliefs that you were swaddled in as a child. You can change your own niche. Your actions today become your brain’s predictions for tomorrow, and those predictions automatically drive your future actions. Therefore, you have some freedom to hone your predictions in new directions, and you have some responsibility for the results.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“When I say responsibility, I'm not saying that people are to blame for the tragedies in their lives or the hardships they experience as a result. I'm also not saying that people with depression, anxiety, or other serious illnesses are to blame for their suffering. I'm saying something else: Sometimes we're responsible for things not because they're our fault, but because we're the only ones who can change them.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“In short, your brain’s most important job is not thinking. It’s running a little worm body that has become very, very complicated.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“Spend five minutes per day deliberately considering the issue from the perspective of those you disagree with, not to have an argument with them in your head, but to understand how someone who’s just as smart as you can believe the opposite of what you do. I’m not asking you to change your mind. I’m also not saying this challenge is easy. It requires a withdrawal from your body budget, and it might feel pretty unpleasant or even pointless. But when you try, really try, to embody someone else’s point of view, you can change your future predictions about the people who hold those different views. If you can honestly say, “I absolutely disagree with those people, but I can understand why they believe what they do,” you’re one step closer to a less polarized world. This is not magical liberal academic rubbish. It’s a strategy that comes from basic science about your predicting brain.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“So you don’t have an inner lizard or an emotional beast-brain. There is no such thing as a limbic system dedicated to emotions. And your misnamed neocortex is not a new part; many other vertebrates grow the same neurons that, in some animals, organize into a cerebral cortex if key stages run for long enough. Anything you read or hear that proclaims the human neocortex, cerebral cortex, or prefrontal cortex to be the root of rationality, or says that the frontal lobe regulates so-called emotional brain areas to keep irrational behavior in check, is simply outdated or woefully incomplete. The triune brain idea and its epic battle between emotion, instinct, and rationality is a modern myth.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“So you don’t have an inner lizard or an emotional beast-brain. There is no such thing as a limbic system dedicated to emotions.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

“The highly complex human brain isn’t a pinnacle of evolution, remember; it’s just well adapted to the environments we inhabit.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“A superpower works best when you know you have it.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“We have more control over reality than we might think. We also have more responsibility for reality than we might realize.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“As our society makes decisions about health care, the law, public policy, and education, we can ignore our socially dependent nervous systems, or we can take them seriously. These discussions may be difficult, but avoiding them is worse. Our biology won’t just go away.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“A brain network is not a metaphor, as I mentioned earlier; it’s the best scientific description of a brain today.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“You have one brain, not three. To move past Plato’s ancient battle, we might need to fundamentally rethink what it means to be rational, what it means to be responsible for our actions, and perhaps even what it means to be human.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“that adds 104 calories to the meal. If this happens daily, that’s eleven pounds gained per year! Not only that, but if you eat healthful, saturated fats, such as those found in nuts, within one day of being stressed, your body metabolizes these foods as if they were filled with bad fats. I’m”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“By the 1990s, experts had completely rejected the idea of a three-layered brain. It simply didn’t hold up when they analyzed neurons with more sophisticated tools.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“But when you try, really try, to embody someone else’s point of view, you can change your future predictions about the people who hold those different views.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“An organization called Seeds of Peace tries to change predictions by bringing together young people from cultures that are in serious conflict,”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“When it comes to the brain, simple distinctions like nature versus nurture are alluring but not realistic. We have the kind of nature that requires nurture. Your genes require a physical and social environment​—​a niche filled with other humans who shared your infant gaze, spoke to you with intent, set your sleep schedule, and controlled your body temperature​—​in order to produce a finished brain.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“(Kahneman is very clear that Systems 1 and 2 are metaphors about the mind; but they are often mistaken for brain structures.)”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

“Partly it’s because those experts need a better public relations department. But mostly it’s because the triune brain is a story that comes with its own cheering section. With our unique capacity for rational thought, the story goes, we triumphed over our animal nature and now rule the planet. To believe in the triune brain is to award ourselves a first prize trophy for Best Species.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“Other animals are not inferior to humans. They are uniquely and effectively adapted to their environments. Your brain is not more evolved than a rat or lizard brain, just differently evolved.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“I’m not asking you to change your mind. I’m also not saying this challenge is easy. It requires a withdrawal from your body budget, and it might feel pretty unpleasant or even pointless. But when you try, really try, to embody someone else’s point of view, you can change your future predictions about the people who hold those different views. If you can honestly say, “I absolutely disagree with those people, but I can understand why they believe what they do,” you’re one step closer to a less polarized world. This is not magical liberal academic rubbish. It’s a strategy that comes from basic science about your predicting brain.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain

“To believe in the triune brain is to award ourselves a first prize trophy for Best Species.”
― Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain