Brain Rules

InBrain Rules, Dr. John Medina, a molecular biologist, shares his lifelong interest in how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work.

Informationen zum Autor John Medina is a developmental molecular biologist and research consultant. He is an affiliate professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He was the founding director of two brain research institutes: the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research, at Seattle Pacific University, and the Talaris Research Institute, a nonprofit organization originally focused on how infants encode and process information. Medina lives in Seattle, Washington, with his wife and two boys. Klappentext Updated and expanded edition of the "New York Times" bestseller. Molecular biologist Dr. John Medina shares his lifelong interest in how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work, describing a brain rule in each chapter, accompanied by a transformative idea for our daily lives. Zusammenfassung "Includes link to 'Brain Rules' film"--Cover. Inhaltsverzeichnis survivalThe human brain evolved, too.exerciseExercise boosts brain power.sleepSleep well, think well.stressStressed brains don't learn the same way.wiringEvery brain is wired differently.attentionWe don't pay attention to boring things.memoryRepeat to remember.sensory integrationStimulate more of the senses.visionVision trumps all other senses.musicStudy or listen to boost cognition.genderMale and female brains are different.explorationWe are powerful and natural explorers.

Klappentext

Updated and expanded edition of the "New York Times" bestseller. Molecular biologist Dr. John Medina shares his lifelong interest in how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work, describing a brain rule in each chapter, accompanied by a transformative idea for our daily lives.

Zusammenfassung
"Includes link to 'Brain Rules' film"--Cover.

Leseprobe

Introduction

Go ahead and multiply the number 8,388,628 x 2 in your head. Can you do it in a few seconds? There is a young man who can double that number 24 times in the space of a few seconds. He gets it right every time. There is a boy who can tell you the precise time of day at any moment, even in his sleep. There is a girl who can correctly determine the exact dimensions of an object 20 feet away. There is a child who at age 6 drew such vivid and complex pictures, some people ranked her version of a galloping horse over one drawn by da Vinci. Yet none of these children have an IQ greater than 70.
The brain is an amazing thing.

Your brain may not be nearly so odd, but it is no less extraordinary. Easily the most sophisticated information-transfer system on Earth, your brain is fully capable of taking the little black squiggles in this book and deriving meaning from them. To accomplish this miracle, your brain sends jolts of electricity crackling through hundreds of miles of wires composed of brain cells so small that thousands of them could fit into the period at the end of this sentence. You accomplish all of this in less time than it takes you to blink. Indeed, you have just done it. What's equally incredible, given our intimate association with it, is this: Most of us have no idea how our brain works.

12 Brain Rules
My goal is to introduce you to 12 things we know about how the brain works. I call these Brain Rules. For each rule, I present the science, introduce you to the researchers behind it, and then offer ideas for how the rule might apply to our daily lives, especially at work and school. The brain is complex, and I am taking only slivers of information from each subjectnot comprehensive but, I hope, accessible.

Here is a sampling of the ideas you'll encounter:

We are not used to sitting at a desk for eight hours a day. From an evolutionary perspective, our brains developed while we walked or ran as many as 12 miles a day. The brain still craves this experience. That's why exercise boosts brain power (Brain Rule #2) in sedentary populations like our own. Exercisers outperform couch potatoes in long-term memory, reasoning, attention, and problem solving tasks.

As you no doubt have noticed if you've ever sat through a typical PowerPoint presentation, people don't pay attention to boring things (Brain Rule #6). You've got seconds to grab someone's attention and only 10 minutes to keep it. At 9 minutes and 59 seconds, you must do something to regain attention and restart the clocksomething emotional and relevant. Also, the brain needs a break. That's why I use stories in this book to make many of my points.

Ever feel tired about three o'clock in the afternoon? That's because your brain really wants to take a nap. You might be more productive if you did. In one study, a 26-minute nap improved NASA pilots' performance by 34 percent. And whether you get enough rest at night affects your mental agility the next day. Sleep well, think well (Brain Rule #3).

We'll meet a man who can remember everything he reads after seeing the words just once. Most of us do more forgetting than remembering, of course, and that's why we must repeat to remember (Brain Rule #7). When you understand the brain's rules for memory, you'll see why I want to destroy the notion of homework.

We'll find out why the terrible twos only look like active rebellion but actually are a child's powerful urge to explore. Babies may not have a lot of knowledge about the world, but they know a whole lot about how to get it. We are powerful and natural explorers (Brain Rule #12). This never leaves us, despite the artificial environments we've built for ourselves.

What we know about the brain comes from biologists who study brain tissues, experimental psychologists who study behavior, cognitive neuroscientists who study how the fir

Inhalt

survival
The human brain evolved, too.

exercise
Exercise boosts brain power.

sleep
Sleep well, think well.

stress
Stressed brains don’t learn the same way.

wiring
Every brain is wired differently.

attention
We don’t pay attention to boring things.

memory
Repeat to remember.

sensory integration
Stimulate more of the senses.

vision
Vision trumps all other senses.

music
Study or listen to boost cognition.

gender
Male and female brains are different.
exploration
We are powerful and natural explorers.