| Review
of The New Brain, by Richard Restak, M.D. (best-selling author
of Mozart's Brain and The Fighter Pilot). Reviewer:
Mark Lamendola, Mensa member, principal of www.mindconnection.com,
and author of over 4500 articles.
Why are attention spans shorter, these days? Take
a trip to the library, and look at magazine articles from a decade ago.
Why are they twice as long as today’s articles? Why is it "people
don't read?" Or listen? Or, as we are increasingly hearing, think?
The answers to these and other important questions regarding a fundamental
shift in the way people process information and respond to it are in
The New Brain.
The trends toward shorter attention spans, instant
gratification, and "dumbing down" have been the subjects of
one guru after another. Yet, the discussions have been largely opinion
and open to debate. Until now.
Restak settles the questions and removes all doubts
by using modern medical imaging technology to literal look into the
working, living brain itself. From the studies he cites and the explanations
he provides, we can clearly see that the brain "of modern man"
is rewiring itself to adapt to television and other rapid-fire, image-intense
media. Restak pushes the subject further, to show that this adaptation
is not without its costs. For example, brains rewired to adapt to these
unbalanced inputs lose their ability to work in the abstract. This ability
is important for invention, creation, conversation, imagination, and
even good love-making - things that make us human.
While the book is fascinating in its own right,
the information is worth far more than its value for party chatter.
Restak has handed his readers the keys to their own destinies. By understanding
the effects of what we watch, see, read, and listen to, we can determine
how much of this rewiring goes on. Empowered by the information in The
New Brain, the reader can adapt to the new inputs without becoming
lost in them. Other books will surely emerge on this topic. Make this
one the first in your collection. |