Book Review of: The New Brain

We highly recommend The New Brain

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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.