28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Looking at our future, May 18, 2005
This review is from: The New Brain: How the Modern Age Is Rewiring Your Mind (Hardcover)
Although Restak's book The New Brain has nothing dramatically new with respect to research, it definitely puts what has emerged from recent research into better perspective for the amateur. Essentially it brings together under specific headings much of what has been learned by various mind/brain researchers through fMRI and PET scan studies, and does it in a very readable and understandable form. A neurologist and neuropsychiatrist at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington D. C., Restak has published 18 or more books on the topic of mind science, putting it into public formats like books and popular television programs.
Among the more interesting topics, I found that on the plasticity of the brain the most significant. I started out my career in nursing on a neurology ward, and at the time it was almost a given that damage to the central nervous system was irreparable and deficits that arose from it irreversible. The goal for most of the patients with strokes from occlusion or cerebral bleed was rehabilitation of the functional side of the body and learning to deal with whatever communication problems remained. It was often repeated that whatever deficits had not resolved after the subsidence of cerebral edema would be permanent. The new research indicates that this is not only not true, but that focusing on strengthening the "good" side actually prevented the "bad" side from healing properly. The marvelous sense of hope that the new data provide is incredible. As those familiar with the efforts of Christopher Reeves to overcome the deficits with which he was left by his accident will know, exercising the weaker portions of the body to the extent they are able with the help of others and of mechanical and electrical stimulation seems to show considerable hope for rewiring the damaged nervous system.
The information on attention deficit and technologically driven changes in the wiring of the brain and function of the mind were also interesting. To the extent that it predicts the direction of the human nervous system and behavior, I'm not certain that technology is such a good thing after all, but then I'm not going to be around when life has changed to the degree that such predictions indicate will be the case. I found it intriguing that the biofeedback we receive from our own technology has as much an effect on us as we on it. Certainly, familiar as I am with the notion of early human evolution and tool use/production, I should have found this natural outgrowth unsurprising. Somehow, though, such things "should" be something of the "past" rather than the "now." After all, we feel we are the "finished" product of human evolution. Just how untrue this is, is very obvious when you read this chapter (3) of Restak's book.
Being a part of the health care world, I found the chapter on Cosmetic Psychopharmacology eye opening. Of course when one considers the emotional pain and crippling character of depression one sees the pharmacological interventions as mostly to be desired. With Restak's discussion of the extreme of designer personalities and of simply not feeling or being anything, one can see that use of these chemicals to alter brain chemistry is perhaps not the best plan over all. The problem is, where to we draw the line, who draws it, and for whom do we set these limits and why? These are all ethical questions that will probably be slugged out case by case until over time solutions are found and guidelines created.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Parent, teacher, grandparent? You should read this book, March 29, 2005
This review is from: The New Brain: How the Modern Age Is Rewiring Your Mind (Hardcover)
This is a very thought provoking book about how our brains are wired and how they work.
The book is very readable and does a good job of explaining how our brains work and how research is showing that our brains are much more elastic and dynamic than previously believed.
I believe that any parent or teacher must read the chapter 'More Images Than Ever'. Restak looks at how various parts of the brain work together to control our behavior and the effect of television and movie images on this wiring. He's careful to point out that this is current theory, and not absolute fact.
When I'd finished this chapter I resolved to change the kind of images that I allow myself to be exposed to, and to be much more careful about what my children see.
Overall this is a positive book that looks to a future where we are much more aware of how our brains function and how to use them and expand our capabilities in benefical ways.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent book, needed today, August 23, 2003
This review is from: The New Brain: How the Modern Age Is Rewiring Your Mind (Hardcover)
Our brains are changing, says Dr. Richard Restak in his latest book, an engaging tour of the frontiers of modern brain research. According to him, we are entering the age of the New Brain where new technologies like genetic mapping and imaging technology will reveal to us for the first time the mysterious secrets hidden within our skulls. And he is superbly qualified to lead us on this adventure into neuroscience.
Dr. Restak is a neurologist and neuropsychiatrist and an expert in brain function and the ongoing research of brain physiology and development. He is a clinical professor of neurology at George Washington Medical Center in the nation's capital and author of more than 15 books on the brain and brain function and appears often in the national media as a popular commentator on scientific research.
What, in general, is the book about? Well, it is about genetic mapping, imaging technology, psychopharmacology, the fact that our brains are working differently from how they did a century ago, in what manner and why the demands of our modern world are bringing about changes in the brain itself, the dramatic new treatments that can repair damage in the brain, the way new drugs can influence how the brain operates and what behaviors can and will result, and the probability that technology, rather than biology, will play the major role in the evolution of the human brain.
This is a compact book (only 212 pages of text) for books dealing with such complex topics, but that may well be to its advantage. It is, after all, written for the ordinary person and not the expert and therein lies its value. Members of the general public need to know what is going on in the area of modern brain research and what impact some of the new technologies in neuroscience may have on their lives. Furthermore, there are potential misuses of and abuses in some of these technologies, there are moral or ethical issues present, and all of us need to have enough knowledge so we can make informed decisions about how we want to permit this new research to affect our lives.
Rather than attempt to provide an overview of all or most of the major topics in Restak's book, let me focus briefly on three revelations that Restak presents from the current research which are sure to be controversial and I found particularly intriguing.
The first one is that it may be possible that brain imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can indicate when you are telling the truth and when you are lying, a tool that would certainly be valuable to a prosecutor and jury if evidence from such a technique was ever accepted by courts of law. Another technique called Brain Fingerprinting, which detects changes in the brain's electrical activity, has already been used in criminal investigations and Restak cites one example where the investigation led to a life sentence in prison. Interesting stuff, that. And the efficacy of such tools will surely be widely debated on the popular media talk-shows.
Another controversial area that Restak explores is that of the influence of violence in the media on brain physiology and behavior. There are, he notes, more than 1,000 studies which support the conclusion "that when children watch violent media they become more aggressive." Without getting into the matter of TV or movie censorship, Restak presents some rather powerful evidence and says "...we know that watching violence -- or even just imagining it -- reduces the functional activity of those parts of our brain that are normally enlisted to inhibit violent impulses." He concludes that "From a practical point of view, it makes a lot of sense...to avoid vivid images of events that, according to what we're learning from new brain research, can lead to psychological harm." I suspect we'll hear a lot more about this research in the future and it will be widely debated.
My personal favorite, however, is his brief discussion regarding the two methods that have traditionally been used to teach children to read. The controversy over which teaching method is best -- phonics or whole-word (aka "look-say") -- has raged for decades. I spent over seventeen years in the public schools and was a strong advocate of phonics, finding myself decidedly in the minority all that time. Now, according to Restak, brain research may have decided the issue. The question he asks is: "Which of the two methods corresponds most closely to what happens in the brain during reading?" The answer, Restak says, is that "recent fMRI studies have largely come down in favor of phonics." I just knew that some day my position on the matter would be vindicated by science. And so it seems.
The only criticism I have of the book regards its subtitle, "How the Modern Age is Rewiring Your Mind." As a philosopher in the tradition of Classical Realism, I make a distinction in kind between the human brain and the human mind. The human brain may be "rewiring" itself, but the human mind cannot do so. It is understandable, however, why Dr. Restak fails to make this distinction; unfortunately, most empirical scientists today also fail to make it. It is interesting, though, that while he uses the term "mind" in his subtitle, no where else in the book do I find him using that term.
This book is a good read. And, I think, an important one considering the nature of the topic and its significance to all our lives. It is generally nontechnical and easily understood, but be aware that it is really an overview of a deeply complex subject. I highly recommend it to everyone.
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