Brain Myths Exploded: Lessons from Neuroscience

by Indre Viskontas

Streaming video, 2017

Status

Available

Call number

612.82

Collections

Publication

Great Courses (2017), 12 hours, 24 lectures, 232 pages

Description

Science. Nonfiction. HTML: Much of the layperson's knowledge of the brain is predicated on a lack of understanding about this mysterious organ. To start building a more straightforward, accurate understanding of current breakthroughs in neuroscience, you have to start by shattering popular brain myths. Each of these 24 lectures takes as its focus a single powerful, prevalent brain myth, and uses it as a launch pad from which to explore myriad topics in neuroscience: decision making, memory, dreams, emotions, neuroplasticity, consciousness, mental illness, and much more. Our memory is an accurate, objective record of the past. Our senses reflect the world as it really exists. Our dreams have hidden meanings. We are only using 10% of our total brain power. Modern technology (including social media) is making us less intelligent. Dr. Viskontas doesn't just settle for obliterating these and other myths. Instead, she replaces them with scientific facts gathered from experiments, research, and case studies. The result is an eye-opening adventure into the latest understanding of why the brain works the way it does.Whatever order you enjoy these lectures in, you'll be left with insights that will help you better determine the hard scientific truths behind the breaking news (and myths) of tomorrow..… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member LisCarey
This is another take on advances in modern brain science. Viskontas' approach is to start each chapter with a popular myth about the brain, for instance the idea that we use only 10% of our brains, and then give us an overview of what current neuroscience tells us about this particular myth. This
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is Great Courses offering, so it's in the form of two dozen lectures, each under an hour. Viskontas is a lively lecturer, who tells stories, and weaves in personal background where it's enlightening, and altogether kept me completely engaged.

Highly recommended.

I bought this audiobook.
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LibraryThing member Jerry.Yoakum
Good subject matter with each myth being addressed with stories and a reasoning for why the myth exists. Then counterpoints are examined based on research.

I enjoyed the content and the lecturer but could have done with less examples from her own life. Her examples were interesting but kind of
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defeated her point that one-off stories make for good myths but aren't good science.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2017-09-19

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