John Medina - Brain Rules. What you and your children should know about the brain

John Medina

Brain rules

12 Principles of Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School

Published by permission of BASIC BOOKS, an imprint of PEPSEUS BOOKS, INC. (USA) with the participation of the Alexander Korzhenevsky Agency (Russia)

All rights reserved. No part electronic version This book may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for private or public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Legal support for the publishing house is provided by the Vegas-Lex law firm.

This book is well complemented by:

Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Carol Dweck

Lee LeFever

Daniel Goleman

Dedicated to Joshua and Noah.

My dear boys, thank you for the constant reminder that age does not matter unless you are cheese

Introduction

Try multiplying the number 8,388,628 by 2 in your head. Can you calculate the result in a few seconds? And one young man is able to multiply such numbers by two 24 times within a few seconds. And give the correct result every time. Another can name exact time at any time, even if you wake him up at night. And one girl accurately determines the size of any object at a distance of six meters. Another six-year-old child paints such realistic and vivid paintings that they were even exhibited in a gallery on Madison Avenue. But none of them can be taught to tie their shoelaces. Their IQ is no higher than 50.

The brain is something amazing.

Your brain may not be as extraordinary as these kids', but it is still amazing. The human brain easily copes with the most sophisticated information transmission system on Earth, reading small black symbols on a canvas of bleached wood and understanding their meaning. To create this miracle, he sends an electrical impulse along hundreds of kilometers of wires to brain cells so tiny that thousands of them could fit into a single line. And all this happens so quickly that you don’t even have time to blink. By the way, you just did this. And the most incredible thing is that most people have no idea how the brain works.

This ignorance leads to strange consequences. We're trying to talk mobile phone and still drive a car, although the human brain is not designed to multitask when it comes to attention. We have created a stressful work environment in offices, but in such conditions, brain productivity decreases. System school education built in such a way that O Most of the learning process takes place at home. Perhaps this would be funny if it were not so harmful to humanity. Unfortunately, brain scientists rarely communicate with teachers, professional workers, the top of the education system, accountants and company executives. You have no information unless you read Neuroscience magazine over a cup of coffee.

This book is designed to get you up to speed.

12 rules of the brain

My goal is to tell you twelve facts about how the brain works. I call them brain rules and provide scientific evidence to back them up, as well as ideas for how each rule can be applied to your brain. Everyday life, especially at work and school. The brain is very complex, so I'm only providing a small portion of each aspect - not comprehensive, but hopefully accessible. On the pages of the book you will become familiar with the following ideas:

Let's start with the fact that it is not necessary to sit at a school desk for eight hours a day. From an evolutionary point of view, our brain developed through labor and traveling over 12 miles a day. The brain still strives for activity, although modern people, which includes us, lead a sedentary lifestyle. Physical activity stimulates brain function (). Physical exercise help people glued to the couch improve long-term memory, logical thinking, attention and ability to solve assigned tasks. I'm sure that after spending eight hours at work or school, everyone will benefit from it.

As you may have noticed in the example of a simple PowerPoint presentations, people don't pay attention to boring (). You only have a few seconds to get their attention and 10 minutes to keep it. After 9 minutes 59 seconds, you need to again attract their attention with something, and the timer will start counting down again - it should be something related to emotions. Plus, your brain needs a break. That's why in the book I use a large number of stories to get your point across.

Do you feel tired already at three o'clock in the afternoon? Apparently your brain wants to take a nap. And it would increase your productivity. One NASA study found that a 26-minute nap increased pilot performance by 34 percent. Sufficient night rest affects mental activity the next day. Good dream – good thinking ().

We will meet a person who, after reading two pages, is able to remember new information forever. Most of us forget more than we remember, so we need repetition to remember (). Once you learn the brain's rules for memory development, you'll understand why I'm against homework.

We will realize that children as young as two years old only appear to be rebels; in fact, they are driven by a thirst for exploration. Children do not have broad and deep knowledge about the world around them, but they know well how to acquire it. By nature, we are researchers (), and this quality will always be inherent in us, despite the artificial environment we have created.

Do not consider the ideas at the end of each chapter to be recommendations. They contain a call to test them in real conditions. I proceeded from what I do in life. My research involves studying mental disorders at the molecular level, but I am particularly interested in the relationship between the genome and behavior. B O most of its professional life I worked as a consultant; I was invited to participate in research projects, when the help of a molecular biologist with a similar specialization was required. I had the opportunity to observe endless attempts to study the dependence of mental activity on the set of chromosomes.

Elevated mental capacity no need to explain...

Based on the book by John Medin “Rules for the Brain: 12 principles...” (long title, it was not possible to translate it conveniently, unfortunately in the Russian version in in full there is no book. Link to the original English version at the bottom of the article).

So, I came across this book by accident. A quick acquaintance is a bit of a disappointment, because I already wrote this on the pages of my blog, drawing information from other sources. But after …

Most likely, John is the original author, and all the others, let’s put it mildly, are his noble distributors, because good information should not gather dust on the shelves. It should bring benefit and joy to people. (In this way, information piracy can be justified. But there is truth in this, isn’t there?)

In general, having tinkered a little with the translation, just below are 12 rules for improving your brain from the original source.

But first, about John himself. Molecular biologist (i.e., he often sees right through brains, both literally and figuratively), scientific consultant on the latter’s work, employee at the Department of Bioengineering (in general, a terrible word) at Med. University of Washington.

If anyone understands the activity and functioning of the brain, it is D. Medina. If you ask anyone for advice on how to improve your thinking, then this is... Well, you get the idea. So, rules for your brain.

12 rules to improve your intelligence from D. Medina

1. Exercise

But not strength, but endurance (aerobic), something that needs to be done for a long time, at least 1.5 - 2 minutes. For example: running, walking, swimming, fitness... 30 minutes per lesson, 2 - 3 times a week.

Of course, it all depends on the “athlete” himself, who needs more loads, and who cannot handle such a pace.

Physical exercise improves cognitive abilities ( cognitive processes: from memory to reaction speed).

2. The brain has evolved and is evolving

He had to do it. Some grew claws, some grew teeth, and people increased their intelligence.

What does this mean for us? That the bet in the Game called Life must be placed on your own head. True, if you don’t just have it, it’s a good design for wearing elegant hats. It needs to be constantly developed.

3. Your mind is unique, individual

No one else has this.

“My brain is so unique, special...” And it is true. It has its own characteristics for different people, nations, and representatives of cultures.

How does such individuality come about? It is partly inherited and largely acquired through targeted actions. Specialization occurs.

A mason is smarter in construction, but pine is smarter in carpentry. The mathematician is in awe of the last figure, but does not understand at all why there are more charismatic people in politics rather than professionals...

What you want to succeed in is to study, study and study again...

4. If it’s boring, it’s not “practical”

For the thinker to work well, it should be:

Interesting. Emotions cause a special surge of energy, which improves performance in general, incl. and heads.
Meaningful. “Get in touch” with what you already know.
Purposefully. No multitasking.
Don't overdo it. Like the body, the brain muscle needs timely rest and can only work for a certain time.

5. Repetition is the mother of learning

To remember you need to repeat.

You already know this; the entire education system from Aristotle to the present day is based on this principle.

6. Remember for a long time - repeat once

Memory has its own cycles. Something like this: once every six months you need to “keep in mind” what you don’t want to forget.

7. Sleep well

And we have verified this in our own experience. Medina also recommends sleeping for 20 minutes at lunchtime.

8. Stress is Evil

9. Stimulation of identification senses

Let's list our “sensors” - what helps us navigate the “here and now”:

Vision,
Hearing,
Smell,
Taste,
Bodily sensations (sensation of heat, wind, touch...).

The more often you use all these 5 senses, the better your brain develops.

10. But vision is the best

Processing visual images takes up half the work of the entire brain.

Practically, what this means: try to prioritize visual information.

11. Men and women's brains work differently.

Some pay more attention to details, others to the emotional side of things.

Don’t try to get into his (her) head, or onto his neck either... Remember that “their” brains work differently. If you understand this difference: together, if you cooperate, there is harmony, a super brain.

12. Curiosity is the key to upgrading your mind.

Look at the kids - they are very curious, which is no coincidence. The person who has retained his natural curiosity is smarter than his fellows.

Curiosity is the fuel for developing intelligence.

P.S. Somewhere in RuNet there is a stripped-down version of it...

John Medina. Brain rules. What you and your children should know about the brain

Dedicated to Joshua and Noah. My dear boys, thank you for the constant reminder that age does not matter unless you are cheese

This book is well complemented by:

Thinking Traps

Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Flexible consciousness

Carol Dweck

The art of explaining

Lee LeFever

Emotional intellect

Daniel Goleman

Information from the publisher

Published with permission from PEAR PRESS c/o PERSEUS BOOKS Inc. and the agency of Alexander Korzhenevsky

Medina, John

Brain rules. What you and your children should know about the brain / John Medina; lane from English K. Ivanova. - 3rd ed. - M.: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2018.

ISBN 978-5-00100-987-0

This book contains the most full information about the features of brain functioning and are given practical recommendations to optimize its operation. Implementing the rules described by the author will help increase work efficiency, improve memory, improve the learning process and allow you to successfully conduct negotiations and presentations.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holders.

Introduction

Try multiplying the number 8,388,628 by 2 in your head. Can you calculate the result in a few seconds? And one young man is able to multiply such numbers by two 24 times within a few seconds. And give the correct result every time. Another can tell the exact time at any moment, even if you wake him up at night. And one girl accurately determines the size of any object at a distance of six meters. Another six-year-old child paints such realistic and vivid paintings that they were even exhibited in a gallery on Madison Avenue. But none of them can be taught to tie their shoelaces. Their IQ is no higher than 50.

The brain is something amazing.

Your brain may not be as extraordinary as these kids', but it is still amazing. The human brain easily copes with the most sophisticated information transmission system on Earth, reading small black symbols on a canvas of bleached wood and understanding their meaning. To create this miracle, he sends an electrical impulse along wires hundreds of kilometers long to brain cells so tiny that thousands of them could fit in one line. And all this happens so quickly that you don’t even have time to blink. By the way, you just did this. And the incredible thing is: most people have no idea how the brain works.

This ignorance leads to strange consequences. We try to talk on a cell phone and drive a car at the same time, although the human brain is not designed to multitask when it comes to attention. We have created a stressful work environment in offices, but in such conditions, brain productivity decreases. The school education system is designed in such a way that O Most of the learning process takes place at home. Perhaps this would be funny if it were not so harmful to humanity. Unfortunately, brain scientists rarely interact with teachers, professionals, educational leaders, accountants, and corporate executives. You have no information unless you read Neuroscience magazine over a cup of coffee.

I present to your attention the book “Brain Rules: What You and Your Children Should Know About the Brain” by John Medina from the publishing house MYTH.

And one six-year-old child draws such realistic and vivid paintings that they were exhibited in a gallery? But each of them “can’t even tie their shoelaces.”

Why are some people active in old age and living vibrant lives? rich life, while others, on the contrary, live out their years devastated and have lost interest in life?

In connection with this issue, the description of Jack Lalanne's birthday was impressive: “Battling strong winds and currents, the man swam more than two kilometers to the Kings Bay Bridge, in tow he pulled seventy boats with passengers. This is how Jack Lalanne celebrated his birthday. Turned 70 years old."

Of course, I immediately wanted to know what the secret of such people was? And can any person become as extraordinary?

The book is written in a unique way. The author tried to talk as simply and figuratively as possible about the subtle processes occurring in our brain at the level of neuroanatomy. But the language is not always easy and understandable; sometimes paragraph after paragraph, more and more new terms are revealed. Therefore, this book is best in deep reading mode.

The book consists of 12 chapters, each of which is devoted to a specificrule-recommendations for more productive brain function and use of your capabilities. After each chapter, the author provides a short summary of the main points a certain rule- this greatly facilitates the understanding and memorization of complex information.

The author reveals the rules of the brain at 4 levels, revealing aspects such as:
- physiology of our brain,
- features of memory, thinking and perception,
- dreams about schools and training centers future based on the knowledge gained in result of research,
- illustrations from the lives of patients who influenced the most important discoveries in the field of neuroanatomy.

So, let's look at the brightest and interesting points books.

1. Physical activity allow us to reduce the risk of brain diseases, relieve stress and depressive notes.

Exercise leads to improved problem-solving abilities, develops intelligence and improves memory and attention.

2. Different people different areas brains store the same information.

Also unique is the fact that any physical or intellectual stress affects the shape of our brain.

3. Considering memory, perception, thinking, the author gives detailed explanation why most people can't multitask. We touched on this issue in the book.

Interesting approach to teaching - 10 minute modules.

To improve the quality of learning, it is better to activate students' emotions. Under such conditions, memorization improves.

4. Features of memorization.

When certain information enters the brain, data encoding occurs; this is directly related to the ability to remember the information received. This process is carried out by transmitting electrical stimuli.

Thus, any information is encoded in a certain way. An interesting test to determine the type of encoding: semantic, phonemic, structural.

I remember an experiment that demonstrated that memorization improves when the conditions under which information was received are reproduced.

For example, a group of people listened to a lecture for 40 minutes during an underwater experiment. The quality of reproduction of what was heard was much better when the conditions under which the information entered the brain were recreated. Being in a different environment, people were able to reproduce 15% less data.

5. Features of long-term memory.
An interesting way for bilingual families to memorize languages: create a certain place in the house, for example, a room, where all family members speak only one language.

Also interesting was the idea that our memories change over the years.

We are better able to remember thanks to aromas (an experiment where during sleep the room was filled with the scent of roses).

6. Was very unusual Information about daytime sleep , How physiological need body. Such sleep promotes better memory and also increases productivity several times.

Sleep strengthens neural connections- improving memory and attention.
And vice versa:

7. Chapter Eight on Stress and impact long-term stress very impressive on the body (thanks to this chapter, I was able to prepare a lecture on intellectual overload).

Please note that now Stress in our lives is measured not in seconds, but in hours, days, sometimes with “months of work turmoil, screaming teenagers and financial problems.”

These processes occur in the body as hormonal surges of adrenaline and cortisone. When such exposure is not short-term, but is chronic, these biochemical changes actually poison the body.

Thereby Stress isn't just bad for your brain, but also the entire body as a whole, the immune system is primarily under attack.

Interesting observations of how different people react to stress, how family conflicts affect the abilities of children and adults.

People can be roughly divided into two groups: those prone to increased anxiety and resilient, even to serious stressful situations.

8. Several chapters are devoted to the issue how vision and hearing affect our perception of information and its memorization.

The idea of mirror neurons, which allow us to copy behavior, is interesting. They are actively used in dancing and sports.

9. Most interest Ask is revealed in the last chapter. Illustrating the difference between a man and a woman at the genetic level, the author presents the results of research in the field of differences in memory, attention, and thinking processes in representatives of different sexes.

And finally key point in the book is the answer to the question asked by the author at the beginning of the book: how to remain young and active in old age thinking person? This the ability to be as inquisitive as a child at any age.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the research carried out by foreign scientists in this area, in particular John Medina, has only now been published and adapted for the general public. Many discoveries in the field of neuroanatomy were made by our domestic scientists much earlier. This is very pleasing, because... the approach of our scientists is more multifaceted and broad-spectrum.

Enjoy reading!
You can read one of the book’s chapters for free on the website of the Mann, Ivanov and Ferber publishing house.
Buy a book on ozon.ru

Friends, please write below in the comments, are you familiar with the books of John Medina? What discoveries are the most significant and interesting for you?

See you soon!

Sincerely,
Alexandra Rudamanova,
internet trainer,
project Manager
"Quick Read- Lifestyle"

John Medina

Brain rules. What you and your children should know about the brain

John Medina

Brain rules

12 Principles of Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School

Published by permission of BASIC BOOKS, an imprint of PEPSEUS BOOKS, INC. (USA) with the participation of the Alexander Korzhenevsky Agency (Russia)

All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for private or public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Legal support for the publishing house is provided by the Vegas-Lex law firm.

* * *

This book is well complemented by:

Thinking Traps

Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Flexible consciousness

Carol Dweck

The art of explaining

Lee LeFever

Emotional intellect

Daniel Goleman

Dedicated to Joshua and Noah.

My dear boys, thank you for the constant reminder that age does not matter unless you are cheese

Introduction

Try multiplying the number 8,388,628 by 2 in your head. Can you calculate the result in a few seconds? And one young man is able to multiply such numbers by two 24 times within a few seconds. And give the correct result every time. Another can tell the exact time at any moment, even if you wake him up at night. And one girl accurately determines the size of any object at a distance of six meters. Another six-year-old child paints such realistic and vivid paintings that they were even exhibited in a gallery on Madison Avenue. But none of them can be taught to tie their shoelaces. Their IQ is no higher than 50.

The brain is something amazing.

This book is designed to get you up to speed.

12 rules of the brain

My goal is to tell you twelve facts about how the brain works. I call them brain rules and provide scientific evidence to back them up, as well as ideas for how each rule can be applied in everyday life, especially at work and school. The brain is very complex, so I'm only providing a small portion of each aspect - not comprehensive, but hopefully accessible. On the pages of the book you will become familiar with the following ideas:

Let's start with the fact that it is not necessary to sit at a school desk for eight hours a day. From an evolutionary point of view, our brain developed through labor and traveling over 12 miles a day. The brain still strives for activity, although modern people, like us, lead a sedentary lifestyle. Physical activity stimulates brain function (brain rule #1). Exercise helps people glued to the couch improve long-term memory, logical thinking, attention and problem-solving ability. I'm sure that after spending eight hours at work or school, everyone will benefit from it.

As you may have noticed from a simple PowerPoint presentation, people don't pay attention to boring things (brain rule #4). You only have a few seconds to get their attention and 10 minutes to keep it. After 9 minutes 59 seconds, you need to again attract their attention with something, and the timer will start counting down again - it should be something related to emotions. Plus, your brain needs a break. That's why I use a lot of stories in the book to get my point across.

Do you feel tired already at three o'clock in the afternoon? Apparently your brain wants to take a nap. And it would increase your productivity. One NASA study found that a 26-minute nap increased pilot performance by 34 percent. Getting enough rest at night affects mental performance the next day. Good sleep means good thinking (brain rule #7).

We will meet a person who, after reading two pages, is able to remember new information forever. Most of us forget more than we remember, so we need repetition to remember (Brain Rule #5). Once you learn the brain's rules for memory development, you'll understand why I'm against homework.

We will realize that children as young as two years old only appear to be rebels; in fact, they are driven by a thirst for exploration. Children do not have broad and deep knowledge about the world around them, but they know well how to acquire it. We are explorers by nature (brain rule #12), and this quality will always be inherent in us, despite the artificial environment we have created.

Do not consider the ideas at the end of each chapter to be recommendations. They call for testing them in real conditions. I proceeded from what I do in life. My research involves studying mental disorders at the molecular level, but I am particularly interested in the relationship between the genome and behavior. B O I have spent most of my professional life as a consultant; I have been invited to participate in research projects that require the assistance of a molecular biologist with a similar specialty. I had the opportunity to observe endless attempts to study the dependence of mental activity on the set of chromosomes.

On one of these trips, I came across articles and books that called for accelerating “progress” in brain research in order to apply the results to education and the workplace. And I was excited, believing that the authors had read literature that my radar had not picked up. I have studied several areas of brain science, but I do not know how to provide the best teaching or working methods. Honestly, science still doesn't know why human brain able to command the body to take a glass of water in the most convenient way.

However, there was no reason to panic. One should be skeptical of any claims that brain science can directly answer the question of how to become best teacher, parent, leader or student. This book calls for widespread research in this area simply because we do not have sufficient knowledge to make recommendations. This is an attempt to vaccinate against such myths as, for example, the Mozart effect, which, by the way, refutes the idea that listening to certain audio recordings while the child is still in the womb will ensure his admission to Harvard or left-hemisphere and right-hemisphere thinking.

Back to the Jungle

Everything we know about the brain comes from the work of biologists who study brain tissue, experimental psychologists who study behavior, cognitive neuroscientists who study how the former relates to the latter, and evolutionary biologists. Although we don't know much about how the brain works, human evolution suggests that the brain is designed to solve problems and survive in unstable environments. environment, and constantly. I call this phenomenon “the limits of the brain.”