Brain Rules

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

by John J. Medina

Number of pages: 460

Publisher: Pear Press

BBB Library: Psychology and Strengths

ISBN: 9780979777721



About the Author

John J. Medina is a developmental molecular biologist with special research interests in the isolation and characterization of genes involved in human brain development and the genetics of psychiatric disorders.

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Editorial Review

The brain is an amazing thing, easily the most sophisticated information-transfer system on earth, this is because it sends jolts of electricity crackling through hundreds of miles of wires composed of brain cells so small that thousands of them could fit into the period at the end of this sentence. You accomplish all of this in less time than it takes you to blink. What is equally incredible is that most of us have no idea how our brain works.

Book Reviews

“What one thing could we do to improve our relationships, our work, and the way we learn? According to Dr Medina, we should make friends with our brains and learn to work with them, not against them. In Brain Rules, Medina outlines 12 practical ideas to help acquaint us with the ways our brains function and the ways we can engage positively as individuals and as a society.” Psychiatric Times

"Have you ever wondered why some of your students’ eyes seem to glaze over after a few minutes of talking to them about library resources? Or why a teaching strategy that worked brilliantly in one classroom falls flat in another? Is it true that multitasking is really impossible to do successfully? According to Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina, all of these questions can be answered by understanding how human brains are wired."LOEX Quarterly

"Brain Rules isn’t a straight explanation of the rules, though—it’s a working example of how to use them. Applying the Rules into his presentation style itself, Medina offers up examples and stories to keep us engaged"

In Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, Medina does just that. In this delightful book, he introduces us to twelve things we know about how our brains work and—after presenting the science—poses some ideas for the research community to explore in hopes of better understanding how these brain rules can lead to more adaptive behavior.

"The greatest thing about Brain Rules is that it is a very accessible book on how the brain works. For anyone who is curious about neuroscience, this is probably the best book to start with. It lacks the scientific facts and references for the hardcore neuroscience geeks, but that’s okay if you just want a primer on the brain."Asian Efficiency

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Wisdom to Share

Females are more likely to get depressed than men.

Males are more severely afflicted by schizophrenia than females.

Females do most of their chatting with the left hemisphere while men do with their right hemisphere.

The more visual the inputs become, the more likely it is to be recognized and recalled.

A little bit of stress heightens your ability to learn.

There is no question that there is a relationship between stress and learning.

What we pay attention to is influenced by memory.

The brain seems to be making choices according to some stubborn timing pattern influenced by both culture and genes.

People remember emotional situations longer than calm ones for neurochemical reasons.

The more attention the brain pays to a given stimulus, the more elaborately the information will be encoded and retained.

If someone does not feel safe with a teacher or boss, he or she may not be able perform as well.

Our learning performance is deeply affected by the emotional environment in which the learning takes place.

We try to see the world in terms of motivations.

There are two ways to beat the environment: you can become stronger, or become smarter.

The brain appears to be designed to solve problems related to surviving in an unstable environment.

A stressed brain is significantly less productive.