This book covers a lot of territory: memory, intelligence, language, creativity, smart drugs (and others), sleep, head injuries (a constantly changing field at the moment), diet for the brain, implants, stem cells, how the brain differs in youth and old age. So he knows what he’s talking about when he talks about the brain. But he is no Nick Riviera he is a highly esteemed doctor with a PhD in neurobiology, with 20 years of post-high school education. Jandial is a brain surgeon who was originally a drop-out. It's a bit of a mish-mash of surgery, brain-training (I failed hopelessly at all tests), anecdotes and a reasonably good chapter on drugs that are good for brain function/helping you pass exams.ĭr. He's not a bad writer, but the book is more one to dip into than to stay up late reading because you've been drawn in to the author's world.

So far my main thoughts are that the author is no Henry Marsh. Notes on reading I'm about a third of the way in (I never add books until I'm really involved with them). Nonetheless, say 'brain surgeon' and I'm looking for gore not breathing lessons. This one is better, and it's my fault that I actually expected more brain surgery and less self help as the title is quite clear. What is it with neurosurgeons putting out self help books, I read (also dnf) recently, Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart. Maybe he was trying for something totally different from both other brain and self help books? It varies from slang, 'this is cool' to technical and even preachy. I don't think he's found his voice addressing the non-medical general reader. The author is a well-respected neurosurgeon, scientist and author of scholarly texts. Must play these extremely boring games from an app on your phone because you will be x% less likely to get Alzheimer's after only 10 hours of 'brain training' and so on. Mustn't sleep more than 6 hours or you are 23% more likely to have a stroke and die young, mustn't sleep more than 9 or you're gonna pop off when you least expected it. Can it? The research was based on 26 people trained for two weeks in 'mindful' breathing and the author got all breathy about the results! meditative breathing and how it can help us all. I especially don't like them when I'm told the cure for this particular, phenomenally rare variation of this extremely unusual disease is.

Life lessons from a neurosurgeon