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How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives
W. W. Norton & Company
July 2011
On Sale: July 11, 2011
310 pages
ISBN: 0393076024
EAN: 9780393076028
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A lively, surprising tour of our mental glitches and how they arise. With its trillions of connections, the human brain is more beautiful and complex than anything we could ever build, but it's far from perfect. Our memory is unreliable; we can't multiply large sums in our heads; advertising manipulates our judgment; we tend to distrust people who are different from us; supernatural beliefs and superstitions are hard to shake; we prefer instant gratification to long-term gain; and what we presume to be rational decisions are often anything but. Drawing on striking examples and fascinating studies, neuroscientist Dean Buonomano illuminates the causes and consequences of these "bugs" in terms of the brain's innermost workings and their evolutionary purposes. He then goes one step further, examining how our brains function-and malfunction-in the digital, predator-free, information-saturated, special effects-addled world that we have built for ourselves. Along the way, Brain Bugs gives us the tools to hone our cognitive strengths while recognizing our inherent weaknesses. 10 black-and-white illustrations
 Media BuzzFresh Air - NPR - July 14, 2011
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