a great read.” - Jon Ronson, author of The Psycopath Test and So You've Been Publicly Shamed In this funny and fascinating book he takes up-to-date research in neuroscience and adds a good dash of humour to examine how and why our brains sabotage our behaviour.” - Cosmos Magazine “Dean Burnett, a neuroscientist, is also a massively popular science blogger for The Guardian newspaper. “This is a wonderful introduction to neuroscience, and deserves to be widely read.” - Independent (UK) “Expertly researched and entertainingly written, this book is for anyone who has wondered why their brain appears to be sabotaging their life, and what on earth it is really up to.” - Guardian piques readers’ interest with some whacky or puzzling behavior and thoughtfully explains the underlying neuroscience.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Packs an incredible amount of information into an accessible package with this breezy, charming collection of pop neuroscience musings on ‘how the human brain does its own thing despite everything the modern world can throw at it.’” - Publishers Weekly

“We love a good brain book, and Idiot Brain by Dean Burnett might just be our new favorite.” - Bookish offers illuminating discussions of the way the memory works, of fear and panic attacks, of our susceptibility to being conned or depressed, and of the marvels of the human senses.” - Wall Street Journal Expertly researched and entertainingly written, this book is for everyone who has wondered why their brain appears to be sabotaging their life, and what on earth it is really up to.

In The Idiot Brain, neuroscientist Dean Burnett celebrates blind spots, blackouts, insomnia and all the other downright laughable things our minds do to us, while also exposing the many mistakes we’ve made in our quest to understand how our brains actually work. Yet all of this, believe it or not, is the sign of a well-meaning brain doing its best to keep you alive and healthy. We cling to superstitions, remember faces but not names, miss things sitting right in front of us and lie awake at night while our brains replay our greatest fears on an endless loop. Yes, it is an absolute marvel in some respects?the seat of our consciousness, the pinnacle (so far) of evolutionary progress and the engine of all human experience?but your brain is also messy, fallible and about 50,000 years out of date. You walk into the kitchen, or flip open your laptop, or stride confidently up to a lectern, filled with purpose?and suddenly haven’t the foggiest idea what you’re doing. It’s happened to all of us at some point.

A neuroscientist’s delightful tour of our mysterious, mischievous, entirely fallible grey matter

The idiot brain review