The Idiot Brain by Dean Burnett Essay

The Idiot Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains What Your Head Is Really Up To
Essay By Mariachiara Salvemini
Dean Burnett's main goal is to explain that the brain, a powerful organ capable of great things, is also
fallibile and rarely employs logic for its functions.
The novel is an example of popularized fiction, more specifically a non-fiction science book styled as a self-
help book.
As the author endeavours to talk about this particular topic not to fellow neuroscientists but the general
public (popularization of the main topic), makes use of irony with analogies (“If you have ever worked for
someone who is a micromanager, you know how incredibly inefficient this arrangiament can be” page 6),
hyperboles and paradoxes to get his point across while still offering information that enriches knowledge of
the object treated.
During the whole book the author mantains a friendly tone and refers directly to the audience as “you" and
“we" to create an immediate connection. The language is colloquial and makes abundant use of aphorisms
(“If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't.”,
page 112). Furthermore, the author uses personal information about himself (“I'm the first out of everyone
in my family to so much as think about going to university…”, page 2) and historical anectodes (“…On 13
September 1848, as a result of an unplanned esplosion, railroad worker Phineas Gage had his brain
impaled…”, page 188) to create a lead to catch the audience's attention.
It is divided in eight sections, and each of them is dedicated to deepen our understanding of the mechanics
of the brain.
The first section (that can be arguably be said to be the only one that sticks closely to the theme of the
book unlike the others that follow) illustrates how the mind controls the body, and not always effectively.
Burnett begins with pointing out that the brain's main task in ancient times was to ensure our survival.
However, as life has become increasingly less dangerous, other parts of the brain have developed other
functions. Nonetheless, the primitive brain, or “reptilian brain", is still active and still prone to react to
dangers otherwise not considered important by our cognitive brain.
The second section is dedicated to memory and how the brain goes about storing and preserving them.
Burnett uses a computer analogy to describe the difference in the process of preservating short-term
memories and long-term memories. Dean Burnett further explains that the former are fast, manipolative
and fleeting, while the latter are persistent, enduring and last longer. Long-term memories are made, stored
and retrevied when they are needed; this includes memories we are not actively aware of, like abilities we
have learned but don't need to recall everytime we need them.
The third section is about how the brain employs fear to prevent us from falling into dangerous situations,
even if some fears reveal themselves to be irrational. Burnett differentiates between more irrational
phobias and conspiracy theories and more normal, logical anxieties, like fear of physical deterioration in
age. Elaborating Burnett explains that the reason why our brain leads us to believe fundamentally wrong
pieces of information without a lack of evidence is to preserve a rational worldview. Random information
has never been useful to improve the survival rate of primitive humans , so the brain eventually trained
itself to reject randomness. However, as nowadays we are surrounded by unconnected bits of information,
the brain attempts to connect them even when it is not possible to do so.
The fourth section brings up intelligence, and how on one hand our brain does qualify us as a superior
intelligent form on the Planet but on the other makes it impossible to properly quantify an individual's
intelligence. Even IQ tests are unfit to do that, as they operate on flawed misconceptions (like the fact that
an IQ of 100 is a high result). Burnett contends that one of the reasons why that is the case is because there
are two types of intelligence, one extremely different from the other: “crystallized" intelligence, as in
academic knowledge, and “fluid" intelligence, the capacity of applying our knowledge.
The fifth section explains the five senses and how they make us perceive the world through them;
specifically, smell is speculated to have been the first sense to be developed, presumably to help us survive,
and works alongside taste, as the latter is the weakest sense and is influenced by the others. Smell is often
associated with memory, because the olfactory system is located near the hyppocampus. Hearing and touch
are connected to each other, as they are both mechanical senses activated by pleasure. Vision is the sense
most prioritised by the brain, and every image is cleaned and perfected by the brain in a matter of seconds.
The following sections elaborate the concept of personality, the sixth one describing the bond between the
brain and personality and the seventh how our personality is influenced by our bond with other people.
Dean Burnett states that our personality is partly regulated by the brain, and brings up the radical change
that happened to a man named Phineas Gage after he suffered a brain injury in 1848 and how, even if the
effects of such event have been taken into discussion since then, it has greatly influenced the development
of neurological science ever since. Following the idea that our brain influences our personality, Dean
Burnett explains how as social animals we are naturally driven to be part of a group to survive, and in
modern times this phenomenon it reflects in following the rules society has established.
The eighth and last section dives into the sensitive topic of what happens when the brain is not at its peak;
after reiterating how an healthy brain is prone to unintentionally sabotage us, Dean Burnett explains that
the brain of a mentally ill person or a drug addict is even more difficult to handle.
In conclusion, in the book the author is able to mix armoniously the science information with without
ending in genre granularity. However, he is not as able to divide in a precise manner all the subjects; the
contents of the same section appear to jump from one extreme from another, and the link between them is
tenous.
Another fundamental flaw is that research on the brain keeps updating and current information becomes
obsolete very quickly, thus making this book-published in 2016-dated by the time of this analysis.
Nevertheless, the book is an enjoyable read and good start for someone who is less familiar with
neuroscientific topics.

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The Idiot Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains What Your Head Is Really Up To

Essay By Mariachiara Salvemini

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