Idiot Brain
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and group polarization 252–3
and groupthink 251–2
and hallucinations, see hallucinations
and language processing 39, 124, 219, 224–7
and NLP 227–8
and London taxi drivers 140
and memory, see memory
and mental health, see mental health
motion sickness created by 8–12
lack of 11
at sea 11–12
and motivation’s origin 213
neurons in, see neurons
and neuroplasticity 270, 301
and nutrition 147
observation by 152–87
attention 177–87
hearing 161–4, 166–7
proprioception 9, 153
smell 154–61
taste 159–61
touch 161–2, 164–7
vision 167–77
other people’s influence on 222–62
facial expression 223–4, 228–31
non-verbal communication 223–4, 228–31
pattern recognition by 78–9, 80
and personality types 195 (see also personality)
and pronounced locus of control 82–3
redundancy built into 189
scans 38, 84, 103, 115, 121, 124, 136, 236n
“selves” within 212
size of 147–8
and sleep, see sleep
structure of:
amygdala 29, 31, 89, 99, 156, 200, 203, 213, 219, 230, 243, 289, 296–7
anterior cingulate cortex 243, 257, 270
anterior cingulate gyrus 182
anterior hippocampus 103
auditory cortex 226
brainstem 6, 28
Broca’s area 39, 124, 224–6
caudate nucleus 243
cerebrum 6, 230
corpus callosum 138
dorsal cingulate cortex 257
frontal cortex 49, 202, 213, 219
frontal lobe 38, 134, 226
fusiform gyrus 259
hippocampus 41–2, 55, 70, 74, 83, 99, 103, 140, 147, 156, 194, 200, 203, 219, 296
hormone-regulating areas 106
hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis 106–7, 270, 276
hypothalamus 29
inferior frontal gyrus 226
inferior temporal gyrus 85
limbic system 156–7, 230
lingual gyrus 259
medial insula 243
mesolymbic (“reward”) pathway 96, 97, 98–9, 103, 219, 284–5, 289
mid-cingulate gyrus 194
middle temporal gyrus 226
motor cortex 21, 139, 230
neocortex 6, 14, 231
nucleus accumbens 96–7
occipital lobe 173, 295
orbitofrontal cortex 194, 201, 203
parietal lobe 124, 139, 182, 183, 219, 259
periaqueductal gray 200
pineal gland 19
posterior cingulate gyrus 243
posterior hippocampus 194
posterior parietal cortex 184
prefrontal cortex 38, 121, 123, 124, 134, 137, 147, 181–2, 194, 237, 243, 257, 259, 287, 296
pulvinar nucleus 184
putamen 226, 230, 243
“reptile” brain 6, 14, 28
sensory cortex 295, 297
somatosensory cortex 164, 165, 166
substantia nigra 263
superior colliculus 184
superior temporal gyrus 226
supramarginal gyrus 124
temporal lobes 41, 71, 182, 194, 226, 295
thalamus 28–9, 171, 294
vagus nerve 11
ventral tegumental area 96–7
visual cortex 173–4, 229
Wernicke’s area 39, 224–6
superior intelligence of, in humans, see intelligence
surgery on 71
of taxi drivers 42
and treating others badly 254–62
Milgram experiment concerning 255–6
white matter in 138, 140, 141
brainstem 6, 28
Broca, Pierre Paul 224
Broca’s area 39, 124, 224–6
bulimia 17
Burke, Edmund 254
Bush, George W. 130
bystander effect 251
cannabis 251–2
caudate nucleus 243
cerebrum 6, 230
Challenger shuttle 26
change blindness 186
circadian rhythms 19
cochlea 162–3
cocktail-party effect 179, 182
comfort eating 16
compliments, see criticism vs praise
confirmation bias 109
conspiracy theories 77–84, 85
corpus callosum 138
cortisol 83, 106, 107–8, 201, 202, 278
counterfactual thinking 64, 102
covert and overt orientation 183
creationism 168n
criticism vs praise 104–11
deindividuation 254
delusions 292, 297–301
Capgras 298–9
forms of 297
dementia 69, 74, 134, 142, 146n, 292 (see also mental health)
and depression 271
dichotic listening 178–9
diet and eating 12–17
and appetite 12–14
for comfort 16
cooked vs raw 12–13n
disorders concerning 17
habits 15–16
and learned associations 14–15
and taste vs vision 15
dopamine 52, 96, 103, 243, 269, 282, 285
dorsal cingulate cortex 257
driving, and attention 180–1
dualism 188, 189
Dunning–Kruger effect 131–2, 133
eardrum 163
ego 58–66, 242
Einstein, Albert 116–17, 129
endaural phenomena 163
endorphins 208n, 288
epilepsy 24, 71, 182n, 277–8
exploding head syndrome 164
extra-ocular muscles 11 (see also vision)
Eysenck, Hans J. 193
fear 27–8, 29, 75–111
and conspiracy theories 77–84, 85
and horror movies 96, 100
love of 95–104 passim
and panic attacks 92–3
and phobias/social anxieties 86–95
and social anxieties/phobias 86–95
parenting’s contribution to 94
and superstition 78–85
and video games 99–100, 201
fight-or-flight response 27–33, 75, 80, 91, 104, 107, 280 (see also fear)
fingerprints 191–2
Flynn effect 150
fovea 170–1, 184
Freud, Sigmund 207, 208, 217
frontal cortex 49, 202, 213, 219
frontal lobe 38, 134, 226
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) 84, 136
fusiform gyrus 259
Genovese, Kitty 250–1
ghrelin 13
glutamate 300
goal orientation 183
groupthink 251–2
Guardian, comments on website of 77–8
hallucinations 23, 292–7
auditory 164, 293
and illusions 158n
olfactory 158
Hawking, Stephen 116–17
hedonic principle 207
hibernation 20
hippocampus 41–2, 55, 70, 74, 83, 99, 103, 140, 147, 156, 194, 200, 203, 219, 296
hormone-regulating areas 106
hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis 106–7, 270, 276
hypothalamus 29
“In the Face of Fear” 76–7 (see also fear)
illusions:
and hallucinations 158n
olfactory 157–8
inferior frontal gyrus 226
inferior temporal gyrus 85
inner ear 9
intelligence 112–51
; boosting 135–43
and pharmaceuticals 141–2
and transcranial direct-current stimulation (tCDS) 142
and brain size 147–8
counterintuitive nature of 128–35, 136
crystallized 122–4, 127, 139
and culture 148–9
and factor analysis 119–20, 126, 195
fluid 122–4, 127, 137, 139
“fixing” of 141
heritability of 144–8
and impostor syndrome 128–9
and IQ 114, 115–18, 121, 214
and physical height 144
Spearman’s analysis of 120
and manipulation of information 114–15
measuring 113–18
and metacognitive ability 134
and nutrition 147
and physical height 143, 146–7, 150
and preconceptions 149
Primary Mental Abilities of 125–6
and savants 125
in soccer players 124–5
and Spearman’s g 119–21, 127
types of 119–27
worldwide growth of 150
Internet 7, 78, 246, 258
Introduction to Personality (Phares, Chaplin) 190
jet-lag 19
jobs, types and nature of 7
“just world” hypothesis 261
Kingston, Miles 124
Koontz, Dean 95–6
Kpelle tribe 148–9
leptin 13
limbic system 156–7, 230
lingual gyrus 259
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Sacks) 228
Maslow, Abraham 209–10
medial insula 243
melatonin 19
memory 34–74
alcohol as aid to 52–7
brain edits 66
computer memory contrasted with 34–5
and ego-bias 58–66
and encoding 41
episodic/autobiographical 44–5
of faces vs names 45–51
false 67–9
“flashbulb,” after trauma 43–4, 279
going wrong 66–74
and hindsight 61–2
long-term, short-term versus 35–45, 48
primacy effect of 48
recall threshold of 51
recency effect of 48
semantic 45
short-term (“working”) 121, 180
long-term versus 35–45, 48
and sleep 24–5
and smell 156–7
and stroke 70–1
mental health 263–302 (see also dementia)
and antidepressants 269, 270
and death 266–7, 278
and depression 266–75, 300
and downward spiral 271–2
and sleep 269–70
and suicide 267
and disorders:
controversy surrounding 265
defined 264
and life-change units 278–9
nervous breakdowns 275–83
and post-traumatic stress disorder 280
and stress 1, 26, 106, 201, 276–83
mesolymbic (“reward”) pathway 96, 97, 98–9, 103, 219, 284–5, 289
“Mexican brainwave” 21
mid-cingulate gyrus 194
middle temporal gyrus 226
Milgram, Stanley 255–6
Miller’s law 37
Milligan, Spike 11–12
monoamine hypothesis 269
Monty Python’s Flying Circus 252n
motion sickness 8–12
lack of 11
at sea 11–12
motor cortex 21, 139, 230
multitasking 180
musical ear syndrome 164
Myers–Briggs Type Inventory (MTBI) 197–8
NASA 187
needs, hierarchy of 209–10
negging 110–11
neocortex 6, 14, 231
nervous system 29–30 (see also brain)
autonomic 30
neurons in, see neurons
peripheral 30
somatic 30
sympathetic/parasympathetic 30–1, 280
neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) 227–8 (see also brain: and language processing)
neurons 9, 21, 23, 38, 40, 69–70, 88–9, 264
light-detecting 168 (see also vision)
“mirror” 250
and neuroplasticity 270, 301
olfactory 155–6
and synapses 40–1, 139, 285
neurotransmitters 40
Nietzsche, Friedrich 217
nootropics 142
noradrenalin 269
nucleus accumbens 96–7
nystagmus 11, 173
occipital lobe 173, 295
Office for National Statistics 76
olfactory system 154–6
operant condition 207
optic nerve 155, 171 (see also vision)
optokinetic reflex 172 (see also vision)
orbitofrontal cortex 194, 201, 203
overt and covert orientation 183
oxytocin 107–8, 243–4
parallax 175 (see also vision)
parietal lobe 124, 139, 182, 183, 219, 259
Parkinson’s disease 263, 292
Patient HM 71–2, 74
Patient X 73
Pavlov’s dogs 91
periaqueductal gray 200
personality 188–221
and anger 199–206
persistence of 203–4
as threat response 200 (see also fight-or-flight response)
usefulness of 201–3
Big 5 traits of 192–3, 194–5
and factor analysis 195
and brain configuration 195
and Gage 189–90 (see also Gage, Phineas)
genetic factors underlying 194
and humor 214–21
brain regions implicated in 219
and sign language 219–20
surprise as element of 215, 219
and motivation 206–14
extrinsic vs intrinsic 210–11
and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs 209
sex as 210
tests 191, 197–8
Types A and B 195
Phares, E. Jerry 190
pheromones 243n
phobias, see fear
photoreceptors 168–9, 171 (see also vision)
pineal gland 19
pleasure principle 207
pleiotropy 146
posterior cingulate gyrus 243
posterior hippocampus 194
posterior parietal cortex 184
praise vs criticism 104–11
prefrontal cortex 38, 121, 123, 124, 134, 137, 147, 181–2, 194, 237, 243, 257, 259, 287, 296
proprioception 9, 153
psychosis 276, 282, 292, 297
pulvinar nucleus 184
putamen 226, 230, 243
Pygmalion effect 149
Rain Man 125
“reptile” brain 6, 14, 28
retina 79, 168–71, 172, 174, 183
fovea in 170–1, 184
and 3D images 175
Rorschach test 197
Rosen, Howard 133
saccades 172 (see also vision)
Sapir–Whorf hypothesis 227
Saw 96
seasickness 11–12 (see also motion sickness)
“seeing stars” 173 (see also vision)
self-awareness 152
self-confidence 129–30
self-determination 211
self-discrepancy theory 212
self-image 109, 236, 238
self-worth 64, 129
senses 153–4 (see also individual senses)
chemical 161
mechanical 162
sensory cortex 295, 297
serotonin 269–70, 285
sex, as motivator 210
sleep 17–26
artificial light’s effects on 20
and depression 269–70
and dreams 21–
2, 25
duration of 18–19
and hibernation 20
and hypnic jerk 22
and jet-lag 19
and memory 24–5
in nonhuman animals 17–18
NREM period of 20–1
paralysis during 23
and predators 18
REM period of 20–2, 23, 24, 25–6
stages of 20–1, 22
walking during 24
social learning 90
somatosensory cortex 164, 165, 166
somatosensory system 164–5
Stanford Prison experiment 258–9
stress 1, 26, 106, 201, 276–83
substantia nigra 263
superior colliculus 184
superior temporal gyrus 226
superstition 78–85
supramarginal gyrus 124
synesthesia 264
taste, vs vision 15
temporal lobes 41, 71, 182, 194, 226, 295
thalamus 28–9, 171, 294
Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner) 126
3D 175–6 (see also vision)
transcranial direct-current stimulation (tCDS) 142–3
UK Mental Health 76–7
vagus nerve 11
ventral tegumental area 96–7
vestibular system 9
vestibulocochlear nerve 163
vision 167–77
and attention 183
and creationism 168n
and extra-ocular muscles 11
and motion sickness 11
peripheral 184
and saccades 172
and “seeing stars” 173
vs taste 15
visual cortex 173–4, 229
walking:
as exercise 7–8
and lack of motion sickness, see motion sickness
Wernicke, Carl 224
Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome 73
Wernicke’s area 39, 224–6
Williams, Robin 268
Zeigarnik effect 214
Copyright ©2016 by Dean Burnett
First American Edition 2016
First published in Great Britain by Guardian Books and Faber and Faber
Limited under the title The Idiot Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains
What Your Head is Really Up To
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