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Top Brain, Bottom Brain: Surprising Insights Into How You Think (2013)

by Stephen M. Kosslyn(Favorite Author)

3.01 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1451645104 (ISBN13: 9781451645101)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Simon & Schuster

review 1: The authors make it out to look like they have found some ground-breaking discovery of how the brain works, but there’s nothing like that in there. They argue that the left-right brain divisions are a simplification of the complex “technology” that your brain is made up of. However, they are guilty of the same sin with the top/bottom divisions. There’s hardly anything worthwhile that they explain with their model and I was totally unimpressed. Avoid this book.
review 2: It was a challenge for me to continue reminding myself that this is just a "personality theory." It was nice that they steered away form the left brain right brain conversation, and mentioned systemic brain functioning. It did seem a little bit limited on how they view the brain functi... moreoning as a system. The neuroscience behind this was either really weak or poorly explained. The authors proposed that they were sticking with the "grey matter" in reference to how the brain interacts, but totally missed how midbrain and lower brain functioning impacts this (e.g. hypothalamus). They also tried to include the nature vs nurture debate, and emphasized the genetic predisposition predisposes people to a certain lifestyle. There was nothing included about attachment theory. The also included Phineas Gage to support their theory, but I missed how the prefrontal cortex has both top and bottom brain functioning. My basic understanding is that the prefrontal cortex is involved in decision making, emotion regulation, and prioritization. The self-test they provided also did not match my profile at all (maybe I'm an outlier) and I get the sense that the authors are trying to find any/all evidence to support their theory without including very relevant and important research that would say otherwise. Time would be better spent reading Daniel Siegel's work, in my opinion. less

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