Think Smart: A Neuroscientist's Prescription for Improving Your Brain's Performance (Repost)

This book is well worth reading. The stated goal of of the author, Richard Restak, is to educate readers about how to make brain more efficient, effective, engaged. To accomplish this, Restak, who is a neuroscientist, interviewed leading neurologists and reviewed the very latest research in the field. This book is not only educational, but fortunately for the reader, Restak is a good writer who manages to write the book to a lay audience. As an added bonus, he's got a decent sense of humor to boot.

Restak informs the reader that the brain is shaped by individual experiences in life; thus, environmental enrichment leads to enhancement in the human brain. The book is divided into chapters designed to discuss various aspects of brain functioning, including:

1. diet and exercise.
2. specific steps for enhancing performance
3. technology to enhance brain function
4. fashioning the creative brain
5. impediments to optimal brain function and how to compensate for them

Those who keep current on their reading may find that they know some pieces of Restak's book. For example: exercise regularly, avoid trans fats, and get your Omega 3's.

The real merit in this book is that it compiles what appears to be the latest research into a single, well-organized location. Given the spotty nature of the disclosure of scientific advancement in the news cycle, I found this book to be a great way to fill in the gaps of what I already knew. Moreover, the book offers some tangible means by which to improve cognitive function.

At first I thought I would never be motivated to do the exercises mentioned in the book. Some of them are a bit awkward or involved for me (spend 10 minutes "memorizing" a coffee cup?). Then I stumbled on a web site that has a number of brain teaser games similar to those mentioned in the book […] The games on that site largely reflect the exercises mentioned in the chapter on specific steps for enhancing brain performance, and they're actually fun to play as well.

I feel better off for having read this book, and I do believe that it has given me some tools to use going forward. For that reason, I recommend it for almost any reader. I especially enjoy it now that I've found that "games for the brain" web site.