"The Brain: A Very Short Introduction" by Michael O'Shea

Study of an organ that needs frequent updating, due to today's rise in mental health along with misbehavior among fellow citizens, illegal or not.

Once in our lifetimes, we have said, "Great minds think alike," to someone else. Ever wonder how that is? How can someone, genetically and personally different from you, be able to think alike? Does someone with mental issues have something disruptive in the brain that's not flowing correctly? Does the brain create fear? How does the brain hold memories? All these deep, yet potentially philosophical and psychological, questions became why we ventured in purchasing this book about the brain. With mental health being at the forefront, thanks to all that's been happening since 2020, perhaps it's high-time we look at the brain and why it functions the way it does. Author Michael O'Shea has done so with this great release from the Very Short Introductions series.

While we were eager to learn, the information got so heavy at the beginning of the book that it had to be read several times to understand it. However, the author didn't leave the reader hanging by gently introducing terms and vocabulary which, after the first few chapters, are quite a chunk to start off. After reading past all those vocabulary, the book gets better as you continue.

The complexities of the brain cannot be overstated. O'Shea did a great job explaining the "flow" and the "storing" of information in a way the layperson will be able to grasp. As for the brain's ability to store memories, via audibly or visually, this explains why we're able to answer questions about what we did last week or remember the lyrics to a song. In fact, if you're born in the United States, do you know the words to The Pledge of Allegiance? Do you know the names of all seven continents in the world? These things, no matter how long ago we remember or learned about them, let alone "accessing" such information on occasion, we are able to recall and answer questions asking about them. To imagine that the brain is nothing more than a network of "cables" passing and flowing blood, being biologically correct, baffles us in a way that its general and inner workings still stumps scientists today.

Another big thing about the brain is the initiative to act and pursue. Such discussion is crucial when studying social behavior, deciphering criminal activities, and routine. Is there a reason we wake up in the morning at 6AM every weekday? Because you're scheduled to go to work. Why? Because the company hired you and are paying for your labor to get work done. If you don't show up for work, your attendance and missing labor doesn't deserve any pay; It's that simple (money is a source for survival to acquire a place to live and buy food to eat thus sustaining a decent living). What boggles my mind is the neural activity of those committing acts of crime. After reading and reviewing a book on Criminal Psychology back in 2012, we will never understand why, and being that there are more than enough YouTube videos shaming those caught on camera, from whining customers to illogical social and political activists and protestors, the commonality of common sense and the need to "think before doing" has gone downhill. Being triggered to do something based on emotions is still tied to the brain's workings, so what makes it okay to angrily yell at an employee? Is blocking freeways, where cars average a speed of 60 miles per hour, a great method for protesting? What encourages someone to take someone else's life? This all gets rooted into the brain, and while experts and scientists are still actively researching, there's a lot that doesn't seem to come into fruition, or in this case, getting the truth from criminals as to why they committed such crime(s). This gives us the ability to lie through our teeth, even though the liar knows that truth won't set them free (we know that to be false, because otherwise, why else would you confess to a crime you know you're responsible for?). With this discussion, you can tell this was our favorite part of the book, and while our reaction makes this sound very psychological, it does extend such analysis as to why we do what we do, right or wrong.

The last chapter about broken brain and intervention is a bit eye-opening, insomuch that, like the muscles in our body, O'Shea reminds us that nothing works right if not used enough. In other words, lack of pursuing activities that stimulate the brain can make our beloved organ turn into plastic. We can certainly recycle plastic, but can our brains be recycled too? Although O'Shea talked about it briefly, along with a short synopsis explaining it, disruptions in our brains can cause certain people to have bodily processes that aren't normal. This comes along with ailments such as the inability to speak, trigger non-existant fears, depression, multiple personalities and more. Think of it like a freeway but with a construction site blocking the roadways due to even pavements and broken roadways, making drivers re-direct themselves somewhere else. Having that disruption in your brain would cause you, well, who knows what. It explains why many of those born, or who grew up with such brain-related "disruptions," require a lot of patience and a special kind of treament. On the other hand, with the age of internet, the processing of so much conflicting information has caused so many people not to reason and think properly. You can think of this like putting heavy items in a cardboard box: The box may be able to hold and carry it, but adding more heavy items to it could cause the box to break. This same notion goes with our brains. Another mention by O'Shea is the artificial intelligent means of 'recreating' the human brain on robots. Being that we personally have mixed feelings about such conjecture, it's evident, to us at least, that while it's possible to have a fresh-working brain that emulates the human one nicely, it won't be able to reason as well as ours. Why is that? Ever wonder why someone falls in love with their best friend? Why are some people attracted to someone who looks "normal" as opposed to someone considered "beautiful?" It is our belief that there isn't, and never will be, a programming language nor a code that perfectly strings such phenomenon together. Such things also present a different kind of thought process, such as why someone is attracted to the same gender, or falls in love with someone who can't speak their native language(s), someone with a different ethnic background, etc. We can study these among us humans no problem, but good luck trying to artificially recreate this thought process. There are plenty of documentaries about "odd couples" and what made them fall in love, despite their imperfections both mentally and physically. Like the chapter about thinking and acting, this was another one that excited us about discussing since there are plenty, especially today, that go about it rooted from our very brains.

Not a bad book by any means, but our only critique was the rigorous introduction of so much vocabulary and terms that it was hard to keep our attention. We had to re-read many blocks of text before proceeding. Other than that, there are topics that bare further discussion, and since this was released back in 2005, it's overdue for a new edition with updates and many other new findings. Whenever that edition will be released, we look forward to it. To sum it all up, we are nothing without our brains. While many other arguments have been said like "our brains created deities," you wouldn't know unless you had a brain to reason with in the first place. Quantum Entanglement creating consciousness in our brains? Okay, that's possible, but again, that wouldn't have been possible without our brains itself.

This 2024 is election year here in the United States, and unfortunately will be bad enough to trigger protests and riots for the losing party. What does saying that have to do with the brain? There you go: The keywords "protests" and "riots" for losing the candidate they fully supported, similar to sports fans doing the same when their beloved team loses, is where the brain activity of these...people will be targetted as the day/week comes. To destroy public and private property as a way to express anger is illogical at best, and many social and behaviorial psychologists will be quite busy interpreting, and even commenting, on the crude acts that encourage many of these people to commit such heinous acts. Makes you wonder why countries have law and order, right? Other than that, a lot can be said about the inner workings of someone's brain of a person who decides to pursue such criminal and crude acts. "Think before you do" is certainly out of the question.

Totally recommend this book! Whether you're a therapist, psychiatrist, behaviorist, neural network engineer, or wanting to know the inner workings of it, we'll be seeing many more discussions about the brain. It's time we 'rethink' everything before proceeding forward.

Kris Caballero

Founder of KCU Network and KCU Plus, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog made back in late 2005. Officially back to doing computer programming (software development) and video production, Kris enjoys reading books on Mathematics, Quantum Computing, Philosophy, playing old video/DOS games, digital video archiving, and listening to sports, public radio and classical music.

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