As I wrote yesterday, I have found Steven Johnson to be a helpful and interesting writer. Something or other reminded me of his book "Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life". When I see the cover design, I know I have held the book and read some of it before.
As often happens when I come back to a book (or movie or song), I find I am a different person from my earlier meetings with the work. Sometimes I find it more worthwhile, sometimes less. In this case, like some others, my reaction is mostly just different, probably because I know more about myself and mediation and my wiring than I did ten or so years ago.
On the current re-read, I am only up to 8% of the book but I find plenty to think about already. He starts with some statements about being in a biofeedback studio. I haven't thought about biofeedback for years. Just a few minutes ago, I saw a picture of a biofeedback device I used to own. I am not ever sure if I have it anymore. It looked like this:
I am a fan of "Incognito" by Eagleman and "Seven and a Half Lessons About Your Brain" by Barrett but the idea of considering how to make unconscious processes in me conscious and controllable is a new one for me.
Just in passing, Johnson mentions areas of the brain, including one that seem related to feeling mirth (a great word).
He also says this about gender differences in brain structure:
Viewed with modern imaging technologies, men's and women's brains are nearly as distinct from each other as their bodies are. They have reliably different amounts of neurons and gray matter; some areas linked with sexuality and aggression are larger in men than in women; the left and right hemispheres are more tightly integrated in women than in men. And of course, those brains—and the bodies they are attached to—are partially shaped by two totally different kinds of hormones, the androgens and estrogens, which play a key role both in development and adult life experiences.
