I enjoyed learning more about the topic of this book. it got me thinking of what our brains do while looking at technology and how it changes how our brains work.

As a non-native English speaker I struggled a bit with this one. I guess, if I were to read about this subject, in my own language, I would be a massive fan of what I read.
The book was still stimulazing, the history nerd side of me would freak out about specific topics. Sometimes I had to skip parts, as I'm a very emphatetic reader, and the details gave me the chills.

An ultramodern reading with the ability to amaze you, charming and colloquial prose, makes this current topic in neuroscience accessible to anyone. For an intellectual geek, it is an enthralling and memorable journey!

I like the idea of the book but I wasn't really sold on it when I was reading it.
Can't say I found it that interesting

I received a review copy of #ElectricBrain from #NetGalley

The author wrote in a very engaging and almost conversational style that conveyed a lot of information, however I felt that certain topics in the book were presented as more established than they really are, or that things were exaggerated/overgeneralized almost to the point of falling into the realm of pseudoscience.

I tried so much with this book, and it did have good information - and yet, reading it was such a chore - like reading a textbook. At one point I didn't think I was going to finish (kidding - way more than one point..)

The book has quite an unfortunate beginning which almost made me abandon it. It starts with some history of discovering brain waves, but it goes round and round and back to the same things, so somehow I had a lot of trouble making it past that part. Not only that, but as any medical history, probably, it contains A LOT of gruesome things which I didn't enjoy reading in the least. The part about the history both bored and disgusted me, and it takes up 15% of the book.

However, what follows was a lot more interesting. For example, we all fear electroshock therapy because the media has taught us to - because it was grossly overused and even abused in the past century. But there was stuff about electroshock therapy in this book that was news to me - that it actually worked, although it was a crude, painful way to cure some ailments. Never has the media conveyed to me that it actually did help some people with certain mental illnesses - or rather, illnesses of the brain, as it does seem to be.

Then all the info on neurofeedback - a technique that is quite harmless and pretty accessible, but simply not known to many people. The chapter on that was also pretty interesting, apart from the paragraphs upon paragraphs of the author's stream of consciousness not related to anything in the book, just to illustrate that he's trying not to think but failing during his neurofeedback training session. I mean, we get it, man - trying to calm down, meditate or keep your mind clear is hard - three paragraphs is enough to paint the picture, I don't need several pages of the random thoughts about music, childhood memories, your trips and the types of guitar strings that you were thinking of at the time of the training to convey the idea to me. That part must have been the most tedious thing I've read in YEARS.

The info about brain waves and possible applications of its research - control of artificial limbs, a sort of "tech-assisted telepathy" and many other things - it was all fascinating, and explained and outlined well - and yet, it STILL read like a textbook. Dry and quite hard to read.

Ultimately, this book had a lot of interesting info that I've never heard about before - that radio waves have been successfully used to suggest ideas and behaviors to people and animals, that brainwaves can show what a person is thinking specifically if the patterns for that person have been translated before, or that it is now possible for fully paralyzed people to type at a speaking pace, using only thought and an implant in their brain - all of that is fascinating and quite futuristic, but - but this book also felt like a textbook or a chore sometimes, and it also backtracked and repeated the same things over and over again a lot of times. In places it was tough to read because of every third word being some term I'm not quite familiar with, or just the plain science-speak that was a little bit too dry. I do love scientific books - but perhaps I've read more of them about physics, rather than biology or medicine. So you could say, maybe the book wasn't for me. Maybe it would have been more interesting to a person for whom it this kind of material is more accessible. A lot of books on these topics can be and are made accessible and readable to complete laymen, but sadly, I didn't feel like this one was one of them, despite the quite interesting table of contents and the aim to inform the reader to all of the newest findings in this area.

Triggers:
gruesome experiments with animals and humans described in more detail than I would have liked. Descriptions of invasive procedures. Descriptions of patients conscious and talking while their brain is being operated on. Descriptions of how electroshock therapy was used to "treat" homosexuality (this whole experiment is so awful and incredibly unethical that I don't even want to give you more details about it. Ugh. It is described as a fact of history and it's ethical side isn't really discussed much, but it may be very triggering and it felt just so wrong when I was reading it. If you think it may trigger you, definitely heed this warning.)

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

Very interesting book about the brain, the history of neuroscience and wavelengths. Easy to understand for someone without a science background.

When I first requested this book, I found it really intriguing. As I was reading it, however, I felt like it didn't tickle my fancy as much as I would have liked. It was still interesting, though.

Electric Brain is a fascinating journey into the past, the present and the future of what we have achieved and where we are poised to go from the time when the tiny electric signals on our scalps were first detected in war torn Germany.

The author takes you back to the hard work of the enthusiastic and curious scientists who stuck to their beliefs to give us a glimpse into human brains without the need of opening them up. The author traces these initial developments that took shape simultaneously across different continents around the same time. If only communication was that easy at the time!


After this initial trip down the memory lane – that you will identify later – we are get an in-depth look at what brainwaves really are, how they communicate and why they are significant.

The author does digress, at times, into historical narratives that do not have direct bearing on the subject. However, this style ensures that you are not overwhelmed, if you are not particularly from medical or associated scientific field.

The author shares how advanced EEG recording and data processing capabilities have added tools to predict subjects behavioral traits and shortfalls. This information along with Neuro Feedback techniques will perhaps eliminate the use of drugs that fire in the dark.

While the book may not give prescriptive to the point answers this is a book that you will love to read and have in your collection if you like Neuroscience.

"Electric Brain" talked about the past, present, and potential future of brainwave research. This book was written by someone who is actively researching in this field, so he provided in-depth scientific detail about how the brain works and what the latest research has found. This is not a popular science book. The book started off with a rather gross history of the sometimes unethical research done to discover what brain waves are and how they can be manipulated. If you don't like descriptions of things like kittens having their brains scooped out, skip the first 15% of this book. The author also described his visits to some of the research labs (past and present).

He described the current research being done on brain waves and the debates among experts about what is causing what. He went into detail about the many things that can go wrong with the brain and what might be done to fix them. He described things like brain waves during a coma, general anesthesia, and sleep. The last half of the book talked about applying the current research to create brain to computer interfaces, crude telepathy, thought control of an animal or another human, and in identifying potential abilities or diagnosing neurological disorders. He also talked about future applications that people are dreaming about developing and ways people are currently altering brain waves (neurofeedback, electrical brain stimulation, magnetic stimulation, meditation, and brainwave gadgets). This was not an easy or pleasant read. The main thing I learned from this book is that we really don't know what we're doing yet, but that's not stopping anyone.

Electric Brain is a interesting book. Clearly the author is knowledgeable about this subject and has a sense of humor also. The book is well written.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read Electric Brain.
A great book on how our brains are still an untapped area of the human body that we don't know enough about.
#ElectricBrain

This was a really interesting read, as a psychology graduate neuropsychology was an area that I found fascinating but also incredibly difficult to understand. The author both has the subject knowledge and an engaging voice.

I was actually not sure what I was getting into with this one, neuroscience isn't a topic I have any interest or general knowledge about, but Fields' book is actually extremely easy to read and understand, even as someone who's lacking in the topic! It's definitely something that proves more people need to educated themselves on things that are moving in our world, and this is one I really genuinely liked. I was surprised that the subject matter was simple to absorb but difficult enough to want to find out more about it and look into other sources (there's a delightful jumping point at the back of the book!), and the idea of brainwaves and where we're going in the research of them is super fascinating.

Douglas Fields is not only an expert of the brain, but also a very funny writer. So this book was not only interesting but pretty enjoyable. I found out a lot of things I didn't know either about the story of neurology (where Italian scientists were also involved) or about the brain itself, and I finally learned how does a Neurofeedback works. I would recommend to everybody that is interested in the brain.

Douglas Field non é soltanto un esperto del cervello, ma anche uno scrittore molto divertente. Quindi questo libro non é stato solo istruttivo, ma anche piacevole da leggere. Ho scoperto molte cose che ignoravo sulla storia della Neurologia (della quale hanno fatto parte anche parecchi italiani, nel bene e nel male) e sul ceervello stesso e le onde dell Elettroencefalogramma, inoltre ho finalmente capito come funziona un Neurofeedback. Consiglierei la lettura di questo libro a tutti coloro che hanno anche un seppur minimo interesse sull'argomento cervello, anche perché tra la tanta letteratura che c'é in giro, questo volume parte da una posizione particolarmente nuova.

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE ARC!