Daniel J. Levitin is a neuroscientist and music scholar whose work explores the intricate relationship between music, the brain, and human perception. Bringing a unique perspective from his extensive background as a musician and engineer, his research bridges artistic practice with scientific inquiry. Levitin delves into how the brain processes and responds to music, uncovering the profound cognitive and emotional mechanisms that music engages. His writings on the psychology of music and cognition are both accessible and engaging, offering readers a deeper understanding of the role music plays in our lives.
Exploring the transformative effects of music, this book delves into its profound healing capabilities, supported by recent scientific research. It reveals how music can reduce stress, enhance cognitive functions, and even combat neurodegenerative diseases. The author, a neuroscientist and musician, presents innovative concepts like 'rhythmic auditory stimulation' for treating conditions such as PTSD and multiple sclerosis. Through insights on how music can aid in emotional healing and memory repair, the book celebrates humanity's deep connection to music and its potential as a therapeutic tool.
Recent studies show that our decision-making skills improve as we age, and that our happiness levels peak at age eighty-two. Levitin examines the neuroscientific evidence to challenge many of the beliefs that surround aging. He provides realistic plans for how you can make the most of your seventies, eighties, and nineties today-- no matter how old you are now. -- adapted from jacket
In this ground-breaking book, Dr Daniel Levitin uses cutting-edge research from neuroscience and psychology to demonstrate the importance of the stage that follows the middle-age. Packed with engaging interviews with successful, creative individuals far beyond the conventional age of 'retirement', this book also reflects on challenges many…
Dividing the sum total of human musical achievement, from Beethoven to The
Beatles, Busta Rhymes to Bach, into just six fundamental forms, Levitin
illuminates, through songs of friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion
and love, how music has been instrumental in the evolution of language,
thought and culture. And how, far from being a bit of a song and dance, music
is at the core of what it means to be human. A one-time record producer, now a
leading neuroscientist, Levitin has composed a catchy and startlingly
ambitious narrative that weaves together Darwin and Dionne Warwick, memoir and
biology, anthropology and a jukebox of anecdote to create nothing less than
the ' soundtrack of civilisation' .
Using musical examples from Bach to the Beatles, Levitin reveals the role of music in human evolution, shows how our musical preferences begin to form even before we are born and explains why music can offer such an emotional experience. Music is an obsession at the heart of human nature, even more fundamental to our species than language. In This Is Your Brain On Music Levitin offers nothing less than a new way to understand it, and its role in human life
We are bombarded with more information each day than our brains can process -- especially in election season. It's raining bad data, half-truths, and even outright lies. Daniel J. Levitin shows how to recognize misleading announcements, statistics, graphs, and written reports revealing the ways lying weasels can use them. It's becoming harder to separate the wheat from the digital chaff. How do we distinguish misinformation, pseudo-facts, distortions, and outright lies from reliable information? Levitin groups his field guide into two categories -- statistical information and faulty arguments -- ultimately showing how science is the bedrock of critical thinking. Infoliteracy means understanding that there are hierarchies of source quality and bias that variously distort our information feeds via every media channel, including social media. We may expect newspapers, bloggers, the government, and Wikipedia to be factually and logically correct, but they so often aren't. We need to think critically about the words and numbers we encounter if we want to be successful at work, at play, and in making the most of our lives. This means checking the plausibility and reasoning -- not passively accepting information, repeating it, and making decisions based on it
"It's raining bad data, half-truths, and fake news out there - and some of this nonsense is having devastation consequences. Daniel J. Levitin shows how corporate and government reports, statistics, and news stories can mislead, and reveals the way lying weasels use them. What makes lies dangerous is the certainty with which people are prone to believe them. Here is how to fix that."--Page [4] of cover
A guide to critical thinking in the 'post-truth' era, from the author of Sunday Times best-seller The Organized Mind We live in a world of information overload. Facts and figures on absolutely everything are at our fingertips, but are too often biased, distorted, or outright lies. From unemployment figures to voting polls, IQ tests to divorce rates, we're bombarded by seemingly plausible statistics on how people live and what they think. Daniel Levitin teaches us how to effectively ask ourselves: can we really know that? And how do they know that? In this eye-opening, accessible guide filled with fascinating examples and practical takeaways, acclaimed neuroscientist Daniel Levitin shows us how learning to understand statistics will enable you to make better, smarter judgements on the world around you.
The neuroscientist author of This Is Your Brain on Music evaluates how the human brain responds to today's information-driven culture, drawing on the latest scientific discoveries to explore how the brain is struggling or adapting in the areas of att
Analysing how and why our brains are struggling to keep up with the demands of the digital age, this book takes you through every aspect of modern life, from healthcare to online dating to raising kids, showing that the secret to success is always organization.
