Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains
Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains book cover

Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains

Hardcover – June 26, 2018

by
Price
$19.91
Format
Hardcover
Pages
288
Publisher
Ecco
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0062391162
Dimensions
6 x 0.97 x 9 inches
Weight
1 pounds

Description

“A great science writer knows what is interesting to the reader, and here Thomson shines. Her book is tailor-made for anyone who loves intellectual brain trivia. This book is a chef’s tasting menu of fascinating things about your brain.” — The Washington Post “A window into neurological research that’s not just about other people’s brains, but also our own.” — Popular Science “Thomson has a gift for making the complex and strange understandable and relatable. Oliver Sacks is noted as an inspiration and, indeed, this book will appeal to his many fans.” — Library Journal (starred review) “May change your perception of what it means to be human.” — Library Journal (starred review) “A user-friendly tour of the brain and the curious things that go on inside of it.” — Kirkus “Splendid for Mary Roach fans.” — Booklist “This wonderfully clear, fluent, eye-opening book explores what happens when the mind misbehaves: distance is distorted, memory plays tricks, people hear in colour and see in music. Helen Thomson is the science teacher you wish you’d had at school . . . Unthinkable [is] fascinating.” — The Times (London) “Remarkable—an astonishing tour of the human brain in all its awesome power and bewildering variation. In beautiful prose, Thompson seamlessly dances between conversations with nine extraordinary people, and beautiful explanations of how the brain works. Unthinkable will enrich your brain, blow your mind, and warm your heart.” — Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes “We are the sum of our brains—nothing more or less. Helen Thomson ably guides us through the fascinating world of what are indeed some of the strangest brains on earth, showing us what we can learn about ourselves.xa0 Scientifically accurate and wholly accessible, this is an irresistible book.” — Robert Sapolsky, author of Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst “A book that will please fans of the late Oliver Sacks.” — Publishers Weekly ‘A stirring scientific journey, a celebration of human diversity and a call to rethink the “unthinkable.”’ — Nature “With flair and empathy, the author sees her subjects in the context of their everyday lives, allowing us to marvel at their humanity . . . This is neuroscience for the general reader: accessible, well researched, thought-provoking.” — Tatler “From seeing aurasxa0... to waking up ‘dead’ and being able to remember every single day of your life in vivid detail, award-winning science journalist Thomson investigates wondrously rare and strange brain disorders in this terrific debut . . . Theirs are mystery stories, spellbinding and true.” — The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice Award-winning science writer Helen Thomson unlocks the biggest mysteries of the human brain by examining nine extraordinary cases Our brains are more extraordinary—and far stranger—than we think. We take it for granted that we can remember, feel emotion, navigate, empathize, and understand the world around us, but how would our lives change if these abilities were dramatically enhanced—or disappeared overnight? Helen Thomson has spent years traveling the world, tracking down incredibly rare brain disorders. In Unthinkable she tells the stories of nine extraordinary people she encountered along the way. From the man who thinks he’s a tiger to the doctor who feels the pain of others just by looking at them to a woman who hears music that’s not there, their experiences illustrate how the brain can shape our lives in unexpected and, in some cases, brilliant and alarming ways. Story by remarkable story, Unthinkable takes us on an unforgettable journey through the human brain. Discover how to forge memories that never disappear, how to grow an alien limb, and how to make better decisions. Learn how to hallucinate and how to make yourself happier in a split second. Find out how to avoid getting lost, how to see more of your reality, even how exactly you can confirm you are alive. Think the unthinkable. Helen Thomson is a writer and consultant with New Scientist magazine and was shortlisted as Best Science Journalist in the British Journalism Awards. She has won several other awards, including media fellowships at both Harvard and MIT and the Best Newcomer in the ABSW Science Writers Awards for Britain and Ireland in 2010. She has also written for The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Daily Mail and Nature . She lives in London. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • An Amazon Best Nonfiction Book of the Month
  • Indiebound Bestseller
  • Award-winning science writer Helen Thomson unlocks the biggest mysteries of the human brain by examining nine extraordinary cases
  • Our brains are far stranger than we think. We take it for granted that we can remember, feel emotion, navigate, empathise and understand the world around us, but how would our lives change if these abilities were dramatically enhanced – or disappeared overnight?
  • Helen Thomson has spent years travelling the world, tracking down incredibly rare brain disorders. In
  • Unthinkable
  • she tells the stories of nine extraordinary people she encountered along the way. From the man who thinks he's a tiger to the doctor who feels the pain of others just by looking at them to a woman who hears music that’s not there, their experiences illustrate how the brain can shape our lives in unexpected and, in some cases, brilliant and alarming ways.
  • Story by remarkable story,
  • Unthinkable
  • takes us on an unforgettable journey through the human brain. Discover how to forge memories that never disappear, how to grow an alien limb and how to make better decisions. Learn how to hallucinate and how to make yourself happier in a split second. Find out how to avoid getting lost, how to see more of your reality, even how exactly you can confirm you are alive. Think the unthinkable.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(251)
★★★★
25%
(209)
★★★
15%
(125)
★★
7%
(59)
★
23%
(192)

Most Helpful Reviews

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A Fascinating Look at the Great Work of Nature that is the Brain

Unthinkable is the rare work which can combine reading pleasure with genuine insight. It has its faults, or at least shortcomings which result from the genre, but it still worth spending an evening reading the book cover to cover.

Helen Thomson is a journalist with a degree in neuroscience. As such she chooses to revive the conceit of Oliver Sacks by describing the life of people who have unusual brains which either give them abilities or disabilities compared to most of humanity. Unlike Sacks, Thomson chooses to describe these people mostly in an outpatient setting—to allow the reader to see them as persons and not as mental patients or as spectacles for a circus.

We thus encounter a man who remembers every detail of his life, a man who sees color auras around people and a doctor who literally feels the pain of his patients. All make for fascinating case studies on their own. But Thomas takes the cases further by summarizing what neuroscientists know about the origin of these conditions.

There is a theme in the work that these people are only extreme cases of capabilities of all human beings. As such, Thomson tends to shun the idea that these people have identified mental illnesses and instead view them as simply differently abled individuals. I have no training in psychology but tend to think there is something useful in labeling what is a healthy human mind and what are clearly aberrations.

I also couldn’t help but think that many of the chapters read like the extended articles frequently appearing these days in periodicals or the internet. I would have preferred more substance and less anecdote but individual readers’ tastes may differ.

Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and learned something about how the brain works as well. Strongly recommend this book to non-experts in neuroscience who want a work with a captivating style which also teaches some basic facts about the marvelous work of nature that is the human brain.
111 people found this helpful
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"We are by no means close to understanding the mind in its entirety."

In "Unthinkable," science writer Helen Thomson explores oddities of the human brain in men and women who have unusual disorders or abilities. Thomson begins by providing a bit of history from ancient Egypt, when the brain was "an organ of little interest" and the heart took center stage. Plato placed more emphasis on the brain's importance, while his student, Aristotle, "continued to argue that the mind was contained in the heart." Meanwhile, Galen, a Greek physician at the time of the Roman Empire, glimpsed the brains of wounded gladiators "whose skulls had been torn apart in combat." However, it would take many more centuries for scientists to recognize that our brains help determine how we think, behave, move, speak, and dream.

These days, researchers use functional MRIs, EEGs, and CAT scans to study the brain's anatomy, chemistry, electrical activity, and the ways in which the various regions communicate with one another. The focus of this book is on brains that do not perform predictably. Most of us have heard of twenty-five year old Phineas Gage, a railroad worker in 1848 who was hit by a rod that "flew up through his jaw, traveled behind his eye, made its way through the left-hand side of his brain, and shot out the other side." Although this accident did not kill him, the damage that Gage suffered changed him from a kind and good-tempered man into an aggressive, rude, and profane one. Thomson also introduces us to various people who cannot feel fear; hear music that is not there; have uncanny recollections of the past; are convinced that a limb does not belong to them and should be amputated; and feel other people's pain--literally.

The author's well-researched case studies, which are reminiscent of those described so unforgettably and compassionately by the late Oliver Sacks, are disturbing and intriguing, and will interest anyone who is fascinated by the brain's mysteries. "Unthinkable" is enlightening but not always entertaining. For some readers, it will be unnerving to encounter individuals whose rare conditions make daily life so challenging. Still, it is instructive to reflect on the complexity, versatility, and unpredictability of this vital organ. The brain is one of the last frontiers, which neuroscientists will continue to explore in an attempt to uncover its remaining secrets.
10 people found this helpful
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Failed to live up to expectations

This book's objectives were two-fold: First, explore neuro-anomalies emanating from "unfortunate accidents, maverick surgeries, disease and genetic mutations", and second, "discover how the different bits of brains work" via these use cases. Observe individuals with extraordinarily unique behaviors/tendencies, and then attempt to find the areas of the brain and neural connections responsible for such tendencies, and through this exploration understand and explain how the 'normal' brain functions.

The problem is, even to this day there is scant understanding of consciousness and many intricate functions of the brain beyond the major senses, and unfortunately, studying misfits of science hasn't uncovered a treasure trove of useful information one would have expected.

The book summary portrays a fascinating journey that is just a-okay.
1 people found this helpful
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Familiar But Fascinating

While not breaking much new ground, this book nonetheless addresses some fascinating topics relating to rare neurological disorders. Each of the nine chapters introduces a new person interviewed or studied by the author. At times the book reads like a travel journal as the author inserts herself into the narrative of finding each interesting case. This can be a bit awkward, but is thankfully short lived as the majority of the text focuses on the interesting people.

The first person interviewed is Bob, a man who can remember every day in vivid detail. This is familiar to anyone who has delved into the world of science podcasts or television human interest stories. Perhaps the most famous case of this so-called extreme autobiographical recall is Marilu Henner. The author offers a history of the reported cases of this disease as well as several theories regarding the neurological science involved.

Next is Sharon who can get lost even in her own house. She has developed a technique of spinning around in circles to reset her world, but still stays within a few block radius of her home and only travels on straight roads. Ruben, the next interesting brain, has synesthesia; this disorder will occupy much of the author’s attention throughout the rest of the book. Synesthesia takes many forms. For example, some people may simply sense that certain numbers are associated with colors or emotions. Others may be able to sense the emotions of others more sensitively than typical. Ruben sees colors associated with people’s personalities or his impressions of them.

Tommy, introduced in the following chapter, is a man who experienced a drastic personality change after a traumatic brain injury. This leads to an interesting discussion of the structure of the brain, its interconnectedness, and how an imbalance can cause serious, strange issues. Tommy not only changes personalities, but also becomes a prolific artist who is constantly painting every surface in his home.

Sylvia experiences endless auditory hallucinations. The author’s discussion of hallucinations is illuminating; she presents many more scenarios than the typical drug experiences or psychosis. She also mentions that a majority of people will experience visual or auditory hallucinations after just 20 minutes of sensory deprivation. She even goes so far as to present step-by-step directions for how you could accomplish this at home. Throughout the book she offers similar do-it-yourself tests for various neurological phenomena--a fun addition to a book that can be a bit dry at times. Another great tip she offers is for memory. I always have difficulty remembering if I have taken my daily vitamin. She recommends making a different animal sound each day just before of after taking it. I haven’t forgotten since.

Matar has lycanthropy. He has psychotic episodes of turning into a tiger. The author’s interview with him is a bit intense as he experiences a relapse and develops a taste for her flesh. She survives and moves on to speak with Louise (another type of synesthesia).

Graham is perhaps the most fascinating case: he woke up from an attempt at taking his own life fully convinced that he was no longer living. He refused to eat or drink, exhibited brain function similar to a comma patient’s while being fully lucid, and took to hanging out at cemetaries when he wasn’t simply staring at the wall. Finally, Joel has yet another form of synesthesia where he can sense (and literally feel!) other people’s physical sensations, including pain. This clearly comes with many difficulties but hasn’t detracted Joel from becoming a doctor and helping others.

The book is fascinating because of its subject matter, but is not particularly novel or well written. I was familiar with several of these stories already, but still enjoyed re-learning some of the neurology and theories about why humans think they way they do. Overall, it was a sufficiently interesting read with a few fun at home test to ensure I don’t have lycanthropy.

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