neuroscience Book Summaries

Dopamine Nation explains how to break bad habits using the neuroscience of dopamine, the "pleasure molecule" in our brains. If you want to retrain your brain to like doing hard things, Dr. Anna Lembke shares tools that may help like dopamine fasting, self-binding, truth-telling and leaning into pain.

12 Rules for Life is about putting your life in order and taking responsibility for what happens. Jordan Peterson begins each chapter with a simple Rule like "Stand up straight" then he launches into thought provoking lessons from science, religion, history and psychology.

The Body Keeps the Score is about fascinating new trauma treatments based on the latest research, like eye movement therapy and neurofeedback. Van der Kolk says many of us carry traces of trauma from childhood adversity or neglect. Emotional healing can happen through practices like mindfulness, yoga, play and more.

Why We Sleep is about the critical importance of sleep, including the science of how sleep works, and some tips for how we can get better sleep. Modern people often don't realize that getting less than 7-8 hours of sleep daily can significantly decrease our short-term mental abilities and long-term physical health.

Behave explains why humans behave the way we do. Sapolsky breaks down complex science into enjoyable explanations, beginning at the level of our brains, then diving into hormones, genes, evolution and even culture and history. By the end, you'll be questioning many long-held assumptions about how much we control ourselves.