A User's Guide to the Brain (Ratey, 2001)

Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain

March 23, 2001
Review By Bob Seay

Ratey explores and explains the brain in his newest book. Along the way, he introduces us to Temple Grandin, an autistic-savant with a photographic memory, a group of nuns that have historically remained mentally and physically active past the age of ninety, and other interesting characters.

These characters, their stories and Ratey's style of writing are what make the book work. Let's face it: for such a dynamic organ, most of the books written about the brain tend to be better at curing insomnia than at providing usable information. "I have decided," writes Ratey in the introduction, "that I will have to replace much of the technical language about the brain with a language more akin to what the brain itself uses." Ratey should be commended for his ability to translate. The book is still full of technical information, presented in analogies and metaphors that are easily understood. Personal stories provide a very human feel.

Ratey divides the brain into four theaters: Perception, Attention/Consciousness, Function, and Identity/Behavior. Each of these are explained and illustrated, with attention given to each areas specialty. Most interesting is his pairing of Attention and Consciousness. According to Ratey, these two are intertwined and may actually be the same thing. This is remarkable because we don't know that much about consciousness, yet understanding it is essential to understanding ourselves. "After all," Ratey says, "without consciousness little else that the brain could do would matter."

As a person with ADHD, I found this link between consciousness and attention very interesting. As I learned more about my brain, I realized that I was learning much more about myself.

p.56 An act of perception is a lot more than capturing an incoming stimulus. It requires a form of expectation, of knowing what is about to confront us and preparing for it. Without expectations, or constructs through which we perceive our world, our surroundings would be what William James called a "booming, buzzing confusion," and each experience truly would be a new one, rapidly overwhelming us.

p.60 As is already clear, the brain's ability to distinguish signal from noise is crucial to proper perception.

p.111 Attention and consciousness are the foundations on which we create an understanding of the world... They are also the basic functions that give rise to "the mind"

p.112 The brain is a powerful prediction machine, continuously making elaborate mental maps of the world that are reliable enough to enable us to predict what lies ahead, both in space and in time.

p.113 the brain constructs maps of its surroundings... some subset of neurons... keep talking in the background to maintain those maps. When new data come in... the neurons reconfigure their maps.

p.114 The intensity with which you attend to such stimuli is determined by your own level of interest, alertness, and anxiety. The cognitive process of assigning an emotional weight to perceptions affects attention as well... the brain continually decides when to stop paying attention to something.

p.115 Arousal is the ability to suddenly increase alertness

p.129 Whether it functions smoothly or not, the ultimate purpose of our attention system is to help our brains tune in to the world, including our own minds. Tuning in opens the door to that most fascinating aspect of our lives: consciousness.

p.148-149 Planning, deliberating, pondering, and acting are all about behavior - translating thoughts into deeds. In most cases, we think in terms of action sequences - formulating plans and then executing them. The deeds themselves certainly rely on motor functions, but so does the thinking that precedes them.

p.343 Perception is the gateway through which we receive information from our five senses and from our internal awareness. Perception is the beginning of all experience... Perception is the starting point for diagnosis, because mental life develops primarily in response to the information that the brain apprehends... When we attend to a perception, we become conscious of it, and then we think about it or react to it.

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