Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina provides 12 rules for how the brain functions and details how those rules can affect everyday life. Medina is a molecular biologist who seeks to filter and refine neuroscientific research in an accessible way. Brain Rules covers topics from stress to sleep while showing how neuroscience can improve quality of life and learning. Each rule is presented in a way that offers practical applications and insight into how the brain functions. Medina creates his rules based on criteria of rigorous testing and replication. Brain Rules is a New York Times bestseller. This guide utilizes the 2014 paperback edition by Pear Press.

Content Warning: This book proposes biological differences in the brains of those assigned male at birth and those assigned female.

Summary

John Medina, molecular biologist and private research consultant, compiles decades of neuroscientific research to establish 12 rules for the brain. Medina explains that he is extremely fussy when it comes to research; each rule is based upon experiments that have appeared in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals, the results for which have been successfully replicated in repeat trials. Each rule focuses on a different aspect of how the brain functions.