The 21st Century Brain: How Our Brains Are Changing in Response to the Challenges of Social Networks, Ai, Climate Change, and Stress

Discover the Influences of Social Media, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Climate Change, Stress, and More on Our Brains and Behavior Unique to the Twenty-first Century.

During the past twenty-five years, we’ve encountered powerful influences for good and bad on brain function and even brain structure. Consider the changes that have already taken place in how we communicate. During the last half of the twentieth century, images displaced words as the common parlance of communication. On the nightly news we’ve become accustomed to watching images drawn from video cameras used by law enforcement and, thanks to a proliferating number of cellphones, everyday use. Yet AI is turning the traditional dynamic that images carry more weight than words (＂seeing is believing＂) upside down because we now have to question the authenticity of images. We are finding ourselves forced to adjust to a world where what we see is not always what’s really happening.

Next, consider the effects of our changing environment on our brains and our behavior. There is good reason to believe that a link exists between an increase in global temperature and suicide. Wildfires, becoming more and more common thanks to climate change, affect air quality, which is often undetectable by the average person until it reaches toxic levels. Studies have proven that wildfire smoke is affecting our brains and potentially causing disease.

Perhaps the greatest twenty-first century contributor to changes in brain function is stress. Due to many factors explored in the book, it’s likely that levels of mental and emotional instability are on the horizon that can only be fully understood by focusing on the changes in the human brain brought about by these unparalleled levels of stress.

The brain is always evolving. The 21st Century Brain will describe those influences on brain and behavior that are unique to this century, as well as available preventive measures to mitigate some of these factors. This book is a quintessential study on how our brains are uniquely changing in the twenty-first century, as well as a guide to the personal and collective measures that can be taken to eliminate these factors or reduce their impact.

Richard Restak has published twenty-five books on the human brain, with three of them New York Times bestsellers. His essays and articles have appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, London Observer, Huffington Post, Vogue, and the American Scholar. He has been profiled in the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Guardian, and The Times (London). He is a past recipient of the Claude Bernard Science Journalism Award, given by the National Society for Medical Research. He is as a former president of the American Neuropsychiatric Association.

He has lectured on brain and behavior to groups as varied as the Smithsonian; the 92nd Street Y; the Library of Congress; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at Goddard Space Flight Center; the Society of Statesmen, US Capitol, Washington, DC; the National Security Agency; the Central Intelligence Agency; the Department of State; the Foreign Service Institute, Washington, DC; the Pentagon; Renaissance Weekend (multiple times); Aspen Institute; Ruben Museum of Art; and the Brookings Institute.

Richard Restak’s media appearances have included the Today Show, Good Morning America, NPR Weekend Edition, Larry King Weekend, the Discovery Channel, the One-on-One Show with John McLaughlin, the Diane Rehm Show innumerable times, the Jim Bohannon Show, the Charlie Rose Show, and All Things Considered (NPR).