Quotes from Sharon Begley

We look harder for flaws in a study when we don't agree with its conclusions.

For compulsions, according to a growing body of scientific evidence, are a response to anxiety. Suffused and overwhelmed by anxiety, we grab hold of any behavior that offers relief by providing even an illusion of control.

Emerging evidence suggests that people who are suffering from depression are unable to recognize novelty.

We cling to compulsions as if to a lifeline, for it is only by engaging in compulsions that we can drain enough of our anxiety to function.

The saddest thing I came to understand in researching and reporting this book is that so many of our behaviors draw us into them not because they bring joy but because they promise to quiet anxiety. But the most heartening thing was the realization that the ability of compulsive behaviors to quiet anxieties great and small is one of the greatest gifts our brains can give us.

The brain devotes more cortical real estate to functions that its owner uses more frequently and shrinks the space devoted to activities rarely performed. That's why the brains of violinists devote more space to the region that controls the digits of the fingering hand. In response to the actions and experiences of its owner, a brain forges stronger connections in circuits that underlie one behavior or thought and weakens the connections in others.

Arguing, after all, is less about seeking truth than about overcoming opposing views.

The mind's cross-indexing puts the best librarian to shame.

The mind can store an estimated ioo trillion bits of information compared with which a computer's mere billions are virtually amnesiac.