Daniel Levitin – författare

The Instant Sunday Times BestsellerA Financial Times, Telegraph and Waterstones Book of the YearShortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book PrizeWhat if music holds the key to healing our minds and bodies? Music as Medicine is the revelatory new book from the million-copy bestselling author of The Organized Mind.'Fascinating' OBSERVER'Essential' WALL STREET JOURNAL‘Intriguing’ GUARDIAN_Can listening to music boost our cognitive function?Do pop songs hold the key to treating Parkinson's and Alzheimer's?And why might Tracy Chapman's 'Fast Car' help cure PTSD?We are only just beginning to appreciate the healing power of music. Here, a neuroscientist and celebrated musician offers a confounding tour through the emerging science of music as medicine - revealing how it can calm our thoughts, repair our memories and heal our deepest psychological wounds._'Levitin presents a strong, evidence-based case for how music heals, alleviating pain, reducing anxiety and even aiding recovery from strokes or Parkinson’s. It’s a compelling blend of anecdote and rigorous science, revealing in detail how music harnesses the brain.' Books of the Year, FINANCIAL TIMES'For many years I have wondered why a bunch of frequencies organised into a piece of music has the ability, even without words, to make the listener cry and become emotional. Although I know this happens to me and many people, I have often wondered how this can be. Dr Levitin, in this latest book, Music as Medicine, has some fascinating insights into this great phenomenon.' PAUL MCCARTNEY

THE NEW YORK TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE ORGANIZED MIND'Everyone we know needs this remarkable book ... Essential for the rest of your life' Daniel H. Pink, author of When and Drive''The secrets of ageing well ... a serious, evidence-based guide to what really works and why' Sunday Times____________________________________________We have long been encouraged to think of old age as synonymous with a decline in skills. Yet recent studies show that our decision making improves as we age, and our happiness levels peak in our eighties. What really happens to our brains as we get older?In The Changing Mind (published in America as Successful Aging), neuroscientist and internationally bestselling author Daniel Levitin invites us to dramatically shift our understanding of aging, demonstrating the many benefits of growing older. He draws on cutting-edge research to offer realistic guidelines and practical tips for readers to follow during every decade of life, showing us we all can learn from those who age joyously. Find out:-Why the story that older people don't need as many hours of sleep is a myth-What part environment, behaviour and luck play in how our brains age-How to increase the proportion of your life span spent in good health and decrease the time you spend sick-What you can do to maintain strength of body, mind and spirit whilst coping with the limitations of agingCombining science and storytelling, The Changing Mind is a radically new way to think about aging.'Read this book. Wise, sensitive, and insightful' David Eagleman, author of The Brain'A comprehensive and fascinating insight into the evolving human brain. This book could change your life' Professor Stephen Westaby, author of Fragile Lives

From the author of The Changing Mind and The Organized Mind comes The New York Times bestseller which unravels the mystery of our perennial love affair with music*****'What do the music of Bach, Depeche Mode and John Cage fundamentally have in common?' Music is an obsession at the heart of human nature, even more fundamental to our species than language. From Mozart to the Beatles, neuroscientist, psychologist and internationally-bestselling author Daniel Levitin reveals the role of music in human evolution, shows how our musical preferences begin to form even before we are born and explains why music can offer such an emotional experience.In This Is Your Brain On Music Levitin offers nothing less than a new way to understand music, and what it can teach us about ourselves. *****'Music seems to have an almost wilful, evasive quality, defying simple explanation, so that the more we find out, the more there is to know . . . Daniel Levitin's book is an eloquent and poetic exploration of this paradox' Sting'You'll never hear music in the same way again' Classic FM magazine'Music, Levitin argues, is not a decadent modern diversion but something of fundamental importance to the history of human development' Literary Review

Modern society is in a state of information overload. Neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin investigates how and why our brains are struggling to keep up with the demands of the digital age.Why is email so addictive? Is multitasking really possible? And what do successful people keep in their junk drawer? The Organized Mind debunks myth and presents one simple idea - storing information in the physical world instead of the mind - to revolutionize twenty-first century living.In a world where information is power, The Organized Mind holds the key to harnessing that information and making it work for you.

A guide to critical thinking in the 'post-truth' era, from the author of Sunday Times best-seller The Organized Mind We live in a world of information overload. Facts and figures on absolutely everything are at our fingertips, but are too often biased, distorted, or outright lies. From unemployment figures to voting polls, IQ tests to divorce rates, we're bombarded by seemingly plausible statistics on how people live and what they think. Daniel Levitin teaches us how to effectively ask ourselves: can we really know that? And how do they know that? In this eye-opening, accessible guide filled with fascinating examples and practical takeaways, acclaimed neuroscientist Daniel Levitin shows us how learning to understand statistics will enable you to make better, smarter judgements on the world around you.

Dividing the sum total of human musical achievement, from Beethoven to The Beatles, Busta Rhymes to Bach, into just six fundamental forms, Levitin illuminates, through songs of friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion and love, how music has been instrumental in the evolution of language, thought and culture. And how, far from being a bit of a song and dance, music is at the core of what it means to be human.A one-time record producer, now a leading neuroscientist, Levitin has composed a catchy and startlingly ambitious narrative that weaves together Darwin and Dionne Warwick, memoir and biology, anthropology and a jukebox of anecdote to create nothing less than the ' soundtrack of civilisation' .