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Brainscapes :an introduction to what neuroscience has learned about the structure, function, and abilities of the brain
A leading expert on the brain offers an accessible, fascinating, and up-to-date survey of what we know about the brain, from how brain cells communicate with one another to the relationship between pollution and Alzheimer's disease.
Hardcover
First published August 1, 1995
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About the author
Richard Restak
45 books81 followersRichard M. Restak M.D. is an award-winning neuroscientist, neuropsychiatrist and writer. The best-selling author of nineteen acclaimed books about the brain, he has also penned dozens of articles for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. A fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Neurology, and the American Neuropsychiatric Association, he lives and practices in Washington, D.C.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 12, 2009
This short book, published in the 1990s, serves as an introduction to the brain and to the advances made in neuroscience up to that time. Restak knows his subject: he is both a neurologist and a psychiatrist, and for many years he has tried to keep the educated public current with new developments in brain science. This is important, because “more has been learned about the brain in the last twenty years than in the previous two hundred.” And anticipated advances will have an enormous influence on society—and force major policy decisions.
*The Brain. Here are the usual mind-boggling numbers characterizing the most complex object in the universe:
--50 billion cells
--A million billion synapses (connections among nerve cells)
--Overall firing rate = 10 million billion times per second
--During prenatal life, 2.5 million nerve cells (neurons) generated every minute
--Brain full size by age 2
--Cerebral cortex contains 10 billion neurons, a million billion synapses
--In humans, the frontal lobe accounts for 50% of cerebral volume
--The brain contains more supporting (glial) cells than neurons: glial cells account for half of the brain’s volume and 90% of its cells
--Between ages 20 and 70, humans lose 10% of their neurons
--1980s neural network computer (TRW Mark III), with a million synapses, had about one ten-thousandth the mental capacity of a housefly.
*The Hemispheres. The brain is split into left and right hemispheres, each of which controls the opposite side of the body (called “contralateral” control). The hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum, a bundle of fibers that makes over 800 million hook-ups. The callosum takes over ten years to fully develop—one reason, think neuroscientists, that most of us remember very little of early childhood. For the most part the two hemispheres perform different functions (although there is some redundancy): they are like two minds in one head—a phenomenon demonstrated in so-called “split-brain” patients, whose corpus callosums have been cut to control the effects of seizures, and whose “two independent minds” sometimes disagree with each other. As for the different functions of the hemispheres: “Things are perceived and analyzed as a whole by the right hemisphere, whereas the left hemisphere breaks things down into their components. The right hemisphere excels at reading maps, working out jigsaw puzzles, copying designs, distinguishing and remembering musical tones, recognizing faces, analyzing other people’s emotions via the interpretation of their tones of voice or facial expression (essentially the reading of ‘body language’), visualizing in three-dimensional space, and other activities involving perceptual-spatial relations.” By contrast, the left hemisphere is involved in language and “all other activities requiring analysis or sequential processing.” Because it is divided into two hemispheres, “the brain has evolved into an inherently dialectical organ that attempts during every moment of its existence to achieve a unification of opposites.”
*The Cerebral Cortex. The cerebral cortex is the 3 to 5 mm layer of gray matter on the outside of the cerebrum (like the skin of a fruit). This cortex is the seat of the “higher” functions; it is more highly developed in man than in any other creature. The cortex consists of four lobes: frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital. The primary (but not only) functions of the lobes: frontal = abstract thinking, parietal = sensing and movement, left temporal = language, occipital = vision. Within the lobes are “modules” that specialize in specific functions like counting (the “Mathematical Module”) or deciphering the meanings of words (“Wernicke’s Area”). The cortex as a whole is convoluted to increase surface area: to get more bang for the buck within the confines of the skull.
*Circuits. For a long time investigators thought brain functions were highly localized in specific cells and areas—for example, each memory might be stored (as an “engram”) in a single cell. Later, it seemed that functions might spread all over the brain—for example, memories might be stored holographically. Now it appears that both views were partly right and partly wrong: many brain functions (e.g., for language, for mathematics, for recognizing faces) are concentrated in specific areas, or modules, of the brain, but these are interconnected with other areas to form complex circuits—and it is the circuits that do the complete job. For example, the “anterior attentional network”—the so-called executive network that brings a new object of awareness into consciousness when a decision must be made—includes the anterior cingulate area in the frontal lobe, lateral areas in the frontal lobe, and areas in the basal ganglia. Another example: “Neuroscientists now regard OCD as the result of some abnormality along a circuit that includes the frontal cortex, the basal ganglia, the thalamus, and the cingulate cortex.” Neuroscientists are presently trying to map many key circuits.
*Neurons. “Remember that at every microsecond of its existence, the brain is a dynamic organ in which each neuron is influencing somewhere between one thousand and ten thousand other neurons.” “Each neuron is a dynamic living structure which, over its life span, measures in millisecond intervals the excitatory and inhibitory influences acting on it.” Each neuron consists of a cell body, many dendrites and an axon. The cell body includes a nucleus (which incorporates DNA for the complete human genome ) and surrounding cytoplasm. The dendrites receive signals from other neurons, and the single axon passes on the signal if it is strong enough (the neuron sums all the incoming signals; if they exceed a preset voltage threshold, it passes the signal along). The neuron also passes along chemicals: neurotransmitters. Of these there are three categories: the single-amino acids like glutamate and GABA; the monoamines, subdivided into the catecholamines (such as dopamine and epinephrine) and the indoleamines (such as serotonin and acetycholine); and the neuropeptides, which are small molecules that can travel over great distances in the body. Many neurotransmitters have been discovered and no doubt many remain to be discovered. Further, many have numerous subtypes of receptor—14 have so far been identified for serotonin alone. Many diseases and poisons act on neurotransmitters. For example: “Curare works by competing with acetycholine for its receptor and therefore inhibiting the normal depolarization that produces muscle movement. Thus, the victim is not only paralyzed but asphyxiated thanks to blockages of the muscles responsible for breathing.”
*Learning from Brain Damage and Scanning Techniques. “Most of what we know about the brain has come from the meticulous examination of the effects of injuries [and:] illnesses.” This information is now being supplemented by realtime viewing of brain function (in normal as well as brain-damaged people) using recently-developed technology:
—CAT (computer-aided tomography)—snapshot 3-dimensional x-ray
—MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)—snapshot 3-dimensional images of brain’s magnetic flux
—PET (positron emission tomography)—radioactive isotope produces movielike images of blood and glucose moving through neural circuits while the brain is functioning
—fMRI (functional MRI)—movielike 3D images of brain’s magnetic flux
—MEG (magnetoencephalography)—movielike realtime 3D magnetic flux at the neuronal level.
Currently very promising because it makes movies of circuits operating at near-brainspeed (tens of milliseconds): a combination of fMRI and the old EEG (electro-encephalograph). This technique recently revealed, for example, that when people were asked to close their eyes and come up with a word that rhymed with a test word, the visual cortex briefly lit up before any other area—“…a pattern reflecting the brain’s first visualizing the word and then activating its memory and speech areas to come up with a word with a similar sound.”
*Neurochemicals and Personality. Sculpted “mood” drugs “…may…prove effective in altering for the better a host of ‘normal’ but nonetheless limiting personality characteristics like shyness, reclusiveness, and a general pessimism concerning other people and life in general." “It is likely that over the next decade or so mental illnesses will be defined in terms of neurotransmitter imbalances within areas of the brain involved in emotional processing, with medications designed to target the specific receptors affected.” “Brain function and dysfunction can be understood in terms of information transfer.” “Inherited forms of normal and abnormal brain functioning are a reflection of either ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ transfers of information somewhere in the path from DNA to protein.” “Neurochemistry and genetics are turning out to be more important than anatomy.” Based on fMRI data, one neuroscientist has defined four basic components of personality: 1) reward dependence, 2) harm avoidance, 3) novelty seeking, and 4) persistence. “Subsequent refinements are likely to link personality, character, and neurotransmitter profiles that more accurately reflect brain chemistry.” By using drugs, we will be able to alter personality more precisely (than with Prozac, for instance). Is this scary? Restak doesn’t think so. “Such knowledge will enhance human freedom since each person will have the opportunity to alter important aspects of himself.”
What about unity of personality, the sense of self? “There is no Papal [brain:] module that oversees and controls all the others.” “Many brain areas are necessary for consciousness, but no single one of them is sufficient in itself to mediate it.” Then why does the personality seem unified? One hypothesis holds that the sense of unity is provided every 12.5 thousandths of a second by an electrical wave that sweeps the entire brain. This wave originates in the thalamus’ intralaminar nucleus, which is heavily connected to the cerebral cortex.
*Neurochemicals and the Environment. Restak points out the (presently underappreciated) dangers of environmental toxins—for example, manganese can have a catastrophic effect on the brain, as can the acetycholinesterase inhibitors that are used in many pesticides (and operate on the same basic principle as the deadly nerve gas Sarin—of Tokyo subway fame). Especially worrisome are the so-called “silent toxins,” whose effects don’t show up for many years. As for foods: “…chemicals that we eat, both natural and synthetic, can exert devastating effects on the adult brain. Foods like the drought-resistant grain pea can induce a disease marked by gradual paralysis and eventual death. The active ingredient in the pea is thought to be an excitatory amino acid that, after ingestion, attacks certain parts of the brain. Such food-induced brain diseases are not limited to distant and exotic parts of the world. In 1987, in Canada, mussels contaminated with the excitatory neurotoxin domoic acid led to 129 illnesses and 2 deaths. Symptoms included memory loss, disorientation, and seizures.” There is a wide variation in individual susceptibility to specific toxins: “Toxins are not equal-opportunity destroyers. One person’s bad habit is another person’s death sentence.” As for the future, “Neuroscientists will be looking for and, I predict, finding evidence that some neurologic and psychiatric diseases result from toxins in our everyday environment.”
*Limits of Neuroscience. “The brain may turn out to be fathomable only to a certain degree, just as the physics of everyday reality, if pursued deeply enough, disappears into a blur of sub-atomic particles and fields of energy.” “The plethora of psychological theories…mirrors on the larger scale of human behavior the quantum indeterminism of the brain.” “We essentially create our own brains by means of the choices we make about how we will live our lives.” What are the limits to brain science? 1)Human intention makes moment-to-moment prediction impossible (I may be doing one thing but suddenly decide to do something else; I may decide to act out of character; I may decide to foil the experiment); 2) the brain can be studied only by the brain: it cannot step out of itself for an outside view; 3) in a process of “neuronal group selection,” highly plastic brain modules incessantly rewire themselves (reallocate neurons) to adapt to changing internal and external environments; and 4) the sheer scale of brain activity is mind-boggling—trillions of interactions every millisecond (“In essence, the brain consists of ever-changing networks of relationships”)—too many moving electrons and chemicals ever to analyze precisely. “[The brain:] allows only a rough correlation between brain function and mental processes.”
*The Brain. Here are the usual mind-boggling numbers characterizing the most complex object in the universe:
--50 billion cells
--A million billion synapses (connections among nerve cells)
--Overall firing rate = 10 million billion times per second
--During prenatal life, 2.5 million nerve cells (neurons) generated every minute
--Brain full size by age 2
--Cerebral cortex contains 10 billion neurons, a million billion synapses
--In humans, the frontal lobe accounts for 50% of cerebral volume
--The brain contains more supporting (glial) cells than neurons: glial cells account for half of the brain’s volume and 90% of its cells
--Between ages 20 and 70, humans lose 10% of their neurons
--1980s neural network computer (TRW Mark III), with a million synapses, had about one ten-thousandth the mental capacity of a housefly.
*The Hemispheres. The brain is split into left and right hemispheres, each of which controls the opposite side of the body (called “contralateral” control). The hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum, a bundle of fibers that makes over 800 million hook-ups. The callosum takes over ten years to fully develop—one reason, think neuroscientists, that most of us remember very little of early childhood. For the most part the two hemispheres perform different functions (although there is some redundancy): they are like two minds in one head—a phenomenon demonstrated in so-called “split-brain” patients, whose corpus callosums have been cut to control the effects of seizures, and whose “two independent minds” sometimes disagree with each other. As for the different functions of the hemispheres: “Things are perceived and analyzed as a whole by the right hemisphere, whereas the left hemisphere breaks things down into their components. The right hemisphere excels at reading maps, working out jigsaw puzzles, copying designs, distinguishing and remembering musical tones, recognizing faces, analyzing other people’s emotions via the interpretation of their tones of voice or facial expression (essentially the reading of ‘body language’), visualizing in three-dimensional space, and other activities involving perceptual-spatial relations.” By contrast, the left hemisphere is involved in language and “all other activities requiring analysis or sequential processing.” Because it is divided into two hemispheres, “the brain has evolved into an inherently dialectical organ that attempts during every moment of its existence to achieve a unification of opposites.”
*The Cerebral Cortex. The cerebral cortex is the 3 to 5 mm layer of gray matter on the outside of the cerebrum (like the skin of a fruit). This cortex is the seat of the “higher” functions; it is more highly developed in man than in any other creature. The cortex consists of four lobes: frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital. The primary (but not only) functions of the lobes: frontal = abstract thinking, parietal = sensing and movement, left temporal = language, occipital = vision. Within the lobes are “modules” that specialize in specific functions like counting (the “Mathematical Module”) or deciphering the meanings of words (“Wernicke’s Area”). The cortex as a whole is convoluted to increase surface area: to get more bang for the buck within the confines of the skull.
*Circuits. For a long time investigators thought brain functions were highly localized in specific cells and areas—for example, each memory might be stored (as an “engram”) in a single cell. Later, it seemed that functions might spread all over the brain—for example, memories might be stored holographically. Now it appears that both views were partly right and partly wrong: many brain functions (e.g., for language, for mathematics, for recognizing faces) are concentrated in specific areas, or modules, of the brain, but these are interconnected with other areas to form complex circuits—and it is the circuits that do the complete job. For example, the “anterior attentional network”—the so-called executive network that brings a new object of awareness into consciousness when a decision must be made—includes the anterior cingulate area in the frontal lobe, lateral areas in the frontal lobe, and areas in the basal ganglia. Another example: “Neuroscientists now regard OCD as the result of some abnormality along a circuit that includes the frontal cortex, the basal ganglia, the thalamus, and the cingulate cortex.” Neuroscientists are presently trying to map many key circuits.
*Neurons. “Remember that at every microsecond of its existence, the brain is a dynamic organ in which each neuron is influencing somewhere between one thousand and ten thousand other neurons.” “Each neuron is a dynamic living structure which, over its life span, measures in millisecond intervals the excitatory and inhibitory influences acting on it.” Each neuron consists of a cell body, many dendrites and an axon. The cell body includes a nucleus (which incorporates DNA for the complete human genome ) and surrounding cytoplasm. The dendrites receive signals from other neurons, and the single axon passes on the signal if it is strong enough (the neuron sums all the incoming signals; if they exceed a preset voltage threshold, it passes the signal along). The neuron also passes along chemicals: neurotransmitters. Of these there are three categories: the single-amino acids like glutamate and GABA; the monoamines, subdivided into the catecholamines (such as dopamine and epinephrine) and the indoleamines (such as serotonin and acetycholine); and the neuropeptides, which are small molecules that can travel over great distances in the body. Many neurotransmitters have been discovered and no doubt many remain to be discovered. Further, many have numerous subtypes of receptor—14 have so far been identified for serotonin alone. Many diseases and poisons act on neurotransmitters. For example: “Curare works by competing with acetycholine for its receptor and therefore inhibiting the normal depolarization that produces muscle movement. Thus, the victim is not only paralyzed but asphyxiated thanks to blockages of the muscles responsible for breathing.”
*Learning from Brain Damage and Scanning Techniques. “Most of what we know about the brain has come from the meticulous examination of the effects of injuries [and:] illnesses.” This information is now being supplemented by realtime viewing of brain function (in normal as well as brain-damaged people) using recently-developed technology:
—CAT (computer-aided tomography)—snapshot 3-dimensional x-ray
—MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)—snapshot 3-dimensional images of brain’s magnetic flux
—PET (positron emission tomography)—radioactive isotope produces movielike images of blood and glucose moving through neural circuits while the brain is functioning
—fMRI (functional MRI)—movielike 3D images of brain’s magnetic flux
—MEG (magnetoencephalography)—movielike realtime 3D magnetic flux at the neuronal level.
Currently very promising because it makes movies of circuits operating at near-brainspeed (tens of milliseconds): a combination of fMRI and the old EEG (electro-encephalograph). This technique recently revealed, for example, that when people were asked to close their eyes and come up with a word that rhymed with a test word, the visual cortex briefly lit up before any other area—“…a pattern reflecting the brain’s first visualizing the word and then activating its memory and speech areas to come up with a word with a similar sound.”
*Neurochemicals and Personality. Sculpted “mood” drugs “…may…prove effective in altering for the better a host of ‘normal’ but nonetheless limiting personality characteristics like shyness, reclusiveness, and a general pessimism concerning other people and life in general." “It is likely that over the next decade or so mental illnesses will be defined in terms of neurotransmitter imbalances within areas of the brain involved in emotional processing, with medications designed to target the specific receptors affected.” “Brain function and dysfunction can be understood in terms of information transfer.” “Inherited forms of normal and abnormal brain functioning are a reflection of either ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ transfers of information somewhere in the path from DNA to protein.” “Neurochemistry and genetics are turning out to be more important than anatomy.” Based on fMRI data, one neuroscientist has defined four basic components of personality: 1) reward dependence, 2) harm avoidance, 3) novelty seeking, and 4) persistence. “Subsequent refinements are likely to link personality, character, and neurotransmitter profiles that more accurately reflect brain chemistry.” By using drugs, we will be able to alter personality more precisely (than with Prozac, for instance). Is this scary? Restak doesn’t think so. “Such knowledge will enhance human freedom since each person will have the opportunity to alter important aspects of himself.”
What about unity of personality, the sense of self? “There is no Papal [brain:] module that oversees and controls all the others.” “Many brain areas are necessary for consciousness, but no single one of them is sufficient in itself to mediate it.” Then why does the personality seem unified? One hypothesis holds that the sense of unity is provided every 12.5 thousandths of a second by an electrical wave that sweeps the entire brain. This wave originates in the thalamus’ intralaminar nucleus, which is heavily connected to the cerebral cortex.
*Neurochemicals and the Environment. Restak points out the (presently underappreciated) dangers of environmental toxins—for example, manganese can have a catastrophic effect on the brain, as can the acetycholinesterase inhibitors that are used in many pesticides (and operate on the same basic principle as the deadly nerve gas Sarin—of Tokyo subway fame). Especially worrisome are the so-called “silent toxins,” whose effects don’t show up for many years. As for foods: “…chemicals that we eat, both natural and synthetic, can exert devastating effects on the adult brain. Foods like the drought-resistant grain pea can induce a disease marked by gradual paralysis and eventual death. The active ingredient in the pea is thought to be an excitatory amino acid that, after ingestion, attacks certain parts of the brain. Such food-induced brain diseases are not limited to distant and exotic parts of the world. In 1987, in Canada, mussels contaminated with the excitatory neurotoxin domoic acid led to 129 illnesses and 2 deaths. Symptoms included memory loss, disorientation, and seizures.” There is a wide variation in individual susceptibility to specific toxins: “Toxins are not equal-opportunity destroyers. One person’s bad habit is another person’s death sentence.” As for the future, “Neuroscientists will be looking for and, I predict, finding evidence that some neurologic and psychiatric diseases result from toxins in our everyday environment.”
*Limits of Neuroscience. “The brain may turn out to be fathomable only to a certain degree, just as the physics of everyday reality, if pursued deeply enough, disappears into a blur of sub-atomic particles and fields of energy.” “The plethora of psychological theories…mirrors on the larger scale of human behavior the quantum indeterminism of the brain.” “We essentially create our own brains by means of the choices we make about how we will live our lives.” What are the limits to brain science? 1)Human intention makes moment-to-moment prediction impossible (I may be doing one thing but suddenly decide to do something else; I may decide to act out of character; I may decide to foil the experiment); 2) the brain can be studied only by the brain: it cannot step out of itself for an outside view; 3) in a process of “neuronal group selection,” highly plastic brain modules incessantly rewire themselves (reallocate neurons) to adapt to changing internal and external environments; and 4) the sheer scale of brain activity is mind-boggling—trillions of interactions every millisecond (“In essence, the brain consists of ever-changing networks of relationships”)—too many moving electrons and chemicals ever to analyze precisely. “[The brain:] allows only a rough correlation between brain function and mental processes.”
January 5, 2018
In this book, the author provides an excellent and thorough tour of the human brain. He explains what neuroscientists have discovered so far about how the brain works and hypothesizes about what scientist may be able to prove in the coming years. Please note that this book was written in 1995, so the information may be somewhat out of date. Still, this is an excellent primer for understanding the basic structure of the brain as well as how DNA and neurotransmitters work.
October 24, 2019
In my opinion, this book was very tedious. It was too full of information even though it didn’t seem to have much writing. This honestly caused me to procrastinate in reading it because I couldn’t handle the way this book was written. It was clearly a narrative with just facts that I could’ve found on the internet and it’s not the type of book I would just read for fun. It’s more of the type of book that I would read to do a report or an essay on. Although, it did have a lot of cool, good information about the brain, the way it functioned, and in depth parts of the brain. I love how it went in depth about all the neurons traveling around the body and how information was given in the body from head to toe. I really enjoyed the facts that were given in this book. It really opened me to more knowledge that I didn’t know and I think that was pretty nice because it never hurts to learn more information than you already have. I think this book would be really interesting for people who are really interested in the human body, biology, or science in general and since I’m not interested in these things this book was definitely boring and not for me.
Although, my favorite part about this book were the different illnesses such as Parkinson’s Disease or Alzheimer’s. I really find these illnesses interesting and I absolutely loved when it talked about it. I thought it was very interesting on how it affects the body and how it changes a human being. I couldn’t put the book down at this point since it really went in depth on how it all worked and I thought it was really cool. Even though it was only facts I liked how it went on about how different scientists tried different experiments and how it was discovered. I also liked how it explained what cells function and how it connects all together.
I do have two questions though. Why were there some random jumps in this book? There was a jump from how Shakespeare was connected to the brain and on the next page it talked about how the Egyptians decapitated the brain from the nose. I honestly got confused at that point in the book. There were other jumps but I don’t remember them clearly. My other question is on why this book couldn’t be from a present day scientist, or at least some of it. I think it would’ve made the book 10 times more interesting to see how scientists now react to how we’ve evolved so much on the brain. Overall, I liked this book and its facts in it!
Although, my favorite part about this book were the different illnesses such as Parkinson’s Disease or Alzheimer’s. I really find these illnesses interesting and I absolutely loved when it talked about it. I thought it was very interesting on how it affects the body and how it changes a human being. I couldn’t put the book down at this point since it really went in depth on how it all worked and I thought it was really cool. Even though it was only facts I liked how it went on about how different scientists tried different experiments and how it was discovered. I also liked how it explained what cells function and how it connects all together.
I do have two questions though. Why were there some random jumps in this book? There was a jump from how Shakespeare was connected to the brain and on the next page it talked about how the Egyptians decapitated the brain from the nose. I honestly got confused at that point in the book. There were other jumps but I don’t remember them clearly. My other question is on why this book couldn’t be from a present day scientist, or at least some of it. I think it would’ve made the book 10 times more interesting to see how scientists now react to how we’ve evolved so much on the brain. Overall, I liked this book and its facts in it!
July 12, 2011
A great introduction to Neuroscience and the brain. I couldn't put it down! I know this solidifies my geekdom, however I would totally recommend this book to anyone interested in a quick read on the brain and how it effects every aspect of how we live as individuals.
My four star rating is due to a few times the book gets a little to technical for my liking, but I still do love the book.
My four star rating is due to a few times the book gets a little to technical for my liking, but I still do love the book.
June 17, 2021
Very challenging read
July 23, 2014
This little green book is a definite must-have addition to any neuroscientist, educator, or anyone interested in the brain. Restak is a good writer, and not only weaves his words well, but uses the writings of others outside the field to make understanding the complicated workings of the brain understandable to someone who is just being introduced to it. I've used this particular book in several papers on deafness and cognition, and every once in a while I pick it up and reread parts of it (usually that I marked) that bear remembering. Certainly Restak is a remarkable writer, and thus probably a remarkable teacher. I wish I had had someone like him in Neuroscience...it would have helped tremendously to have someone so in love with his topic that he wants everyone to understand it. We need more science teachers and science writers like him to encourage young people to consider science as a possible career. And perhaps maybe if more people understood the brain, they would quit treating their own brains without regard to the damage they are doing to it by using drugs and alcohol, or misusing prescription drugs.
June 3, 2008
The brain is the physical hardware and what we call the mind is the actual wiring that is created by experiences (the software). Just think. One little snip between the hemispheres or in key places and you are no longer in control. Where does the mind go when you're not in control? or more interesting where does the soul go?
March 5, 2008
very technical
Currently reading
February 20, 2011So far, so good. Reading it when I don't feel up to reading about faith/religions.
May 21, 2015
Very interesting and fairly easy to understand. The subtitle says it all.
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February 24, 2018A leading expert on the brain offers an accessible, fascinating, and up-to-date survey of what we know about the brain, from how brain cells communicate with one another to the relationship between pollution and Alzheimer's disease.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews