Linden sets out to prove that our brains more closely resemble inefficient clunkers reflecting millions of years of evolutionary tinkering, rather thaLinden sets out to prove that our brains more closely resemble inefficient clunkers reflecting millions of years of evolutionary tinkering, rather than sophisticated, well-designed and amazing intelligent creations. He discusses the structure of our brain from the lower evolutionary parts of the brain stem and cerebellum through the more recent frontal lobes and cortex. When discussing the brain’s design, he uses a cool example of a supermodern racecar built on the Ford T plan, in which nothing of the original Ford T plan is to be dropped or replaced, and the new systems are to be built in addition and/or on top of the old ones. This is precisely how we ended up having two visual and two auditory systems in our brains- one ancient and one more modern. This is how congenitally blind people can in fact perceive movement and objects even though they don’t consciously realize that. It’s their ancient visual system at work. Linden also discusses the way our brain communicates within itself and how we come up with a picture of the world that is both physical and abstract. From what I understand, even though there are parts of the brain designated to perform specialized functions, the whole brain with all its parts creates the memories and images of what we perceive and know. Worldviews, dreams and religious views are an inherent feature of our brains creating narratives.
All in all, the book is a wonderfully balanced review of what we do and don’t know about the brain and the best debunking of intelligent design I have read in a while.
As a PS, there were some nice observations on sex in mammals and how humans compare to others. What caught my attention was the discussion of ovulation in females and the fact that the hidden ovulation of human females keeps males around since they never know when females are fertile. The joke is that females don’t know either, so they have to keep the males around as well (that wasn't in the book;), so the pair bonding is a must here because of that.
A note for audiobook fans. It's read in an outstandingly clear performance by Ray Porter.
This delightful title hides the book on the reading brain. Proust and the Squid- the Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Marianne Wolff is the fThis delightful title hides the book on the reading brain. Proust and the Squid- the Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Marianne Wolff is the full title, and the book is quite good. It has sections on history of different scripts and languages, an extensive one on reading development, research into the neurophysiology of the reading brain, comparisons of the reading brain vs. non-reading brain, reading disabilities and the future of reading. Here are some points I jotted down after reading it: � We are not wired for reading; we are wired for object recognition, and for aural language processing. � Reading involves areas used for those plus it recycles many other neuronal connections mainly in the visual cortex and in the occipital-temporal areas. � With reading, our brain gets reorganized, which in turn expands the ways we are able to think, which aids in the intellectual and evolutionary development of our species. � When a small child is learning two languages at the same time, the brain area used for this process is the same. � When a child/ adult is learning one language later in life than the other, the brain areas used are different. � Different writing systems set up their own distinctive brain networks in the development of reading. � Languages with different scripts use different areas of the brain to process written language- for example for Chinese it’s object recognition areas, for French and English a blend of object recognition and temporal lobe access, and for the language with more regular symbol-sound correspondence � it's quick temporal lobe access. Children learning reading in more regular scripts learn to read on average a year earlier than children learning more irregular or object based scripts. � Since dyslexic individuals are also more creative, and more spatially gifted; dyslexia may be more prevalent in traditionally illiterate societies, or societies where having spatial ability/and or creativity gives an individual a better advantage over a bookish individual. � Dyslexia has different forms, and manifests itself differently in different languages. � And finally, quite literally reading changes our life, and our life changes our reading. The book is geared towards parents and teachers with children with dyslexia, but it should be mandatory reading for any language, Special Education and elementary school teacher. Why Proust and the Squid? Well, this you’ll have to find out yourself... ...more
It's exactly what the title promises- tales of music and the brain. Interesting how music can be a grounding experience for people with dementia, or aIt's exactly what the title promises- tales of music and the brain. Interesting how music can be a grounding experience for people with dementia, or almost like a religious experience for those with frontal lobes epilepsy. It was a good book in terms of raising questions, but not necessarily at providing answers. I have read about some cases described here before either in different books and publications, or in other Sachs books. Interesting enough though....more
A unique blend of memoir and science describing Kandel’s (Nobel prize winner for Physiology or Medicine in 2000) quest for memory both at the personalA unique blend of memoir and science describing Kandel’s (Nobel prize winner for Physiology or Medicine in 2000) quest for memory both at the personal and scientific level. Kandel, a 9 year old Jew in Vienna in 1938, starts his book with his memories of Anschluss and Kristallnacht, describes the vividness of these memories and how years later they made him interested in why and how certain memories are remembered while others are lost. Throughout his career, he tackled brain and memory research at different levels from molecular biology to psychoanalysis, his most groundbreaking research being on Aplysia, a sea snail with very simple, yet molecularly big nervous system. All stages of this research are described exquisitely well in the book.
Extremely informative and enlightening on all levels. I could have lived without some parts of the personal account, though. In particular, I had a bit of a problem with the overly self-righteous tone of some of his personal tales.
Link: Kandel’s lecture on memory loss and aging 12884
Marc Hauser examines cognitive abilities of animals and their moral sense. He claims that some of the tools for thinking are universal, shared by all Marc Hauser examines cognitive abilities of animals and their moral sense. He claims that some of the tools for thinking are universal, shared by all animals and humans. The universal toolkit provides animals with a basic capacity to recognize objects, count and navigate. According to Hauser, animals are not equipped with language, self awareness, higher emotions or moral instincts. Whereas by and large I find his conclusions sound, I am somewhat disappointed by the narrowness of the interpretation of the results of his experiments. The book does not answer the question it poses: What Do Animals Really Think? either, or rather answers it with certainty that we will never know� It does seem to be very difficult to make firm conclusions about what's going on in animal minds, but I think Hauser tries to stay very cautious, too cautious in fact. He is probably guilty more of anthropocentrism than anthropomorphism. Since an animal is not a human, and it does have self awareness and highly developed self reflection ability and moral sense, it cannot experience ‘higher emotions�. Consequently, he denies animals the ability to deceive, feelings of shame, guilt, embarrassment, grief over other deceased members of their group (as observed in elephant herds or monkey mother-child relationships), and empathy for the suffering of others (as in experiments of rats hurting other rats). I find such reasoning suspect since animals most probably have rudimentary precursor emotions of that kind, more or less developed in different species, as nothing comes out of the blue. Hauser seems to be so hung up on measurable experiment results and so terrified of anthropomorphizing animals that he forgets that we are animals as well, and some of the moral sense (empathy, etc) must be common to both other animals and humans, the more so, the higher they are on the evolutionary ladder. Anyway, there are scientists who do not entirely agree with him. It was interesting to read about it, but I think I would like to read a more current/ different views on the subject as well. 2.5/5 ...more
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