The Brain: The Story of You

by David Eagleman

Overview

From the renowned neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author of Incognito comes the companion volume to the international PBS series about how your life shapes your brain, and how your brain shapes your life. 

"An ideal introduction to how biology generates the mind.... Clear, engaging and thought-provoking." —Nature

Locked in the silence and darkness of your skull, your brain fashions the rich narratives of your reality and your identity. Join renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman for a journey into the questions at the mysterious heart of our existence. What is reality? Who are “you”? How do you make decisions? Why does your brain need other people? How is technology poised to change what it means to be human? 

In the course of his investigations, Eagleman guides us through the world of extreme sports, criminal justice, facial expressions, genocide, brain surgery, gut feelings, robotics, and the search for immortality.  Strap in for a whistle-stop tour into the inner cosmos. In the infinitely dense tangle of billions of brain cells and their trillions of connections, something emerges that you might not have expected to see in there: you. 

Color illustrations throughout.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525433446
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/07/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	172,119
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Stanford University. His scientific research is published in journals from Science to Nature, and he is also the author of the internationally bestselling books Sum and Incognito. He is the writer and presenter of the companion BBC television series The Brain.
 
www.eagleman.com

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

Because brain science is a fast-moving field, it’s rare to step back to view the lay of the land, to work out what our studies mean for our lives, to discuss in a plain and simple way what it means to be a biological creature. This book sets out to do that.
 
Brain science matters. The strange computational material in our skulls is the perceptual machinery by which we navigate the world, the stuff from which decisions arise, the material from which imagination is forged. Our dreams and our waking lives emerge from its billions of zapping cells. A better understanding of the brain sheds light on what we take to be real in our personal relationships and what we take to be necessary in our social policy: how we fight, why we love, what we accept as true, how we should educate, how we can craft better social policy, and how to design our bodies for the centuries to come. In the brain’s microscopically small circuitry is etched the history and future of our species.
 
Given the brain’s centrality to our lives, I used to wonder why our society so rarely talks about it, preferring instead to fill our airwaves with celebrity gossip and reality shows. But I now think this lack of attention to the brain can be taken not as a shortcoming, but as a clue: we’re so trapped inside our reality that it is inordinately difficult to realize we’re trapped inside anything. At first blush, it seems that perhaps there’s nothing to talk about. Of course colors exist in the outside world. Of course my memory is like a video camera. Of course I know the real reasons for my beliefs.
 
The pages of this book will put all our assumptions under the spotlight. In writing it, I wanted to get away from a textbook model in favor of illuminating a deeper level of enquiry: how we decide, how we perceive reality, who we are, how our lives are steered, why we need other people, and where we’re heading as a species that’s just beginning to grab its own reins. This project attempts to bridge the gap between the academic literature and the lives we lead as brain owners. The approach I take here diverges from the academic journal articles I write, and even from my other neuroscience books. This project is meant for a different kind of audience. It doesn’t presuppose any specialized knowledge, only curiosity and an appetite for self-exploration.
 
So strap in for a whistle-stop tour into the inner cosmos. In the infinitely dense tangle of billions of brain cells and their trillions of connections, I hope you’ll be able to squint and make out something that you might not have expected to see in there. You.

Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction
1 Who am I?
2 What is reality?
3 Who’s in control?
4 How do I decide?
5 Do I need you?
6 Who will we be?
Acknowledgments
Endnotes
Glossary
Image credits

Editorial Reviews

"An ideal introduction to how biology generates the mind.... structured around crucial and wide-ranging questions, saturated with personal and social relevance. And Eagleman’s answers are consistently clear, engaging and thought-provoking." —Nature

"David Eagleman's wide-ranging roundup of the current state of knowledge about the brain is concise, accessible and often very surprising. It's a strange new world inside your head.” —Brian Eno

"David Eagleman’s The Brain its an astonishing read. On every page there is a revelation so fantastic as to make one gasp. It would be impossible to take in if we didn’t all possess that impossibly extraordinary thing, a brain. Eagleman comes closer than anyone to solving the mystery of how to find the self inside the grey electric mush between our ears.” —Stephen Fry

"David Eagleman makes it easy to comprehend the most complex collection of cells in the Cosmos— our brain. If neuroscience had a rock legend this would be him.” —Ruby Wax

From the Publisher

10/12/2015
Neuroscientist and novelist Eagleman (Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain) reports on many big, recent neuroscience developments in this deceptively simple look at the universe's most complex known object: the human brain. Much of Eagleman's work covers scientists' ever-increasing appreciation of human brain plasticity. He addresses how brains rewire themselves in response to practice and discusses devices that help the brain regain damaged functions such as vision and hearing. Eagleman also shows how new technologies have revealed the reach and limits of human empathy, noting that seeing others in physical pain lights up the same neurons activated by experiencing physical pain directly—though they light up less brightly when the observed victims are from a different social group. Those same brain areas even light up in response to emotional rejection. Remarking that human brains are essentially "peripheral plug-and-play devices," Eagleman shows that no matter what sort of data comes in, "the brain figures out what to do with it." And he effectively unveils the stunning degree to which "we can now hack our own hardware" in order to understand, and better, ourselves. This is a straightforward, stimulating companion book to the PBS series on the subject. Illus. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 11/15/2015
Eagleman, the author and presenter of a new six-hour PBS series, The Brain, offers here a companion book that, like the series, focuses on how the brain shapes the reality of our lives by transforming input from the sensory organs into perceptions, decisions, connections, memories, and movements. The author effectively presents evidence proving his thesis that understanding the brain is necessary in order to comprehend what it means to be human. As neuroscientists research the mind-body connection, their work is leading to possible cures for autism, uses of real-time brain-imaging feedback to help addicts understand and control their responses, and how to slow cognitive aging. Research is also helping to explain genocide, bullying, criminal behavior, and the unconscious. Eagleman concludes by arguing that brain science and technology are on the threshold of changing human destiny. VERDICT Strongly recommended for collections where PBS viewership is high or there is demand for popular science books.—Beth Dalton, Littleton, CO

Library Journal

How does a three-pound mass of cells and gray matter interpret and store billions and billions of sensations from light, sound, touch, and smell and make sense of them? How do the firings of 100 trillion synapses turn into deeply felt emotions? How do we become—ourselves? With a head for facts and figures, a feel for clarity, and a voice filled with infectious enthusiasm, author, neuroscientist, and director of the Laboratory for Perception and Action at Baylor College of Medicine David Eagleman takes the listener on an in-depth introduction to the world of brain science. Eagleman is especially interested in taking us to the frontiers of his discipline with fascinating discussions of advanced surgery, robotics, and cryogenics. An excellent companion to the 2015 six-part PBS series. B.P. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

MAY 2016 - AudioFile

How does a three-pound mass of cells and gray matter interpret and store billions and billions of sensations from light, sound, touch, and smell and make sense of them? How do the firings of 100 trillion synapses turn into deeply felt emotions? How do we become—ourselves? With a head for facts and figures, a feel for clarity, and a voice filled with infectious enthusiasm, author, neuroscientist, and director of the Laboratory for Perception and Action at Baylor College of Medicine David Eagleman takes the listener on an in-depth introduction to the world of brain science. Eagleman is especially interested in taking us to the frontiers of his discipline with fascinating discussions of advanced surgery, robotics, and cryogenics. An excellent companion to the 2015 six-part PBS series. B.P. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

MAY 2016 - AudioFile