Authors: Gary Lynch, Richard Granger
ISBN-13: 9781403979797, ISBN-10: 1403979790
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Date Published: January 2009
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Gary Lynch is one of the most cited neuroscientists in the world and author of more than 550 scientific articles. He is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California at Irvine. Richard Granger is the WH Neukom Distinguished Professor of Computational Sciences at Dartmouth. He is internationally recognized for his work in experimental neuroscience.
A radical and groundbreaking look at our potential to enhance cognition
1 Big Brains, Bigger Brains 1
Introduction 1
Biggest Brain 3
Are Bigger Brains Better? 5
Brain and Language 7
Were Boskops Smarter? 8
Why Haven't We All Heard of Boskops? 10
Outline of the Book 11
2 The Mind in the Machine 17
Learning Network Codes 18
Brain Circuits vs. Computer Circuits 23
The Brain of John Von Neumann 25
3 Genes Build Brains 33
How Much Variation Can Occur? 36
Blueprint Systems 38
Bundling Genes 40
Variation Is Random, but It Is Constrained 44
4 Brains Arrive 51
First Brains 52
Brain Expansion 58
5 The Brains of Mammals 63
Neurons and Networks 65
Learning 70
6 From Olfaction to Cognition 73
From Cortex to Behavior 80
Neocortex 84
7 The Thinking Brain 89
Extending Thinking over Time 93
The Cortex Takes Charge 96
8 The Tools of Thought 99
Feedback and Hierarchies of Cortical Circuits 99
Sequences 106
What One Brain Area Tells Another Brain Area 107
What's in an Image? 108
Putting It Together: From Generalists to Specialists 109
Memory Construction 110
Building High-level Cognition 113
Libraries and Labyrinths 114
Grammars of the Brain 116
9 From Brain Differences to Individual Differences 119
Brain Paths 122
Brain Tracts and Differential Abilities 125
Nature and Nurture 127
10 What's in a Species? 129
Definitions 131
Fallacies of the Notion of Race 132
Races Versus Gene Pools 135
11 The Origins of Big Brains 139
Brain Size in the Primates 141
Brain Size in the Family of Man 145
Big Babies 154
On Intelligence 157
12 Giant Brains 161
The Man of the Future 162
How Giant Brains Were Forgotten 165
Inside the Giant Brain 171
Giant Brains and Intelligence 175
13All but Human 179
On Science 179
Differences 182
From Quantity to Quality 189
From Brain Advances to Cognitive Advances 191
From Cognition to Language 193
Learning Curve 195
From Speaking to Writing 197
14 More than Human 201
Brain and Superbrain 201
New Paths, New Humans 204
The Final Path to Humans 205
Inconstant Brain 209
Next Steps 211
Code 214
Appendix 217
Acknowledgments 233
Bibliography 235
Index 255