Ratings
Rated: 25 times. Average rating 4.64
Description
A powerful, personal guide to the history and future of neuroscience, from one of the field's leading researchers * *Surprising lessons from what we see: what complex neural processes owe to evolution. *Brains and those who think about them: meet the extraordinary individuals who've shaped neuroscience. *The 'ghost in the machine' disappears: Is free will an illusion? *Why decades of neuroscience research may have gone as far as they can and the new paradigm shift that may be coming. For 50 years, the world's most brilliant neuroscientists have struggled to understand how human brains really work. Today, says Dale Purves, the dominant research agenda may have taken us as far as it can, and neuroscientists may be approaching a paradigm shift. In this highly personal book, Purves reveals how we got here and offers his ideas of where neuroscience may be headed next. Purves guides you through a half-century of the most influential ideas in neuroscience and introduces you to the extraordinary scientists and physicians who created and tested them, in full color. He offers a critical assessment of the paths that neuroscience research has taken, both their successes and their limitations, and then introduces a powerful alternative approach for thinking about brains. Building on new research on visual perception, he shows why common ideas about brain networks can't be right, and uncovers the surprising evolutionary drivers behind complex neural processes. The resulting insights may offer a route to important new advances in neuroscience, as well as a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.
If you liked this, you'll probably like:
- Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmark (2014)
- Living with Complexity by Donald A. Norman (2011)
Books by Dale Purves:
- Brains (2010)
