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Eagleman - The brain: the story of you

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Introduction -- Who am I? -- What is reality? -- Whos in control? -- How do I decide? -- Do I need you? -- Who will we be? -- Acknowledgments -- Endnotes -- Glossary -- Image Credits.;The dramatic story of the brains role in creating our world, our experience of it, and ourselves; the basis for a PBS television series by the bestselling David Eagleman. How does a three pound mass of biological matter locked in the dark, silent fortress of the skull produce the extraordinary multi-sensory experience that comprises us, while also constructing reality and guiding us through the endless need to make decisions and determine our judgments and into a future that we are convinced we are shaping? David Eagleman compares the brain to a cityscape with different neighborhoods where neural networks vie for supremacy and determine our behavior in ways we are not always aware or in control of. At the same time, he suggests that the brain works as a storyteller--creating a narrative that allows us to navigate and make sense of a world that it is busy constructing for us--;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. This is the story of how your life shapes your brain, and how your brain shapes your life. (A companion to the six-part PBS series. Color illustrations throughout.)--

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Contents
Copyright 2015 by David Eagleman Artwork copyright 2015 by Blink Entertainment - photo 1
Copyright 2015 by David Eagleman Artwork copyright 2015 by Blink Entertainment - photo 2Copyright 2015 by David Eagleman Artwork copyright 2015 by Blink Entertainment - photo 3

Copyright 2015 by David Eagleman

Artwork copyright 2015 by Blink Entertainment trading as Blink Films

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Ltd., Toronto. Simultaneously published in Great Britain by Canongate Books Ltd., Edinburgh.

Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Permissions acknowledgments appear on .

A cataloging-in-publication record has been established for this book by the Library of Congress.

Hardcover ISBN9781101870532

eBook ISBN9781101870549

www.pantheonbooks.com

Cover image by Blink Films UK

Cover design by Peter Adlington

First American Edition

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Also by David Eagleman

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

Why the Net Matters: Six Easy Ways to Avert the Collapse of Civilization

With Richard Cytowic

Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia

Contents
Introduction

Because brain science is a fast-moving field, its 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 brains microscopically small circuitry is etched the history and future of our species.

Given the brains 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: were so trapped inside our reality that it is inordinately difficult to realize were trapped inside anything. At first blush, it seems that perhaps theres 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 were heading as a species thats 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 doesnt 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 youll be able to squint and make out something that you might not have expected to see in there. You.

All the experiences in your life from single conversations to your broader - photo 4All the experiences in your life from single conversations to your broader - photo 5

All the experiences in your life from single conversations to your broader culture shape the microscopic details of your brain. Neurally speaking, who you are depends on where youve been. Your brain is a relentless shape-shifter, constantly rewriting its own circuitry and because your experiences are unique, so are the vast, detailed patterns in your neural networks. Because they continue to change your whole life, your identity is a moving target; it never reaches an endpoint.

Although neuroscience is my daily routine, Im still in awe every time I hold a human brain. After you take into account its substantial weight (an adult brain weighs in at three pounds), its strange consistency (like firm jelly), and its wrinkled appearance (deep valleys carving a puffy landscape) whats striking is the brains sheer physicality: this hunk of unremarkable stuff seems so at odds with the mental processes it creates.

Our thoughts and our dreams, our memories and experiences all arise from this strange neural material. Who we are is found within its intricate firing patterns of electrochemical pulses. When that activity stops, so do you. When that activity changes character, due to injury or drugs, you change character in lockstep. Unlike any other part of your body, if you damage a small piece of the brain, who you are is likely to change radically. To understand how this is possible, lets start at the beginning.

An entire life lavishly colored with agonies and ecstasies took place in - photo 6An entire life lavishly colored with agonies and ecstasies took place in - photo 7

An entire life, lavishly colored with agonies and ecstasies, took place in these three pounds.

Born unfinished

At birth we humans are helpless. We spend about a year unable to walk, about two more before we can articulate full thoughts, and many more years unable to fend for ourselves. We are totally dependent on those around us for our survival. Now compare this to many other mammals. Dolphins, for instance, are born swimming; giraffes learn to stand within hours; a baby zebra can run within forty-five minutes of birth. Across the animal kingdom, our cousins are strikingly independent soon after theyre born.

On the face of it, that seems like a great advantage for other species but in fact it signifies a limitation. Baby animals develop quickly because their brains are wiring up according to a largely preprogrammed routine. But that preparedness trades off with flexibility. Imagine if some hapless rhinoceros found itself on the Arctic tundra, or on top of a mountain in the Himalayas, or in the middle of urban Tokyo. It would have no capacity to adapt (which is why we dont find rhinos in those areas). This strategy of arriving with a pre-arranged brain works inside a particular niche in the ecosystem but put an animal outside of that niche, and its chances of thriving are low.

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