Neurosciences |
Psychophysiology |
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Summary
Summary
A pioneering neuroscientist argues that we are more than our brains
To many, the brain is the seat of personal identity and autonomy. But the way we talk about the brain is often rooted more in mystical conceptions of the soul than in scientific fact. This blinds us to the physical realities of mental function. We ignore bodily influences on our psychology, from chemicals in the blood to bacteria in the gut, and overlook the ways that the environment affects our behavior, via factors varying from subconscious sights and sounds to the weather. As a result, we alternately overestimate our capacity for free will or equate brains to inorganic machines like computers. But a brain is neither a soul nor an electrical network: it is a bodily organ, and it cannot be separated from its surroundings. Our selves aren't just inside our heads -- they're spread throughout our bodies and beyond. Only once we come to terms with this can we grasp the true nature of our humanity.
Author Notes
Alan Jasanoff is the award-winning director of the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering. He lives near Cambridge, Massachusett
Reviews (4)
Kirkus Review
What is the brain? If you answered by describing what the brain does, then this well-crafted overview may not be your cup of gray matter.The devil may not make us do things, but peer pressure, illness, addiction, and the health of our wallets certainly do. Jasanoff, the director of the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering, begins his account by stating that his chief interest lies more in "what the brain is rather than what it does." Though he allows some operational description along the way, he arrives at a suitably open-ended definition: the brain is "a transit point for myriad influences that work jointly on us and through us." So, the brain is an organ that perceives and organizes perception, but there is a difference between brain and mind, a distinction between what is innate in the physical being and what comes in from the outside world. The definition is biologically grounded, and in that regard, one of the fascinating branches of the author's discussion concerns the evidence for the notion that an organ or tissue transplant might "change a person's mind or personality" beyond the obvious one of having a new lease on life. The text can get a touch dense, for matters such as "body-wide emotional responses" and "ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage" resist easy reduction to pop science. Still, Jasanoff writes with admirable clarity as he argues that the modern tendency of neuroscience to take a "brain-centered view" that overlooks external sources of behavior can lead to epistemological dead ends. For instance, if the mere fact of having a brain explains all the things we do, can we hold anyone accountable for crimeanyone, that is, other than the brain itself? The question opens onto a consideration of the brain of the mass shooter Charles Whitman, who suddenly seems a timely presence considering all the mischief brains get into these days.For serious students of neurobiology as well as readers interested in philosophical questions of mind and body. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
New York Review of Books Review
Jasanoff's big message in "The Biological Mind" is you are not your brain. Or rather, you are not merely your brain - your body and the broader circumstances of your life also make you who you are. Jasanoff reminds us that the brain is not some mystical machine - it's a gooey, bloody tangle of cells, dripping with chemicals. But we mythologize brains, creating false boundaries that divorce them from bodies and the outside world, blinding us to the biological nature of the mind. These divisions, Jasanoff contends, are why neuroscience has failed to make a real difference in anyone's life. Unfortunately, the book's own divisions between body versus brain, and nature versus nurture, reinforce the very dualisms that Jasanoff indicts. He gives examples of the ways our bodies and the world around us affect our thoughts, feelings and actions, but not how body and world become biologically embedded to constitute a mind. Missing is a discussion of how the workings of your body necessarily and irrevocably shape your brain's structure and function, and vice versa. The artificial boundary between brain and world also goes largely unmentioned. In real life, the experiences we have from infancy onward impact the brain's wiring. For example, childhood poverty and adversity fundamentally alter brain development, leaving an indelible mark that increases people's risk of illness in adulthood. This is fascinating and profound stuff, but it mostly goes unexamined in Jasanoff's book. Still, "The Biological Mind" is chock-full of fun facts that entertain. And best of all, it makes you think. I found myself debating with Jasanoff in my head as I read - surely a sign of a worthy book.
Choice Review
At first blush, Jasonoff (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) appears to be making an old argument: that the mind is not a mysterious, "soul-like" substance, but is instead created by a material, physical structure--that is, the brain. In fact, his argument is much more nuanced. He claims that our modern fixation on the brain, what Jasonoff calls the "cerebral mystique," has merely replaced one mystery with another. While not arguing against the value of neuroscientific discoveries, which have led to enormous improvements in our understanding of the mind in both health and disease, Jasonoff warns that we have falsely idealized the brain. By making the mind all about the brain, we fail to appreciate the importance of everything outside our heads in creating our minds. Jasonoff proposes a biologically holistic approach, which considers the influence of entities external to our brain on our psychological experience. These include culture, the environment, and our bodies themselves, not to mention the trillions of microbes living in our bodies. In the course of making his argument, Jasonoff delivers a highly readable and enjoyable exploration of a series of compelling questions relating to the human experience. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Clark Allen Lindgren, Grinnell College
Library Journal Review
Cerebral mystique, according to Jasanoff (director, MIT Ctr. for Neurobiological Engineering), results in elevating the importance of the brain to such an extent that it is viewed as containing the essence of who we are as individuals. In the past, the soul was thought to encompass our humanity (our personalities, intellect, etc.), but today the brain has replaced the soul as the repository of our unique beings. This phenomenon, argues Jasanoff, is problematic. The brain should be seen as biologically based; it works in conjunction with the rest of the body as well as the external environment in which it grows and develops. Jasanoff first explores how neuroscience has contributed to the cerebral mystique of the brain. He then examines how our world might be improved by a more biologically centered view of the organ. VERDICT Taking the brain off of its pedestal, Jasanoff offers an exhaustive, comprehensible, and at times playful (e.g., why do humans now study brains instead of eat them?) look at the brain. Appropriate for both neuroscientists as well as general readers interested in gaining a better understanding of this vital organ.-Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's Sch., Brooklyn © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
Introduction | p. 1 |
Part I The Cerebral Mystique | |
1 Eating the Brain | p. 11 |
2 Humor Me | p. 27 |
3 It's Complicated | p. 51 |
4 Scanning For Godot | p. 71 |
5 Thinking, Outside the Box | p. 91 |
6 No Brain is an Island | p. 117 |
Part II The Importance of Being Biological | |
7 Insiders and Outsiders | p. 143 |
8 Beyond the Broken Brain | p. 171 |
9 Neurotechnology Unbound | p. 197 |
10 What it's Like to be in a Vat | p. 221 |
Acknowledgments | p. 237 |
Notes | p. 239 |
Index | p. 281 |