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Title: Connectome
Subtitle: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are
Author: Sebastian Seung
Narrator: MacLeod Andrews
Format: Unabridged
Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
Language: English
Release date: 02-07-12
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 135 votes
Genres: Science & Technology, Biology
Publisher's Summary:
We know that each of us is unique, but science has struggled to pinpoint where, precisely, our uniqueness resides. Is it in our genes? The structure of our brains? Our genome may determine our eye color and even aspects of our personality. But our friendships, failures, and passions also shape who we are. The question is: how?
Sebastian Seung, a dynamic professor at MIT, is on a quest to discover the biological basis of identity. He believes it lies in the pattern of connections between the brains neurons, which change slowly over time as we learn and grow. The connectome, as its called, is where our genetic inheritance intersects with our life experience. Its where nature meets nurture.
Seung introduces us to the dedicated researchers who are mapping the brains connections, neuron by neuron, synapse by synapse. It is a monumental undertaking- the scientific equivalent of climbing Mount Everest -but if they succeed, it could reveal the basis of personality, intelligence, memory, and perhaps even mental disorders. Many scientists speculate that people with anorexia, autism, and schizophrenia are wired differently, but nobody knows for sure. The brains wiring has never been seen clearly.
.In sparklingly clear prose, Seung reveals the amazing technological advances that will soon help us map connectomes. He also examines the evidence that these maps will someday allow humans to upload their minds into computers, achieving a kind of immortality.
Connectome is a mind-bending adventure story, told with great passion and authority. It presents a daring scientific and technological vision for at last understanding what makes us who we are. Welcome to the future of neuroscience.
Critic Reviews:
A landmark work, gorgeously written. No other researcher has traveled as deeply into the brain forest and emerged to share its secrets. (David Eagleman, author of Incognito and Sum)
Connectomics is emerging as a crucial and exhilarating field of study. Sebastian Seung takes you by the hand and shows you why. Connectome is a page-turnera book that should be read by anyone who lays claim to be thinking about the nature of life. (Michael Gazzaniga, University of California at Santa Barbara, author of Human and Whos in Charge?)
Sebastian Seung scales the heights of neuroscience and casts his brilliant eye around, describing the landscape of its past and boldly envisioning a future when we may understand our own brains and thus ourselves. (Kenneth Blum, executive director, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University)
Members Reviews:
A Nice Addition to Your Brain Science Library
Seung's theory, of how the brain stores memories/experiences, is quite extraordinary. I'm no brain scientist, but I've read a number of books on the subject, and as far as I know this is the first book to adequately detail this process. Seung describes this in a way that even the non-scholarly reader can understand. The basic brain science you NEED to know in order to understand this book, he explains quickly and effectively.
His last few chapters, on the future science of connectome research is worth the credit all by itself. He touches on cryogenics, and why it's probably not going to work the way that all the frozen people hope it will. He then discusses a few options of preserving your brain for eternity that MAY actually work..
