The Brain in Context
A Pragmatic Guide to Neuroscience
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- $38.99
Publisher Description
The human brain is the most complex object in the known universe. The field of neuroscience has made remarkable strides in recent years in understanding aspects of the brain, yet we still struggle with seemingly fundamental questions about how the brain works. What lessons can we learn from neuroscience’s successes and failures? What kinds of questions can neuroscience answer, and what will remain out of reach?
In The Brain in Context, the bioethicist Jonathan D. Moreno and the neuroscientist Jay Schulkin provide an accessible and thought-provoking account of the evolution of neuroscience and the neuroscience of evolution. They emphasize that the brain is not an isolated organ—it extends into every part of the body and every aspect of human life. Understanding the brain requires studying the environmental, biological, chemical, genetic, and social factors that continue to shape it. Moreno and Schulkin describe today’s transformative devices, theories, and methods, including technologies like fMRI and optogenetics as well as massive whole-brain activity maps and the attempt to create a digital simulation of the brain. They show how theorizing about the brain and experimenting with it often go hand in hand, and they raise cautions about unintended consequences of technological interventions. The Brain in Context is a stimulating and even-handed assessment of the scope and limits of what we know about how we think.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Moreno (Mind Wars), a bioethicist and philosopher at the University of Pennsylvania, and Schulkin (Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Pragmatism and Neuroscience), a neuroscientist at Georgetown University, offer a wide-ranging if frustrating book exploring various ways the brain functions. Many of the subjects touched on the possibility of using neurotechnology in the courtroom to determine veracity; the ethics of employing neuroscience in warfare, politics, and advertising; and the prospect of brain-machine interfaces to help physically challenged people, among others are fascinating, but none are explored in the depth necessary to yield meaningful insight. Instead, the authors hopscotch from topic to topic with such abandon that the text reads like one tangent piled upon another. Similarly, the prose bounces between technical neuroscience jargon and equally arcane philosophical parlance. In perhaps the most rewarding section, Moreno and Schulkin take an evolutionary approach to determining the origin and function of the brain, concluding that there is "no separation at all" between brains and bodies, and that "fluidity between brain and body systems is a feature of our evolution and of our success as a species." Despite this and a few other intriguing concepts, those looking to learn about the intricacies of the brain or the neuroscience field in general are likely to be disappointed.
