Review by Choice Review
Not every productive scientist has the gift for explaining the technical aspects of a subject in terms within reach of average educated readers. Nor is every productive scientist also a creative thinker who can go beyond data and charts to formulate visions that light up our understanding of the world. Ramachandran (Univ. of California, San Diego) is one of the rare individuals blessed with both these unusual capacities. In this slim volume--delivered as the 2003 BBC Reith lectures--Ramachandran takes us through some of the fascinating features of this most remarkable entity called the human brain, the seat of our consciousness. He reveals the strange disturbances that can occur in its normal functioning, such as feeling pain in an amputated limb and seeing colors in numbers. He shocks us by revealing that we see what we believe rather than the reverse, and that what we imagine to be our free will is actually the aftermath of something that previously happened. In between, he develops a fascinating, highly original theory of aesthetics based on neuroscience that could well revolutionize art criticism. Ramachandran does all this with great clarity and in such an engaging style that it is hard to put down. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. V. V. Raman emeritus, Rochester Institute of Technology
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
What does an amputee who still feels a phantom limb have in common with an avant-garde artist, or a schizophrenic who claims to be controlled by alien implants, or an autistic child who can draw a hyper-realistic horse? According to neuroscientist Ramachandran (coauthor, Phantoms in the Brain), named by Newsweek one of the 100 people to watch in the 21st century, the answer lies deep in the physical structures of the brain, and his new book offers a thought-provoking survey of his area of research. Through examples, anecdotes and conjecture, Ramachandran aims "to make neuroscience... more accessible to a broad audience." In this he succeeds admirably, explaining how the roots of both psychological disorders and aesthetic accomplishment can be located in the various regions of the brain and the connections (or lack thereof) between them. The text is engaging and readable, feeling as though Ramachandran had sat down for an afternoon to explain his research over tea (no surprise, as the book grew out of the author's 2003 BBC Reith lectures). Though the topic of neuroscience might initially seem daunting, readers who enjoy science popularization in the vein of Oliver Sacks, Richard Dawkins (both of whom enthusiastically blurb this book) and Stephen Jay Gould will find much to appreciate here. Agent, Deirdre Mullane at the Joe Spieler Agency. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The fast-moving and potentially revolutionary field of cognitive neuroscience counts among its elite Ramachandran (Ctr. for Brain & Cognition, Univ. of California, San Diego), who expounds upon some puzzling paradoxes in brain research and their possible implications. Based on lectures from the prestigious BBC Reith series, these five essays are a selective presentation of certain anomalies of perception, what they suggest about the brain's neural wiring, and what they may reveal about the evolution of the human mind. In one of his most controversial assertions, the author discusses how an appreciation of art might originate in a universal human attraction to certain patterns and stimuli and how art and science long estranged in academe might be unified in a new science that he calls neuroaesthetics. He even proposes that brain research could eventually help answer philosophical questions previously excluded from empirical scientific research, e.g., what is the self, and does it possess free will? Fascinating and comprehensible, the text consists of brief chapters that are rich in content. Bibliographers responsible for popular science collections should heed the boom in this field; this book deserves a place in their libraries. Gregg Sapp, Science Lib., SUNY at Albany (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
