The Accidental Mind

Counters the assumption that the brain is a paragon of design - and offers an explanation of how the brain's serendipitous evolution has resulted in nothing short of our humanity.

Autorentext

David J. Linden is Professor of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Klappentext
In this learned work, neuroscientist Linden counters the widespread assumption that the brain is a paragon of design--and instead gives an explanation of how the brain's evolution has resulted in nothing short of forming humanity.

Zusammenfassung
A guide to the strange and often illogical world of neural function, this book shows how the brain is not an optimized, general-purpose problem-solving machine, but rather a weird agglomeration of ad-hoc solutions that have been piled on through millions of years of evolutionary history.

Inhalt

Prologue: Brain Explained 1. The Inelegant Design of the Brain 2. Building a Brain with Yesterday's Parts 3. Some Assembly Required 4. Sensation and Emotion 5. Learning, Memory, and Human Individuality 6. Love and Sex 7. Sleeping and Dreaming 8. The Religious Impulse 9. The Unintelligent Design of the Brain Epilogue: That Middle Thing Further Reading and Resources Acknowledgments Index