READERS can鈥檛 get enough, it seems, of books about the mind and the brain.
They are, after all, that publisher鈥檚 dream: books about ourselves. We may
struggle with tracts on consciousness, hoping to uncover a meaning to our
lives鈥攐r we may do it to be thoroughly diverted by puzzles such as 鈥淲ho is
this 鈥業鈥� that has the impression of reading that 鈥榮elf鈥� is an illusion?鈥�. Maybe
brain books these days promise a kind of self-discovery鈥攁 respectable form
of self-help.
We lap up books on memory to understand our own personal windows on the past.
We gorge on cognition, vision, movement鈥攅ven books on quirky neurological
disorders that we鈥檙e lucky enough not to have鈥攖o try to figure out the
riddle of who we are and what makes us tick. And while psychologists see selves,
neurologists see nerves and zoologists see behaviours.
Susan Greenfield has caught this wave. This year she has produced two books
about the brain, written from her standpoint as an Oxford neurologist. Like her
previous two books on the brain, both take in the big picture. Her talent isn鈥檛
so much coming up with bold new explanations, as explaining major discoveries in
the field in a way that鈥檚 clear and relevant. Greenfield numbers among the best
known media figures in Britain.
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Indeed one book, the beautifully illustrated Brain Story (BBC
Worldwide, 拢17.99, ISBN 0563551089), comes from her BBC television series.
Its topics鈥攏ature and nurture, memory, drugs and emotions鈥攁re all
seductive in their own right. Don鈥檛 bank on skipping a chapter or two, either,
as Greenfield is adept at luring the reader to stay with her.
鈥淕ordon Claridge was in Wonderland. A clinical psychologist at Oxford
University, fascinated by troubled minds, he had been eager to try out for
himself the mind-bending, and, back then in the 1960s, still legal drug LSD
(lysergic acid diethylamide). Under the influence, Claridge was stunned to
discover that only so long as he sat perfectly still would the world remain
reassuringly the same size, with a consistent appearance from one moment to the
next. Once he stood up, he had the impression that he was up against the
ceiling, very tall, while his assistant had become a midget.鈥� Think you can skim
past that?
Greenfield鈥檚 other offering, The Private Life of the Brain (Penguin,
拢18.99, ISBN 0713991925), takes similar bold themes: for example, the
child, the junkie and the depressive. Her cell-centred approach comes through in
her theory of how depression is the result of an overactive mind. If neurons
within the brain connect too densely to others, she says, sensory experiences
don鈥檛 get their due attention and the mind turns inward. Either book makes a
wonderful neuroscience primer. Both are digestible, but by no means baby
food.
More textbookish is The Evolution of Cognition (MIT Press,
拢32.95, ISBN 0262082861), edited by Cecilia Heyes of University College
London and Ludwig Huber of the University of Vienna. It鈥檚 a collection of
articles by top names such as zoologist Patrick Bateson, primate psychologist
Robin Dunbar and evolutionary anthropologist Michael Tomasello. It deals not
just with human cognition but the whole spectrum of processes by which creatures
acquire knowledge. Much of the work is intrinsically interesting鈥攖he fact
that ravens can predict the consequence of actions they鈥檝e never performed, for
instance, or the rules of gossip. This is definitely a book for a hardback
chair, however. You won鈥檛 want to curl up with it in bed.
Brave New Mind by Peter Dodwell (Oxford University Press, 拢25,
ISBN 0195089057) is an easier read. Dodwell enthusiastically leads the reader
through the history of thinking on cognition. But be warned: that thinking can
be hard going. Dodwell is an experimental psychologist at Queen鈥檚 University in
Kingston, Ontario, and he speaks with authority. Though his name was unfamiliar
to me, I trusted him almost immediately. Maybe it鈥檚 the way he cockily dismisses
from the outset many of the 1990s鈥� media sweethearts: 鈥淭he ideas expressed in
the latest writings of, for instance, Dawkins, Dennett, Hofstadter, Searle, and
Pinker, to mention some very prominent examples, are not directly addressed.
Ingenious as these presentations are, they propose little that is fundamentally
different 鈥攐f new metaphysical substance one might say.鈥�
Dodwell argues that cognitive scientists have taken too restricted a view of
the mind. He accuses them of concentrating too much on the brain鈥檚
routines鈥攑erception, memory, problem-solving. He derides 鈥渁lgorithmic鈥�
models which treat such routines as if they are the kind of symbol shuffling
employed by computers. 鈥淭his is like pinning a butterfly to the board, examining
its special morphological features, classifying it, and giving it a name,鈥� he
says. 鈥淎ll these are useful and important matters, but they do not come anywhere
close to the heart of what it is to be a butterfly.鈥�
Not enough attention is paid to the 鈥渉ighlights鈥�, he says. What of
creativity? What of ideals and imagination and inspiration? To really understand
the human mind, these elements must be explored.
The 鈥渉ard problem鈥� with brains and minds is to explain how physical processes
inside your skull can lead to the experience of a self.
For some, this is a pseudo-problem: the self is an illusion. In
Consciousness Explained (Penguin, 拢9.99, ISBN 01401028670),
philosopher Daniel Dennett develops artificial intelligence-researcher Marvin
Minsky鈥檚 鈥減andemonium鈥�: perceptions and recollections compete, and consciousness
is made of the winners. Neurologist Antonio Damasio develops the observation
that consciousness only emerges after action in Descartes鈥� Error: Emotion,
reason, and the human brain(Papermac, 拢12, ISBN 0333656563).
Others concentrate on understanding the physical processes. Neurologist Susan
Greenfield is one, as is linguist Steven Pinker鈥檚 How the Mind Works
(Penguin, 拢9.99, ISBN 0140244913). Douglas
Hofstadter builds computer models of Fluid Concepts and Creative
Analogies (Penguin, 拢14.99, ISBN 0140258353).
Mathematical physicist Roger Penrose argues in The Emperor鈥檚 New
Mind (Oxford University Press, 拢8.99, ISBN 0192861980) that
computation just won鈥檛 hack it, and invokes quantum effects. Philosopher David
Chalmers is also sceptical about computation, and he鈥檚 gathered the mother of
all reading lists at www.u.arizona.edu/~chalmers/
But don鈥檛 take my word for what they think. I鈥檓 sure I鈥檓 an illusion. You鈥檒l
have to read them yourself.
You鈥檒l have heard of Broca鈥檚 area in the brain, galvanometers and the
Hippocratic oath. But who was Broca, or Galvani, or indeed Hippocrates? Stanley
Finger鈥檚 Minds Behind the Brain (Oxford University Press, 拢24.99,
ISBN 019508571X), looks at the lives and discoveries of some of neuroscience鈥檚
greats. With more than a dozen on the roster, it is a quick trip across time. I
found it a bit cursory, but what is there is informative and enlightening.
Can stress make you sick? Can believing make you well? These are two
questions that get full-chapter answers in The Balance Within: the science
connecting health and emotions by Esther Sternberg (W. H. Freeman,
拢15.95, ISBN 0716734796). To put you out of your misery: yes and yes. It鈥檚
a bit of a wade at times, but Sternberg is dedicated to explaining how the brain
really can influence your health, and vice versa.
Back out, this time in paperback, is Howard Kushner鈥檚 A Cursing Brain?:
The histories of Tourette syndrome (Harvard University Press, 拢11.50,
ISBN 0674003861). Does the archetype of it as a foul-language syndrome obscure
what鈥檚 really going on? And is that determined by stress, or genetically, or
linked to infection? In a pleasant blend of storytelling, medicine and history,
Kushner relates the history of this still-misunderstood disorder.