Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are - Softcover

Seung, Sebastian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241951879 ISBN 13: 9780241951873

Publisher: Penguin, 2013

Synopsis

Connectome, by Sebastian Seung is 'One of the most eagerly awaited scientific books of the year ... intellectually exhilarating, beautifully written, exquisitely precise yet still managing to be inspirational' Irish Times

What really makes us who we are? In this groundbreaking book, pioneering neuroscientist Sebastian Seung shows that our identity does not lie in our genes, but in the connections between our brain cells - our own particular wiring, or 'connectomes'.

Everything about us - emotions, thoughts, memories - is encoded in these tangled patterns of neural connections, and now Seung and a dedicated team are mapping them in order to uncover the basis of personality, explain disorders such as autism and depression, and even enable us to 'upload' our brains. This book reveals the secrets of the brain, showing how our connectome makes each of us uniquely ourselves.

'With the first-person flavour of James Watson's Double Helix, Connectome gives a sense of the excitement on the cutting edge of neuroscience' New Scientist

'Witty and exceptionally clear ... beautifully explained ... the best lay book on brain science I've ever read' Wall Street Journal

'Seung is about to revolutionise brain science' The Times

'The reader is swept along with his enthusiasm' The New York Times

Sebastian Seung is Professor of Computational Neuroscience at MIT and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has made important advances in robotics, neuroscience, neuroeconomics, and statistical physics. His research has been published in leading scientific journals, and also featured in The New York Times, Technology Review, and The Economist.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

The bold and thrilling quest to finally understand the brain

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 brain’s neurons, which change slowly over time as we learn and grow. The connectome, as it’s called, is where our genetic inheritance intersects with our life experience. It’s where nature meets nurture.

Seung introduces us to the dedicated researchers who are mapping the brain’s 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 brain’s 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.

From the Back Cover:

YOU ARE MORE THAN YOUR GENES. YOU ARE YOUR CONNECTOME.

“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-turner—a 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 Who’s 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

“Sebastian Seung can do it all. He’s widely recognized as a superb physicist, a whiz with computers, and a path-breaking neuroscientist. Connectome shows that he’s also a terrific writer, as inspiring as he is clear and good-humored.”—Steven Strogatz, Cornell University, author of Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0241951879
• ISBN 13: 9780241951873
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384