The Brain: The Last Frontier

This book is extremely well written, interesting, factual, and highly referenced. The notes and the bibliography show that the author really put a lot of hard work into this book. Here are some highlights, which hopefully will pique your interest enough to read this book. Chapter 5 Evolution's most fundamental thesis: Natural selection proceeds in small steps, each of which must confer on its bearer a minimal, but nonetheless measurable advantage.The shift from the forest to the savannahs enabled man kinds intelligence to develop. Chimpanzees, the most intelligent and socially sophisticated of all living non-human primates, remained forest dwellers. The freeing of the hands in our early primate ancestors permitted the development of tools, with intelligence evolving as the consequence of early man's tool using capacity. Chapter 6 Mirror of Reality Discusses in detail subject S.B. Blinded by infection at an early age, he regained his sight at age 52. (Year 1958). The visual reality was so depressing to subject S.B., that he fell in a fatal depression. Interesting but cruel animal experiments, in which animals are forced to live in alternative realities. Reality is the mental models we build of the world. Chapter 8 Cain's Curse A child deprived of physical closeness will develop an extraordinary need for affection later in life which cannot be fulfilled in the adult world. This person often lapses into fits of violence. This book is extremely interesting. You will not be disappointed in it.

Just think, at any one space in time, inside your brain, 15 billion interactions are going on right now - thinking,feeling, sensing, caring, comparing, judging, deciding . . . I found this book to be very deep and comprehensive - certainly fascinating in that I will never look at the brain the same way again. This one is a real "keeper", to be shared with anyone that may be interested in this subject.

Explore the brain with neurologist Restak as a basis of our emotional and mental capacities, as it affects language, health, and personality. Explore it as...The Last Frontier in man's understanding of life itself.Can we make a robot that can really think?Can we discover how to turn off pain?Can we retard the effects of age on the mind?Can we eliminate some diseases by correcting malfunctions in the brain?Restak, even more sharply than Sagan, puts into provocative focus what has been learned by psychologists, biologists and other scientists...he makes clear the true difference between computer 'thinking' and human thought: the mystery which some call soul.