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Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence
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Product Description
But barely 10,000 years ago (a mere blip in evolutionary time) human-like creatures called "Boskops" flourished in South Africa. They possessed extraordinary features: forebrains roughly 50% larger than ours, and estimated IQs to match--far surpassing our own. Many of these huge fossil skulls have been discovered over the last century, but most of us have never heard of this scientific marvel.
Prominent neuroscientists Gary Lynch and Richard Granger compare the contents of the Boskop brain and our own brains today, and arrive at startling conclusions about our intelligence and creativity. Connecting cutting-edge theories of genetics, evolution, language, memory, learning, and intelligence, Lynch and Granger show the implications of large brains for a broad array of fields, from the current state of the art in Alzheimer's and other brain disorders, to new advances in brain-based robots that see and converse with us, and the means by which neural prosthetics-- replacement parts for the brain--are being designed and tested. The authors demystify the complexities of our brains in this fascinating and accessible book, and give us tantalizing insights into our humanity--its past, and its future.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #604621 in Books
- Published on: 2008-03-04
- Released on: 2008-03-04
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 272 pages
Editorial Reviews
Review
"A much needed book on big brains… Big Brain is a popular account of how brains enlarge, in both evolutionary and developmental terms. The strength of the book lies in the neuroscience, especially its treatment of neural plasticity and the "association areas" of the brain… "--William H Calvin, New Scientist
"The Lynch and Granger combination is like mixing gas with fire. In this book there are big, explosive ideas by two ingenious brain scientists."--Michael Gazzaniga, author of The Ethical Brain
"On a planet in which everything seems to be getting bigger (the internet), hotter (our climate), or more numerous (the world's population), Gary Lynch and Rick Granger reveal the intriguing possibility that people with larger brains than us may have been around a few thousand years ago. Their account of the mysteries of the brain and intelligence challenges conventional views in a scholarly yet wonderfully accessible manner."--Richard Morris, Director of the Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems, University of Edinburgh, and President, Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, and Former Chair, Brain Research Association of the United Kingdom
"Riveting…the book tracks the evolutionary development of the human brain…" –Anthony Doerr, Boston Globe
"...A riveting account of how the human brain evolved." --Nicole Branan, Scienticfic American
About the Author
Richard Granger is W.H. Neukom Distinguished Professor of Computational Science and of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth. He has been the principal architect of a series of advanced computational systems for military, commercial and medical applications, and co-inventor of FDA-approved devices and drugs. He is a consultant, co-founder, and board member of numerous technology corporations such as Thuris Corporation and Cortex Pharmaceuticals, and government research agencies including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research. His work has been highlighted in numerous popular press and television features, including recent stories in Forbes, Wired, and on CNN.
Customer Reviews
Fascinating Read.
Professors Gary Lynch and Richard Granger have put forth a strong body of work in support of why we humans have big brains and the implications for the future of our species, doing so in the context of anthropological and neuroscientific evidence.
As a neuroscience student who is interested in anthropology, it certainly was interesting to read of a species that had brains which were spectacularly larger than ours per body size. While explaining the development of brains in the context of evolution, Lynch & Granger make an effort to confront, as they refer to it, the ultimate "irresistable fallacy"-- that evolution favors us precisely because of our intelligence--strongly arguing why our intellectual capacity differs from other species (our big brains, as well as minute qualitative differences), and how this came about over millions of years. Lynch & Granger also portend, based on the tenets of their argument, what lies ahead for species with bigger brains--or in the case of the Boskops, what lies in the past.
This is a must read for anyone who believes they have evolution 'figured out', and/or for anthropological fans intrigued as to differences between primates based on neuroscientific knowledge.
Is bigger better?
Summary
Granger and Lynch have done an excellent job of explaining brain evolution; how the human brain evolved and adapted over millions of years. There are many theories out there of how our brains came to be and this summarizes the research very well. The book revolves around an interesting but controversial finding of a race of humans that had bigger brains than we did. Granger and Lynch manage to explain the controversy well and use this as a starting point to think about what it means to have bigger brains.
Audience
If you want to understand how brains evolved read this book. Don't let the controversies around the discoveries stop you. I have read many books on neuroscience and brain evolution and this book provides one of the best explanations of brain evolution.
Details
Granger and Lynch use the discovery of the Boksops, a race of humans that possibly had bigger brains then we do to explain how our brains evolved. They explain the controversies and background around the discovery and why it was shunned by the establishment. BUT this book is so much more than just about the boksops. The book delves into the meaning of bigger brains and the evolution of the brains from early mamals to homo sapiens and beyond. Granger and Lynch don't shy away from the controversy and provide new angles on the subject. This is a fascinating area of research and it adds a new dimension to how brains work. Don't let human-centric chauvinism distract you from understanding the human brain.
Take Aways
If you want to understand the brain more, what it means to have bigger brains and how it relates to intelligence, then pick up this book. I wish the book was marketed differently and it didn't emphasize the controversial finding of the Boksops, since it distracts from the fact that this is a great book on an important area of brain research. Granger and Lynch have done an excellent job of writing one of the best explanations of brain evolution and what it means to have big brains. Read, think and enjoy.
Kes Sampanthar
Inventor of ThinkCube
An illuminating essay on brain and its evolution
One cannot praise enough science writers that are both clear and profound, as the Authors of this brilliant essay are. They describe the evolution of our cognitive abilities, disoensing with the notion that intelligence was expecially selected for. But the most shocking discovery for me were the Boskops, those VERY big brained humans who may well have surpassed us in intelligence, but maybe with a childbirth death rate too high to survive. Think of what could have been!
