The Brain: Big Bangs, Behaviors, and Beliefs [Hardcover]

This is an unusual book on the brain in that it takes a comprehensive view of the evolution of the modern human brain. It starts at the very beginning with some background in evolutionary theory, the evolution of life, cells, and brains. It examines the similarities and differences between our brains and the brains of other forms of life.

It's hard to describe this book because it is fairly different from the typical "brain book" you will find. See the bottom of this review where I copied a paragraph from the description on Amazon.

I strongly recommend you use the Amazon "Search Inside" feature offered for this book. In particular look at the table of contents, the timeline on pages 309-310, and the pages of the epilogue that are available in "Search Inside". These will give you a good idea what the book is about. The search inside feature is excellent and under used on books where it is available.

I love science and this book is wonderful. It contains a wealth of information that you would not normally expect to find put together with a good narrative flow. Very highly recommended.

From the description:

"Tapping the very latest findings in evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and molecular biology, Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall explain how the cognitive gulf that separates us from all other living creatures could have occurred. They discuss the development and uniqueness of human consciousness, how human and nonhuman brains work, the roles of different nerve cells, the importance of memory and language in brain functions, and much more. Our brains, they conclude, are the product of a lengthy and supremely untidy history--an evolutionary process of many zigs and zags--that has accidentally resulted in a splendidly eccentric and creative product."

Note: This review was originally posted in my personal website.
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This is an ambitious book. The brain is probably one of biology's "ultimate frontiers" and one of the most interesting topics to think about. Given the scope of what the authors tried to achieve, this is a pretty good book! The authors are recognized experts in the fields of genetics and anthropology, and both are prolific authors of specialized scientific articles as well as popular science works. Dr. Tattersal alone has published 3 books in 2012, including this one!

I must say that I enjoyed the book. It presents a rather interesting summary of neuroscience, from the very small to the bigger matters. The authors were able to seamlessly integrate such wide topics as philosophy, biology and cosmology in a coherent way. I do not know how they pulled it off. That's the good news... The not so good news is that there are several instances of innacurate statements, especially in the area of neuroscience. For example:

Page 57: They talk about a type of sea slug, and they name it Aplysia californicus. The correct name is Aplysia californica. I know, extra picky, but there is a reason for mentioning this fact; it is found at the very end of this post.

Read on...

Page 72: When talking about some types of glutamate receptors, they correctly named three of the receptor subtypes, those sensitive to the compounds AMPA, NMDA and kainate (look them up, they are really interesting). However, they imply that these three compounds (A, N and K) are the native neurotransmitters. They are not. These three types of receptors are all activated by glutamate, and selectively activated by A, N and K. This is a technical difference, but it is important.

Page 72 (again): They allude to some neurological symptoms commonly found in people that consume food derived from certain plants (cycads; a particularly interesting account of this story was written by Dr. Oliver Sacks). Anyway, in this page they state that consumption of this plant causes Alzheimer's disease symptoms, allegedly because cycads have a high amount of glutamate. This is not exactly right. The symptoms that appear in these patients seem to be a combination of Parkinson's disease-like and Amyothrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease)-symptoms, with some dementia as well; this last part was probably the source of the confusion. Moreover, the toxicity of this plant is not related to glutamate; it is related to certain specific toxins that the plant produces.

Page 73: They mention the plant hormone auxin (there are several types) and call it a protein. This is not correct; auxins are not proteins (I am not even a plant biologist, I have no idea how I knew that...).

Usually, when things like this happen in a book I am reading, it turns me off the book because if I catch mistakes in topics that I am familiar with. I keep wondering what have I missed in those areas that I know little about. In this case, this did not happen with this book; I kept on reading and it was worth it. I do not believe that there are grave mistakes in the areas of genetics, evolution, etc., as the authors are established scholars in these specific topics. This is overall a very good book. I would recommend it if you want to learn your neuroscience basics, especially in the light of evolution, but please call your local neuroscientist when in doubt about something... Read the book, you will not regret it!

Speaking of neuroscience, let's go back to the sea slug, Aplysia californica. This organism is one of the best characterized animal models to study learning and memory. The use of Aplysia for this purpose was pioneered by Dr. Eric Kandel and collaborators (Columbia University). He even shared a Nobel Prize for this research; even better, I met him once; very nice guy!

And this brings me to one of my favorite parts of the book. In page 182, there is a chapter subsection where they talk about Aplysia. The subsection is titled:

"Not as pretty as Heidi Klum but nevertheless a darn good model"

Right on both accounts gentlemen, right on both accounts.
(:-)

This is an amazing epic which is still ongoing. The protagonist does not even appear until halfway through the book (page 141). The first half of the book describes the foundation of what is to come. It starts literally from the very beginning of the universe: how elements are formed and how their myriad properties are altogether essential to the functioning of any nervous system. The process of natural selection is related most clearly. The concept of exaptation ("a morphological or physiological trait that is used in a context unlike that in which it was originally acquired") is explained clearly and repeatedly using apt examples. Convergence, i.e. the acquiring of similar characteristics by totally unrelated taxa, is also expounded thoroughly. These two concepts (viz. exaptation and convergence) are crucial in the appreciation of the multiple emergence of the nervous system during the long history of evolution. Finally, a large part (pp. 255-308) is devoted to the evolution of the human brain and its associated cognitive prowess.

Highly enjoyable and inspiring. Five stars.