The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body, and Environment Collaborate to Make Us Who We Are

by Alan Jasanoff

Overview

A pioneering neuroscientist argues that we are more than our brains

To many, the brain is the seat of personal identity and autonomy. But the way we talk about the brain is often rooted more in mystical conceptions of the soul than in scientific fact. This blinds us to the physical realities of mental function. We ignore bodily influences on our psychology, from chemicals in the blood to bacteria in the gut, and overlook the ways that the environment affects our behavior, via factors varying from subconscious sights and sounds to the weather. As a result, we alternately overestimate our capacity for free will or equate brains to inorganic machines like computers. But a brain is neither a soul nor an electrical network: it is a bodily organ, and it cannot be separated from its surroundings. Our selves aren't just inside our heads — they're spread throughout our bodies and beyond. Only once we come to terms with this can we grasp the true nature of our humanity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465052684
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	03/13/2018
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	623,875
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Alan Jasanoff is the award-winning director of the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering. He lives near Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I The Cerebral Mystique

1 Eating the Brain 11

2 Humor Me 27

3 It's Complicated 51

4 Scanning For Godot 71

5 Thinking, Outside the Box 91

6 No Brain is an Island 117

Part II The Importance of Being Biological

7 Insiders and Outsiders 143

8 Beyond the Broken Brain 171

9 Neurotechnology Unbound 197

10 What it's Like to be in a Vat 221

Acknowledgments 237

Notes 239

Index 281

Editorial Reviews

…The Biological Mind is chock-full of fun facts that entertain. And best of all, it makes you think. I found myself debating with Jasanoff in my head as I read—surely a sign of a worthy book.

The New York Times Book Review - Lisa Feldman Barrett

"This philosophical puzzle has been posed, in various forms, for centuries and is one of the starting points for Alan Jasanoff's elegant and spirited attack on what he calls our 'cerebral mystique' ... A lucid primer on current brain science that takes the form of a passionate warning about its limitations."—Wall Street Journal

"The Biological Mind is chock-full of fun facts that entertain. And best of all, it makes you think. I found myself debating with Jasanoff in my head as I read — surely a sign of a worthy book."—New York Times Book Review

"Alan Jasanoff's The Biological Mind...stylishly sums up the state of current knowledge while emphasizing the limitations of neuroscientific understanding."—Wall Street Journal

"In this powerful treatise, neurological engineer Alan Jasanoff issues a corrective to the 'cerebral mystique.'"—Nature

"The book features a learned and experienced author who has the ability to take complex concepts of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology and explain them in easy to understand descriptions. The intelligent reader interested in 21st century understanding of the human brain and particularly those who may be involved in mental or physical health will find this book useful and interesting."—The New York Journal of Books

"[Jasanoff's] clear, lively writing reveals how our emotions, such as the fight-or-flight response and the suite of thoughts and actions associated with stress, provide strong evidence for a brain-body connection."—Science News

"Taking the brain off of its pedestal, Jasanoff offers an exhaustive, comprehensible, and at times playful (e.g., why do humans now study brains instead of eat them?) look at the brain. Appropriate for both neuroscientists as well as general readers interested in gaining a better understanding of this vital organ."—Library Journal

"Jasanoff writes with admirable clarity as he argues that the modern tendency of neuroscience to take a 'brain-centered view' that overlooks external sources of behavior can lead to epistemological dead ends."—Kirkus Reviews

"Jasonoff delivers a highly readable and enjoyable exploration of a series of compelling questions relating to the human experience."—CHOICE

"Neuroscientist Alan Jasanoff has identified a widespread 'Brain Mystique'—a collection of folk theories about the brain that are scientifically false. In The Biological Mind, Jasanoff dispels these theories while leading the reader on an engaging tour of real neuroscience, from the brain to the body to the social and physical world."—George Lakoff, coauthor of The Neural Mind

"Any book that opens with a historical account of the nutritional merits of eating animal brains and concludes with an imaginary account of the author's brain being removed from his body to take up residence in a vat is certainly worth a read, and Alan Jasanoff's The Biological Mind is precisely that. Thought-provoking and enjoyable, this book will provide readers with a new conception of who they are."—Robert Whitaker, authorof Anatomy of an Epidemic

"The dark side of all the wonderful new neurotechnology at researchers' fingertips is that too many experts are now over-simplifying mental illness, reducing it to mere descriptions of brain physiology. Alan Jasanoff does an outstanding job of bringing much needed nuance, humanity, and compassion to the way we think about mental illness and the brain."—Sally Satel, M.D., Lecturer in Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine

"Alan Jasanoff's The Biological Mind provides a provocative and accessible neuroscientific defense of the 'extended mind' thesis—the idea that we are much more than our brains, and even the bodies in which they are normally housed. By the conclusion, readers will be left wondering whether Jasanoff's findings suggest something even more radical: that our brains are actually platforms for launching any number of versions of who we really are."—Steve Fuller, Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology at the University of Warwick and author of Humanity 2.0

From the Publisher

2018-01-09
What is the brain? If you answered by describing what the brain does, then this well-crafted overview may not be your cup of gray matter.The devil may not make us do things, but peer pressure, illness, addiction, and the health of our wallets certainly do. Jasanoff, the director of the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering, begins his account by stating that his chief interest lies more in "what the brain is rather than what it does." Though he allows some operational description along the way, he arrives at a suitably open-ended definition: the brain is "a transit point for myriad influences that work jointly on us and through us." So, the brain is an organ that perceives and organizes perception, but there is a difference between brain and mind, a distinction between what is innate in the physical being and what comes in from the outside world. The definition is biologically grounded, and in that regard, one of the fascinating branches of the author's discussion concerns the evidence for the notion that an organ or tissue transplant might "change a person's mind or personality" beyond the obvious one of having a new lease on life. The text can get a touch dense, for matters such as "body-wide emotional responses" and "ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage" resist easy reduction to pop science. Still, Jasanoff writes with admirable clarity as he argues that the modern tendency of neuroscience to take a "brain-centered view" that overlooks external sources of behavior can lead to epistemological dead ends. For instance, if the mere fact of having a brain explains all the things we do, can we hold anyone accountable for crime—anyone, that is, other than the brain itself? The question opens onto a consideration of the brain of the mass shooter Charles Whitman, who suddenly seems a timely presence considering all the mischief brains get into these days.For serious students of neurobiology as well as readers interested in philosophical questions of mind and body.

Kirkus Reviews

03/01/2018
Cerebral mystique, according to Jasanoff (director, MIT Ctr. for Neurobiological Engineering), results in elevating the importance of the brain to such an extent that it is viewed as containing the essence of who we are as individuals. In the past, the soul was thought to encompass our humanity (our personalities, intellect, etc.), but today the brain has replaced the soul as the repository of our unique beings. This phenomenon, argues Jasanoff, is problematic. The brain should be seen as biologically based; it works in conjunction with the rest of the body as well as the external environment in which it grows and develops. Jasanoff first explores how neuroscience has contributed to the cerebral mystique of the brain. He then examines how our world might be improved by a more biologically centered view of the organ. VERDICT Taking the brain off of its pedestal, Jasanoff offers an exhaustive, comprehensible, and at times playful (e.g., why do humans now study brains instead of eat them?) look at the brain. Appropriate for both neuroscientists as well as general readers interested in gaining a better understanding of this vital organ.—Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's Sch., Brooklyn

Library Journal

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