FM DECEMBER 2018 ISSUE - digital edition

ook review
TERRAINS OF HUMAN
EXPERIENCE
THINK TANK:
FORTY
NEUROSCIENTISTS
EXPLORE THE
BIOLOGICAL
ROOTS OF HUMAN
EXPERIENCE
Edited by David J Lindon
Pp 312
Yale University Press
human brains were not
designed all at once, by a
“Our
genius inventor on a blank sheet
of paper. It is a cobbled-together mess
that nonetheless can perform some very
impressive feats,” observes Dr David J Linden,
introducing the book Think Tank: Forty
Neuroscientists Explore the Biological Roots
of Human Experience, a collection of essays.
The intriguing ways of the human
brain have always been a mystery. This
amazing organ continues to perplex
researchers by simply refusing to unravel. But
in the age of the brain, the world is hungry
to know more about the quirky organ and
the biological basis of human experience.
Most of what is available on the brain is
uninformed or even fraudulent. It’s nothing
but “neurobulshit”, in the words of Dr Linden,
a neuroscientist.
Clearly, that is the reason why Dr Linden
approached the world’s top neuroscientists
with the question: “What idea about brain
function would you most like to explain
to the world?” The result is a collection of
essays that explore various aspects of brain
function.
Contributors with varied expertise survey
the underlying biology of the eternally
fascinating topics of personality, substrates
of aesthetic responses, subconscious drives
for love, sex and food, and psychoactive
drugs. Alongside, they examine the origins of
human individuality, empathy and memory
from different perspectives, such as that
of human behaviour, molecular genetics,
evolutionary biology and comparative
anatomy.
Authors discuss how present concepts
about the working of the brain are getting
refined with progress in neuroscience, even
though we are still quite some distance
from a satisfactory understanding of many
of the processes. Slowly, we come to a new
realisation that several regions of the brain
may be critically involved in mechanisms not
attributed to them hitherto.
The hypothesis of developmental
diaschisis, for instance, now opens the
MOST OF WHAT IS AVAILABLE
ON THE BRAIN IS UNINFORMED
OR EVEN FRAUDULENT. IT’S
NOTHING BUT “NEUROBULSHIT”.
possibility that the treatment of autism could
end up in areas of the brain such as the
cerebellum -- a part of the brain previously
unconnected to cognitive or social functions.
The cerebellum is thought to predict near
future, and in this way, adjust and guide
both movement and thought. A failure of
the cerebellum to predict the near future
could make it hard for babies at risk for
autism to learn properly from the world. This
understanding could change the way we
treat autism. Currently, the most effective
treatment for autism is applied behaviour
analysis. But it works on only half the kids
with autism. Manipulation of brain activity in
the cerebellum may help applied behaviour
analysis work better and help more kids. The
essays are also notable for their brevity and
variety.
DECEMBER 2018 / FUTURE MEDICINE / 97