Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

Distinguished neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett lyrically diagnoses the elusive mystery of that three-pound mass of gel crowned within the cranium that is the remarkable brain. The first chapter looks at possible ancestral relationships among the vertebrates from the anatomy of the primitive aquatic amphioxi or lancelets which possess a dorsal nerve tube and notochord. Using metaphors and analogies, the developing communicating nervous system is compared to air traffic systems where connections for effective usage required hubs for centralization and directed traffic thus indicating how the brain functions as a network. The popularized version of the three-tiered brain modeled on the evolutionary construction of a reptilian base for fundamental needs, then embraced by an emotional limbic layer and finally topped by the thoughtful cerebral cortex is labeled a myth. Read through these thought-provoking images of the tuning and pruning by environmental influences on the myriad early neurons which ultimately sculpt the wiring within the brain. Differentiate between the process of allostasis and homeostasis and its role within the body. This short, concise, readable, thought-challenging view of the complex brain will pique the reader and puzzle the mind wondering what reality really is.