Sebastian Seung

This book unifies a lot of information about models of brain function and the state of our understanding of the brain. It highlights a potential approach to understanding the brain: mapping the connection diagram of a brain, aka a connectome. The main hypothesis is that the connections of the neurons mostly determine how the brain works. Genes, learning, environment all converge in this wiring, but it is the wiring alone that mostly determines who you are, mentally, at any given time.

The book is helpful even if you disagree with the main hypothesis, because it covers historical approaches to understanding the brain and their shortcomings. Starting from phrenology in the 18th century, and moving forward to the discovery of neurons and attempts at classifying areas of the brain. Finally, Seung explains one of the current frontiers: the challenge of mapping a brain neuron by neuron and what it could mean for our understanding of the brain.

By the end of the book one feels convinced that many of our difficulties in understanding how the brain functions might lie simply in our current inability to observe the the physical connections and handle the large amount of image data generated fast enough.… (mehr)

An interesting book looking at the latest developments in brain research.

It is kind of a review of previous brain science that has gone before, and looking at the developments in current understanding. Seung's specialism is looking at the connectome, hence the title, which is the whole map of the brain, neuron by neuron, and learning how these interact as a whole.

Whilst they are many years away from a full understanding, they are slowly comprehending the way the chemical and electrical communication make the the brain work.

Some of it was a bit beyond me, and I don't have a background in biology, but is is written in a clear manner for a complicated science book.… (mehr)