Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are

Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are by Sebastian Seung (Author). We all know that each of us is unique, however science has struggled to pinpoint where, exactly, our uniqueness reside. Is it in our genes? The structure of our brains? Our genome may decide our eye colour and even points of our personality. However our friendships, failures, and passions also shape who we are. The question is: how?

Sebastian Seung, a dynamic professor at MIT, is on a quest to discover the organic basis of identity. He believes it lies in the sample of connections between the minds neurons, which change slowly over time as we study and grow. The connectome, because it is referred to as, is the place our genetic inheritance intersects with our life experience. It's the place nature meets nurture.

Seung introduces us to the devoted researchers who are mapping the brains connections, neuron by neuron, synapse by synapse. It's a monumental undertaking the scientific equivalent of climbing Mount Everest but when they succeed, it might reveal the premise of personality, intelligence, reminiscence, and perhaps even psychological disorders. Many scientists speculate that individuals with anorexia, autism, and schizophrenia are "wired otherwise," but no person knows for sure. The brain is wiring has never been clearly seen.

In sparklingly clear prose, Seung reveals the wonderful technological advances that may quickly assist us map connectors. He also examines the proof that these maps will sometimes allow humans to "upload" their minds into computer systems, reaching a kind of immortality.

Connectome is a mind-bending adventure story, told with nice passion and authority. It presents a daring scientific and technological vision for finally understanding what makes us who we are. Welcome to the future of neuroscience.

The writer describes and puts in context the nature and worth of the Connectome; a complete (all the way down to microscopic detail) map of all nerve cell connections within the brain. He begins with a clear (to the lay public) description of the previous few hundred years of accomplishment in understanding the human mind and the nervous system. He then describes his own unique research with the aim of mapping all nerve cell interconnections including the root-like processes known as dendrites. He fully admits that this can be a troublesome and evolving course of but factors to a technique by which it will be eventually accomplished. He describes the thrilling implications of this course of when it comes to mapping and understanding all human reminiscence and "the engram". He speculates how the accomplishment of a whole neural map of a dwelling human being might lead to a form of artificial immortality.

The author Sebastian Seung is a professor of computational neuroscience at MIT, and an investigator within the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has been widely cited in the New York Times, Know-how Assessment and the Economist magazines, and gave a thrilling and extensively considered video lecture at a TED symposium.

I thoroughly loved this book. The writing is great, ---clear and concise---and sophisticated theories and approaches to neuroanatomony are well explained so as to be understandable. Of explicit interest is data given on approaches to research and scientific idea that applies not solely to brain science but to science in general. I look forward to extra books by this author. 

Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are 

Sebastian Seung (Author)

384 pages

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade; None edition (February 7, 2012)

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