Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence

Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence
by Gary Lynch, Richard Granger

Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence
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Book Summary Information

Author: Gary Lynch, Richard Granger
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 2008-03-04
ISBN: 1403979782
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Book Reviews of Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence

Book Review: Does a bigger brain make you smarter?
Summary: 4 Stars

In Big Brain, two neuroscientists offer up an intriguing argument about the size of brains and how that size corresponds to evolutionary advancements. They also shed light on the politics that sometimes informs how scientists present or obscure information.

I found this book interesting, but beyond their argument about bigger brains, I didn't find anything startlingly new. Most of what they presented is information about how the brain is believed to work and how it allows us to think and learn. They did focus on some intriguing mutations that are found in the occasional person where said person has gifts some of us don't have while also having disabilities that we don't have.

The book is an interesting read and does provide some solid information for people who are just learning about neuroscience. It's perspective on evolution is also intriguing, but there are other works that provide more insight into how the brain works than this book will.

Summary of Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence

Our big brains, our language ability, and our intelligence make us uniquely human.
But barely 10,000 years ago (a mere blip in evolutionary time) human-like creatures called "Boskops" flourished in South Africa. They possessed extraordinary features: forebrains roughly 50% larger than ours, and estimated IQs to match--far surpassing our own. Many of these huge fossil skulls have been discovered over the last century, but most of us have never heard of this scientific marvel.

Prominent neuroscientists Gary Lynch and Richard Granger compare the contents of the Boskop brain and our own brains today, and arrive at startling conclusions about our intelligence and creativity. Connecting cutting-edge theories of genetics, evolution, language, memory, learning, and intelligence, Lynch and Granger show the implications of large brains for a broad array of fields, from the current state of the art in Alzheimer's and other brain disorders, to new advances in brain-based robots that see and converse with us, and the means by which neural prosthetics-- replacement parts for the brain--are being designed and tested. The authors demystify the complexities of our brains in this fascinating and accessible book, and give us tantalizing insights into our humanity--its past, and its future.

Our big brains, our language ability, and our intelligence make us uniquely human.
But barely 10,000 years ago--a mere blip in evolutionary time--human-like creatures called "Boskops" flourished in South Africa. They possessed extraordinary features: forebrains roughly 50% larger than ours, and estimated IQs to match--far surpassing our own. Many of these huge fossil skulls have been discovered over the last century, but most of us have never heard of this scientific marvel.
Prominent neuroscientists Gary Lynch and Richard Granger compare the contents of the Boskop brain and our own brains today, and arrive at startling conclusions about our intelligence and creativity. Connecting cutting-edge theories of genetics, evolution, language, memory, learning, and intelligence, Lynch and Granger show the implications of large brains on a broad array of fields, from the current state of the art in Alzheimer's and other brain disorders, to new advances in brain-based robots that see and converse with us, and the means by which neural prosthetics-- replacement parts for the brain--are being designed and tested. The authors demystify the complexities of our brains in this fascinating and accessible book, and give us tantalizing insights into our humanity--its past, and its future.

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