Customer Reviews
An Excellent Account - By: A Reader, 12 Jun 2008 
Stephen Haines' review covers the content & central topics of the book extremely well. All I wish to add is a further recommendation to read it if you wish to have a sound understanding of the neurological underpinnings of human behaviour - from the simple firing (or probably not) of individual neurons to the epiphenomena of consciousness that arises when billions of poorly functional brain cells combine. And as to the notion of 'Intelligent Design', if the human brain was indeed designed then this book clearly shows that we should have very serious concerns about its designer. As a psychologist familiar with much of the content, I still learned a great deal from the author's insights & approaches. It is both lucid & informative. Read this book.
Our mental ice cream cone, April 7 - By: Stephen A. Haines, 07 Apr 2008 The greatest fear among those who reject Charles Darwin's "Dangerous Idea" is the implications the concept holds for human beings. Our brain, they often claim, demonstrates how far we are from the other animals. It must have been designed by "divine intelligence". Not so, says David Linden. Our brain is something cobbled together over millions of years, parts & functions being added over time to produce that kilogramme of matterin our heads. He likens the building-up process to a multi-scoop ice cream cone. In this finely written overview, he explains the brain's structure & functions, relating them to earlier sources with clarity & wit.
The bottom of the ice-cream cone is the brainstem, an ancient structure controlling much of the body's major systems like heartbeat & breathing. Many of the body's communication with the rest of the brain pass through this part. Above the brainstem is the cerebellum, the first "scoop". The cerebellum acts as a signal filter, inhibiting "expected" sensations like your clothing against your skin. When something detectable as not part of "normal" conditions arises, the cerebellum passes those signals to the rest of the brain. That's when the real action begins. Above the cerebellum lies the midbrain, which is the first recipient of visual & sound signals. In some animals, such as frogs, he notes, this is the primary sensory area. Our midbrain, Linden declares, is symbolic of what he calls "brain kludge". It's an archaic region retained from earlier ancestral creatures for very limited processes. Moving upward & forward we encounter two elements, the thalamus & hypothalamus, the former being a major relay station for signals within & to & from the brain. Near these two is the amygdala, the centre of fear & aggression - the "flight or fight" controller that is an obvious holdover from early times.
If there is a "human" areain our brains, it is the cortex. In dealing with its role, the author takes us through how neuronal cells are structured & operate. They are, he notes, a flawed example of "design". Brains are often compared to computers, but the network of neuronal cells is a patchwork of bad connections, leaking signals & is depressingly slow. Copper wire is several orders of magnitude better at passing information. Describing somebody as being "quick minded" reveals we don't really know what's going onin there. There are, Linden reminds us, 100 billion neurons residingin the brain, with 500 trillion synapses - the contact point for brain signals - connecting them. But the distribution is unequal with contact points ranging from 0 to 200 000. No wonder some thoughts "go astray" & "memory fails"!
Knowledge of the brain rests heavily on those who have suffered injury or lesionsin particular areas. Today, these are identified by electronic scanners, but no account of the brain would be complete without the early 19th Century story of Phineas Gage. A steel rod through his skull failed to kill him, but his personality was changed forever. Linden recounts the studies initiated by this accident, & goes on to describe the roots of other behaviour traits. He discusses vision, hearing, sleep & dreaming, and, of course, sex. Studies performed on what happensin the brain during orgasm make almost hilarious reading. Even Linden is left wondering just how the subjects coped. His explanation of why humans seem to bond better than other creatures, even our primate cousins is of particular interest. Although the word "love" appearsin the subtitle, there's little mention of itin the text. It's not really related to how the brain works. You are cautioned not to jump to Chapter Six before reading the introductory material.
Linden's chapter on why humans have religion is necessarily thin. Little work has been done on this topic. Even what has been done is rudimentary & sketchy. He compares some representative ideas about gods & spirits, noting that there is some uniformity among them. He dismisses any suggestion of a "god part of the brain" or genes prompting for "faith". Instead, he says, there is a tendency for the brain, seenin other mental functions such as vision, to seek "coherent, gap-free stories". The brain "fills in" when it isn't receiving continuous information. There are many forms of this "filling-in", as some patients have exhibited, which Linden refers to as "confabulation". This isn't a form of "making up" stories, since the individuals truly believe what they are saying. They simply have no way of knowing the tale isn't true. It was a surprise to this reviewer that no mention of sensory deprivation studies dealing with this topic was introduced by the author.
Finally, as all writers of sciencein the US seem compelled to do, Linden responds the rising challenge of "intelligent design". The simple answer is that the notion is a weak attempt to explain what is either unknown or poorly understood. Why US scientists or science journalists must descend to sparring with this elusive concept is both astonishing & worrying. Many astute thinkers & writers have demolished "ID". Why does it need yet another post-mortem? Linden does as good a job as any at demonstrating the falsity of proponents like Behe, Dembski & Johnson. In doing so, he concludes with an appeal for more work to build on what is known about the brain & its evolutionary foundation. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
