Livewired

Starred review from June 15, 2020
A masterful update on how the brain operates. At the beginning, neuroscientist Eagleman notes how DNA gets all the credit for being the basis of life but deserves only half. Every animal today possesses DNA identical to that of 30,000 years ago, and its behavior is also indistinguishable. A caveman with identical DNA might look like us, but their actions and thoughts would be utterly foreign. Credit goes to the human brain, entirely the creation of DNA at birth but unfinished. "For humans at birth," writes the author, "the brain is remarkably unfinished, and interaction with the world is nec-essary to complete it." Unlike an arm or stomach, the brain is a dynamic system, a general-purpose computing device that changes in response to experience. With this introduction, Eagleman is off and running. In the first of many delightful educational jolts, he notes that the mature brain contains regions with specific functions, but under magnification, its billions of nerve cells, which form trillions of connections, look the same. What's happening? The brain does not think or hear or touch anything. "All it ever sees are electrochemical signals that stream in along different data cables," writes the author, but it works brilliantly to extract patterns from this input. As we age, our brain figures out a set of rules, which the author lays out in his conclusion. At birth it possesses enormous flexibility because it must literally learn how to function. Children can learn several languages fluently, but after age 10, new languages come with an accent. If a child is kept in the dark and silence for several years after birth, they will never see or talk. Neurons compete as fiercely as they cooperate. If one area stops functioning, others take over. Thus, when the vision region falls silent from blindness or even a few hours in a blindfold, input from hearing or touch moves in. To fend off this intrusion during sleep, Eagleman theorizes, our vision area continues to operate by generating dreams. Outstanding popular science.

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Starred review from June 22, 2020
Neuroscientist Eagleman (The Brain) delivers an intellectually exhilarating look at neuroplasticity. In his view, the brain’s ability to reconfigure connections between its different areas in response to feedback is “quite possibly the most gorgeous phenomenon in biology,” and also holds exciting practical applications. Eagleman explains how the brain’s “maps” of the body are not genetically precoded, but arrive “remarkably unfinished” at birth and are then molded by experience, and walks readers through the concept of cortical redeployment, in which the function of different brain areas is reallocated according to need—for instance, in blind people, the visual cortex doesn’t go unused, but is adapted for other purposes. Optimistically proposing that humanity can use neuroplasticity to its advantage, Eagleman describes the therapeutic field devoted to substituting one sense for another, and the potential for augmentation of existing senses (as has occurred with some cornea transplantees who found themselves suddenly able to see ultraviolet light). Finally, Eagleman addresses the implications for future tech innovations, observing that AI systems, despite their now “mindblowingly impressive” state, lack the brain’s essential plasticity. Eagleman’s skill as teacher, bold vision, and command of current research will make this superb work a curious reader’s delight.

Starred review from July 1, 2020

The brain is a dynamic system that is constantly rewiring its circuitry in order to best tackle challenges, explains Eagleman (neuroscience, Stanford Univ.; Incognito and Sum). Plasticity is a word traditionally used to describe the brain's ability to mold itself to new circumstances, but, to the author, this word is too static. He prefers the term livewired, as it better describes the function of the brain, an infinitely adaptable "information-seeking system." The human brain is remarkably unfinished at birth, states Eagleman, and requires interaction with the world in order to grow and develop. He provides readers with ample neuroscientific research that illuminates brain function as well as many examples of the brain's ability to adapt to new circumstances. Most interesting is the work being conducted around the concept of sensory substitution by Eagleman and colleagues at their company, NeoSensory; their enthusiasm for the potential synergy between neuroscience and technology is palpable. VERDICT Eagleman claims that whatever information the brain is fed, it will learn to extract what it can, and there is much to extract from this fascinating work, that is recommended for readers interested in neuroscience, technology, and the intersection of the two.--Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's Sch., Brooklyn

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2020
Neuroscientist Eagleman extols the dynamic nature of the human brain, describing it as "a cryptic kind of computational material, a living three-dimensional textile that shifts, reacts, and adjusts itself." At birth, human brains possess a limited number of built-in abilities but an immense amount of flexibility. During growth, people effectively "rewrite" brain circuitry as they adapt to their body, their experiences, and the outside world. Eagleman dubs this brain-modeling power and proficiency "livewired." He explores dreams, memory, illusions, and synesthesia. At times, his discussion intersects with philosophy: "The enemy of memory is not time, it's other memories." The bionic retinal chip (to treat blindness), the cochlear implant (for deafness), and how the brain decodes sensory data from the environment are reviewed. The resiliency of an adept armless archer and a child with only half a brain are spotlighted, while Eagleman enjoys pop-culture allusions such as Star Trek's Borg, Spider-Man villain Doc Ock, and the film Memento. Weighing in at about 3 pounds, the human brain, Eagleman avers, is a biological dynamo that remains, in many ways, a magnificent mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)