Big Brain. Origins and Future of Human Intelligence

Gary Lynch, Richard Granger9781403979797, 1403979790

In this groundbreaking look at the evolution of our brains, eminent neuroscientists Gary Lynch and Richard Granger uncover the mysteries of the outsizeintelligence of our ancestors, who had bigger brains than humans living today. Weaving together history, science, and the latest theories of artificial intelligence,Lynch and Granger demystify the complexities of our brains, and show us howour memory, cognition, andintelligence actually function, as well as what mechanisms in the brain can potentially be enhanced, improving on the current design.Author of The Emotional Brain, Joseph LeDoux praised it as”provocative and fascinating,” and, writing in the New Scientist, Willian Calvin called it “a popular account of how brains enlarge, in both evolutionary and developmental terms” and “amuch needed book.”

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Table of contents :
Contents……Page 6
Introduction……Page 10
Biggest Brain……Page 12
Are Bigger Brains Better?……Page 14
Brain and Language……Page 16
Were Boskops Smarter?……Page 17
Why Haven’t We All Heard of Boskops?……Page 19
Outline of the Book……Page 20
2 The Mind in the Machine……Page 26
Learning Network Codes……Page 27
Brain Circuits vs. Computer Circuits……Page 32
The Brain of John Von Neumann……Page 34
3 Genes Build Brains……Page 42
How Much Variation Can Occur?……Page 45
Blueprint Systems……Page 47
Bundling Genes……Page 49
Variation Is Random, but It Is Constrained……Page 53
4 Brains Arrive……Page 60
First Brains……Page 61
Brain Expansion……Page 67
5 The Brains of Mammals……Page 72
Neurons and Networks……Page 74
Learning……Page 79
6 From Olfaction to Cognition……Page 82
From Cortex to Behavior……Page 89
Neocortex……Page 93
7 The Thinking Brain……Page 98
Extending Thinking over Time……Page 102
The Cortex Takes Charge……Page 105
Feedback and Hierarchies of Cortical Circuits……Page 108
Sequences……Page 115
What One Brain Area Tells Another Brain Area……Page 116
What’s in an Image?……Page 117
Putting It Together: From Generalists to Specialists……Page 118
Memory Construction……Page 119
Building High-level Cognition……Page 122
Libraries and Labyrinths……Page 123
Grammars of the Brain……Page 125
9 From Brain Differences to Individual Differences……Page 128
Brain Paths……Page 131
Brain Tracts and Differential Abilities……Page 134
Nature and Nurture……Page 136
10 What’s in a Species?……Page 138
Definitions……Page 140
Fallacies of the Notion of Race……Page 141
Races Versus Gene Pools……Page 144
11 The Origins of Big Brains……Page 148
Brain Size in the Primates……Page 150
Brain Size in the Family of Man……Page 154
Big Babies……Page 163
On Intelligence……Page 166
12 Giant Brains……Page 170
The Man of the Future……Page 171
How Giant Brains Were Forgotten……Page 174
Inside the Giant Brain……Page 180
Giant Brains and Intelligence……Page 184
On Science……Page 188
Differences……Page 191
From Quantity to Quality……Page 198
From Brain Advances to Cognitive Advances……Page 200
From Cognition to Language……Page 202
Learning Curve……Page 204
From Speaking to Writing……Page 206
Brain and Superbrain……Page 210
New Paths, New Humans……Page 213
The Final Path to Humans……Page 214
Inconstant Brain……Page 218
Next Steps……Page 220
Coda……Page 223
Appendix……Page 226
Acknowledgments……Page 242
Bibliography……Page 244
B……Page 264
F……Page 265
M……Page 266
S……Page 267
W……Page 268