Customer Reviews

Conversations in the Cognitive Neurosciences

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In 1989, the PBS series NOVA had an hour-long conversation with the late physicist Richard Feynman, in which he extolled on his passion for the scientific enterprise. The interview was animated, enlightening, and entertaining. (Clips from this interview circulate the Internet.) I was hoping that this book would present similarly animated and passionate discussions. However, Gazzaniga explains in his introduction that these collected "interviews" were conducted by email. This changes the tone of the discussion entirely because the responses are, in a word, crafted. In addition, both the questions, and their responses, are highly technical. For example, on the subject of Brain Imaging, Gazzaniga asks: "PET was initially built to deal with medical issues, perhaps looking at cerebral stroke per se, or studying chemotherapeutic agents for brain tumor, or looking at neurotransmitters in psychiatric and degenerative disease. PET today seems mostly committed to the study of functional correlates of cognitive function. Is this true and, if so, why?" Such questions are not exactly "fascinating reading for both beginners and experts alike" as suggested by one back-cover reviewer. Perhaps experts in the field of cognitive neuroscience will find the book useful but this is not a book for the uninitiated. I can only hope that Gazzaniga's dinner parties that inspired the book are more fun.