Customer Reviews

The Genius Engine: Where Memory, Reason, Passion, Violence, and Creativity Intersect in the Human Brain

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a well-written and engaging book, yet it is also a little frustrating.

Kathleen Stein is a distinguished science writer and here she tries to unlock some of the secrets of the prefrontal cortex for a general audience. The prefrontal cortex is one of the most recently developed regions of the primate brain, and it is most highly developed in humans, where it is involved in planning, reasoning, working memory and the control of behavior and our internal landscape.

The book is the fruit of some detailed research and interviews with some of the experts working in the field of frontal lobe function.

The book begins with three pages of diagrams, followed by an "Introduction," and six chapters:
1. Memory: The DNA of Consciousness
2. Reason: Logic, Laughter, and Looking Within
3. Passion: In Cold Blood?
4. Violence: Morality and the Minds of the Killers
5. Creativity: Art as a Window into the Brain
6. Silicon Minds: The Rise of Machine Genius

These chapters are followed by some notes and a good index.

I have written before that I only review books that I really like: my reviews form a part of my "recommended reading" lists for classes and workshops. This book is well written, the author has done her research and had the help of some luminaries in the frontal lobe firmament. So why "only" four stars?

I do like the book, but it is not the easiest read, and I say that as a specialist! Unless you are someone who can construct three-dimensional maps in your head, it is difficult to see how all the regions of the brain hang together.

The second point is more subtle and has to do with what we call "neo-phrenology." Phrenology is an old and discredited art or measuring the bumps on the head to try and deduce a person's character and personality. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it re-emerged in a new guise: cognitive and emotional faculties started to be "localized" to certain regions of the brain. This piece of brain would "do" something, while another piece would have another job. With certain important exceptions, this idea is fundamentally flawed: many regions are specialized to perform certain tasks, but they also function as parts of larger systems and circuits. The prefrontal cortex is a good example of this concept. It has many specialized functions, but can also be recruited to contribute to other activities that may require more cognitive horsepower. Another example if the idea that people are "left-brained" or "right-brained." This is fine as a metaphor, but not as a neurological reality. Unless the connections between the cerebral hemispheres are severed, the two sides of the brain usually act together.

One of the problems with the old brain lesion studies was this: it is hard to try and work out what regions of the brain by looking at the consequences of injuries that often affect large portions of the brain, and secondly to then attribute a function to the damaged regions. If I remove the spark plugs from your car, and a passerby who knows nothing about cars notices that the wheels of the car are no longer turning, it would be easy to come to the conclusion that the spark plugs are directly responsible for the motion of the wheels.

The third point is that there is growing evidence that the prefrontal cortex may be susceptible to functional and even anatomical growth and change: trying to describe it is like trying to hold quicksilver in your hand. This region of the brain has developed during recorded history and is probably continuing to develop at this moment.

The attempt to be readable has produced a worthy book that does not quite hit the mark. The prefrontal cortex is a unique series of circuits, but is it best not to perpetuate the idea that we can localize complex neurological and psychological activities to discrete regions of the brain.

That being said, this is one of the best books for the general public on a tantalizing set of systems in the brain.


Richard G. Petty, MD, author of Healing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life

The Genius Engine is a remarkable book.

It is a synthesis of our best understanding at present of that little understood part of our brain, the Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC). The PFC is what makes humans unique in our ability to think in abstractions, to plan, to multitask, to regulate our passions, to be creative, in short, what gives us our genius. Until now, our understanding of the PFC has been very limited. But thanks to new technology and means to study our brain in living human beings, we have a much better grasp of what happens inside our brain.

Kathleen Stein has done a great job in putting together all this explosion of new information that is coming in each moment. She has presented technical information in simple understandable terms, without being pedantic or overly simple. As a former neuroscience editor of Omni magazine, she has learnt her craft well. This is how new scientific information should be compiled for the public. However, this book is not only for the lay person, but also for the psychologist, the physician, the scientist. Its prose is lucid, `neither diffident nor ostentatious'.

The new advances may not only help us unlock the secrets of severe diseases like Bipolar disorder or schizophrenia and help us treat them better, but also teach us to live creatively and peacefully. There is a world within that if explored may show us our place in the Universe; or at least, inform us how best to have the Universe within synchronize with the Universe without. When mankind has figured out the secrets of String theories, quantum physics and dark matter cosmologies, the brain may well be the final frontier.

The Genius Engine is a laudable work. A tremendous effort brought out with natural ease.

Pariksith Singh, M.D.

Many animals have working memory but the human brain is what gives our species a unique ability to reason and predict the future. THE GENIUS ENGINE: WHERE MEMORY, REASON, PASSION, VIOLENCE, AND CREATIVITY INTERSECT IN THE HUMAN BRAIN draws on the author's decades of experience as a science and technology writer and editor to explore how our prefrontal cortex has the flexibility to update and process information. Chapters consider how it operates and how it differs in individuals, making for an excellent analysis perfect for college-level collections strong in health, physiology, and brain science.

I thought the book was very well organized, it had insightful well researched information, but I felt myself getting a little frustrated with how "wordy" the text became at times. Overall I really enjoyed the book.