György Buzsáki's new book is superb.
One of the problems for people trying to understand some of the spectacular advances in science and medicine is that much of it has become not just complex, but highly specialized, with each discipline developing its own vocabulary. Many books are written for the cognoscenti and many others by professional writers trying to explain science in lay language. There are relatively few scientists working at the cutting edges of their fields who want - or in some cases are able - to communicate their findings to a broad audience.
This book is by an internationally recognized expert, a Professor at Rutgers who is amongst the 250 most cited neuroscientists in the world. He is passionate about his topic, literate, patient and humble. In this book he takes a complex topic - the dynamic function of the brain - and unlocks not just the secrets that he and others have uncovered, but you have the chance to look over his shoulder and understand why he has reached certain conclusions, while exposing some of the human side of the scientific enterprise. It is not all objectivity and cooperation, there is also the politics, bickering and suppression and omission of data that does not fit a pet model or theory.
As the title suggests, György Buzsáki's particular field of interest is brain oscillations: it has an extraordinary capacity for generating waves that organize its activity. We have known for centuries that there are cycles that control the rhythms of our hearts, lungs, metabolism and endocrine systems. But in recent years we have begun to suspect that the brain's constantly active rhythms, including its cycles of electrical activity, are essential to its "deepest and most general functions." That in itself is fascinating, but this is a very personal book.
He begins by saying, "The short punch line of this book is that brains are foretelling devices and their predictive powers emerge from the various rhythms they perpetually generate." A little later he explains the what, when, where, how and who of his first awakening to the importance of this realization. He says that it came, "in April, 1970, during a physiology lecture given by Endre Grastyán in the beautiful town of Pécs, on the sunny slopes of the Mecsek mountains in Hungry."
As you will see, this is no ordinary account of brain function.
It is divided into thirteen "Cycles:"
Cycle 1. Introduction.
Cycle 2. Structure defines function.
Cycle 3. Diversity of cortical functions is provided by inhibition.
Cycle 4. Windows on the brain.
Cycle 5. A system of rhythms: from simple to complex dynamics.
Cycle 6. Synchronization by oscillation.
Cycle 7. The brain's default state: self-organized oscillations in rest and sleep.
Cycle 8. Perturbation of the default patterns by experience.
Cycle 9. The gamma buzz: gluing by oscillations in the waking brain.
Cycle 10. Perceptions and actions are brain state-dependent.
Cycle 11. Oscillations in the "other cortex:" navigation in real and memory space.
Cycle 12. Coupling of systems by oscillations.
Cycle 13. The tough problem.
References.
The book is well written and scholarly. But this is not the scholarship of the show off: he is a natural scholar who is interested in knowledge for its own sake and for the ways in which it can illuminate his points. He wants to be understood beyond the narrow confines of the academy. He also understands the value of cross-pollination: how findings and insights garnered in one part of science, medicine, engineering and even art, can inform his work in the brain.
The book is full of fascinating insights. He discusses the way in which the brain is a complex adaptive, self-organizing system, while the neuron-rich cerebellum is so highly efficient and so localized that it can probably not give rise to conscious experience.
Most of us will have some points of disagreement. He is, perhaps, too certain that anatomy is destiny: that we are the cycles and oscillations created by our brains. Not all of the evidence is quite so cut and dried. But it is also certain from Buzsáki's writing that he would relish the chance to debate his points.
This is a fascinating book that may in places be a little demanding for the non-scientist. But it is also a very human story that lets the readers inside the head and the laboratory of a world-class scientist and storyteller.
Highly recommended.
