Product Description

You've probably seen it before: a human brain dramatically lit from the side, the camera circling it like a helicopter shot of Stonehenge, and a modulated baritone voice exalting the brain's elegant design in reverent tones. To which this book says: pure nonsense. In a work at once deeply learned and wonderfully accessible, the neuroscientist David Linden counters the widespread assumption that the brain is a paragon of design - and in its place gives us a compelling explanation of how the brain's serendipitous evolution has resulted in nothing short of our humanity. A guide to the strange and often illogical world of neural function, "The Accidental Mind" shows how the brain is not an optimized, general-purpose problem-solving machine, but rather a weird agglomeration of ad-hoc solutions that have been piled on through millions of years of evolutionary history. Moreover, Linden tells us how the constraints of evolved brain design have ultimately led to almost every transcendent human foible: our long childhoods, our extensive memory capacity, our search for love and long-term relationships, our need to create compelling narrative, and, ultimately, the universal cultural impulse to create both religious and scientific explanations. With forays into evolutionary biology, this analysis of mental function answers some of our most common questions about how we've come to be who we are.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #356210 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Times Literary Supplement, 1 June 2007
Generally intelligent and clear. [A]n enjoyable neurosciences
primer for the general reader.

About the Author
David J. Linden is Professor of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Customer Reviews

Our mental ice cream cone, April 7
The greatest fear among those who reject Charles Darwin's "Dangerous Idea" is the implications the concept holds for human beings. Our brain, they often claim, demonstrates how far we are from the other animals. It must have been designed by "divine intelligence". Not so, says David Linden. Our brain is something cobbled together over millions of years, parts and functions being added over time to produce that kilogramme of matter in our heads. He likens the building-up process to a multi-scoop ice cream cone. In this finely written overview, he explains the brain's structure and functions, relating them to earlier sources with clarity and wit.

The bottom of the ice-cream cone is the brainstem, an ancient structure controlling much of the body's major systems like heartbeat and breathing. Many of the body's communication with the rest of the brain pass through this part. Above the brainstem is the cerebellum, the first "scoop". The cerebellum acts as a signal filter, inhibiting "expected" sensations like your clothing against your skin. When something detectable as not part of "normal" conditions arises, the cerebellum passes those signals to the rest of the brain. That's when the real action begins. Above the cerebellum lies the midbrain, which is the first recipient of visual and sound signals. In some animals, such as frogs, he notes, this is the primary sensory area. Our midbrain, Linden declares, is symbolic of what he calls "brain kludge". It's an archaic region retained from earlier ancestral creatures for very limited processes. Moving upward and forward we encounter two elements, the thalamus and hypothalamus, the former being a major relay station for signals within and to and from the brain. Near these two is the amygdala, the centre of fear and aggression - the "flight or fight" controller that is an obvious holdover from early times.

If there is a "human" area in our brains, it is the cortex. In dealing with its role, the author takes us through how neuronal cells are structured and operate. They are, he notes, a flawed example of "design". Brains are often compared to computers, but the network of neuronal cells is a patchwork of bad connections, leaking signals and is depressingly slow. Copper wire is several orders of magnitude better at passing information. Describing somebody as being "quick minded" reveals we don't really know what's going on in there. There are, Linden reminds us, 100 billion neurons residing in the brain, with 500 trillion synapses - the contact point for brain signals - connecting them. But the distribution is unequal with contact points ranging from 0 to 200 000. No wonder some thoughts "go astray" and "memory fails"!

Knowledge of the brain rests heavily on those who have suffered injury or lesions in particular areas. Today, these are identified by electronic scanners, but no account of the brain would be complete without the early 19th Century story of Phineas Gage. A steel rod through his skull failed to kill him, but his personality was changed forever. Linden recounts the studies initiated by this accident, and goes on to describe the roots of other behaviour traits. He discusses vision, hearing, sleep and dreaming, and, of course, sex. Studies performed on what happens in the brain during orgasm make almost hilarious reading. Even Linden is left wondering just how the subjects coped. His explanation of why humans seem to bond better than other creatures, even our primate cousins is of particular interest. Although the word "love" appears in the subtitle, there's little mention of it in the text. It's not really related to how the brain works. You are cautioned not to jump to Chapter Six before reading the introductory material.

Linden's chapter on why humans have religion is necessarily thin. Little work has been done on this topic. Even what has been done is rudimentary and sketchy. He compares some representative ideas about gods and spirits, noting that there is some uniformity among them. He dismisses any suggestion of a "god part of the brain" or genes prompting for "faith". Instead, he says, there is a tendency for the brain, seen in other mental functions such as vision, to seek "coherent, gap-free stories". The brain "fills in" when it isn't receiving continuous information. There are many forms of this "filling-in", as some patients have exhibited, which Linden refers to as "confabulation". This isn't a form of "making up" stories, since the individuals truly believe what they are saying. They simply have no way of knowing the tale isn't true. It was a surprise to this reviewer that no mention of sensory deprivation studies dealing with this topic was introduced by the author.

Finally, as all writers of science in the US seem compelled to do, Linden responds the rising challenge of "intelligent design". The simple answer is that the notion is a weak attempt to explain what is either unknown or poorly understood. Why US scientists or science journalists must descend to sparring with this elusive concept is both astonishing and worrying. Many astute thinkers and writers have demolished "ID". Why does it need yet another post-mortem? Linden does as good a job as any at demonstrating the falsity of proponents like Behe, Dembski and Johnson. In doing so, he concludes with an appeal for more work to build on what is known about the brain and its evolutionary foundation. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

An Excellent Account
Stephen Haines' review covers the content and central topics of the book extremely well. All I wish to add is a further recommendation to read it if you wish to have a sound understanding of the neurological underpinnings of human behaviour - from the simple firing (or probably not) of individual neurons to the epiphenomena of consciousness that arises when billions of poorly functional brain cells combine. And as to the notion of 'Intelligent Design', if the human brain was indeed designed then this book clearly shows that we should have very serious concerns about its designer. As a psychologist familiar with much of the content, I still learned a great deal from the author's insights and approaches. It is both lucid and informative. Read this book.