We Are Our Brains – From the Womb to Alzheimers
Thinking about the brain has a tendency to become existential – how can a brain comprehend a brain? In dissection class I’ve been privileged on a couple of occasions to hold the football sized object that science suggests makes us who we are – our thoughts, our memories, our personalities.
Of course there are external influences on our brains – genetic inheritance, nurture, the environment we find ourselves in. Some would argue for external spiritual and energetic influences. But it all comes together in the brain and nervous system.
Needless to say the brain is complex. And so the author, a neurobiologist embarks on this 400 page magnum opus exploring what goes on in our brains from conception to death.
Its a big topic, and one which he dispatches with an easy understandable style, interspersed with opinion and practical asides. The book comes across as aimed very much at the non specialist reader, be it professionals in other health and wellbeing disciplines, or the curious lay reader – certainly its not a textbook as such, more an exploration and exposition.
A lot of the content I had covered before in professional training, but as always there were a few nuggets of extra information, plus reinforcement of prior knowledge, and it was a book I found both useful and fascinating, and one which demanded attention.
For anyone interested. professionally or personally, in the brain, its a book I’d recommend.
