The social brain: discovering the networks of the mind pdf

Michael S. Gazzaniga (born December 12, 1939) is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the USA, where he heads the new SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. He is one of the leading researchers in cognitive neuroscience, the study of the neural basis of mind. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences.

The social brain: discovering the networks of the mind pdf by Michael Gazzaniga

THIS IS A STORY about a scientific discovery, about its evolution and ultimately its effect on m y personal understanding of social process. Looking back over the last twenty-five years, I see how little we can foretell our future. From personal habits to scientific pursuits, our year-to-year endeavors change in ways that are totally unpredictable. What do not change are initial unanswered questions and, for me, those centered o n how brain science might address problems of personal consciousness and through those a wider understanding of social processes. Some highly intelligent people can marvel over the elucidation of a phenom- enon and are quite happy to leave it hanging in a factual capsule. Others are plagued with the secondary question of how a fact relates to a value, or t o a personal understanding of life. While most scientific facts do not directly relate to broader social realities, some do. I think I have c o m e across such connections, which is one reason for my writing this book.