Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are by Sebastian Seung
expert and thought provoking introduction to a new science
This book works at a number of levels.
It offers a clear historical introduction to theories of brain anatomy, neural function and the many concepts that modern neuroscience is built upon. The coarse phrenological division of the brain, the attribution of function through mapping, the mechanisms of perception and memory are all introduced and appraised in terms of contemporary thinking. Seung's account is wide ranging, touching on topics as diverse as imaging equipment, feuds between researchers and weighing up the scientific method as applied in neuroscience, yet remains clear and focussed in providing opposing views and introducing examples from pathologies to reinforce this introduction.
Seung cherry-picks the ups and downs of neural research for examples that are relevant and contextual. The recounting of one that he touches on often is helpful. He discusses the phenomenon observed by Itzhak Fried who detected a single neuron in a subject's brain that spiked when viewing photos of Jennifer Anniston. Jennifer proved to be just one of many such stimuli which caused single neurone spiking in the medial temporal lobe. Seung builds an example around this where a `blue eye neurone' and a `blond hair neurone' use excitatory synapses to trigger the so-called `Jen' neurone. These neurones trigger other neurones but, because of the familiarity of Jen in the perception of the subject, she comes to the subject's mind. These hierarchies of synapse reinforcement or degeneration can then be used to show how people perceive, remember or forget, and Seung follows the public lives of Jen and her associates to show how this connection mechanism develops into memory.
The book has a central theme of introducing the emergent science of connectomics, of which the author is a pioneer. It is explored by tying together how connectomes change through reweighting, reconnection, rewiring and regeneration and applying this approach to current and future neuroscience. Of course, this book remains an introduction, albeit an accessible and cogent one. The reader will become better equipped to follow developments in this important area of science, the relevance and vastness of which are relayed strongly. I am still bemused at the open brain treatments in the early twentieth century and applaud later generations for working hard to use alternatives to this and animal vivisection. I feel Seung, while maintaining research priorities, is on the same wavelength.
Seung completes this lively account with some very broad conjecture on the future impacts of connectomics. This is well informed and thought provoking and rounds off a fine book