Author:
Lynch, Gary.
Imprint:New York : Palgrave Macmillan, c2008.
Descriptionviii, 259 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Note:Big brains, bigger brains : Introduction ; Biggest brain ; Are bigger brains better? ; Brain and language ; Were Boskops smarter? ; Why haven't we all heard of Boskops? ; Outline of the book -- The mind in the machine : Learning network codes ; Brain circuits vs. computer circuits ; The brain of John Von Neumann -- Genes build brains : How much variation can occur? ; Blueprint systems ; Bundling genes ; Variation is random, but it is constrained -- Brains arrive : First brains ; Brain expansion -- The brains of mammals : Neurons and networks ; Learning -- From olfaction to cognition : From cortex to behavior ; Neocortex -- The thinking brain : Extending thinking over time ; The cortex takes charge -- The tools of thought : Feed back and hierarchies of cortical circuits -- Sequences ; What one brain area tells another brain area ; What's in an image? ; Putting it together: from generalists to specialists ; Memory construction ; Building high-level cognition ; Libraries and labyrinths ; Grammars of the brain -- From brain differences to individual differences : Brain paths ; Brain tracts and differential abilities ; Nature and nurture -- What's in a species? : Definitions ; Fallacies of the notion of race ; Races versus gene pools -- The origins of big brains : Brain size in the primates ; Brain size in the family of man ; Big babies ; On intelligence -- Giant brains : The man of the future ; How giant brains were forgotten ; Inside the giant brain ; Giant brains and intelligence -- All but human : On science ; Differences ; From quantity to quality ; From brain advances to cognitive advances ; From cognition to language ; Learning curve ; From speaking to writing -- More than human : Brain and superbrain ; New paths, new humans ; The final path to humans ; Inconstant brain ; Next steps ; Coda.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references and index.
