The Brain from Inside Out

Overall, the book is profound and full of wisdom for both science and culture in general. It challenges the established views about how the brain and the world work together, and it inspires new ideas regarding the psyche and consciousness. -- Gunnel Minett, Paradigm Explorer In The Brain from Inside Out, Gyorgi Buzsaki shows us how dynamic patterns of activity in neurons actively generate good guesses rather than passively represent the outside world. BuzsA!ki is a master at vividly explaining what we know about brains and illuminating what we don't yet know. -- Terrence J. Sejnowski, PhD, Francis Crick Chair, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA Inside Out offers crossover appeal, but it is unabashedly broad and ambitious, aspiring to articulate a philosophy of how to think about the brain that shapes the future of neuroscience research. ... It will fuel the imaginations of young neuroscientists, as they invent new ways to understand the strange and wonderful meat inside our heads. -- Rachel Denison, The Cooper Square Review of Science, Medicine and Technology This outstanding book will challenge you to think deeply about how we should view the route to discovery in brain research. The primary argument of the book is that the brain is a self-organized system with a preexisting organization designed to generate actions and to evaluate and predict the consequences of those actions. This is contrasted with the dominant view in modern neuroscience that the brain exists to represent the world, process information and decide how to respond. The consequences of this distinction are presented from an historical and a scientific perspective done with remarkable scholarship and scientific rigor. As a welcome addition to the rapidly expanding dialogue on brain science and society, I hope it finds its way onto the desks of young people commencing careers in the neurosciences. --Marcus E. Raichle, MD, Alan A. & Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor in Medicine, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University of Medicine, St Louis, MO The Brain from Inside Out is a fascinating guided tour by a leading brain scientist of the race to address the biggest challenge of our times: understanding the inner workings of the brain. Buzsaki's ideas are at the same time personal and universal, offering an intimate look at the major hypotheses and roadblocks that drive brain science today. A wonderful read. --Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, PhD, Professor of Network Science, Northeastern University, Boston, MA and the author of The Formula