The Birth Of The Mind

Rating:
Summary: "JUST ONE MORE ELABORATE CONFIGURATION OF PROTEINS"
Review: Marcus says, "From a mind's-eye view, brains may seem awfully special, but from a gene's-eye view, brains are just one more elaborate configuration of proteins."

This book is a compilation of very recent research about how the brain as an organ puts itself together. This process is not unlike the process for any other organ, but results in a product that is highly malleable and ripe for environmental adjustment. The book has been explained very adequately by many reviewers, so I will mainly try to provide you with some representative quotes and add only a few comments.

About Nature vs. Nurture:

"The nativists are right that significant parts of the brain are organized even without experience, and their opponents are right to emphasize that the structure of the brain is exquisitely sensitive to experience."

" At the core of our story has been a tension between the evidence that the brain can - like the body - assemble itself without much help from the outside world, and the evidence that little about the brain's initial structure is rigidly cast in stone.....To an earlier generation of scholars, the evidence for innateness and the evidence for flexibility seemed almost irreconcilable. Most scholars simply focused their attention on the stream of evidence they were more impressed with....Both sides have their points. The brain is capable of awesome feats of self-organization - and equally impressive feats of experience driven reorganization. But the seeming tension between the two is more apparent than real: Self-organization and re-organization are two sides of the same coin, each the product of the staggering amount of co-ordinated suites of autonomous yet highly communicative genes."

The above non-debate (to a hard science person) is well-covered, but the jist of the book is more about how the pre-wiring occurs, relying occasionally on computer science analogies:

"Each gene acts like a single line in a computer program."

"As soon as the IF part of the gene's IF-THEN rule is satisfied, the process of translating the template part of the gene into it's corresponding protein commences."

"With one more trick - regulatory proteins - that control the expression of other genes - nature is able to tie the whole genetic system together, allowing gangs of otherwise unruly free-agent genes to come together in exquisite harmony."

"Each gene does double duty, specifying both a recipe for a protein and a set of regulatory conditions for when and where it should be built. Taken together, suites of these IF-THEN genes give cells the power to act as parts of complicated improvisational orchestras."

How do the "billions of neurons in your brain" develop "trillions of connections between them." There is a well done scientific description given, but I also like his caricature description: "Even in a simple organism like a worm, the mechanics of (neuron) migration are so complicated they could have been borrowed from one of John Madden's playbooks. Cell number 1 goes right, number 2 goes left, and cell 3 goes long for a pass."

About language development:

" If language came onto the scene relatively quickly by evolutionary standards, it is because much of the genetic toolkit for building complex cognition was already in place."

"To understand the origin of language will be to understand how a relatively small set of new genes coordinates the actions of a much larger set or pre-existing genes."

"If language arose de novo, it would, I suspect, have to go through a long series of gradual steps, but if language arose by a novel combination of existing elements - such as neural structures for memory, the automatization of repeated actions, and social cognition - it is possible that it could have developed relatively quickly."

"A language module may depend on a few dozen or a few hundred evolutionarily novel genes, but it is likely to depend heavily on genes - or duplications of pre-existing genes - that are involved in the construction of other cognitive systems, such as the motor control system, which coordinates muscular action, or the cognitive systems that plan complex events."

There is lots more, including an appendix on methods for reading the genome, but I'll close with this quote from the final chapter: "In the coming decades, we will all - collectively , as a society - need to decide what we think about biotechnology and what applications we are and are not willing to allow. The debates we have now, about cloning and stem cell research, pale in comparison to debates we are likely to encounter as the technology for manipulating genes advances."

About a personal item:

When I was in school, I decided that I needed to study a concept an arbitrary number of times (say, 5 times), maybe from the different points of view of several scientific disciplines, in order to really learn it. I guessed that synaptic and neuronal pathways could be built up like bicep muscles. Marcus covers this and calls it "synaptic strengthening," along with a lengthy explanation that "More than a hundred different molecules may be involved, and there are at least 15 distinct steps in the process."

I highly recommend this excellent book.





Rating:
Summary: Current and well written if not especially new.
Review: Although I found The Birth of the Mind by Gary Marcus to be a very well written book, I don't think that the author has added anything significantly new. Anyone who has read Penrose, Pinker or Dawkins is pretty much aware of the theory of mind as emergent property of brain function. Anyone who has kept abreast of research in genetics is aware that most of what we are as biological beings is dictated by our DNA. That the brain and the mind are part of that is hardly a surprise either. Of Dr. Marcus's illustrations of physical and cognitive dysfunction drawn from neurology and neurophysiology, few were new and most have been discussed in far greater detail in other volumes, the best known probably being Oliver Sac's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
What the author does do is put all of the most recent work together in a very cogent and readable manner for the average reader on the subject. His friendly, chatty writing style makes the subject very accessible. A youthful Associate Professor in the department of psychology at NYU, with a primary research focus in the brain and the mind in cognitive psychology, he is well placed to pull recent and germane literature together. For anyone who has read very little about the topic but who wishes to get a well rounded idea of the subject, this is a good place to start. It's current and well written even if the conclusions are not especially new.
For THOSE WRITING TERM PAPERS in psychology, history of science,or philosophy, this book might provide you with a large, very current collection of sources from which to begin your own literature search. Most of them come from 1995-2002. Among the list of periodicals are journals like the American Journal of Human Genetics, Brain Research, Cognition, Journal of Comparative Neurology, Journal of Neurobiological Science, Nature, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, and Science. Some of these, like Science and Nature, will be readily available in most college libraries and even some local public libraries, while others will only be available at large university, especially those associated with medical schools.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing story, very well told
Review: As a general reader who is interested in understanding more about how the world works, this book was a revelation. It gives a coherent and engaging explanation of how the human brain has evolved. I have recently sent the book as a gift to family members of diverse interests, and they loved it too.

Rating:
Summary: A time-wasting work of staggering ineptitude
Review: I recently picked up a copy of Marcus' new opus in the secondhand book store near campus. I wish that I hadn't picked it up at all. Who the hell does Gary Marcus think he is? He arrogantly believes that he has solved the mind-brain problem. Psychologists, neuroscientists, and theologians everywhere take note: You're out of a job. If you believe that, you'll believe that pixies live behind my house. This book is not of little consequence, it's of no consequence at all. I hope the secondhand bookstore has a return policy.

Rating:
Summary: Clearest account of the nature vs. nurture debate.
Review: I very much enjoyed and learned from this new and innovative book, Birth of the Mind by Dr. Gary Marcus. Still, before I could write my own review I came across a professional review in one of Britain's most distinguished journals, Nature Neuroscience. I present it instead:

"About half of the estimated 30,000-odd genes in the human genome are expressed in the brain. Among these genes is hidden the explanation for our unique human cognitive abilities, and for many of the differences between individual people. Developmental neurobiology is the essential bridge for connecting genome to behavior, but despite its obvious importance, there has not yet been a popular book devoted to this subject.

"The Birth of the Mind is an ambitious attempt to fill this gap. The author, Gary Marcus, is a cognitive scientist, but he has learned a lot about developmental neurobiology and has written a concise and very readable introduction to the field. By drawing on related disciplines such as genetics, cognitive science and evolution, he provides an overview of how the interaction between genome and environment gives rise to the human brain and by extension the human mind.

"Marcus gives as clear an account as I have ever seen of the nature versus nurture 'debate' In fact, most biologists no longer regard this as a debate (genes and environment are both important), and the fact that it is still perceived as such by the public may reflect the lack of clear popular account, which this book now provides.

"He also dispels a more recent myth, namely that there is a ~gene shortage™ that precludes genes from encoding complex behaviors. It is admittedly surprising that we have only 30,000 genes but 100 billion neurons, particularly given that the nematode C. elegans has nearly as many genes yet only 302 neurons. But as Marcus makes clear, genes are complex individually and give rise to even greater complexity by acting in combination; moreover, the truth is that we have no basis for surprise, absent a theory to explain how many genes are needed for a given degree of biological complexity"

"Einstein famously advised that everything should be made as simple as
possible, but no simpler. Marcus takes this to heart, and his book contains
many simplifications but few misrepresentations.

"... enjoyable to read [and written] with a light touch .... I have no
hesitation recommending it to students, scientists from other disciplines, or lay readers wanting to learn something about this fascinating and fast-developing field."

[Nature Neuroscience, April 2004, at p. 117, by Charles Jennings, Executive
Editor of the Nature Research Journals.]

Rating:
Summary: Building plans and specifications for your mind?
Review: If you are among those still arguing the "nature versus nurture" debate has been resolved, visit an English Lit class. The humanities continue skirting the notion that genes play a role in our mental life. It challenges our ideal of "free will". Marcus, in this matchless survey, argues that "what's good for the body is good for the mind". And few dispute that genes build bodies. The mind, like the body, has deep evolutionary roots. Even the simple organisms inhabiting the planet with us today show how brains develop. Increased complexity of body is reflected in brain structure. And the mind, he reminds us, resides in the brain.

Marcus explains his notion with a wealth of research, most of it very recent. He explains how similar our brain structure is to that of other animals and what that implies for behaviour. The mechanism of building brains is common to all animal life, even when the final product varies. Genes transmit signals - "recipes" - of structure and function for all parts of the body. Brains, he continually reminds us, are not that different from livers. Neurons proceed from points of origin, finding appropriate areas to reside and assume functional duties. From origin to operation they show flexibility and adaptability. In this, Marcus argues, it's clear the brain is no different than any other organ.

It is our brain's interaction with the rest of the body that sets us somewhat apart from the other animals. Language, the element we hold so dear in protecting our unique status, is given a thorough examination in this book. There are no "language genes", Marcus stresses, but there are identified genes, notably FOXP2, known to impact speech ability. He explains that looking for "genes for" something is futile. Genes interact in too convoluted a manner to expect simple associations between a few nucleotides and something as complicated as speech.

Marcus offers a novel term to counter those railing against the strawman "genetic determinism". Having explained how evolution has led to building brains, he declares them "prewired" but not "hardwired". "Prewired" means that basic functions are spelled out biologically, but don't limit our interaction with our environments. All brains permit flexibility by neurons interacting with each other as conditions vary. We can learn because we are prewired to learn. However, we've only begun the research where our brains are concerned.

Marcus presents this trove of information with amazing clarity. His topics aren't simple mechanisms or ideas, yet he conveys it all with graceful logic. He avoids "dumbing down" the science, yet nothing is lost in his presentation. His theme and supporting examples, buttressed by a glossary and extensive bibliography, are expressed in delightfully accessible prose. Some explanatory graphics depict various elements and mechanisms in furthering the reader's understanding. The underlying concept is "universality" and it's easy to see how his ideas apply to all animal life.

This is a valuable book, easily absorbed by students, professionals in many fields, including, in the final chapter, lawyers. The general public should be the primary market for this book since Marcus makes clear what has been learned may be applied in various ways, from "gene therapy" to "designer children". He doesn't avoid the hard issues in showing how recent science has closed off many myths while opening as many new options. Further research is needed, he argues, to avoid foolish mistakes. Those failing to read this book may make or allow those errors. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Rating:
Summary: The 'gosh, golly' guide to genes, brains and minds.
Review: This book is reasonably enjoyable and informative. The topic is a difficult one, and I think the author is successful in providing a comprehensible overview of a large, complex, and incompletely understood scientific project.

My main criticism is that the author seems to be uncertain about the audience for whom he is writing. At times he is glib and humorous, using colloquialisms and expressions which will quickly date. At other times, understanding the text requires expert knowledge. For example you might quess in Figure 5.3 that Pcx and Ncx stand for Paleocortex and Neocortex, but can you be confident in Figure 7.2 that the orthogonal axes labelled 'M' and 'R' are actually medial and rostral? Having decided to copy illustrations from other sources, the author should have edited them fully, or left the explanatory codes untouched.

Rating:
Summary: Good read for those new to popular neuroscience
Review: This book's subtitle is misleading, although its main title isn't. This book is not about the how the genes actually allow complex thought, only that it's possible to reconcile a brain developed by genes alongwith a complex functioning mind. The author also addresses the apparent dichotomous ways in which the mind could learn and develop i.e. the nature/nurture dichotomy. He tackles it similarly to how Matt Ridley does, in Nature via Nurture.

The narrative of the book starts with a general explanation of what genes do and how they go about doing it; examines the concept of learning and reconciles prewiring of the brain with subsequent flexibility; how genes guide brain structural development and the flexibility they possess in doing so, in particular, how limited number of genes help develop an enormously populated and complex brain.

Now, if you have already read a few popular books on neuroscience or genes, this book has little new themes to offer. It's the same paradigm that most recent similar books reveal. This book is primarily useful to those who are reading their first or second work concerned with the biological treatment of the brain. In fact, if you are almost completely new to reading popular neuroscience, I suggest starting with Steven Johnson's Mind Wide Open.

All in all, this is a well-written read.

Rating:
Summary: Science writing at its best!
Review: This is an extraordinary book. It brings the reader up to speed on the fascinating and important research that is uncovering how genes and the environment conspire to build brains of extraordinary complexity. The writing is crystal clear, the style is engaging, and Marcus makes the cutting edge science he's discussing accessible to any intelligent reader. This is science writing at its best. If you enjoy reading other great science writers like Pinker and Dawkins, you'll find this a great read!