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    Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience
    Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience
    Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience
    Audiobook12 hours

    Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience

    Written by Michael S. Gazzaniga

    Narrated by Johnny Heller

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    About this audiobook

    Michael S. Gazzaniga, one of the most important neuroscientists of the twentieth century, gives us an exciting behind-the-scenes look at his seminal work on that unlikely couple, the right and left brain. Foreword by Steven Pinker.

    In the mid-twentieth century, Michael S. Gazzaniga, “the father of cognitive neuroscience,” was part of a team of pioneering neuroscientists who developed the now foundational split-brain brain theory: the notion that the right and left hemispheres of the brain can act independently from one another and have different strengths.

    In Tales from Both Sides of the Brain, Gazzaniga tells the impassioned story of his life in science and his decades-long journey to understand how the separate spheres of our brains communicate and miscommunicate with their separate agendas. By turns humorous and moving, Tales from Both Sides of the Brain interweaves Gazzaniga’s scientific achievements with his reflections on the challenges and thrills of working as a scientist. In his engaging and accessible style, he paints a vivid portrait not only of his discovery of split-brain theory, but also of his comrades in arms—the many patients, friends, and family who have accompanied him on this wild ride of intellectual discovery.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateFeb 3, 2015
    ISBN9780062373410
    Author

    Michael S. Gazzaniga

    Michael S. Gazzaniga is internationally recognized in the field of neuroscience and a pioneer in cognitive research. He is the director of the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of many popular science books, including Who’s in Charge? (Ecco, 2011). He has six children and lives in California with his wife.

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    Reviews for Tales from Both Sides of the Brain

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    • 3/5
      I attended some lectures by this author when I was in college. His ability to convey information in a coherent and entertaining way was impressive. This book brought me back to my study of psychobiology in college and graduate school. I remembered reading about a lot of the research described, but I'm not sure how useful the brief descriptions (or the constant scientist name dropping) would be to people unfamiliar with the subject matter. The book also reminded me of how unbelievably cruel the animal experimentation was. Let's just make a lesion on the left hemisphere of a monkey and see what happens. The ethical issues apparently never occurred to Gazzaniga. There was a lot of biographical information, primarily career related. That was fine with me because I didn't really care about his friendship with William F. Buckley. I learned that the author excelled at getting grant money and never stayed at any institution for very long. This is a case of the description of the book being very accurate, but I guess I was hoping for more science and less Michael.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Fine memoir by an important neuroscientist with a great sense of humor and humility. A little bit about his work and discoveries, and a pretty fair amount about what a life as a top-level brain scientist is like. I really liked the last few chapters where he sums up the meaning of his work in the context of understanding human consciousness - what has been discovered and how much more is still to be learned.
    • 3/5
      Michael S. Gazzaniga is a leading scientist in the field of cognitive neuroscience, having in fact helped to create the field as the study of the brain advanced. In this book, he discusses his life and his research. He did important, even critical, research on split brains (brains where the corpus callosum, the nerve bundle connecting the left and right sides of the brain) was severed--sometimes in accidents, but often intentionally, in cases where epileptic seizures were unmanageably severe and frequent. It was effective enough to be considered justified in very severe cases--especially as it seemed to have no obvious impact on normal functioning.In fact it did have significant effects, but most early testing wasn't effective at identifying those effects. Gazzaniga was one of the leaders in developing those techniques, identifying the effects, and ultimately, developing a far more sophisticated understanding of how the human brain really works, both when it's intact, and when the corpus callosum is split.His description of his research is informative, interesting, and often downright joyful. It's really fascinating. His accounts of his moves back and forth across the country, moving between east and west coast universities and research centers (he created several of those research centers) I have to say I found positively dizzying. In at least one case, he created a new research center, and left for the other coast after just three years. I might be completely wrong, but I do have the impression that this is not typical in academia.We also learn something of his personal life, his two marriages and several children, his social life, his friendships with comedian Steve Allen, conservative pundit and founder of the National Review William F. Buckley, Jr., and others. Gazzaniga seems proud of having been a member of the "Animal House" fraternity at Dartmouth College, which at minimum tells me he's so much more social and uninhibited than I am that even now that he's 82, I'd probably run screaming in the other direction if I met him--but a lot more people would probably really enjoy meeting him.All in all, a very interesting book, and the things I find off-putting are likely the very things that other people will find engaging.I bought this audiobook.
    • 2/5
      The stories about the brain and its parts and how it does - or doesn't communicate from one side to another were fascinating. There is no doubt whatsoever that the author knows his science. The travelogue and vignettes of all the famous scientists and people the author has met, the fabulous resorts he has stayed at during conferences, and the over all fame whoring quickly grew tiresome.