How the Mind Changed: A Human History of Our Evolving Brain

The extraordinary story of how the human brain evolved... and is still evolving.

We've come a long way. The earliest human had a brain as small as a child's fist; ours are four times bigger, with spectacular abilities and potential we are only just beginning to understand.

This is How the Mind Changed, a seven-million-year journey through our own heads, packed with vivid stories, groundbreaking science, and thrilling surprises. Discover how memory has almost nothing to do with the past; meditation rewires our synapses; magic mushroom use might be responsible for our intelligence; climate accounts for linguistic diversity; and how autism teaches us hugely positive lessons about our past and future.

Dr. Joseph Jebelli's In Pursuit of Memory was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize and longlisted for the Wellcome. In this, his eagerly awaited second book, he draws on deep insights from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, psychology, and philosophy to guide us through the unexpected changes that shaped our brains. From genetic accidents and environmental forces to historical and cultural advances, he explores how our brain's evolution turned us into Homo sapiens and beyond.

A single mutation is all it takes.

ISBN-13: 9780316424981

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Little - Brown and Company

Publication Date: 07-12-2022

Pages: 320

Product Dimensions: 5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.40(d)

Joseph Jebelli is a neuroscientist and a writer. He received a PhD in neuroscience from University College London for his work on the cell biology of neurodegenerative diseases, then worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Washington, Seattle. His much acclaimed first book, In Pursuit of Memory, was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize and longlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Pearl Inside the Oyster 1

1 Building the Human Brain 7

2 Inventing Emotions 29

3 Our Social Brains 55

4 The Genesis of Memory 79

5 The Truth About Intelligence 101

6 Creating Language 129

7 The Illusion of Consciousness 155

8 Different Minds 179

9 The iBrain 203

Acknowledgements 223

Notes 225

Bibliography 241

Index 297

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