Book review: "The tell-tale brain by V.S. Ramachandran"
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Abstract
Evolutionary theory may not be the first area of biology that one associates with neuroscience, but in his book, The Tell-Tale Brain, V.S. Ramach andran illustrates that these two fields are more interconnected than one might think. Ramachandran is a neurologist best known for his research on phantom limbs, synesthesia, the evolution of language and autism at institutions such as University of California, San Diego and Cambridge University. Despite his obvious wealth of specialized knowledge, Ramachandran’s book educates and entertains his readers in a way that is neither overcomplicated nor oversimplified. He seeks to show that there is something unique and special about the human brain that sets it apart from that of other animals. Human mental abilities are not simply, as Darwin thought, elaborations of those seen in apes. Or, as the author puts it, we humans aren’t just “chimps with a software upgrade.” By using anatomical evidence to show that natural selection has caused our brains to evolve gradually over millions of years from those of our ancestors, he explains that minor anatomical changes, such as small expansions of the cortex, have lead to great leaps in culture and civilization.