Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain

What does drug withdrawal have in common with a broken heart? Why is the enemy of memory not time, but other memories? How can a blind person learn to see with her tongue or a deaf person learn to hear with his skin? Why did many people in the 1980s mistakenly perceive book pages to be slightly red in colour? Why is the world’s best archer armless? Might we someday control a robot with our thoughts, just as we do our fingers and toes? Why do we dream at night, and what does that have to do with the rotation of the planet?The answer to these questions is right behind our eyes. The greatest technology we have ever discovered on this planet is the three-pound organ carried around in the vault of the skull. This book is not simply about what the brain is, but what it does. The magic of the brain is not found in the parts it’s made of, but in the way those parts unceasingly re-weave themselves in an electric, living fabric. Surf the leading edge of neuroscience atop the anecdotes and metaphors that have made Eagleman one of the best scientific translators of our generation. Covering decades of research to the present day, Livewired also presents new discoveries from Eagleman’s own laboratory, from synaesthesia to dreaming to wearable neurotech devices that revolutionise how we think about the senses.

Reviews of Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain

Original and provocative * * Nature * * The hottest thing in neuroscience * * The Times * * Entertaining and profound * * Guardian * * Mind-blowing revelations abound * * Financial Times * * Praise for David Eagleman: The unaccountable, jaw-dropping quality of genius * * Observer * * Your mind is an elaborate trick, and mastermind David Eagleman explains how the trick works, with great lucidity and amazement. Your mind will thank you * * Wired * *