TWO HEADS

Where Two Neuroscientists Explore How Our Brains Work with Other Brains. Praised by experts such as Steven Pinker and Brian Cox, this colourful cartoon book tells the story of the brain in terms the general reader can understand and, even more importantly, can thoroughly enjoy. The lively drawings introduce Alex Frith and his two parents, both professors of neuroscience, following them into their home in north west London, walls covered with abstract art and old Christmas decorations. Prof Chris has spent a lot of time studying autism while Uta studies social cognition. Noone truly understands how the mind works and an early dualist theory going back to Descartes separates mind and brain. All the available evidence suggests that the sensation you call "you" could not and would not exist without your brain. The authors explore what the brain is, in cartoon form, then apply it to themselves and other people. Uta hoped to explain why people with very similar brains have such different characteristics, while Chris was aiming for a mathematical way to describe human behaviour. Neither of them succeeded, but they discovered that brains are incredibly social, they thrive on and are designed to work, learn, and play alongside other brains, and they explore this in their book. One reason we can't recall our earliest years is that our brains have to learn how learning itself works. Chris's colleagues have created a machine that does musical improvisation but is unable to know how to stop, which involves social skills, giving an insight into the mind of an autistic child who does not engage in pretend play and feels frustrated in not being able to read people's responses. The book concludes with games where one person has to guess what the other is going to do. A wonderful gift for a science minded teenager or adult. 346pp, softback, colour cartoon illus.