For 50 years, the world?s most brilliant neuroscientists have struggled to
understand how human brains really work. Today, says Dale Purves, the dominant
research agenda may have taken us as far as it can--and neuroscientists may be
approaching a paradigm shift. In this highly personal book, Purves reveals how
we got to this point and offers his notion of where neuroscience may be headed
next. Purves guides you through a half-century of the most influential ideas
in neuroscience and introduces the extraordinary scientists and physicians who
created and tested them.

Purves offers a critical assessment of the paths that neuroscience research has
taken, their successes and their limitations, and then introduces an alternative
approach for thinking about brains. Building on new research on visual perception,
he shows why common ideas about brain networks can?t be right and uncovers the
factors that determine our subjective experience. The resulting insights offer
a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.

* Why we need a better conception of what brains are trying to do and how they
do it
Approaches to understanding the brain over the past several decades may be at
an impasse
* The surprising lessons that can be learned from what we see
How complex neural processes owe more to trial-and-error experience than to
logical principles
* Brains--and the people who think about them Meet some of the extraordinary
individuals who?ve shaped neuroscience
* The ?ghost in the machine? problem
The ideas presented further undermine the concept of free will

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