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Reddit mentions of The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human

Sentiment score: 7
Reddit mentions: 9

We found 9 Reddit mentions of The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human. Here are the top ones.

The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human
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Found 9 comments on The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human:

u/distantocean · 10 pointsr/exchristian

That's one of my favorite popular science books, so it's wonderful to hear you're getting so much out of it. It really is a fascinating topic, and it's sad that so many Christians close themselves off to it solely to protect their religious beliefs (though as you discovered, it's good for those religious beliefs that they do).

As a companion to the book you might enjoy the Stated Clearly series of videos, which break down evolution very simply (and they're made by an ex-Christian whose education about evolution was part of his reason for leaving the religion). You might also like Coyne's blog, though these days it's more about his personal views than it is about evolution (but some searching on the site will bring up interesting things he's written on a whole host of religious topics from Adam and Eve to "ground of being" theology). He does also have another book you might like (Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion are Incompatible), though I only read part of it since I was familiar with much of it from his blog.

> If you guys have any other book recommendations along these lines, I'm all ears!

You should definitely read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, if only because it's a classic (and widely misrepresented/misunderstood). A little farther afield, one of my favorite popular science books of all time is The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker, which looks at human language as an evolved ability. Pinker's primary area of academic expertise is child language acquisition, so he's the most in his element in that book.

If you're interested in neuroscience and the brain you could read How the Mind Works (also by Pinker) or The Tell-Tale Brain by V. S. Ramachandran, both of which are wide-ranging and accessibly written. I'd also recommend Thinking, Fast and Slow by psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Evolution gets a lot of attention in ex-Christian circles, but books like these are highly underrated as antidotes to Christian indoctrination -- nothing cures magical thinking about the "soul", consciousness and so on as much as learning how the brain and the mind actually work.

If you're interested in more general/philosophical works that touch on similar themes, Douglas R. Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach made a huge impression on me (years ago). You might also like The Mind's I by Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett, which is a collection of philosophical essays along with commentaries. Books like these will get you thinking about the true mysteries of life, the universe and everything -- the kind of mysteries that have such sterile and unsatisfying "answers" within Christianity and other mythologies.

Don't worry about the past -- just be happy you're learning about all of this now. You've got plenty of life ahead of you to make up for any lost time. Have fun!

u/ryanloh · 5 pointsr/neuroscience

Some excellent popular book options are:

The Tell Tale Brain - V.S. Ramachandran

Phantoms in the Brain - V.S. Ramachandran

Synaptic Self - Joseph LeDoux


Also mentioned by other posters, Norman Doidge and Oliver Sacks.

All of these are really approachable for beginners and I enjoyed them all greatly as an undergrad way back when.

u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/askscience

I don't know about personalities, but for memories/experiences we know that one thing that happens is the connection between certain neurons gets stronger. This is called long-term potentiation. We also know that certain areas of the brain are incredibly important for memory. The hippocampus is especially important for formation of episodic memories (ie new memories). We know this because of rare cases where people have had these areas of the brain [injured](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KC_(patient) or removed.

If you are interested in some of the theoretical aspects, there are some very interesting books on the subject. Phantoms in the Brain is a favorite that addresses the subject of the human brain and consciousness. Highly recommended reading!

Edited to add: The same author has recently come out with another book that addresses the same issue. I haven't read it yet, but it definitely seems like it could answer some of your questions.

u/lon3wolfandcub · 2 pointsr/argentina

Por el momento estoy leyendo estos dos con ganas:

  • The Maid's Version (link). Lo empece a leer hoy en el tren, por ahora no tengo nada para decir.

  • The Tell-Tale Brain. (link) Esta bueno, es como un up-to-date de lo ultimo en neurociencias desde una perspectiva evolutiva. Es de divulgacion asi que pasa como agua.

    Termine dos libros entretenidos, (el primero es el que recomiendo fervientemente a los nerds de reddit):

  • The soul of a new machine, de tracy kidder (link), es un libro genial de como diseñan y construyen un procesador, pero ademas en el fondo me parece que es un libro de la historia de como cambia el management en las empresas de tecnologia, la verdad que es genial (creo que inspira a la serie halt and catch fire). Edit.:dije que era genial?

  • El segundo libro es Masters of Doom, que es la historia de ID software. Aunque tiene bastante de puterio interno me gusto saber que carmack (el que programo doom) es un genio.

    Me baje y empece a leer Capital in the Twenty-First Century de Thomas Picketty pero todo indica que lo voy a abandonar. Abandone por el momento master & margarita porque me embolo y no lo entiendo.
u/charlie_pony · 1 pointr/DebateReligion

> No, that's just the choice you made.

So you're one of those religious types that don't accept evolution and scientific things like neuroscience, it sounds like. I didn't make the choice - I have never even as a child, accepted religion. Even when I was 3 and 4 years old. It just made no sense to me. That is how my brain is wired. There is no way for me to make myself believe. No way. Unless I tried to lie about it, which makes no sense, because your god/allah/shiva/kali/zeus would know it as they can read minds.

> You don't have to investigate literally every other mythology in order to negate it before accepting one as the truth, only the converse is required.

OK, so I'll go with Mithra, I guess. Good enough.

>If in the 80 odd years you are probably given to live on average and you didn't devote any time to investigating a threat as serious as "hell," then that's your fault, not that of any notion of predestination.


Oh, don't get me wrong. I've investigated way more than 95% of the entire human population, for sure.

It is not my fault. It is the way my brain is wired. I know my brain better than you. I've lived with it for a long time. But I think you need to read up on neurology. I wish more people would do that, rather than read their "holy" books. Try to read some books on neurology - try. Although they would probably fry your mind.

David Eagleman, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

V. S. Ramachandran, The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human

I know that you will never be able to accept what the books write, or what I write. It would mess up your most basic beliefs. But I'll just give you those books, just in case you are brave. Remember, they are doing science, not beliefs. Science.


u/Verapamil123 · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

http://www.amazon.com/The-Tell-Tale-Brain-Neuroscientists-Quest/dp/0393340627

This book is pretty good :)

You might want to check out Oliver Sacks too

u/tossowoy · 1 pointr/pics

Relevant Ted Talk on Curing Phantom Limb

According to VS Ramachandran, you can cure phantom limb by yourself for very little money, just need a couple of mirrors put together correctly.

VS Ramachandran cured phantom pain by using mirrors to retrain the brain. He talks extensively on phantom limb in his 2011 book The Tell-Tale Brain. You can even use audible to get one free download and get that book for free. This may be useful info to /u/Forlum as well as /u/Funsizeanthony and more.

u/itisavailable · -65 pointsr/casualiama

There's this book called The Tell-Tale Brain by Dr. V.S. Ramachandran (maybe you heard of him--he spoke at Beyond Belief 2006 and TED).

Anyway, here's a quote about OBJECTIVITY in art in his book and he goes into DETAIL about why it's true.

http://i.imgur.com/UtxlnUV.png

Looks like you lose, ASSHOLE.