The Great Brain Debate: Nature or Nurture?

By John E. Dowling

Book Overview

Whether our personality, intelligence, and behavior are more likely to be shaped by our environment or our genetic coding is not simply an idle question for today's researchers. There are tremendous consequences to understanding the crucial role that environment and genes each play. How we raise and educate our children, how we treat various mental diseases or conditions, how we care for our elderly--these are just some of the issues that can be informed by a better understanding of brain development.

In The Great Brain Debate, the eminent neuroscience researcher John Dowling looks at these and other important issues. The work that is being done on the connection between the brain and vision, as well as the ways in which our brains help us learn new languages, are particularly revealing. From this groundbreaking new research, Dowling explains startling new insights into how the brain functions and how it can (or cannot) be molded and changed. By studying the brain across the spectrum of our lives, from infancy through adulthood and into old age, Dowling shows the ways in which both nature and nurture play key roles over the course of a human lifetime.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691133107
• ISBN13: 9780691133102
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Great Presentation of Both Sides of The Debate

Dowling presents a complex subject in a very readable manner...the way our brain is influenced by our heredity and our environment. It is fascinating to read about the way our brain develops and adapts from infancy to old age. Really makes you realise that the brain is still malleable as we grow older, gives me the assurance that I will still be capable of acquiring new skills and knowledge after 60. Chemistry is not always the main cause of temperament, mental, psychological or relationship issues...so seeking relief with a psychiatrist's prescription (or using recreational drugs) may not always be the most optimum solution. Reminds me of Carl Sagan's clarity in "Billions and Billions" and "Science a Candle in the Dark". A great book for the well-informed amateur and for the amateur who seeks to be well-informed.

Molding the brain

This book reviews the state-of-the-art in brain development and on the factors driving its state. The author's viewpoint is the one of a neurocientist, hence more centered on neuronal molding than on learning. The author shows that what we call brain development is actually about partially limiting the adaptivity of the brain circuitry. Still, there is always potential for adaptation, age does not prevent the molding of the brain. The evolution of the brain is driven both by genetics and learning. So how we use it matters a lot! Saying that one is too old to change is just an excuse.