Say “Hi” to the most complex thing in the universe
I must start by congratulating OUP (Oxford University Press). In 1995 they came up with a stupendous idea and started working on it. Today, twenty years later, millions of readers like me are hooked on to it.
A Very Short Introduction series by OUP is a series of books that cover a wide range of topics. I have read a few titles in the series earlier, but this is the first time I am reviewing one of them.
As the name suggests, each book aims to give a short introduction to a topic, assuming no prior knowledge on the part of the reader. The beauty is, the authors manage to give an introduction to even the most difficult of topics within the scope they have been given. Rarely crossing two hundred pages, and small enough to fit into the back pocket of a pair of jeans, this series is very helpful for any reader wishing to utilise the idle minutes he may find while travelling, or engaged in any other activity.
The brain. It is, within the limits of our present knowledge, the most complex thing in the universe and something that has emerged after billions of years of evolution. It has a hundred billion nerve cells – as many as there are stars in the Milky Way.
I concede that it is often difficult to really grasp the sheer ingenuity of our brain’s functioning. I can only say that, maybe, it is because our consciousness is itself an emergent property of the brain. After all, a prince needs a pauper to understand just how fortunate he is!
The book tries to give an introduction of the brain and its functioning from different perspectives – the structural perspective of neurons; the chemical perspective of neurotransmitters and receivers; the perceptual perspective of sensory processing and the perspective of how memories (both short term and long term) are formed (along with the differences in their formation and how it characterises the duration for which we can remember them).
I must admit, somewhere at the back of my head I was expecting to read a lot more about how the brain gives rise to consciousness. And a little bit less about the details of how the synapses work and get activated – the substances involved, the development of potential gradients and the like.
But the truth is, there is a certain dichotomy evident here. On the one hand, understanding the various processes going on in the brain is absolutely essential to get a grip of its internal organisation, from where we can hope to move forward in areas that could give rise to higher consciousness. We haven’t even taken the first baby steps in this direction yet. However, on the other hand, continuing research in the recent years has shown that even if we were to have a complete neurological understanding of the brain, it would still not be sufficient to explain exactly what it means to “experience a colour”, for instance.
The book mentions some exciting areas of research – such as how remarkably similar the mechanisms of memory formation are across various members of the animal kingdom. For example, research focused on observing how short term and long term memories are formed in Aplysia californica, a giant sea slug. The results can be extrapolated to humans, obviously with some necessary precautions.
The famous case of London taxi drivers having brains larger than usual is also discussed. It turns out that they have significantly larger hippocampi – a part of the brain related with storing spatial information.
The human brain, probably more than any other animal brain, is the perfect example of the marvels that natural selection can come up with, over billions of years. In fact, our brain has developed so as to relegate most of our bodily needs to our unconscious, so that our conscious thoughts can be focused on activities more crucial for our survival – dodging a car on the highway, for an instance.
Imagine being stuck in the middle of a highway, with cars whizzing past you at terrific speeds, and unable to decide whether you should be breathing at intervals of four seconds or three seconds; or when you have finally decided to make a dash for the edge of the road, your muscles start bugging you as they need extra power and, consequently, extra oxygen – and you are unable to decide whether your heart beat is increasing at the appropriate rate to deliver just that right amount of extra oxygen; or your uncertainties regarding the correct rate of blinking – you don’t want to spend too much time with your eyes closed during blinking when cars are approaching you at fifty meters a second.
In short, the brain is beautiful. It is remarkably well adapted to its purpose, unflinchingly devoted to its duty, and it is insanely underappreciated for the work it does. It never sleeps, it never stops. It creates you, and it can destroy you. If not a review, this last paragraph is certainly my short ode to the human brain.
The brain. Please appreciate it more, it deserves it!