Theodore H. Bullock
This book is indeed of importance to specialists in the field, and is likely to be used as a source book for students to read in courses on the neural basis of cognition. Calvin proposes a model of a major part of cerebral cortical function and shows how it could apply to or 'explain' a number of examples of operations and cognitive achievements at various higher levels. The Cerebral Code is certainly original, readable, and of sound scholarship. It should appeal to an audience of professionals, students, and general readers.
V.S. Ramachandran M.D.
William Calvin writes with clarity and elegance about the brain. In an age when brain science is becoming increasingly fragmented and specialised Calvin is a rara avis... he provides a broad overview on the functions of the brain and a bold and novel conjecture about the most highly evolved - yet enigmatic of all biological organs - the human cerebral cortex.
Walter J. Freeman
Bill Calvin writes with elegance, economy, and authority. In The Cerebral Code, he has solidly embedded his ideas in experimental neurophysiology and neuropharmacology, deriving from his decades in the laboratory. He explores the ramifications of his insights into a wide range of cerebral functions, such as sleep, dreaming, awareness, problem solving, creative thinking, and the dynamics of nerve cell assemblies that make consciousness possible. Calvin has written primarily for his colleagues in neuroscience, as well as for lay readers. I believe he will achieve his aim, by recounting in adequate detail the basic concepts from which he is reasoning, and thereafter exploring ideas and issues that his reductionistically minded colleagues have largely ignored.
David G. King
Calvin's single, simple purpose for The Cerebral Code is a propose a substantial hypothesis for how the human cerebral cortex might work. He suggests that the brain uses a selection algorithm, what he calls a 'Darwin Machine,' based upon small anatomical and physiological units, local spatiotemporal patterns of neuronal activity that should 'tile' regions of cortex with a hexagonal mosaic. Until this book, the concept of selection in the brain has not been so lausibly linked with real, empirically observable cellular structures and functions.
From the Publisher
"Bill Calvin writes with elegance, economy, and authority. In The CerebralCode, he has solidly embedded his ideas in experimental neurophysiology and neuropharmacology, deriving from his decades in the laboratory. He explores the ramifications of his insights into a wide range of cerebral functions, such as sleep, dreaming, awareness, problem solving, creative thinking, and the dynamics of nerve cell assemblies that make consciousness possible. Calvin has written primarily for his colleagues in neuroscience, as well as for lay readers. I believe he will achieve his aim, by recounting in adequate detail the basic concepts from which he is reasoning, and thereafter exploring ideas and issues that his reductionistically minded colleagues have largely ignored." Walter J. Freeman, Professor of the Graduate School, University ofCalifornia at Berkeley
"[A] wide-ranging and innovative theory linking the neural structure of the cortex to thought, language, and consciousness.... stunningly thought provoking." Richard Cooper, TheTimes Higher Education Supplement
Endorsement
[A] wide-ranging and innovative theory linking the neural structure of the cortex to thought, language, and consciousness.... stunningly thought provoking.
—
Richard Cooper,
The Times Higher Education Supplement
The Times Higher Education Supplement - Richard Cooper
[A] wide-ranging and innovative theory linking the neural structure of the cortex to thought, language, and consciousness.... stunningly thought provoking.
