Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are

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oldcaman

This is not a book for me

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 27, 2014

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The introduction to this book is very proper, scientists usually summarize their results in the introductions and present then the 'chapter and verse'.

My main problem is with the word 'connectome'. Years ago following the Watergate, many scandals got the suffix -gate to emphasize the serious of the scandal.

Similarly, the suffix -nome is supposed to elevate a detailed study of the brain to something on the level of genome. That is not possible (the elevation) - the studies the author mentions will not reveal more than some aspects of brain physiology.

The book is a mixture of old and new stuff - some of us have been exposed to the old stuff years ago. There is, however, some very recent information in the book.

The author is a senior research scientist with some doctoral students doing the actual work suggested by him and he summarizes their results in the book.

As a retired natural scientist, I can see that his approach is fairly simple: to apply modern techniques to the mysterious organ called the 'brain'. While most other organs of a vertebrate body have been studied thoroughly, the brain is just beginning to be and it is a real challenge that cannot be done by humans alone, even a tiny part of it. Impossible without the help of powerful computers.

I am very disappointed by the space the author dedicates to the nonsense of 'cryonics'. It is a completely marginal issue - there are only few hundred of 'corpsicles' in Arizona and their chances of being revived are very low if any. It is of some interest to know (unless you learned about it years ago) about the details of freezing dead cells but not many of us will spend the current $160,000 to go through it. Then he proceeds to putting our dead body into some kind of plastic. There is actually ONE single guy who has enough money for this kind of nonsense.

The guy is a professor and a popular book writer. Ms. Roach wrote funnier non-fiction about corpses in America.

I do not think I can finish the book. It constantly jumps from the reasonable to the ridiculous. It calls heaven a 'computer' because some pimply nerds seem to be in heaven when they stare at the screen. Does the author really mean it or is he just kidding us? Does he take seriously a figure of speech ('I am in heaven', says the nerd)

I am tempted to give this book just one star ('I hate it') but my feelings are not strong enough.

Two stars only, not recommended to any reader.

6 people found this helpful

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 1, 2013

Verified Purchase

I expected Sebastian Sung's book to teach me the latest information about the brain. But the author's intent was to make the text accessible to the general public and to tell a story more than to teach useful facts. The text is largely about historical brain theories going back to Aristotle. Professor Seung presents some facts but largely hypothesizes and postulates about what could be next steps in research, or what could be the brain's mechanisms - in other words, a lot of what-if scenarios. His stated goal (p. 277) was to empty his cup so that it could be filled, but he seemed to empty the cup over and over again, repeating the same information. And yet, he did not supply a basic helpful tool such as a drawing of an axon versus a dendrite.

I felt he could have made his points in 20 pages; I took only a half-page of notes on an almost 300 page book. I expected a more academic treatment, but even though he includes a lengthy bibliography, he makes no actual citations, so i can't easily reference the original sources. By background, Professor Seung is a theoretical physicist, but in "Connectome" he seems to be a non-practicing theoretical neuroscientist. Why should we care.

45 people found this helpful

Korlithiel

Heavy on linking neuroscience back to phrenology, :/

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 19, 2013

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I picked up a sample before I bought this and so knew going in that it would be heavy on phrenology, but the consistent comparisons between modern neuroscience and phrenology is a bit much. Rather often modern neuroscience already attempts to discriminate between the connections made in various aspects of the brain and to see their connections. Nowhere in my coursework has this been more vivid than in vision, with discussions starting from the eye and then continuing through to the primary visual cortex, and in upper division courses going further to better connect cognition to vision.

While going through my undergraduate work I find myself often coming across materials presented in classes and on my own that points less to localization and more to connections & plasticity, leaving the readings less agreeable as they are clearly slanted toward presenting that as the only existing framework.

I will continue to update this review as I'm now giving the ebook a second chance. But I've a hard time enjoying the writing because anytime Seung ventures back to his own ideas I end up feeling like it is a waste of time as Seung is often setting up straw man arguments, and then pushing for a new name for an existing field.

8 people found this helpful

WhereWaldoFindsHimself

Premises not correct in first part, misogynistic in second

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 19, 2013

Verified Purchase

The first section of this book meanders through a lot of theory on neurology and ends with a statement that we cannot know how to change neurons' functions, or else we wouldn't be seeing such long-term effects from strokes, and that no one knows what happens during a stroke. He should read "My Stroke of Insight" written by a woman who suffered a stroke at age 35, and because she was a neurologist, was able to understand what was happening to her and get help, then train undamaged neurons to new tasks to the point where today she continues to work at the Brain Institute in Boston and travel the world speaking on the subject - displaying no ill effects.

The second part of the book starts out with a statement of the next most interesting cell in the body besides the neuron is the sperm. That about did it for me.

6 people found this helpful

Robert Thatcher

It is an excellent book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

An Atlas of the white matter was a missing piece in understanding the genesis of the EEG. Now the dyamics of phase shift and phase lock of hundreds of millions of neurons for brief periods of time is better understood - thanks to the authors of this excellent text

GrammyV

not readable

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 9, 2013

Verified Purchase

While the subject matter is cutting edge and very timely, this author's heavy-handed attempts to entertain
his reader fall flat. The digressions interrrupt the flow of the information so completely that I can't finish the book.
That is very unusual for this reader.

6 people found this helpful

Charles R. Gaush

Not So Hot

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 1, 2013

Verified Purchase

Too hard to read, I'm halfway through and I'm lost. This is a difficult subject and the author doesn't have the writing skills to explain it.

One person found this helpful

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