Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain

You will never think about your brain in the same way again.      The brain is often portrayed as an organ with different regions dedicated to specific tasks. But that textbook model is wrong. The brain is a dynamic system, constantly modifying its own circuitry to match the demands of the environment and the body in which it finds itself. If you were to zoom into the living, microscopic cosmos inside the skull, you would witness tentacle-like extensions grasping, bumping, sensing, searching for the right connections to establish or forego, like denizens of a country establishing friendships, marriages, neighbourhoods, political parties, vendettas, and social networks. It's a mysterious kind of computational material, an organic three-dimensional textile that adjusts itself to operate with maximum efficiency.      The brain is not hardwired, David Eagleman contends--it is livewired. With his new theory of infotropism, Eagleman demonstrates why the fundamental principle of the brain is information maximization: in the same way that plants grow toward light, brains reconfigure to boost data from the outside world. Follow Eagleman on a thrilling journey to discover how a child can function with one half of his brain removed, how a blind man can hit a baseball via a sensor on his tongue, how new devices and body plans can enhance our natural capacities, how paralyzed people will soon be able to dance in thought-controlled robotic suits, how we can build the next generation of devices based on the principles of the brain, and what all this has to do with why we dream at night.

About the Author :
DAVID EAGLEMAN is a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, where he directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action as well as the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law. His scientific research has been published in journals from Science to Nature, and his neuroscience books include Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia and Why the Net Matters. He is also the author of the internationally bestselling book of fiction Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives.

Review :
"In Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain, Eagleman tackles this topic with fresh élan and rigour. . . . In a refreshing counterpoint to the biology-is-destiny drumbeat, Eagleman embarks on a lively tour of how we can transform our brains by exercising our own agency. . . . A vital addition to the pop-neuroscience canon." —Undark "Masterful . . . Outstanding popular science."⁠—Kirkus Reviews (starred) "Vivid . . . Since the passing of Isaac Asimov, we haven’t had a working scientist like Mr. Eagleman, who engages his ideas in such a variety of modes. Livewired reads wonderfully like what a book would be if it were written by Oliver Sacks and William Gibson, sitting on Carl Sagan’s front lawn."—Wall Street Journal "Delivers an intellectually exhilarating look at neuroplasticity . . . Eagleman's skill as teacher, bold vision, and command of current research will make this superb work a curious reader's delight."—Publishers Weekly (starred) "There is much to extract from this fascinating work, that is recommended for readers interested in neuroscience, technology, and the intersection of the two."—Library Journal (starred)  "David Eagleman, the Jolly Sherlock Holmes of neuroscience, makes me believe that the universe of possibility required to create utopia is already housed in each of our brains. His knowledge and enthusiasm are intoxicating. His book demonstrates the principle about which he is writing; my mind has been changed by his words."—Russell Brand, Comedian & Activist "Eagleman brings the subject to life in a way I haven’t seen other writers achieve before.”—Clare Wilson, New Scientist "The pages of Livewired are chockfull of mind bending ideas and dazzling insights. Eagleman's infectious enthusiasm, his use of fascinating anecdotes, and his clear, effortless prose render the secrets of the brain’s adaptability into a truly compelling page-turner. Livewired is a fun and whirlwind exploration of the most complex thing in the universe."—Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner "An altogether fascinating tour of the astonishing plasticity and interconnectedness inside the cranial cradle of all of our experience of reality, animated by Eagleman’s erudite enthusiasm for his subject, aglow with the ecstasy of sensemaking that comes when the seemingly unconnected snaps into a consummate totality of understanding."—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings