The Birth of the Mind: How a Tiny Number of Genes Creates The Complexities of Human Thought
The Human Genome Project has revealed that we possess a surprisingly  small number of genes, especially in light of our fairly complex bodies.  InThe Birth of the Mind, NYU psychology professor Gary Marcus  brings together current research on how our genetic code assembles that  most mysterious physiological structure, the brain. Readers fascinated  by the works of Steven Pinker and other mind theorists will be  fascinated by Marcus' descriptions of strange--and sometimes  disturbing--sensory experiments carried out on chimps, ferrets, and  kittens that show how the brain organizes itself in the presence or  absence of external stimuli. Further, Marcus writes that there's nothing  particularly special about how the brain is built and maintained.What's amazing is how little of the overall scheme for  embryonic development is special to the brain. Although thousands of  genes are involved in brain development, a large number of them are  shared with (or have close counterparts in) genes that guide the  development of the rest of the body.With plenty of evidence supporting the notion of multi-function  "housekeeping genes," Marcus concludes that our hopes for finding single  genes responsible for various brain disorders are likely unfounded.The Birth of the Mindoffers an engaging and often witty look at  how our genetic code can be simple enough to make basic proteins and  complicated enough to help us learn languages.--Therese Littleton--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.