Deep History of Ourselves, The: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains

Description

A leading neuroscientist offers a history of the evolution of the brain from unicellular organisms to the complexity of animals and human beings today. Renowned neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux digs into the natural history of life on earth to provide a new perspective on the similarities between us and our ancestors in deep time. This page-turning survey of the whole of terrestrial evolution sheds new light on how nervous systems evolved in animals, how the brain developed, and what it means to be human. In The Deep History of Ourselves, LeDoux argues that the key to understanding human behavior lies in viewing evolution through the prism of the first living organisms. By tracking the chain of the evolutionary timeline he shows how even the earliest single-cell organisms had to solve the same problems we and our cells have to solve each day. Along the way, LeDoux explores our place in nature, how the evolution of nervous systems enhanced the ability of organisms to survive and thrive, and how the emergence of what we humans understand as consciousness made our greatest and most horrendous achievements as a species possible. Also by Joseph Ledoux Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Preface Prologue: Why on Earth . . . ? Part 1: Our Place in Nature Chapter 1: Deep Roots Chapter 2: The Tree of Life Chapter 3: Kingdoms Come Chapter 4: Common Ancestry Chapter 5: It’s a Livin’ Thing Part 2: Survival and Behavior Chapter 6: The Behavior of Organisms Chapter 7: Beyond Animal Behavior Chapter 8: The Earliest Survivors Chapter 9: Survival Strategies and Tactics Chapter 10: Rethinking Behavior Part 3: Microbial Life Chapter 11: In the Beginning Chapter 12: Life Itself Chapter 13: Survival Machines Chapter 14: The Arrival of Organelles Chapter 15: The Marriage of Luca’s Children Chapter 16: Breathing New Life into Old Part 4: The Transition to Complexity Chapter 17: Size Matters Chapter 18: The Sexual Revolution Chapter 19: Mitochondrial Eve, Jesse James, and the Origin of Sex Chapter 20: Colonial Times Chapter 21: The Selection Two-Step Chapter 22: Flagellating Through the Bottleneck Part 5: . . . and Then Animals Invented Neurons Chapter 23: What Is an Animal? Chapter 24: A Humble Beginning Chapter 25: Animals Take Shape Chapter 26: The Magic of Neurons Chapter 27: How Neurons and Nervous Systems Happened Part 6: Metazoan Bread Crumbs in the Oceans Chapter 28: Facing Forward Chapter 29: Tissue Issues Chapter 30: Oral or Anal? Chapter 31: Deep-Sea Deuterostomes Link Us to Our Past Chapter 32: A Tale of Two Chords Part 7: The Vertebrates Arrive Chapter 33: Bauplan Vertebrata Chapter 34: The Life Aquatic Chapter 35: On the Surface Chapter 36: The Milk Trail Part 8: Ladders and Trees in the Vertebrate Brain Chapter 37: Neuro-Bauplan Vertebrata Chapter 38: Ludwig’s Ladder Chapter 39: The Triune Temptress Chapter 40: Darwin’s Muddled Emotional Psychology Chapter 41: How Basic Are Basic Emotions? Part 9: The Beginning of Cognition Chapter 42: Cogitation Chapter 43: Finding Cognition in the Behaviorist Bailiwick Chapter 44: The Evolution of Behavioral Flexibility Part 10: Surviving (and Thriving) by Thinking Chapter 45: Deliberation Chapter 46: The Engine of Deliberative Cognition Chapter 47: Schmoozing Part 11: Cognitive Hardware Chapter 48: Perception and Memory Share Circuitry Chapter 49: The Cognitive Coalition Chapter 50: Rewired and Running Hot Part 12: Subjectivity Chapter 51: Being There Chapter 52: What Is It Like to Be Conscious? Chapter 53: I Want to Take You Higher Chapter 54: Higher Awareness in the Brain Part 13: Consciousness Through the Looking Glass of Memory Chapter 55: The Invention of Experience Chapter 56: Ah, Memory Chapter 57: Putting Memories in Their Places Chapter 58: Higher-Order Awareness Through the Lens of Memory Part 14: The Shallows Chapter 59: The Tricky Problem of Other Minds Chapter 60: Creeping Up on Consciousness Chapter 61: Kinds of Minds Part 15: Emotional Subjectivity Chapter 62: The Slippery Slopes of Emotional Semantics Chapter 63: Can Survival Circuits Save the Day? Chapter 64: Thoughtful Feelings Chapter 65: Emotional Brains Run Hot Chapter 66: Survival Is Deep, but Our Emotions Are Shallow Epilogue: Can We Survive Our Self-Conscious Selves? Appendix Bibliographic Key Illustration Credits Index About the Author