The co-discoverer of the "split brain" theory tells how science is recasting the age-old question of nature versus nurture to create a startling new view of human behavior. While selection theory has revolutionized biology, its implications for psychology have barely been tapped. Now Gazzaniga, a distinguished behavioral scientist, reveals the radical implications of this powerful concept. Photos.
Michael S. Gazzaniga, one of the premiere doctors of neuroscience, was born on December 12, 1939 in Los Angeles. Educated at Dartmouth College and California Institute of Technology, he is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he heads the new SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind.
His early research examined the subject of epileptics who had undergone surgery to control seizures. He has also studied Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients and reveals important findings in books such as Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind.
While many of his writings are technical, he also educates and stimulates readers with discussions about the fascinating and mysterious workings of the brain. Books such as The Social Brain and The Mind's Past bring forth new information and theories regarding how the brain functions, interacts, and responds with the body and the environment.
interesting and a pretty easy read; his position is that human behavior and body issues are based more on evolutionary selection systems in the brain/body than we have previously thought; his position seems a bit extreme at times and would certainly annoy the creationists, psychoanalysts and behaviorists; he feels that most of the plasticity and "instructional" assumptions we've made are wrong