C. S. Sherrington said “All the brain can do is to move things". The Brain in Motion: From Microcircuits to Global Brain Function (MIT Press, 2023) shows how much the brain can do "just" by moving things. It gives an amazing overview of the large variety of motor behaviors and the cellular basis of them. It reveals how motor circuits provide the underlying mechanism not just for walking or jumping, but also for breath or chewing.
The book emphasizes the evolutionary perspective. It demonstrates how the basic structures are the same across all vertebrates, suggesting that these systems have been around for more than 500 million years.
At the very beginning, Grillner introduces the analogy of an orchestra: The microcircuits are the musicians, and the forebrain acts as the conductor. In the following chapters, the readers get to know all the important actors and their contribution to this "performance":
The Brain in Motion provides both a great overview of the motor system and a detailed presentation of its major contributors.
The Garage: A History
The Making of "Ways of Hearing"
Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire and A Prime Number Conspiracy
Food Routes: Growing Bananas in Iceland and Other Tales from the Logistics of Eating
Discussions on Open Access: Open Access Models and Experimentation
Discussions on Open Access: Open Science Tools
Discussions on Open Access: OA at MIT
Discussions on Open Access: Frankenbook and OA Publishing
“I did It for The Uplift of Humanity and The Navy”: Same-Sex Acts and The Origins of The National Security State, 1919–1921
Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto
This is My Body: Communion and Cannibalism in Colonial New England and New France
Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet
Feeling and Smelling a Virtual Donut
Thresholds 46: SCATTER!
Rhea Myers, "Proof of Work: Blockchain Provocations 2011-2021" (MIT Press, 2023)
Moheb Costandi, "Body Am I: The New Science of Self-Consciousness" (MIT Press, 2022)
Break on Through: Radical Psychiatry and the American Counterculture
Olaf Sporns on Network Neuroscience
The Structure of Success: How the Internal Distribution of Power Drives Armed Group Behavior and National Movement Effectiveness
Elizabeth M. Renieris, "Beyond Data: Reclaiming Human Rights at the Dawn of the Metaverse" (MIT Press, 2023)
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