In The Birth of the Mind, award-winning cognitive scientist Gary Marcus irrevocably changes the terms of the ancient nature/nurture debate by linking the findings of the Human Genome project to the development of the brain. Synthesizing up-to-the-minute research with his own original findings on child development, Marcus details for the first time how a tiny number of genes create the infinite complexities of the human mind. Research on the brain and its functions has made great strides in the past two decades, challenging the age-old perception of infants as "blank slates" who learn all behavior by imitation from the environment. We now know that as soon as they are born, babies can recognize faces, connect what they hear with what they see and tell the difference between Dutch and Japanese. And yet, startling findings of the Human Genome project have revealed that the genome is much smaller than we once thought, containing no more than 30,000-40,000 genes, a tiny figure in comparison to the 10 billion neurons in a newborn's brain Marcus is the first to resolve this apparent contradiction. Drawing on new research available to the public for the first time, Marcus chronicles exactly how a small number of genes configure the intricate functions of the brain. Along the way, he reveals the common misconceptions people harbor about genes, debunking oversimplified concepts of genes as blueprints and offering readers a richer, multi-layered understanding of the role that genes play in brain development--and how it is that genes make nurture itself possible. He goes on to explore the stunning implications of this research on our understanding of such hot-button topics as cloning, designerbabies and stem cell research. Vibrantly written and completely accessible to the lay reader, The Birth of the Mind will forever change the way we think about our origins and ourselves.

Writing for a lay audience, Marcus (psychology, New York U.) goes through the sticky question about how much our genes contribute to our mental lives. He believes genes do not control our destinies, but they do affect our personalities, temperaments, and other qualities that make each person unique. He shows how the brain developed its structure across evolution, how humans are hard-wired to learn and to acquire language in ways other animals are not, which common-sense perceptions about the relationship between genetics, brain structures, and the human mind are simply wishful thinking, and how the new genetics is likely to impact the development of the mind in the future. He takes into account a number of leading-edge experiments, such as those that have produced mice that exhibit behaviors indicating high anxiety. He also works mindfully though the most recent literature.
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The first book to show precisely how genes build the wonders of the human brain, and why the Human Genome project could radically alter our view of the world