Connectome : how the brain's wiring makes us who we are

Summary: The audacious effort to map the brain--and along with it our mental afflictions, from autism to schizophrenia--by a rising star in neuroscience. Sebastian Seung, a dynamic young professor at MIT, is at the forefront of a revolution in neuroscience. He believes that our identity lies not in our genes, but in the connections between our brain cellsour own particular wiring. Seung and a dedicated group of researchers are leading the effort to map these connections, neuron by neuron, synapse by synapse. It is a monumental effortthe scientific equivalent of climbing Mount Everestbut if they succeed, they will uncover the basis of personality, identity, intelligence, memory, and perhaps disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. Seung explains how this new map of a human “connectome” might even enable us to “upload” our brains into a computer, making us effectively immortal.

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