{"title":"Books by Mark Humphries","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780691195889","title":"The Spike – An Epic Journey Through the Brain in 2.1 Seconds","description":"The story of a neural impulse and what it reveals about how our brains workWe see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out. In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate with one another, sending blips of voltage through our sensory and motor regions. Neuroscientists call these blips “spikes.” Spikes enable us to do everything: talk, eat, run, see, plan, and decide. In The Spike, Mark Humphries takes readers on the epic journey of a spike through a single, brief reaction. In vivid language, Humphries tells the story of what happens in our brain, what we know about spikes, and what we still have left to understand about them.   Drawing on decades of research in neuroscience, Humphries explores how spikes are born, how they are transmitted, and how they lead us to action. He dives into previously unanswered mysteries: Why are most neurons silent? What causes neurons to fire spikes spontaneously, without input from other neurons or the outside world? Why do most spikes fail to reach any destination? Humphries presents a new vision of the brain, one where fundamental computations are carried out by spontaneous spikes that predict what will happen in the world, helping us to perceive, decide, and react quickly enough for our survival.   Traversing neuroscience’s expansive terrain, The Spike follows a single electrical response to illuminate how our extraordinary brains work.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294569738613,"sku":"9780691195889","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780691195889_082ce67f-b79d-42ad-bfa9-3d20f9dccae0.jpg?v=1786015155"},{"product_id":"9780733646560","title":"On Politics and Stuff","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis book is quite possibly the most comprehensive book on Australian politics ever written. That's right, it covers BOTH houses of parliament.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe'll take you inside the halls of power. And if we can't actually get inside because of security, we'll do some very fun speculating on what might be in there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne thing we know for sure is that this book is unputdownable. Something went wrong with the printing and it's all sticky.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56296965570933,"sku":"9780733646560","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780733646560_98574836-12ba-4bc8-a5fa-ea4b5c176709.jpg?v=1786014693"},{"product_id":"the-latent-brain","title":"The Latent Brain","description":"A neuroscientist argues we’ve misunderstood the brain by focusing on individual neurons and unveils a new theory of how the brain really works.   In 2007, doctors in Marseille discovered that their patient had a gaping, fluid-filled hole in his brain. His neurons had disintegrated, severing the fragile connections that form the brain's communication system. And yet, the man’s only complaint was weakness in one leg. He could still read, remember, and reason. How was that possible?The Latent Brain is the surprising answer. For decades, neuroscientists have insisted that our thoughts, feelings, and actions depend on the rapid electrical signals fired by each of the brain’s neurons. But they can’t explain why many neurons carry no useful information, or why, when neurons die, our behavior doesn’t necessarily change. Mark Humphries offers a radically new idea. Our mental lives, he argues, arise not from the activity of individual neurons but from collective signals formed by vast networks of neurons acting in concert. These signals guide our behavior; enable different brains to perform the same tasks; and even explain how we learn—why it's sometimes easy and sometimes devilishly hard. Humphries’s theory promises a revolution in neuroscience: a set of laws that map the activity of billions of neurons to the immense catalog of human behavior and experiences.   Bold, lucid, and ambitious, The Latent Brain is a big-idea science book by every measure.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57499302953333,"sku":"9780674300293","price":19.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-mark-humphries.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}