BRAIN BUGS: HOW THE BRAIN’S FLAWS SHAPE OUR LIVES

Book ID/图书代码： 13000509B30500

English Summary/英文概要： The human brain is the most complex device in the known universe. The discovery of biological evolution, the theory of special relativity and the development of organ transplants all attest to the brain’s extraordinary ability to understand, invent and create. But astonishing as our brains are, they are also full of flaws and limitations, ’brain bugs’. We tend to be bad at mental arithmetic and remembering names, we are highly susceptible to advertising and propaganda, and we are gifted practitioners of self-deception. Simply put, our brains are brilliantly well-suited for some tasks, but ill-adapted for others. Why is this? And how do these flaws shape our lives and societies?
One of the main causes of brain bugs is that our brains are built for a time and place we no longer inhabit: we are essentially running a 100,000 year-old operating system. So, we inherently fear predators, snakes and confined spaces, when we should actually be far more worried about the risk of a heart attack or car accident. BRAIN BUGS explores the extent to which our neural hardware remains well-suited to the predator-free, sugar-laden, media-saturated, densely-populated world that we have built for ourselves.
This is a fascinating, highly original and very readable look at the human brain: it turns out that the brain’s weaknesses have just as much to tell us about how it developed and the way in which it functions as its strengths. And by being aware of the limitations of our own brains, we can perhaps all make better-informed decisions. I can thoroughly recommend a look at Dean Buonomano’s website, http://www.brainbugs.org/BrainBugsDescription.html, which includes some entertaining videos and exercises designed to demonstrate the brain’s foibles.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 人类的大脑是已知宇宙中最复杂的装置。生物进化的发现，狭义相对论和器官移植的发展都证明了大脑的非凡的理解能力，发明和创造。尽管我们的大脑是如此神奇，但它也存在着很多的缺陷和局限性，甚至充满了病菌。我们总是不擅长于心算和记住别人的名字，但是很容易被广告宣传影响，而且似乎在自欺欺人方面有着天赋异禀。由此可见，我们的大脑能够出色的完成某些工作？而另外一些却表现不好，这是什么原因呢？这些缺陷又是如何影响着我们的生活和社会？

其中一个很重要的原因是，我们的大脑是为一个我们不复生活在的时间和地点而建造的，所以当我们实际上更应该关心心脏病发作和发生车祸的风险担忧，但是我们与生俱来的会去恐惧天敌、蛇还有密闭空间。《脑缺陷》探索了在何种程度上，我们为自己所制造的的神经硬件依然非常适合现今媒体饱和、糖过高和人口密集的状态。

本书是研究人类大脑的非常具有可读性的一部作品，不仅涉及到大脑缺陷，另外还让读者了解到大脑的发展以及发挥功能的方式等。能够意识到大脑缺陷，有助于我们做出更明智的决定。在作者的网站

http://www.brainbugs.org/BrainBugsDescription.html会有更多关于脑缺陷的模拟演习和视频，有助于读者更好的了解。(FSF)

Awards/获奖情况：Rights have also already been sold to Chiho in Korea and Business Weekly/Cite in Taiwan.韩国和台湾版权已售

Other rights sold: Chinese, traditional (Business Weekly/Cite), German (Hans Huber Verlag), Japanese (Kawade), Korean (Chiho), Portuguese in Brazil (Elsevier Editora), Russian (Hippo)

Review "Writing a book about the hardware and software flaws of the human brain is an ingenious idea, and Buonomano has fully delivered on its promise. To a degree that is difficult for most of us to imagine, much less understand, our successes and failures, joys and sufferings, are the product of protein interactions and electrical changes taking place inside our heads. Brain Bugs is a remarkably accessible and engaging introduction to the neuroscience of the human condition."---Sam Harris, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Moral Landscape, Letter to a Christian Nation, and The End of Faith

"In Brain Bugs, Dean Buonomano has brilliantly pulled off what few psychological scientists can do. In elegant and clear writing, he masterfully conveys the astonishing capability of the human mind, along with its flaws and limitations. Only when we fully understand our ‘bugs’ will we be able to make the best financial, political, marital, and other decisions that are so important in shaping our lives."---Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and author of Eyewitness Testimony

"What a great book, filled with nuggets about how the brain works-and falters-and even some suggestions on how to put it to better use. Very enjoyable."---Joseph LeDoux, New York University neuroscientist and author of The Emotional Brain and Synaptic Self.

"He takes readers on a lively tour of systematic biases and errors in human thinking, citing examples that are staples of psychology courses and other popular books. What is new, however, is Buonomano’s focus on the mechanisms of memory, especially its "associative architecture," as the main causes of the brain’s bugs." ---Christopher Chabris, New York Times

About the Author/作者介绍： Dean Buonomano出生和成长于巴西。现任加利福尼亚发大学洛杉矶分校神经生物学和心理学教授及脑研究所研究员，他的作品曾刊登在诸如《科学》等顶级期刊上。他的作品被认为是《新闻周刊》、《美国科学》等杂志的特色招牌。

Dean Buonomano was born and brought-up in Brazil. He is now a full professor in the departments of neurobiology and psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles and an investigator at UCLA’s Brain Research Institute. He has published numerous articles in leading journals such as Science and Neuron and his work has been featured in Newsweek, Scientific American and Die Zeit among others.

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Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE(到期可授)

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE(到期可授)

Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：

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