内容简介
在婴儿诞生之时，他们的大脑已经装备了一千亿个精心制作的神经元。这些神经元以数万亿的连接彼此互联，构成了一部紧凑而高效的超级计算机。
作为实验神经生物学家的先驱，威廉哈里斯在描述人类大脑是如何构建的过程中，解答了关于大脑发育的重要问题，提出了许多激动人心的发现和科学前沿的突破，为我们深入理解人脑的形成提供了更宽广的视野和更深刻的见解。他编撰了一个引人注目的进化故事，揭示了多细胞生物首次从单细胞生物中出现的原始时刻，以及胎儿大脑在九个月内的发展过程如何反映了大脑在各个生命阶段的进化。哈里斯以独特的视角，向我们展示了我们的大脑与其他动物的大脑之间的相似性，阐述了比较动物研究对于理解人脑如何成为我们身份象征的重要性。
本书是一部关于人类大脑如何构建与发展的启示录，通过大脑的发育和进化起源的镜头来观察人类大脑，可以让我们更轻松地理解大脑构建过程所涉及的步骤和基本原则，让我们对人类的先天特征产生更丰富的认识。
作者简介
威廉·哈里斯（W.A.Harris），英国剑桥大学解剖学荣誉教授，英国皇家学会会员。他是《神经系统发育和遗传神经生物学》的作者之一，《视网膜发育》的联合编辑。
Content introduction
When babies are born, their brains are already equipped with 100 billion carefully crafted neurons. These neurons interconnect with each other in trillions of connections, forming a compact and efficient supercomputer.
As a pioneering experimental neurobiologist, William Harris has answered important questions about brain development in describing how the human brain is built, and has made many exciting discoveries and breakthroughs on the scientific front, providing us with a broader perspective and deeper insights into the formation of the human brain. He has compiled a compelling evolutionary story that reveals the primordial moment when multicellular organisms first emerged from single-celled organisms, and how the development of the fetal brain over nine months reflects the evolution of the brain at various stages of life. Harris offers a unique perspective on the similarities between our brains and those of other animals, illustrating the importance of comparative animal studies in understanding how the human brain has become our status symbol.
This book is an apocalypse of how the human brain is built and developed, and looking at the human brain through the lens of its developmental and evolutionary origins can make it easier for us to understand the steps and basic principles involved in the brain-building process, giving us a richer understanding of the innate characteristics of humans.
About the author
William Harris is Emeritus Professor of Anatomy at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is one of the authors of Neurobiology of Nervous System Development and Genetics and co-editor of Retinal Development.
