Evolving Brains

How did the human brain with all its manifold capacities evolve from basic functions in simple organisms that lived nearly a billion years ago? John Allman addresses this question in Evolving Brains, a provocative study of brain evolution that introduces readers to some of the most exciting developments in science in recent years.

John Morgan Allman is Hixon Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology. He received his doctoral degree in anthropology and played a key role in the discovery that the visual cortex in primates comprises many areas that serve a multitude of functions. Dr. Allman received the Golden Brain Award from the Minerva Foundation for his research on how the brain represents visual information.