Human culture is about shared meaning and its communication. Nothing quite shapes the human brain like culture and its associated varieties of meaning. Yet neuroscience has been mute about the issue and crippled by such omission. This remarkable book is a major advance towards bridging the two cultures gap identified by CP Snow in 1959, through a mutually-beneficial dialogue between science and the humanities.
- Ian Robertson | Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin and Co-Director of the Global Brain Health Institute (Trinity College Dublin & UCSF, Dublin & San Francisco)
This timely book, which is a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary, and up-to-date exposition of the neural bases of semiosis, contains important contributions from a range of well-known and up-and-coming authors. I believe it will be useful to a wide audience, including students and researchers from various fields.
- Michael Ullman | Professor of Neuroscience, Georgetown University
By taking a multidisciplinary view of language, cognition, physiology, and culture, new insights about the world we live in can be revealed. The brain, a biological organ that both perceives and generates culture, is the ultimate integrative tool for understanding the complexity of sensemaking across our social and creative world. This unique book is a comprehensive and exciting analysis of neurosemiotics from multiple perspectives to help us better understand ourselves and the world we inhabit.
- Bruce L. Miller, MD | A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor in Neurology; Director, Memory and Aging Center, UCSF; Co-Director, Global Brain Health Institute
Professors Garcķa and Ibįńez have put together an impressive array of leading edge knowledge of the neurology of sensemaking. To paraphrase Yeats, how can we separate the dance from the dancer? In this volume, no attempt at separation is made. In fact, with our growing knowledge of neurology we are beginning to perceive nothing less than the blueprints of the soul. This book marks an important milestone in understanding what it means to be human.
- Christopher Bailey | Arts and Health Lead, World Health Organization
