Author:
Michela Matteoli
publisher:
Sonzogno
Release Date:
01-10-2024
We all like to think that the brain does not have to deteriorate with age. This is why the increasingly flourishing strand of studies on neurogenesis in adults, i.e. the birth of nerve cells even when the organism’s development is complete, is exciting. Michela Matteoli calls it, with a metaphor, the ‘blossoming of the neurons’ and imagines the brain as a garden that, properly watered, replaces with new shoots the withered seedlings, adds leaves to the branches of its trees, sees flowers bloom that were not there.
With her trademark clarity and affabulatory style, the great neuroscientist dismantles many misconceptions about how we are made and helps us understand, thanks to the latest discoveries and her own studies, how it is possible to cultivate our intelligence throughout life.
The book closes with a fascinating section devoted to the most topical issues, analysed through neuroscientific lenses.
Should we fear artificial intelligence? Why does racism exist? What is the root of conflicts? What happens to the brain during a war?
The author’s hope is that a springtime of the mind and species will come, in which each individual can aspire to full and complete human, intellectual, sentimental and ethical blossoming.