As a teacher of Psychology I am always on the look out for accessible and engaging books to recommend to my students. Eagleman has several already under his belt, including his TV series on "The Brain". His latest offering is another fascinating journey into the brain's intricate and unfathomable wiring. As I cover some cognitive neuroscience and neuroplasticity in my course, I was delighted to find many relevant elements in this piece and I hope that my students will take the advice to give it a read. Fans of Eagleman's previous works will enjoy this and will no doubt find there are some overlaps, but anyone interested in something a notch above popular-psychology, will find something of interest here.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

I love a bit of neuroscience. The brain is so fascinating. This book does a good job of making the complexities clear and easy to understand.
There is still so much we don't know but it's great to be able to learn about some of those things we do.

You will never think about your brain in the same way again. The brain is often portrayed as an organ with different regions dedicated to specific tasks. But that textbook model is wrong. The brain is a dynamic system, constantly modifying its own circuitry to match the demands of the environment and the body in which it finds itself. If you were to zoom into the living, microscopic cosmos inside the skull, you would witness tentacle-like extensions grasping, bumping, sensing, searching for the right connections to establish or forego, like denizens of a country establishing friendships, marriages, neighbourhoods, political parties, vendettas, and social networks. It's a mysterious kind of computational material, an organic three-dimensional textile that adjusts itself to operate with maximum efficiency.

The brain is not hardwired, David Eagleman contends--it is livewired. With his new theory of infotropism, Eagleman demonstrates why the fundamental principle of the brain is information maximization: in the same way that plants grow toward light, brains reconfigure to boost data from the outside world. Follow Eagleman on a thrilling journey to discover how a child can function with one half of his brain removed, how a blind man can hit a baseball via a sensor on his tongue, how new devices and body plans can enhance our natural capacities, how paralyzed people will soon be able to dance in thought-controlled robotic suits, how we can build the next generation of devices based on the principles of the brain, and what all this has to do with why we dream at night.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Livewired which is an accessible and fascinating read from the moment you begin. It's no easy feat to make complex topics comprehensible to a layperson and those with no prior knowledge of the subject at hand, but Eagleman does this with considerable aplomb. Every single page of this book presents intriguing and compelling information and answers to questions you never knew you wanted the answers to; I found it eminently readable from start to finish. However, there was a problem that a fellow reviewer pointed out; some of the information is incorrect and as I read these type of books to feed my polymathic nature and enthusiasm for learning new things this is an issue. I hope this will be rectified as this is a superb book but for the mistaken data provided in one instance. Many thanks to Canongate for an ARC.

I have very mixed feelings about this book, and am struggling with how to rate it as a consequence.

I enjoyed reading it - the layout is effective, and the information is presented well making it easy to understand, even for a layperson. I find the plasticity of the brain fascinating, and really liked the use of case studies throughout.

However, after reading the previous reviewers comments, I also went to check out the link provide as a 'refrence' in one particular part about eyesight - and unfortunately the idea being suggested by the author is NOT the same as what the link is talking about. I'm now left questioning the accuracy of what I read, and wonder if there might have been other mistakes throughout the book that I overlooked, since I am far from an expert on the topic.

A real shame, as (as I previously said) the book was an interesting read.

I was really excited to read this book. I have previously read Eagleman’s ‘The Brain’ and enjoyed his TV show in the same subject. Since first learning of plasticity during neurophysiology lectures at university I have been fascinated by the brain’s ability to adapt.

Eagleman writes at a level that is easy for the average layperson to understand and he relies on anecdotes and case studies to aid the reader.

There is one major flaw which means I am forced to give this book a 1* review. I know a little about plasticity in terms of the development of binocular vision, but more importantly I know a lot about vision and eyes. Unfortunately on the deferments related to eyes their are gross inaccuracies and information that is simply wrong. Eagleman confidently writes about how people have corneas removed to treat cataracts and even goes as far as to reference this information. If you click on the reference it links you to information about the lens replacement in cataract surgery (correct). The glib use of incorrect statements followed by references to correct information is alarming. I am unable to trust the accuracy of information in this book without fact checking each individual point. I was deeply disappointed and would advise against reading this as a consequence.