Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain

In this book, the author transforms the secrets of the brain's adaptability into pages of magic and delight, "reading wonderfully as if the book were written by Oliver Sacks and William Gibson, sitting on Carl Sagan's front porch." (Wall Street Journal)

What does drug withdrawal have in common with a broken heart? Why is the enemy of memory not time, but other memories? How can a blind person learn to see with their tongue, or a deaf person learn to hear with their skin? Why did many people in the 1980s mistakenly believe that book pages were slightly red? Why does the world's best archer have no arms? Can we someday control a robot with our thoughts, just as we do with our fingers and toes? Why do we dream at night, and what is its connection to the Earth's rotation?

The answers to these questions lie directly behind our eyes. The greatest technology we have discovered on our planet is the three-pound organ housed in the skull. This book is not just about what the brain is; it's about what it does. The magic of the brain lies not in the parts it is composed of, but in the way those parts ceaselessly reweave themselves into a living, electric fabric.

In Livewired, you will navigate the cutting edge of neuroscience above the stories and metaphors that have made David Eagleman one of the best science communicators of our generation. The book covers decades of research up to the present day, and also presents new discoveries from Eagleman's own lab, from synchronized imagination to dreaming to wearable neurotech devices that are revolutionizing how we think about the senses.