“The ‘Brains’ in Dale Purves’ book are both the focus of his research and the intellectual giants with whom he mixed in his remarkable career. At one level Brains is a charming autobiography; at another a vivid personal account of 50 years in the evolution of neuroscience. But it also lays down a challenge to the mainstream view that simple, sequential analysis of nerve cells and their responses can explain the apparently impossible task of seeing the world as it really is on the basis of the infinitely ambiguous retinal image. Brains is a delight—for its insights into both the scientists and the science of the brain.”

—Colin Blakemore, Universities of Oxford and Warwick

“Dale Purves has been a leading figure in brain science for 40 years: He has made numerous discoveries, founded departments, and written major textbooks. In Brains, he tells the story of his scientific journey and intertwines it in an elegant and accessible way with two others: the uneven progress of the field over the past half century and the new view of brain function to which the field’s shortcomings have led him. Some neuroscientists are likely to disagree with Purves’ heretical theories, but none can afford to ignore them.”