Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps -- And What We Can Do About It,   ISBN:9780618393114

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Amazon Exclusive: Eric Kandel Reviews Pink Brain, Blue Brain

Eric R. Kandel is a Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist, and founder of the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University, where he is also Kavli Professor and University Professor. Kandel is a senior investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Center, and has written several books on the science of the mind, including In Search of Memory and Memory, which he co-authored with Larry Squire. Read his guest review of Pink Brain, Blue Brain:

We live in a world that is driven by science. As a result, science is no longer the exclusive domain of scientists. It has become an essential part of modern life and contemporary culture. Almost daily, newspapers report technical information about science, particularly about biological science and medicine, that we are expected to understand but cannot without further explanation. We are told that gender differences and aptitude influence the academic and career paths of men and women. Does this mean that there are differences between the brains of men and women? Do men and women learn differently? Or are men and women taught differently?

These are not easy questions and they do not lend themselves to easy answers. They need a deep understanding of the biology of the developing brain. In a follow-up to her excellent first book, What’s Going On in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life, Lise Eliot, a first-rate scholar and a superb neuroscientist, has now brought her extensive knowledge and insight to bear on the difficult and socially important issue of gender difference in her marvelous new book, Pink Brain, Blue Brain.

In taking the challenge of addressing the difference between little boys and little girls, Eliot explains how modest differences at birth between the brains of boys and girls are amplified by social factors that in turn produce anatomical changes in the brain to give rise to the greater differences evident in the actions of brains of mature men and women. Eliot explains, in language that is clear to all of us, that these sex differences are plastic and can be modified by experience. Eliot indicates points of intervention where these social pressures could be minimized, interventions that would assure our achieving a fair and equitable maturation of both sexes.

This is a wonderfully optimistic book that will be helpful not only to parents and grandparents but to the general public (aunts and uncles) as well. The gradual liberation of women has been the great social theme of the 20th century. Lise Eliot brings this theme into the 21st century by showing us how we can help to initiate and maintain intellectual and social equality for both the pink and blue babies of the future as they mature. This is a brilliant book and I could not recommend it more highly.

TRUE OR FALSE?

1. Bouncy seats and ExerSaucers are great for babies, and parents should make use of them whenever possible.

2. Girls shouldn't be expected to play with Legos and other "boy" toys.

5. Boys should be spared awkward social interactions when company comes to visit.

(See the Answers Here)