We are the first generation able to see a human thought—to put emotion into pixels of activity on a screen. With the latest breakthroughs in neuroscience imaging, we can map which parts of the brain activate our emotions, and how they are interlinked. These new perceptions are giving us a new grasp on how our brains shape our living experience—from who we love and our sexual identities, to our political leanings, to racial biases and our capacities for empathy, to and well beyond.
In CEREBRAL ENTANGLEMENTS: How the Brain Shapes our Public and Private Lives (on-sale February 12, 2025 from Post Hill Press), acclaimed Harvard-trained neurosurgeon Allan Hamilton unpacks the most cutting-edge advances to deliver a revelatory, revolutionary, and first-of-its-kind portrait of the mind.
Encompassing the nature of consciousness, affection, trust, romance, empathy, and kindness; prejudice, sadness, happiness, depression, grief, and the nature of laughter; the experiences of memory, music, and time, Hamilton shows us how neuroscience is changing our understandings of ourselves.
Just a handful of the many revelations in the book:
Dr. Hamilton has spent a lifetime in the operating room, “breaking and entering into patients’ skulls,” as he writes in the book’s unforgettable introduction. Yet he remains in awe of the brain’s union of form and function—making him the perfect tour guide of our latest understandings of its complexities and mystery.
A profound and profoundly important book, CEREBRAL ENTANGLEMENTS is a clear, accessible guide to how the newfound knowledge about our own minds can impact our well-being, individually and as a society.
About the Author:
Allan Hamilton started his working life as a janitor. He later went on to become a Harvard-trained brain surgeon. He is a decorated Army veteran who served several tours on active duty, including Operation Desert Storm, serving as Commanding Officer of the U.S. Army Medical Research Expedition to Mt. McKinley where he has and his team conducted research on the effects on the brain at altitudes of 16,000-20,000 feet and at temperatures reaching thirty below zero. He served a flight surgeon assigned to NASA, Operaton Everest II under the famous Dr. Charles Houston and served as a Guest Instructor in Arctic Navigation at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare School. Dr. Hamilton studied creative writing for two years under Rod Serling, the creator of the TV series The Twilight Zone. For nineteen years, Hamilton has also worked as the senior medical consultant for the hit TV medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. He has authored more than twenty medical textbook chapters, nearly one hundred peer-review research articles, and has served on the editorial board of several medical journals. He and his wife live in Tucson with their children, and three grandchildren—and a lot of animal friends.