Proust Was a Neuroscientist

Science is not the only path to knowledge. In fact, where the brain is concerned, art got there first. Artists – painters, poets, chefs, composers, and novelists – as well as scientists discover essential truths about the human mind.

We learn how Proust first revealed the fallibility of memory; how George Eliot discovered brain plasticity; how the French chef Escoffier discovered umami (the fifth taste); how Cezanne worked out the subtleties of vision; and how Gertrude Stein exposed the deep structure of language – a full half-century before Chomsky. The newfangled facts of science provide a whole new way to appreciate our fictions.

In this amazing first book [Lehrer] bridges ‘the two cultures’ with ease and grace. His clear and vivid writing – incisive and thoughtful, yet sensitive and modest – is a special pleasure.

—Oliver Sacks

This exhilarating book will give you much to think about and make you feel good about your endlessly innovative brain.

—Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Marks the arrival of an important new thinker, who finds in the science and the arts wonder and beauty, and with equal confidence says wise and fresh things about both.

—Los Angeles Times Book Review

Jonah Lehrer’s smart, elegantly written book expresses an appealing faith that art and science offer different but complementary views of the world.

—Washington Post Book World