Consciousness and the Social Brain

By: Michael S. A. Graziano

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

What is consciousness and how can a brain, a mere collection of neurons, create it? In Consciousness and the Social Brain, Princeton neuroscientist Michael Graziano lays out an audacious new theory to account for the deepest mystery of them all. The human brain has evolved a complex circuitry that allows it to be socially intelligent. This social machinery has only just begun to be studied in detail. One function of this circuitry is to attribute awareness to others: to compute that person Y is aware of thing X.

In Graziano's theory, the machinery that attributes awareness to others also attributes it to oneself. Damage that machinery and you disrupt your own awareness. Graziano discusses the science, the evidence, the philosophy, and the surprising implications of this new theory.

©2013 Oxford University Press (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Good book. Terrible narrator

Would you recommend Consciousness and the Social Brain to your friends? Why or why not?

Graziano has an interesting hypothesis to explain what consciousness is and how it works in our brains. However, narration is so bad I couldn't get through the book.

What didn’t you like about Sean Runnette’s performance?

Runnette's delivery is monotonous and pedantic. He somehow sounds like he is talking down his nose at the listener, while delivering the material without inflection.

Exciting new ideas, I couldn't stop listening!!!

Consciousness and the Social Brain is an exciting and groundbreaking work. The author answers important questions about thinking and awareness, and how it works neurologically. Can we be aware without an object of awareness? Out of body experiences are explained as a representation of a mind, assigned an incorrect location. Yes, awareness has a location! Usually, it's right inside your head. The author talks about spirituality and religion as logical human behaviors. The spirit world is the world of perceived consciousness. The narration is excellent. The book is jam packed with interesting stories and explanations that are new and exciting, and it's all very easily understood and relatable. I highly recommend listening to Consciousness and the Social Brain. I'm so glad the author Michael Graziano took the time to present his ideas in this wonderful book!!! Kudos to Sean Runnette for the narration.

A Truly Modern Paradigm

This is a theory I have missed thusfar in what I've read and feels like the most important piece of the puzzle yet for explaining Consciousness. Not without its faults but a great read for any skill level.

However, the narrator reads slowwww, it took about double speed for the book to even read normally.

Horrible narration

The content and theory are fascinating. Sometimes a bit wordy, redundant and lengthy, but he also has more succinct academic articles.
What makes this audiobook almost impossible to follow is the narrator. Makes it very monotone but in a dramatic way for each sentence. The quick wordflow combined with long pauses also make it impossible to increase the speed, since then the words become impossible to understand and pauses to empty. Just not the right way to narrate an audiobook.

Very informative work

Although deep into the neuroscience necessary to explain itself, I found plenty of simple and useful information on the topic.