Michael S. Gazzaniga, Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience (2015)

This is a fun and informative read about a pioneering scientist who is also full of life. Gazzaniga made his mark by pioneering the study of split-brain patients, people who elected to have the corpus callosum - the major nerve pathway connecting the two brain hemispheres - cut in order to treat severe epilepsy (it worked). The initial shocking revelation was that the two hemispheres appeared to have minds of their own. As the years went by, as individual patients adapted to their new situation and as Gazzaniga and his team performed more experiments, it turned out that some communication between the brain-halves, even quite a bit, was possible after all. In some cases, this occurred when the cut was not complete and some nerve strands remained. More interesting, however, was the phenomenon of what Gazzaniga calls "cross-cueing." Namely, one hemisphere - say, the left, verbal one - might indirectly and unconsciously "cue" or hint to the other hemisphere what the left knew. Perhaps many brain functions work this way, Gazzaniga suggests, not just communication between the halves. Gazzaniga writes in a conversational, informal style. One very much senses the personality behind the prose. He enjoys life, he enjoys colleagues and people generally.