Overview

The human brain has a truly remarkable capacity. It reorganizes itself, flexibly adjusting to fluctuating environmental conditions - a process called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity provides the basis for wide-ranging learning and memory processes that are particularly profuse during childhood and adolescence. At the same time, the exceptional malleability of the developing brain leaves it highly vulnerable to negative impact from the surroundings. Abusive or neglecting social environments, as well as socioeconomic deprivation and poverty, cause toxic stress and complex traumas that can severely compromise cognitive development, emotional processing, self-perception, and executive brain functions. The neurophysiological changes entailed impair emotional regulation, lead to heightened anxiety, and afflict attachment and the formation of social bonds. Neuroplastic changes following severely adverse experiences are not something that a person grows out of and gets over. These experiences alter the neurobiological and biochemical makeup and cause people to live in an emotionally relabeled world in which the evaluation of any social cue, their behavior, cognition, and state of mind are biased towards the negative. Even more worrying, detrimental neurophysiological consequences are not limited to the traumatized individual but are often transmitted to subsequent generations through a process of social niche construction, thereby creating a vicious cycle. Thus, the making and breaking forces of the brain are epitomized by parents, alloparents, peers, and our socioeconomic niche. This book expounds on the formative role that the social environment plays in healthy brain development, especially during infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Based on scientific findings, the book advocates for bold measures and responsible stewardship to combat child abuse, maltreatment, and child poverty. By bringing together insights from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and social education work, it lays out a fact-based, transdisciplinary endeavor that aims at rising to the societal challenge of providing a rewarding perspective to youth at risk. It will be a valuable resource for academics from social education, pedagogy, cognitive science, neuroscience, as well as professionals in the fields of social work, pedagogy, education, child welfare.

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9781622733316

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Reviews

[...] In summary, it is seldom that an author can master contributions from so many scientific fields and then integrate collective content into a cogent explanation of human behavior that is unique and inexplicable from a single discipline's perspective. This is truly a book that will cause the reader to rethink their worldview in multiple dimensions, including social, medical, political, and scientific perspectives. The unproductive dogma that has guided the nature versus nurture debate for too many years is laid bare by the author's clear argument that human behavior is the product of integrative systems incorporating genetics, epigenetics, neurobiology, environment, cultural, social and individual context. Neurosciences have exploded with new discoveries resulting in an all too often explanation of human behavior as a linear extension of brain processes. Social sciences, on the other hand, explain human behavior and social institutions from the perspective that views the human brain as a black box or, worse, a set of predetermined genetic modules guiding innate behaviors. What a wonderful book, scientifically informed, compassionate, and a major contribution to mental wellness and effective interventions. I highly recommend that all scholars interested in human behavior, in all its many dimensions, read this and take note of a coming revolution in the science of us. Dr Daniel O. Larson Upon thorough reading of the book of Isabella Sarto-Jackson ""The Making and Breaking of Minds"" I conclude that this is an up-to-day book, in view of the rapidly changing world and human knowledge of it. To revaluate the idea about the selfish rational human individual who thrives by steadily calculating how to maximize one's own profit, to abandon the simplex and naive framework of the selfish gene and of genes as exclusive units of Darwinian selection is not an abstract academic task but the urgent need to abolish the pernicious ideology that affects the present human condition. The author of the book argues that there is a mutual, reciprocal causality between genes as ""bookkeepers"" of the evolutionary acquired potentials and the actual and continually changing environment and backs her arguments by a plethora of novel empirical data. I find particularly valuable those chapters of the book that highlight the importance of critical phases in human ontogeny, in particular, the early childhood and the adolescence when neglecting of parents (and social neglect in general), stress and traumatic experiences may leave permanent traces in the genome (by silencing some of the genes, or epigenetically marking them). And I appreciate that the last chapter (""Resilience & Nurture Put into Practice"") provides some advice and recommendations on how to alleviate the injury and/or build up a harmonious personality. Dr Ladislav Kováč Professor of Biochemistry Comenius University Bratislava Slovakia

[...] In summary, it is seldom that an author can master contributions from so many scientific fields and then integrate collective content into a cogent explanation of human behavior that is unique and inexplicable from a single discipline's perspective. This is truly a book that will cause the reader to rethink their worldview in multiple dimensions, including social, medical, political, and scientific perspectives. The unproductive dogma that has guided the nature versus nurture debate for too many years is laid bare by the author's clear argument that human behavior is the product of integrative systems incorporating genetics, epigenetics, neurobiology, environment, cultural, social and individual context. Neurosciences have exploded with new discoveries resulting in an all too often explanation of human behavior as a linear extension of brain processes. Social sciences, on the other hand, explain human behavior and social institutions from the perspective that views the human brain as a black box or, worse, a set of predetermined genetic modules guiding innate behaviors. What a wonderful book, scientifically informed, compassionate, and a major contribution to mental wellness and effective interventions. I highly recommend that all scholars interested in human behavior, in all its many dimensions, read this and take note of a coming revolution in the science of us. Dr Daniel O. Larson Upon thorough reading of the book of Isabella Sarto-Jackson The Making and Breaking of Minds I conclude that this is an up-to-day book, in view of the rapidly changing world and human knowledge of it. To revaluate the idea about the selfish rational human individual who thrives by steadily calculating how to maximize one's own profit, to abandon the simplex and naive framework of the selfish gene and of genes as exclusive units of Darwinian selection is not an abstract academic task but the urgent need to abolish the pernicious ideology that affects the present human condition. The author of the book argues that there is a mutual, reciprocal causality between genes as bookkeepers of the evolutionary acquired potentials and the actual and continually changing environment and backs her arguments by a plethora of novel empirical data. I find particularly valuable those chapters of the book that highlight the importance of critical phases in human ontogeny, in particular, the early childhood and the adolescence when neglecting of parents (and social neglect in general), stress and traumatic experiences may leave permanent traces in the genome (by silencing some of the genes, or epigenetically marking them). And I appreciate that the last chapter ( Resilience & Nurture Put into Practice ) provides some advice and recommendations on how to alleviate the injury and/or build up a harmonious personality. Dr Ladislav Kovac Professor of Biochemistry Comenius University Bratislava Slovakia

Author Information

Isabella Sarto-Jackson is a neurobiologist, executive manager of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, and president (2022 - 2023) of the Austrian Neuroscience Association. She holds a Master's degree in genetics and a PhD in neurobiochemistry. For more than a decade, she has worked as a neuroscientist at the Center for Brain Research of the Medical University in Vienna. She has since extended her research focus to cognitive science and evolutionary biology and gives lectures in cognitive science at the University of Vienna and cognitive biology at the Comenius University in Bratislava. She is associate editor of the journal 'Biological Theory' (Springer Nature) and co-chair of the education committee of the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology. Over the last years, she has dedicated a lot of effort to teaching neuroscientific findings to social education workers and social welfare workers by giving advanced training courses. Her work is highly interdisciplinary, i.e., being at the interface of neurobiology, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and social education. Her particular passion is advocating for children at risk and enabling equal opportunities for them in order to reach their full cognitive potential.

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