This new book makes state-of-the-art research on the human mind accessible and exciting for a wide variety of readers. It covers the evolution of mind, examines the transitions from primate through early hominid to modern human intelligence, and reviews modern experimental studies of the brain structures and mechanisms that underlie vision, emotions, language, memory, and learning.

M. Deric Bownds, Ph.D. is Professor of Molecular Biology and Zoology and Chair of the Department of Zoology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Since receiving his graduate and post-doctoral education at Harvard he has spent 30 years at Wisconsin conducting a highly regarded research program on the molecular basis of vision. This book grew out of a popular undergraduate course on the Madison campus and the author's public lectures on these topics.