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A prolific writer, researcher, and cognitive neuroscientist, William R. Uttal has written over 20 books on the brain sciences over the last 40 years, and he has done so in atypical fashion. To the surprise of the psychologically savvy but neuroscientifically naïve, a quick scan of his Amazon page reveals interesting title phrases that pop out and pique curiosity—phrases like “Psychomythics,” “Phrenology,” “Against Behavioral Reductionism,” and “Dualism: The Original Sin of Cognitivism.” Immediately challenging the neuroscientist stereotype with his languages of philosophy and mind, Uttal's writing is easily accessible and almost instantly disarming, particularly to those who might be wary of neuroreductionism. Like a true scientist, Uttal persistently strives to move closer to understanding the neuronal components of mentation; however, he does so knowing that this problem might not be solvable. He further takes a philosophy of science approach in this pursuit, asking the epistemological question of how do we know what we think we know, all the while maintaining a healthy suspicion of knowledge as such. In his commitment to unpacking the very process of investigation used in his inquiry, Uttal reveals the mythologies and artifacts that guide curiosity and shape conclusions while also inviting his readers to be equally critical and cautious research consumers.
As a companion to his 2016 review of macroneuronal theories (Uttal, 2016), Uttal's most recent book, The Neuron and the Mind, investigates the possibility of developing an overarching microneuronal theory of cognition, particularly given the limitations of our available instrumentation. Unlike the larger-scale phrenological focus of macroneuronal approaches, microneuronal research hinges on the notion of psychoneuronal equivalency, that is, the idea that individual neurons can elicit identifiable responses, like an image, memory, affect, thought, or concept. Uttal spends the bulk of the book comprehensively r