Prof Kevin Mitchell, the Senior Lecturer and an associate professor of genetics and neuroscience, is to launch Innate, his book that explores how our brains are wired.
Speaking about the book in a press statement, Mitchell said: “The idea that we are born as blank slates is dead. Due to variation in how our brains develop, we each come into the world utterly unique with a set of innate predispositions, talents, and aptitudes that profoundly influence our patterns of behaviour throughout our lives.”
Innate argues that human individuality can be attributed to the way in which our brains are set up to work. Building on this theory, the book considers the latest neural research, as well as Mitchell’s own specific academic focuses – examining the genetic programme that sets out how the brain is wired and its relevance to variation in human faculties. Another of Mitchell’s focuses in the book is on how this wiring impacts conditions such as schizophrenia, autism and synaesthesia.
Innate also looks at both the social and ethical results of this wiring and the individuality it gives us. The methods of predicting and manipulating human personality is also examined.
Mitchell joined the Trinity staff as part of the Smurfit Institute of Genetics and Institute of Neuroscience in 2002 and was appointed Senior Lecturer earlier this year.
In addition to his position as Senior Lecturer, Mitchell is also a popular science blogger, with over 60,000 followers on Twitter. Mitchell also leads a conference bearing the same name as his blog, “Wiring the Brain”, every two years.
The book launch will take place this evening at 6pm at Regent House in College.
