Lyle Miller

Mondays, February 8 - April 5 (not Februrary 15)     1:00 p.m - 3:00 p.m    8 sessions
King's Chapel Parish House, 64 Beacon Street

What [a] piece of work is a man, how noble in reason,
how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express
and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension,
how like a god! the beauty of the world; the paragon of animals.
Shakespeare's Hamlet, II.ii.303-307

We have our nervous systems to thank for our position at the top of the evolutionary heap. But how did this marvelously complex system come to be? How does it enable us to take data from our environment, convert those data to information, transform that information into actionable knowledge, and grow wisdom from our accumulated knowledge? How does it enable us to respond appropriately, most of the time, to our environments? How well and reliably does the system work and what is it evolving into?

We will discuss these questions and more as we explore the parallel growth of intelligent behavior and neural mechanisms from protozoa to the paragon of animals. We will then speculate upon what’s next in the evolution of this wondrous system that makes us who we are.

Texts for the course will be Jonathon Lehrer’s Proust was a Neuroscientist, Maryann Wolfe’s Proust and the Squid, and assorted handouts. Math is not required.

Lyle Miller received a B.A. in Psychology from Drake University and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Duke University. He has held professorships in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Washington, the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at Louisiana State University School of Medicine, and the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at Temple University. Mr. Miller retired in 1986 as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Biobehavioral Sciences at Boston University Medical Center. Currently, he manages Stress Directions, Inc., a web-based wellness company focused on the corporate market, and maintains a small clinical practice.