Tao of neuroscience is a BrainReport creation that pulls together resources in knowledge, theories, and procedures for understanding the split-second, moment-to-moment, and lifetime changes occurring in the brain. It is the whole emerging from complex and dynamical, sometimes chaotic, parts.

This page last updated on August 8, 2010.

Fractal image, "concourse," by Sven Geier, www.sgeier.net.

Tao is a Chinese character that has various meanings depending on context, but generally refers to knowledge, rationality, or path. It is generally translated into English as “The Way.” Principally, the ideas of complexity theory provide a means for appreciating how the overwhelming part processes of the brain end up functioning more-or-less predictably and to our benefit (usually) rather than detriment.

As with the original meaning of the Tao—undefinable and unexplainable—the Tao in neuroscience is the end product of the complexity of molecules and the genetic, biological, environmental, and temporal dynamics that is the working of the brain.

What is the impact of neuroscientific discoveries, now and in the future, in genetic engineering, reproductive choices, medicine, law and justice, politics, sociocultural growth, and education? In a field that has grown so rapidly, the ethical and moral questions are confronting neuroscience now.

Important resources for exploring some crucial issues in the sociocultural impact neuroscience is making include:

McGilchrist, I. (2009). The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.

Guastello, S. J., Koopmans, M., & Pincus, D., Eds. (2009). Chaos and Complexity in Psychology: The Theory of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Tancredi, L. (2005). Hardwired Behavior: What Neuroscience Reveals about Morality. New York: Cambridge Univ.

Marcus, S. J., (Ed.). (2002). Neuroethics: Mapping the Field. Conference Proceedings. New York: The Dana Press.

Gazzaniga, M.S. (2005). The Ethical Brain. New York: Dana Press.

Issue 1451 of Volume 359, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, contains many articles by renouned neuroscientists discussing the intersection of law and the brain. These excellent articles raise many issues that will face changes in how adjudication takes place in the next few years, given the burgeoning knowledge in how the brain works. Click here to obtain access to full text of all articles.

Casebeer, W.D. (2003). Moral cognition and its neural constituents. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 4 (October), 841-846.

Moll, J., Zahn, R., Do Oliveira-Souza, R., Krueger, F., Grafman, J. (2005). The neural basis of human moral cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 6 (October), 799-809.