The author, Kathleen Taylor, writes on the first page of The Brain Supremacy that neuroscience will soon become the most dominant science and its power will allow us to manipulate human nature by changing the brain, hence the title.

She acknowledges that this may sound suspiciously like neuro-hype, and takes pains to outline just what is possible now and what may be possible soon.

There’s no doubt neuroscience is making rapid progress, to the extent that this book is somewhat out of date already, and there are possibilities of cures for brain diseases, including dementia, and repairs to brain damage that we cannot currently achieve.

On the downside, the findings could be abused, e.g. by manipulating our thinking to accomplish immoral ends. “There be dragons,” indeed.

The real substance of the book is in unpacking the methods and machines of brain research, starting by showing how these studies rely on ideas borrowed from many other scientific disciplines, including anatomy.

The historic naming of the brain’s parts and what they do precedes descriptions of ‘neurotech’ such as electro-encephalography (EEG) and magneto encephalography (MEG), which rely on the movement of charged particles, and positron emission tomography (PET), which is used to monitor brain chemistry using radioactive tracers.

There is also a close look at the fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), because that and the other techniques mentioned are the ones readers are most likely to encounter should they need to have their brains investigated.

There are chapters on Chemical Control (e.g. the neuroscience of Prozac) and the Tweaking of Genes, before a summary of what the author sees as the problems inherent in neurotech.

She warns us of the poor reporting and speculation about research findings in the media, rather like Ben Goldacre in Bad Science.

All in all, this is a fascinating summary of a very complex field, one that is difficult to explain to lay readers, especially non-scientists. The author makes a good job of it, but finds it necessary to frequently offer an acronymic apology: IMCOTT (It’s always More COmplicated Than That).