"Nature has done many of the most important experiments for us. In Wild Brains , Kelly Lambert helps us to appreciate many of these experiments, reminding us that we have much to learn outside of the bounds of laboratory research. This is an important message beautifully conveyed by a brilliant neuroscientist." --Thomas Insel, former director of the National Institute of Mental Health and author of Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health "In this lively and enlightening book, Lambert explores the secrets of wild minds, from raccoons off the islands of Georgia to mouse lemurs in Madagascar, with the insights of a lab neuroscientist. Through this lens, she gives us a refreshing perspective and a deeper understanding of how valuable the challenges of nature are to the fundamentals of brain development." --Patricia Chapple Wright, winner of the Indianapolis Prize and founder of the Centre ValBio Research Campus, Madagascaar "With a casual eloquence and an unsurpassed understanding of the brain, Kelly Lambert expands the vision of both the biological and the behavioral sciences. She presents us with a revelation: living things and their behavior can only be fully understood as indivisible components and adaptive expressions of the environments that have brought them into being." --Joe Hutto, author of Illumination in the Flatwoods and subject of PBS Nature 's "My Life as a Turkey" "If you have a brain, you will benefit from this sharp and pathbreaking book.

Lambert lovingly critiques a science that is too reliant on inbred rats in featureless cages, making a passionate case for taking neurobiology out into the beautifully messy world. This book is curious, wide-ranging, and in love with nature's ceaseless capacity for invention." --Ben Naddaff-Hafrey, senior producer and host of The Last Archive and Revisionist History " Wild Brains offers a compelling expansion of how we think about neuroscience and overall health. At a time when progress in treatment has lagged behind discovery, Lambert points us toward the rich, adaptive intelligence of animals in their natural environments and the living world. The result is both scientifically rigorous and refreshingly original." --William A. Haseltine, biophysicist, philanthropist, and author of My Lifelong Fight Against Disease.