Michael L. Anderson

Michael L. Anderson, associate professor of psychology and chair of the Scientific and Philosophical Studies of Mind program at Franklin & Marshall College, was recently hailed as "one of the most creative neuroscientists of his generation."

In his latest book, "After Phrenology: Neural Reuse and the Interactive Brain", Anderson uses data from thousands of neuroimaging studies to outline a new approach to understanding the brain. After Phrenology establishes the existence, and the evolutionary and developmental importance of neural reuse, a form of neuroplasticity whereby parts of the brain are used and reused in multiple circumstances--in different dynamic coalitions--to support perception, action and cognition. The result is a new account of the mind as biologically grounded on the evolution of complex action.

Anderson earned a B.S. with honors in pre-medical studies at the University of Notre Dame, a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale University (where he was a Sterling Prize Fellow), and did his post-doctoral fellowship in computer science at the University of Maryland. In 2012 he was selected to be a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, at Stanford University.