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The Spaces Between Us: A Story of Neuroscience, Evolution, and Human Nature
Each of us has a protected zone two or three feet wide, swelling around the head and narrowing towards the feet. This zone isn't fixed in size: if you're nervous, it grows; if you're relaxed, it shrinks. It also depends on your cultural upbringing. Personal space is small in Japan and large in Australia. This safety zone, called personal space, provides an invisible spatial scaffold that frames our social interactions.
As Michael Graziano argues in The Spaces Between Us, it also organizes our social and emotional spacing, influences our facial expressions, and shapes our interactions with everyday objects including tools, furniture, and clothing. Even ordinary actions like walking are informed by a continuous under-the-surface calculation of threats and obstacles around the body: what Graziano calls a virtual bubble-wrap of active neurons that fire and move us to action, even before we may be conscious of our course corrections in real time. Humans evolved a complex way of interacting with others and their environment, and The Spaces Between Us looks at how this infrastructure may have led to the first smile and to a host of other human activities, from tool use, to courtship, and to a sense of self. The book concludes with a case study of Graziano's son, who had heart-breaking difficulties developing a functioning personal space. Written with poignant narrative clarity, Graziano makes the case for the interested scientific public that this system in the brain is more than a fascinating scientific topic: it's deeply personal and shapes our human nature.
As Michael Graziano argues in The Spaces Between Us, it also organizes our social and emotional spacing, influences our facial expressions, and shapes our interactions with everyday objects including tools, furniture, and clothing. Even ordinary actions like walking are informed by a continuous under-the-surface calculation of threats and obstacles around the body: what Graziano calls a virtual bubble-wrap of active neurons that fire and move us to action, even before we may be conscious of our course corrections in real time. Humans evolved a complex way of interacting with others and their environment, and The Spaces Between Us looks at how this infrastructure may have led to the first smile and to a host of other human activities, from tool use, to courtship, and to a sense of self. The book concludes with a case study of Graziano's son, who had heart-breaking difficulties developing a functioning personal space. Written with poignant narrative clarity, Graziano makes the case for the interested scientific public that this system in the brain is more than a fascinating scientific topic: it's deeply personal and shapes our human nature.
216 pages, Hardcover
Published January 5, 2018
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478 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 14, 2021
In short it’s a book about neurons in charge of the near-space around our body. But it goes further explaining how there’s a movement repertoire in the brain cortex that guides a fully formed action. How that’s discovered. And how our brain uses this already evolutionarily set neuronal pathways to do more than just protecting our body.
I think although in a small scale, this book gives a good understanding of how brains work and how we come to be, and know, and move accordingly. How it’s all wired into us.
This book read like a thriller at times. Maybe because I’m a nerd but maybe because the author just knew how raising the question first and then answering it step-by-step almost exactly how researchers found out about it will make the whole subject more interesting. That’s how I wish science could be taught. Because the bigger chunk of science is the long laborious path of discovery.
Actually many textbooks do begin with boring dates and scientist names that we may or may not cram before the exam. My main criticism is that that shouldn’t be the main focus.
So it’s refreshing to read about a sequence of the discoveries made on a certain topic that lead to our understanding of it.
I loved this book and I don’t care that it’s not perfect and sometimes provides way too many examples and gets a bit repetitive with some of its explanations.
P.S. it also gets extra points for avoiding sexist pronouns.
I think although in a small scale, this book gives a good understanding of how brains work and how we come to be, and know, and move accordingly. How it’s all wired into us.
This book read like a thriller at times. Maybe because I’m a nerd but maybe because the author just knew how raising the question first and then answering it step-by-step almost exactly how researchers found out about it will make the whole subject more interesting. That’s how I wish science could be taught. Because the bigger chunk of science is the long laborious path of discovery.
Actually many textbooks do begin with boring dates and scientist names that we may or may not cram before the exam. My main criticism is that that shouldn’t be the main focus.
So it’s refreshing to read about a sequence of the discoveries made on a certain topic that lead to our understanding of it.
I loved this book and I don’t care that it’s not perfect and sometimes provides way too many examples and gets a bit repetitive with some of its explanations.
P.S. it also gets extra points for avoiding sexist pronouns.
April 29, 2025
i was taught the basics of neuroscience primarily by two professors involved in clinical neuroscience research. despite being more drawn to behavioural neuro myself, i did wonder if some of their practiced distrust and thinly veiled disdain of such research — commonplace amongst clinical researchers commenting on social neuroscience — had carried over to how i interact with it. i'd like to think it hasn't, but we are the product of our teachers after all.
initially, i was reluctant to accept the data from the studies described in this book, convinced that it couldn't really be that simple. i've spent years viewing the brain as an indecipherable machine that functions outside of the capabilities of our understanding that it was almost frustrating to think that we might have a shot at cracking it after all. but the excitement was bigger.
as for the book itself, while the writing could use a little refining, i do appreciate that the science was described plainly, accessible to people at all levels of education. the language utilized in science communication can often pose as a barrier to those who need it most, so i'm grateful the author goes the extra mile in explaining how the journey went, what it meant.
but ultimately, it was just a fun read.
initially, i was reluctant to accept the data from the studies described in this book, convinced that it couldn't really be that simple. i've spent years viewing the brain as an indecipherable machine that functions outside of the capabilities of our understanding that it was almost frustrating to think that we might have a shot at cracking it after all. but the excitement was bigger.
as for the book itself, while the writing could use a little refining, i do appreciate that the science was described plainly, accessible to people at all levels of education. the language utilized in science communication can often pose as a barrier to those who need it most, so i'm grateful the author goes the extra mile in explaining how the journey went, what it meant.
but ultimately, it was just a fun read.
April 9, 2019
Quite a fascinating topic. The way our brains work in tracking the near space around us is... definitely not what I would have expected, if I ever though about it before. Well explained, easy enough for people without a neuroscientific background and very illuminating. Definitely worth a read.
April 10, 2020
I picked this up thinking it was a bit of trivia from my hero Graziano (hero, because he wrote Consciousness and the Social Brain, thereby solving the mystery of consciousness for me). But it really is a very interesting piece of brain machinery that is finally described, through a story of strange experiments and "broken" hypotheses. Graziano shows his usual humility when exposing failures and errors, but in this also describes for us the way that science should actually be allowed to work (and too seldom is). Plus, as mentioned, the description of the actual brain machinery is a piece of the brain puzzle that is more than likely to be important in getting the whole picture. I was kind of mind-blown to be honest, in a very very good way.
The final chapters are interesting and moving in themselves, although they provide a very different pacing than the rest of the book. This detracts a little from the reading experience, but I'm not going to pull a star for that, that would be too cheap. Highly recommended read!
The final chapters are interesting and moving in themselves, although they provide a very different pacing than the rest of the book. This detracts a little from the reading experience, but I'm not going to pull a star for that, that would be too cheap. Highly recommended read!
January 26, 2018
I just interviewed this author for the column I curate for @NatGeo, Book Talk. It's a brilliant read about the term “personal space" and, among other things, why Trump is so "hands" and grabby. “There really is such a thing” as personal space, says neuroscientist Michael Graziano. “The brain computes a buffer zone around the body. We have this “second skin” hardwired into our DNA. " Highly recommended!
November 4, 2018
A well written, entertaining, and very accessible book about neuroscience. Some of the results are sure to surprise you.
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November 29, 2020really really interesting
April 11, 2021
Excellent short book on the "second skin" our brain generates to protect our personal space. Very touching and thoughtful personal story providing additional insight. Highly recommended!
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September 7, 2018612.8233 G785 2018
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews