Columbia Neurologist Dr. Matthew Schelke Authors New Book, Socially Wired

Dr. Matthew Schelke has published a new book, Socially Wired, which examines how social and cultural environments shape the brain and human experience. Drawing on patient cases from the neurology clinic, the book explores how neurological illness can reveal the ways culture, social interaction, and lived experience influence neural systems and behavior.

Integrating perspectives from neurology, anthropology, philosophy, and the social sciences, Socially Wired highlights how practices such as shared emotion, language, art, and collective memory contribute to the development of the brain’s networks and to the ways individuals participate in culture.

The book has been nominated by Columbia University Press for the Royal Society Trivedi Prize and is now available for pre-order ahead of its June 2026 publication.