"The Cartesian subject may be dead but our brains still haven’t figured that out. In Performing Brains on Screen, Fernando Vidal provides an impressive survey of the brain as protagonist across a pulpy expanse of fiction and cinema, examining how the continuing equation of brain and selfhood informs popular understandings of identity, consciousness, and memory. Essential reading for neuroscientists, cinephiles, and anyone else who has ever pondered the odd yet enduring convention of brains transplanted, escaped, switched, uploaded, and otherwise liberated from the body as spongy receptacle of selfhood."
- Jeffrey Sconce, Professor in the Screen Cultures program at Northwestern University and a Guggenheim Fellow for 2020-2021.

"The book’s detailed historical focus is its most valuable asset, especially for philosophers interested in the mechanics of genre formation. It condenses vast primary and secondary literature on the origins of science fiction, making it an important resource for philosophical work on genre."
– Michel-Antoine Xhignesse, Metascience, issue 32, 2023