Your Brain, Undercover
Finals week is fast approaching! So what have I been doing? Reading a book that has absolutely nothing to do with any of my classes! Today I finished Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman. It was, shall we say, enlightening.
I've always been fascinated by the brain. It's three pounds of mushy pinkness floating around in a bone bowl, but it somehow controls our bodies, understands science, creates worlds out of ink and paint, and stores obscene amounts of information. I always end up in awe of God's handiwork when I learn more about the complexities of our squishy control centers!
Eagleman is certainly very knowledgeable. He focuses on the brain as the center for thinking rather than giving us a tour of the specific parts and their functions. His case is this: our consciousness is actually only a tiny, miniscule part of our brains, and the rest is out of our control. Most of what we think we think, is actually thought and processed in deeper parts of the brain and we have almost no control over our thoughts. (Confused yet? I was too.)
Throughout the book, Eagleman gave examples of ways that you're not really in control. He explained the concept of visual illusions and how what we see is not always what is really there. The idea that we only perceive a small portion of the world around us was one of his major points. One example was that most of our everyday actions are almost completely automated: driving, brushing our teeth, eating, speaking, etc. We do them without thinking- if we do think about them, we can mess them up. He mentioned a professional tennis player, and how they train to be able to react without thinking. When they're asked, for instance, about their swing, and they actually try to explain it, they often mess it up. Their consciousness is interfering with a process that has been automated by the brain already.
Over all, this was a very complex book. It's hard to summarize. However, I do highly recommend it. It was very intriguing to learn about and realize some of the crazy things about our brain and how talented it really is. God's creation is so complex and fine-tuned, it's a wonder we understand this much about it!
(P.S.- if you want to learn even more about the brain, I recommend The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons by Sam Kean. Another excellent read!)
I've always been fascinated by the brain. It's three pounds of mushy pinkness floating around in a bone bowl, but it somehow controls our bodies, understands science, creates worlds out of ink and paint, and stores obscene amounts of information. I always end up in awe of God's handiwork when I learn more about the complexities of our squishy control centers!
Eagleman is certainly very knowledgeable. He focuses on the brain as the center for thinking rather than giving us a tour of the specific parts and their functions. His case is this: our consciousness is actually only a tiny, miniscule part of our brains, and the rest is out of our control. Most of what we think we think, is actually thought and processed in deeper parts of the brain and we have almost no control over our thoughts. (Confused yet? I was too.)
Throughout the book, Eagleman gave examples of ways that you're not really in control. He explained the concept of visual illusions and how what we see is not always what is really there. The idea that we only perceive a small portion of the world around us was one of his major points. One example was that most of our everyday actions are almost completely automated: driving, brushing our teeth, eating, speaking, etc. We do them without thinking- if we do think about them, we can mess them up. He mentioned a professional tennis player, and how they train to be able to react without thinking. When they're asked, for instance, about their swing, and they actually try to explain it, they often mess it up. Their consciousness is interfering with a process that has been automated by the brain already.
Over all, this was a very complex book. It's hard to summarize. However, I do highly recommend it. It was very intriguing to learn about and realize some of the crazy things about our brain and how talented it really is. God's creation is so complex and fine-tuned, it's a wonder we understand this much about it!
(P.S.- if you want to learn even more about the brain, I recommend The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons by Sam Kean. Another excellent read!)
(picture courtesy of amazon.com)
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