incognito the secret lives of the brain review

He then foreshadows the next chapter’s topic while connecting it to the preceding topic. Eagleman introduces his chapter topic immediately, develops and elaborates it and then reviews it at chapter’s end while making connections to what has come before. I did enjoy reading Incognito and found it understandable and for the most part well paced. We may think that we’ve just had a brilliant inspiration, but our subconscious had already come to the realization minutes before sharing it with our conscious mind. When we look at something red, are we seeing the same thing? Are our perceptions of size, color, and light universally the same? According to Eagleman our brain constructs our reality. Then again because of the variations in our individual brains, reality can be subjective.

These tetra chromatic women actually see colors that others can’t. We learn that 15% of women have four color receptors, not three like the rest of us. Incognito is a book of answers and a book of questions. This writer has no science or medical background yet even he could understand (mostly) Eagleman’s text about our most current understanding of the human brain, a marvel of the universe that has begrudgingly revealed some its secrets to investigators and kept hidden so many more. Alien hand syndrome is one of many brain conditions detailed by David Eagleman in his heady book about the brain, Incognito. It could also be an actual manifestation of alien hand syndrome, a side effect of split brain surgery in which one hand has a mind of its own. Something out of a Jim Carey movie? Perhaps. It’s a ridiculous scenario, a man fighting with himself on a public sidewalk, one arm struggling with the other as the poor man screams at the offending hand over which he seems to have no control.

As the offending hand draws the stolen éclair towards the horrified man’s mouth, his other hand grabs the arm with the éclair grasping hand and tries to force it back. Title: Incognito: The Secret Lives of the BrainĪn unremarkable looking man is walking by a bakery, looks through the window, breaks it with his fist, and grabs a chocolate éclair.

Incognito the secret lives of the brain review