Mind

Hacks -2 It's never entirely true to say, "This bit of the brain is solely responsible for function X." Take the visual system [Hack #3], for instance; it runs through many varied parts of the brain with no single area solely responsible for...

Cognitive psychology is the psychology of the basic mental processesthings like perception, attention, memory, language, decision-making. It asks the question, "What are the fundamental operations on which mind is based?" The problem i...

An electroencephalogram (EEG) produces a map of the electrical activity on the surface of the brain. Fortunately, the surface is often what we're interested in, as the cortexresponsible for our complex, high-level functionsis a thin sheet of cel...

Positron emission tomography (PET) is more invasive than any of the other imaging techniques. It requires getting a radioactive chemical into the bloodstream (by injection) and watching for where in the brain the radioactivity ends upthe "positro...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is the king of brain imaging. Magnetic resonance imaging is noninvasive and has no known side effectsexcept, for some, claustrophobia. Having an MRI scan requires you to lie inside a large electromag...

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) isn't an imaging technique like EEG [Hack 2] or fMRI [Hack #4], but it can be used along with them. TMS uses a magnetic pulse or oscillating magnetic fields to temporarily induce or suppress electrical ac...

As well as being the oldest technique of cognitive neuroscience, it refutes the oft-repeated myth that we only use 10% of our brains. Of the many unscientific nuggets of wisdom about the brain that many people believe, the most common may be...

What's where, and what does what? Think of the central nervous system like a mushroom with the spinal cord as the stalk and the brain as the cap. Most of the hacks in this book arise from features in the cortex, the highly interconnected cells ...

It consists of four lobes and a thin layer on the surface called the cortex. When you look at pictures of the human brain, the main thing you see is the rounded, wrinkled bulk of the brain. This is the cerebrum, and it caps off the rest of the...

A neuron, a.k.a. nerve cell or brain cell, is a specialized cell that sends an electrical impulse out along fibers connecting it, in turn, to other neurons. These guys are the wires of your very own personal circuitry. What follows is a simpl...

The brain requires approximately 20% of the oxygen in the body, even during times of rest. Like the other organs in our body, our brain needs more glucose, oxygen, and other essential nutrients as it takes on more work. Many of the scanning techn...

The formula that relates intensity and reaction speed is Pieron's Law. It's a common illusion that if you are in a hurry for the elevator you can make it come quicker by pressing the button harder. Or more often. Or all the buttons at once. I...

The sensory homunculus looks like a person, but swollen and out of all proportion. It has hands as big as its head; huge eyes, lips, ears, and nose; and skinny arms and legs. What kind of person is it? It's you, the person in your head. Have a lo...