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Incognito Unconscious Brain

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The book Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain examines the unconscious part of the brain. As Eagleman, a neuroscientist says, “We are not conscious of most things until we ask ourselves questions about them; we have taken the first step in the journey of self-excavations. We see that what we perceive in the outside world is generated by parts of the brain to which we do not have access. (pg. 177)” Eagleman explores several questions such as “Is there a real Mel Gibson? (pg. 71)” etc. He analyzes these questions to find how the conscious mind is affected by different factors and how our perception of reality is altered. And many more questions, the book illuminates how learning more about the unconscious brain can help with the criminal …show more content…

Eagleman says “The conscious mind is not the center of the action in the brain; instead, it is far out on a distant edge, hearing but whispers of the activity.” The author uses an example of staring at a point on the wall and moving a hand slowly towards the ears till it’s not seen anymore. While natural, the author makes the point that many aren’t aware of the boundaries of the visual field. The author also refers to trickery of the eyes, such as depth, and finding differences in two pictures. The author makes the argument that “we are not conscious of much of anything until we ask ourselves about it, (pg. 99).” This strengthens the authors’ argument that consciousness is just a headline while the unconscious is the full story. Another big idea in incognito is that a person has little if any "free will" and what that means. The author uses a case where men were asked to rank how attractive they found photographs of women. The survey found that the women with dilated eye were the most attractive. The author summarizes that “Brains are in the business of gathering information and steering behavior appropriately. It doesn’t matter whether consciousness is involved in the decision making. Most of the time, it’s not. (pg. 30).” The author found that the men felt drawn towards some women more than others for reasons unknown. This

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