Yes, you all have a blind spot in both of your eyes. I had a few of these moments on the tube, for example bringing my kindle closer to and further away from my left eye, to identify the blind spot where my brain was making up what it thought I should be seeing. I read some of this on my commute, which attracted some attention Incognito is most definitely an interactive book.īy which I mean: Eagleman makes statements about the brain which you refuse to believe until you’ve done his experiment and proved it to yourself.Īnd then… everything starts to seem… unreal… who are we? Where are we? DOES THE SPINNING TOP FALL OVER OR NOT?!?! However, your brain indicates movement activity up to a second before you’ve decided to speak!!! In one memorable moment, Eagleman recounts an experiment in which a subject is told to raise their finger, but indicate by speaking when they decide to do it.Īs you might expect there’s a gap between the speaking and the finger raising (in terms of neuroscience – to us common muppets there would be no delay). In fact, there might not be any flexibility in what you think at all. The thesis of the book is that free will might actually be an illusion, based on the amount of activity that goes on in the brain from which the conscious mind is totally excluded. So far, so dry – but luckily the author’s style makes for a very accessible read. Incognito is a non-fiction book written by a neuroscientist. Or, if you’re like me, you could just read it on the tube. When should you read this book? Somewhere private, so when you do all the weird and wonderful experiments in the book you don’t look like a loon.

Incognito eagleman