Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T12:13:04.824Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

Narinder Kapur
Affiliation:
University College London
Narinder Kapur
Affiliation:
University College London
Alvaro Pascual-Leone
Affiliation:
Harvard Medical School
Vilayanur Ramachandran
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
Jonathan Cole
Affiliation:
University of Bournemouth
Sergio Della Sala
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Tom Manly
Affiliation:
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
Andrew Mayes
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Oliver Sacks
Affiliation:
Columbia University Medical Center
Get access

Summary

The study of the human brain has been variously referred to as ‘the last great frontier’, or a challenge equivalent to that of understanding the universe. Cosmology and neuroscience, in fact, probably have some things in common. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has thousands of millions of stars, and some commentators have conjectured that the number of stars in the Milky Way may be similar to the number of cells in the human brain. In the past two decades, imaging and sensing technologies have transformed both the field of neuroscience and the field of cosmology. Perhaps a more interesting analogy is in the realm of awareness and human consciousness. With our current awareness mechanisms, we are usually only aware of a tiny amount of cognitive activity that mediates human behaviour – many cognitive and perceptual inferences take place at an unconscious level, we often fail to realize how our perceptions and beliefs may not be completely based on reality, and we often fool ourselves into believing that we have free will and full responsibility for all our thoughts and actions (Frith, 2007). Similarly, in the case of cosmology, with our eyes alone we are only aware of a tiny part of our galaxy, and if we were to take our perceptions literally, we would fall for the simple delusion that the sun moves round the earth.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Paradoxical Brain , pp. xi - xiii
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×