The brain is a fearsomely complex information-processing environment — one that often eludes our ability to understand it. At any given time, the brain is collecting, filtering, and analyzing information and, in response, performing countless intricate processes, some of which are automatic, some voluntary, some conscious, and some unconscious. Cognitive neuroscience is one of the ways we have to understand the workings of our minds. It's the study of the brain biology behind our mental functions: a collection of methods — like brain scanning and computational modeling — combined with a way of looking at psychological phenomena and discovering where, why, and how the brain makes them happen. Want to know more? Mind Hacks is a collection of probes into the moment-by-moment works of the brain. Using cognitive neuroscience, these experiments, tricks, and tips related to vision, motor skills, attention, cognition, subliminal perception, and more throw light on how the human brain works. Each hack examines specific operations of the brain. By seeing how the brain responds, we pick up clues about the architecture and design of the brain, learning a little bit more about how the brain is put together. Mind Hacks begins your exploration of the mind with a look inside the brain itself, using hacks such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Turn On and Off Bits of the Brain and Tour the Cortex and the Four Lobes.

If you want to know more about what's going on in your head, then Mind Hacks is the key — let yourself play with the interface between you and the world.

Each of the 100 entries in this collection presents a demonstration or research study result that explores the inner workings of the human mind. Drawn from neuroscience techniques and cognitive psychology, the simple experiments play with vision, attention, hearing, perception integration, reasoning, memory, association, and emotion. The authors freelance for the BBC.
Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

O'Reilly's Hacks Series has sold well over 100,000 books since its launch in 2003. We've reclaimed the term hacking for the good guys--innovators who want to explore and experiment, unearth shortcuts, create useful tools, and come up with fun things to try on their own. That's what the tips, tricks and tools in our Hacks books are all about. The series covers a wide range of subjects, from Internet applications like Google and eBay, to Operating Systems and Security, and, most