Monday, March 12
David Eagleman, Incognito: The Brains Behind the Mind
McCrary Theatre, 7:30 p.m.
It’s not very difficult to imagine that a lot of brain activity must be happening outside of one’s awareness and capacity for reflection. Examples of unconscious mind activity include fairly common experiences, such as reacting to a situation before being aware of it, making certain decisions that are, on hindsight, difficult to rationalize and having an amazing “aha” moment.
The unconscious mind is being viewed as a vast and complex array of mental phenomena that includes unconscious thoughts, emotions, reactions and much more. Research increasingly supports that within the human brain, consisting of billions of neurons and trillions of synapses conscious thought probably represents the tip of the iceberg of brain activity, with unconscious thought representing the rest.
About David Eagleman
A renowned neuroscientist who has a joint appointment in neuroscience and psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine, Eagleman has conducted extensive research on understanding the workings of the unconscious mind, how the brain perceives time and how new developments in neuroscience might impact our criminal justice system. He is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship to support his continued research of synesthesia, a perceptual condition in which information between the senses is blended.
Eagleman earned his Ph.D. in neuroscience at Baylor in 1998 and is currently the director of its Laboratory for Perception and Action. He is the author of several books, including Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Unconscious Brain and Live-Wired: The Dynamically Reorganizing Brain. He is also the author of a best-selling book of fiction Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives as is published in The New York Times, Discover Magazine, Slate and New Scientist.
The Liberal Arts Forum and the Voices of Discovery Science Speaker Series partnered to bring the pre-eminent scientist to Elon University to share Eagleman’s remarkable experiences and perspectives with students and the community.