| 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." Also among the 100
hacks in this book, you'll find:
Release Eye Fixations for Faster Reactions
See Movement When All is Still
Feel the Presence and Loss of Attention
Detect Sounds on the Margins of Certainty
Mold Your Body Schema
Test Your Handedness
See a Person in Moving Lights
Make Events Understandable as Cause-and-Effect
Boost Memory by Using Context
Understand Detail and the Limits of Attention
Steven Johnson, author of "Mind Wide Open" writes in his
foreword to the book, "These hacks amaze because they reveal
the brain's hidden logic; they shed light on the cheats and
shortcuts and latent assumptions our brains make about the
world." 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.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT 
Published by: O'REILLY & ASSOCIATES