David Eagleman's Incognito: The Secret Lives Of The Brain

David Eagleman's remarkable neuroscience novel, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, literally puts the human mind to the test. Throughout the novel, Eagleman presents numerous examples, diagrams, and conjectures in order to explain the vital relationship between the mind's subconscious and biological abilities and the body. Contrary to popular belief, Eagleman explains to his readers that the brain is more than just a pink glob in the head of an individual, but the actual control system of the brain that has the ability to perform advanced tasks that one probably would have never imagined. As a whole, this novel definitely invigorated my thought processes as it's informative yet highly interesting connotation kept me wondering what astounding
ideas Eagleman would present next. The different theories and illusions that Eagleman strategically includes in his novel, definitely forced me to spend extra time to look deeply into his statement's and see the truth in them by testing each minute yet fascinating experiment, especially the one's testing the intriguing concept of the visual blind spot of humans.
It certainly caused me to look more intuitively into how amazing the brain actually is and become exposed to revelations about brain facts and functions. A major theme that was presented frequently throughout the novel is the concept that the subconscious mind overrules and overrides every other mental and physical factor. When asked about the brain, the majority of people will say that the conscious mind definitely does the most work in regards to helping an individual perform daily tasks or even controlling their thought processes, but according to Eagleman, this is a common myth. In reality, the subconscious mind controls the most vital and interesting parts of functioning and thought, which Eagleman explains through the use of different allusions and examples. Within
the first few pages of the novel, a study on men was described, where the men would look at different pictures of females and rate them based on their attractiveness. At the end of the experiment it was noticed, that the men ranked the photos of women with dilated eyes as the most attractive, although they obviously did not stare at the picture to purposely differentiate a millimeter length of each women's pupil. As Eagleman states in the novel, this occurrence takes place because the dilated pupils of women are a resemblance of readiness and eagerness for intimately stimulating activities, which although is not evident to men, it is evident to the mental subconscious, thus resulting in the men ranking the women the way they did and not having a clear explanation on their choices. Other interesting subconscious principles that Eagleman mentions are that the foot tends to migrate toward the brake before an individual can even notice an upcoming danger or need to stop and that female strippers tend to make money at their most fertile times of the month, although this is unbeknownst to the conscious mind of the people that are paying these strippers. It appears as though the subconscious part of the mind delves into the most interesting parts of how humans work. Along with his conjectures on the subconscious mind, Eagleman also raises awareness to a plethora of pressing issues in regards to mental activity.
One issue that appeared to be very meaningful to Eagleman is that of the specific genes associated with criminal and how people should take this into account. Unfortunately, in today's society, criminals are present. After thorough testing it became evident that the majority of criminals that participate in crimes such as abuse, homicides, and robberies have specific genes passed down from previous generations that cause them to act in this manner. Furthermore, not only genes can cause criminal behavior amongst humans, but also exposure to physical or mental abuse, drugs, and other harmful substances—Eagleman mentioning lead poisoning and in utero cocaine. What is most problematic about this is that ordinary people undermining criminal behavior being somewhat natural in some beings by attempting to put themselves in the shoes of these criminals and stating that they would never behave in such a manner. Eagleman appears to take this topic close to home as he practically calls people out for doing this and explains that if a person was never exposed to the genes and stimuli that can be attributed to criminal actions, then they automatically have no right to compare their well-rounded upbringing to that upbringing of a criminal. Even though the behavior of criminals in certainly not excusable, it is not fair for people who weren't
raised the way criminals are to go out and state flatly that this is not the way they would have acted when there is no obvious basis for comparison. Despite the fact that this novel was very interesting in every aspect, one quote, "...as regards to that dangerous set of genes, you've probably heard of them. They are summarized as the Y chromosome. If you're a carrier, we call you a male" (Eagleman 159), definitely stood out the most. Based on my personal experiences and from what I have read over the years, many men are problematic beings. From their disrespect towards women with the "Meninist" movement and the shooting of women due to rejection of a simple date to the stupidity of males in regards to their feelings in their teenage years, males can be very dangerous. This sense of stupidity is certainly in their genes, and Eagleman definitely brings awareness to this issue, despite the fact that many others have failed to do so. The addressing of this issue was definitely interesting to see, especially coming from a male himself, and I definitely valued its presence in the novel as it is quite relatable to anyone who has prior information on this topic. Overall, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain was an extremely enj