The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How To Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake

by Steven Novella

To explain further, he encourages you to simply ask, “And then what happens?” The brain sees an image; that information goes to the association cortex, which gives it meaning as a thing; and then that information goes to the amygdala for the assignment of emotion to the thing you are seeing (if it is living). And then what? Well, then that information goes to some other part of the brain where memories are stored. And then what? Well, that provokes a pattern recognition in your memory of a previous event involving the object. And then what? Then that information goes again to the emotional centers to provoke the emotions you have associated with that memory. And the chain keeps going. It never stops. All these components of brain function that we’ve identified just keep going around in circles. The brain talks to itself, it receives new information, it activates circuits and networks, which provokes other networks, on and on until you die.