The Illusionist Brain Quotes

“Curiously enough, unlike voluntary movements or behaviors, which are under the control of circuits in the cerebral cortex, automated procedures, once learned, are guided at a subcortical level, without conscious control. In fact, if you stop to think about an automated procedure in a conscious way, you become discombobulated and cannot accomplish the task correctly. For unconscious automatism to function properly, it is better to be distracted, to avoid thinking about the steps or components of the learned task.”
― Jordi Camí, The Illusionist Brain: The Neuroscience of Magic

“the unconscious machinery of the brain is responsible for most cognitive functions, in addition to taking care of vital functions such as controlling breathing, heart rate, temperature, and insulin secretion. The unconscious brain solves the great puzzle of reconstructing reality and predicting the immediate future. In an uncountable number of calculations per second, it is constantly making automatic and instinctive decisions. However, we are aware of only the results of the brain’s operations, not of the operations themselves. To paraphrase the neuroscientist David Eagleman, it is as if “the brain runs its show incognito.”1”
― Jordi Camí, The Illusionist Brain: The Neuroscience of Magic

“operations are done in a learned, automatic, and unconscious way. Generally, we probably overestimate the role of the conscious brain; most of what we feel, think, and do is not under its control. It is the unconscious brain that allows us to survive in a world that requires us to constantly process a huge amount of information.a”
― Jordi Camí, The Illusionist Brain: The Neuroscience of Magic

“The Conception of Reality We Are Our Memories Perception of the Outside World As we have discussed, the perception of reality that is built up in our brains is an illusory inner image that does not directly correspond to the world around us. Outside, colors do not exist; the brain constructs them through the action of electromagnetic waves that stimulate the various cones of the retina. Nor are there any sounds in nature; instead, variations in air pressure cause small filaments in the cochlea of the inner ear to vibrate, triggering nerve impulses. Both colors and sounds are illusions produced in the brain.”
― Jordi Camí, The Illusionist Brain: The Neuroscience of Magic

“The amygdala processes this information so quickly that we unconsciously feel the mood of our interlocutor long before we even recognize the person, and therefore long before we have analyzed all the visual information provided by their face. Interestingly, these clues used to appreciate a picture are the same clues used to perceive, quickly and effectively, the real world.8”
― Jordi Camí, The Illusionist Brain: The Neuroscience of Magic

“we select and attend to only a small part of the information we receive. Moreover, what the retina transmits to the brain is not a reliable reproduction. It is rather a type of information transformed to highlight edges, differences, and contrasts. Different parts of the brain will then use these elements to sequentially construct the image. Therefore, it is really the brain that sees, not the eyes.”
― Jordi Camí, The Illusionist Brain: The Neuroscience of Magic