Brainaction

The brain conserves its resources by consigning the great bulk of its routine operations to automatic processing beyond conscious awareness. The automatic use of preset responses makes the brain action relatively effortless. The brain reserves most of its neuronal activity for...

The vagaries of demand, particularly the amount of effort needed for self-initiated thought, explain the human weaknesses that Hitler mocked and exploited (see Self-awareness). Daniel Kahnemann (2011) in his book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” analyses the dualistic processing he terms...

A form of dualism, the bipolar opposites of consciously directable mental function versus the brain’s unconscious automatic operations, governs brain action (see Descartes). ‘I think, therefore I am” gives consciously directed thought deserved preeminence. The many different ways that brains bring to...