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  • The Secret Life of the Mind

  • How Our Brain Thinks, Feels and Decides
  • By: Mariano Sigman
  • Narrated by: Peter Noble
  • Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (12 ratings)

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The Secret Life of the Mind

By: Mariano Sigman
Narrated by: Peter Noble
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Publisher's Summary

A vast yet compact view of cognitive neuroscience, a groundbreaking, personal and comprehensive guide into understanding our thoughts.

In the last 20 years, Mariano Sigman has journeyed to the core of the brain, an organ formed by nearly an infinity of neurons that manufacture how we perceive, reason, feel, dream and communicate.

After more than two decades of research, he has zoomed out from a thorough excursion to the neurons to seeing the brain from afar, where thoughts begin to take shape. And at this point, where psychology meets neuroscience, The Secret Life of the Mind combines the astonishing work of biologists, physicists, mathematicians, psychologists, anthropologists, linguists, engineers, philosophers and medical doctors - not to forget cooks, magicians, musicians, chess players, writers and artists. It is an astonishing synthesis of a life's expertise on the edge of science, for fans of Thinking, Fast and Slow.

Looking into how we forge ideas in our first days of life, how we shape the decisions that define us, why we dream and how years and years of formal and informal education change our brains, this book explores how we begin to understand even the smallest things that make up who and what we are.

©2015 Mariano Sigman (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic Reviews

"Mariano Sigman writes and thinks in a uniquely provocative way. He is a gifted cognitive neuroscientist, and we are lucky to have him excavating the secret life of the mind. He makes learning about the mind and brain easy and almost automatic. He is the Richard Feynman of the brain." (Andrew Meltzoff, professor of psychology, the University of Washington; coauthor of The Scientist in the Crib)

What listeners say about The Secret Life of the Mind

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating, remarkable, insightful.

What a fantastic listen this is. It is so crammed full of information and covers such a broad range of topics I will defiantly need to listen several times.

And beyond purely information, Sigman interprets clinical research, both his and others, to give a truly comprehensive insight into current understanding of how our brain works and why we behave the way we do.

And still further, there are philosophical issues contemplated like recreational drug use and the meaning of "normal".

Me only disappointment with the book, and why I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars , is that it is too short. There was so much more detail I wanted to hear about and so many topics are cut a little short.

The narration is very good and instils a lot of meaning and is neat faultless.

I can't imagine anyone interested in how our minds work and why we behave and think the way we do not being truly entertained and fascinated by this book.

Highly recommended.

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