In his provocative, mind-bending book "The Secret Life of the Mind," neuroscientist Mariano Sigman reveals his life’s work exploring the inner workings of the human brain.
Why you should listen
Mariano Sigman, a physicist by training, is a leading figure in the cognitive neuroscience of learning and decision making. Sigman was awarded a Human Frontiers Career Development Award, the National Prize of Physics, the Young Investigator Prize of "College de France," the IBM Scalable Data Analytics Award and is a scholar of the James S. McDonnell Foundation. In 2016 he was made a Laureate of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
In The Secret Life of the Mind, Sigman's ambition is to explain the mind so that we can understand ourselves and others more deeply. He shows how we form ideas during our first days of life, how we give shape to our fundamental decisions, how we dream and imagine, why we feel certain emotions, how the brain transforms and how who we are changes with it. Spanning biology, physics, mathematics, psychology, anthropology, linguistics, philosophy and medicine, as well as gastronomy, magic, music, chess, literature and art, The Secret Life of the Mind revolutionizes how neuroscience serves us in our lives, revealing how the infinity of neurons inside our brains manufacture how we perceive, reason, feel, dream and communicate.
What others say
Sigman provides vivid depictions of foundational behavioral psychology experiments...[His] book's exhaustive survey of experiments is, overall, enlightening, and Sigman's clear passion for neuroscience makes it easy to browse.
Mariano Sigman’s TED Talks
More news and ideas from Mariano Sigman
Science
How can we improve democracy? One intriguing idea: Set up a jury system.
November 21, 2017
Collective wisdom might best be found when small groups of people are given a chance to discuss and deliberate, say social scientists Dan Ariely, Gerry Garbulsky, Joaquin Navajas and Mariano Sigman. Could this suggest a better way to vote?
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The fascinating reason that children write letters backwards
August 8, 2017
Hint: it has something to do with why we believe the earth is flat until we're taught otherwise in school. Neuroscientist Mariano Sigman explains how the process of learning involves a certain amount of un-learning what we intuitively know.
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Mind and meaning: The talks of Session 5 of TED2017
April 26, 2017
How can we better understand the world within and around us? In the thought-provoking fifth session of TED2017, hosted by TED’s Editorial Director, Helen Walters, talks about neuroscience, philosophy, cognitive science — and a special experiment in behavioral science — explored issues like filter bubbles, Alzheimer’s and the very essence of existence. Below, recaps of […]
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