The Wandering Mind : What the Brain Does When You-re Not Looking

While psychologists write bestsellers about humans’ smarter side – language, cognition, consciousness – and self-help gurus harangue us to be attentive and mindful, we all know that much of the time our minds are just goofing off. So what does the brain do when you’re not looking? Rooted in neuroscience, psychology and evolutionary biology but written with Corballis’s signature wit and wisdom, The Wandering Mind takes us into the world of the ‘default-mode network’ to tackle the big questions. What do rats dream about? What’s with our fiction addiction? Is the hippocampus where free will takes a holiday? And does mind-wandering drive creativity? In Pieces of Mind, Michael Corballis took 21 short walks around the human brain. In The Wandering Mind he stretches out for a longer hike into those murky regions of the brain where dreams and religion, fiction and fantasy lurk. Michael C. Corballis is professor emeritus at the University of Auckland. An outstanding science communicator, reviewers have hailed him for his ability to tell ‘a captivating story’ and writing that is ‘informative and entertaining’. He is author, most recently, of The Recursive Mind: The Origins of Human Language, Thought and Civilization and Pieces of Mind: 21 Short Walks around the Human Brain, which was translated into three languages and published in three English-language editions. Written in Michael Corballis’s trademark witty and wise yet easy and entertaining style. Expert insights into the deepest recesses of the human brain and our creative abilities, drawn from the latest science.

Featured in the 26 May 2014 New Zealand newsletter.
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