Free Brain Buys by Dean Buonomano

Acknowledgments
    I suspect I owe my fascination with the inner workings of the brain to my baby sister. The brain’s voyage from puzzled babyhood to dexterous adolescence leaves an indelible mark on anyone who witnesses that transformation. I thank my sister for her unknowing participation in a few of my early harebrained “studies,” and for her later enthusiastic encouragement of my slightly more sophisticated forays into neuroscience.
    One of the points of this book is that human memory is not well suited to store certain types of information, such as names. So in an effort to decrease the amount of information that the majority of readers may not need to know, I sometimes omitted the names of the authors of studies from the main text. In the endnotes, however, I made every effort to attribute the findings to those scientists who are primarily responsible for them, but I apologize in advance for those instances in which I failed to give credit where credit is due.
    It is an unfortunate fact of science that not all scientific findings prove to be correct in the long run. Progress in science requires that multiple independent groups eventually replicate the findings of others. Initially exciting findings are sometimes ultimately proven to be incorrect, having been the result of statistical flukes, methodological oversights, poorly executed experiments, or even fraud. For this reason, to the extent possible, I attempted to limit the findings discussed to those that have already been replicated; and in an effort to convince myself and the reader of the veracity of a finding I attempt to cite more than one paper to substantiate the results in question. This is not to say that some of the topics and ideas presented are not highly speculative in nature—particularly attempts at linking psychological analyses of behavior to the underlying mechanisms at the level of synapses and neurons, as in the discussion of our susceptibility to marketing. But I have attempted throughout to convey what is accepted science and what is scientific speculation.
    This book would not have been possible without the help of a multitude of friends and colleagues. Their roles in this book take many forms: educating me on some of the material covered, reading one or more of the chapters, or simply not mocking my questions. The following people fall into one or more of these categories: Jim Adams, Shlomo Benartzi, Robert Boyd, Harvey Brown, Judy Buonomano, Alan Burdick, Alan Castel, Tiago Carvalho, Michelle Craske, Bruce Dobkins, Michael Fanselow, Paul Frankland, Azriel Ghadooshahy, Anubhuthi Goel, Bill Grisham, April Ho, Sheena Josselyn, Uma Karmarkar, Frank Krasne, Steve Kushner, Joe LeDoux, Tyler Lee, Kelsey Martin, Denise Matsui, Andreas Nieder, Kelley O’Donnell, Marco Randi, Alexander Rose, Fernanda Valentino, Andy Wallenstein, Carl Williams, and Chris Williams. I’d especially like to thank Jason Goldsmith for his thorough comments on much of the manuscript and his many stimulating suggestions.
    I would also like to express gratitude to my friends who over the years have generously shared their time, knowledge, and ideas, and nurtured my scientific meanderings. These include, but are not limited to, Jack Byrne, Tom Carew, Marie-Francoise Chesselet, Allison Doupe, Jack Feldman, Steve Lisberger, Mike Mauk, Mike Merzenich, and Jennifer Raymond. My own research has benefited from the support of the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation, as well as from the support of the departments of neurobiology and psychology at UCLA.
    I am grateful to Annaka Harris, my editors Laura Romain and Angela von der Lippe at Norton, and my agent Peter Tallack for their guidance and editorial expertise. Additionally, I am indebted to Annaka and Sam Harris for their invaluable advice and encouragement throughout every developmental stage of this book.
    I thank my wife, Ana, who not only indulged my wish to write this book, but provided