Your Brain at Work

Most of what you read about neuroscience in the popular media–particularly about parts of the brain “lighting up” and what that indicates–vastly oversimplifies how the brain works and is not instructive at all. Advances in technology and statistics are helping to create a more accurate and informative model of neuroscience. Rather than looking at how individual brain regions activate, this model studies how networks of brain regions work together. This model helps us understand what's happening in the mind during important knowledge work, such as creative thinking, decision making, multitasking, and the pursuit of rewards. The model is teaching us that we need to throw out the conventional wisdom about many of those activities.