Meet your brain – Who's in charge here anyway? (2011)

Bruce Hood

Who's in control – you or your brain? Your conscious thoughts are only the tip of the iceberg. Every minute your brain is bombarded with information, and you are aware of only a tiny fraction of it.

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A still from the Bruce Long 2011 CHRISTMAS LECTURE
Credit: Royal Institution

Lecture 2 - Who's in charge here?

Who's in control – you or your brain? Your conscious thoughts are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all the activity going on inside your head. Every minute your brain is bombarded with information – sights, sounds, smells, feelings – and you are aware of only a tiny fraction of it.

How does your brain decide what to trust and what to ignore, all without you even knowing? What sneaky shortcuts does it take to speed up your mental ability? Why is multi-tasking so dangerous?

Using some surprising illusions and lots of audience participation, Bruce Hood makes you say the wrong thing and fail to see what's right in front of you. Can you really believe your eyes? Possibly not!

About the 2011 CHRISTMAS LECTURES

Inside each and every one of us is the most marvellous structure in the known universe – the human brain. Our brains make us who we are, yet how they work has long been a mystery. We all know that we think, but not how we think.

But in the last few years, science has started to reveal this hidden and complex world. In these lectures, Bruce Hood explores what we know about how our brains work, and how these remarkable organs make us truly human. He looks at how you create your own version of reality, what makes your brain decide which information to trust and which to ignore (without you even knowing) and why you are programmed to read other people's minds.