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"The terms "left-brained" and "right-brained" have come to refer to personality types in popular culture, with an assumption that people who use the right side of their brains more are more creative, thoughtful and subjective, while those who tap the left side more are more logical, detail-oriented and analytical."

"The premise here is that if brains somehow sustain the mind and we deconstruct the brain in detail and we put the information back together in powerful computers, we should be able to recreate consciousness from computer code. Or such is the hope, anyway. Since the brain integrates external stimuli to give us our experience of reality, would simulated brains be able to recreate reality? And if so, could we be fooled by a simulation, unable to distinguish reality and fantasy?"

When neuroscientist Andrew Newberg scanned the brain of ''Kevin'', a staunch atheist, while he was meditating, he made a fascinating discovery. ''Compared with the Buddhist monks and Franciscan nuns, whose brains I'd also scanned, Kevin's brain operated in a significantly different way,'' he says. ''He had far more activity in the prefrontal cortex, the area that controls emotional feelings and mediates attention. Kevin's brain appeared to be functioning in a highly analytical way, even when he was in a resting state.''

"Criminal courts in the United States are facing a surge in the number of defendants arguing that their brains were to blame for their crimes and relying on questionable scans and other controversial, unproven neuroscience, a legal expert who has advised the president has warned."

"Recent brain studies show extensive parallels between the effects of certain addictive drugs and experiences of being in love. Both activate the brain's reward system, can overwhelm us so that we forget about other things and can inspire withdrawal when they are no longer available. It seems it isn't just a cliché that love is like a drug: in terms of effects on the brain, they may be neurochemically equivalent."

In The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain, Tali Sharot argues that we have a neurobiological basis for imagining a positive future. "Humans," she writes, "do not hold a positivity bias on account of having read too many self-help books. Rather, optimism may be so essential to our survival that it is hardwired into our most complex organ, the brain."

"Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how "power posing" - standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don't feel confident - can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success."

"But what, exactly, lies behind this amorphous phenomenon we call "intuition"? That's precisely what CUNY philosophy professor Massimo Pigliucci explores in a chapter of Answers for Aristotle: How Science and Philosophy Can Lead Us to A More Meaningful Life (public library)."

"One of the most fascinating examples of heuristics and biases is what we call intuition - a complex cluster of cognitive processes, sometimes helpful but often misleading. Kahneman notes that thoughts come to mind in one of two ways: Either by "orderly computation," which involves a series of stages of remembering rules and then applying them, or by perception, an evolutionary function that allows us to predict outcomes based on what we're perceiving. (For instance, seeing a woman's angry face helps us predict the general sentiment and disposition of what she's about to say.) It is the latter mode that precipitates intuition. Kahneman explains the interplay:"