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  • Published: 26 June 2025
  • ISBN: 9781804956113
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $29.99
Categories:

A Trick Of The Mind

How the Brain Invents Your Reality





How does your mind work? Daniel Yon pieces together cutting-edge research to argue that the brain is a scientist, conjuring up theories to make sense of the world that surrounds it. This radical book will profoundly reshape how we think about how we think.

How does your brain decide what it’s seeing, from the physical world to other people? For decades, scientists have tried to understand how our brains work, not realising that the answer lies much closer to home than it seems.

The latest research in neuroscience and psychology suggests that the brain is doing the same thing that the scientists are: using past experiences to build theories of how the world works, and using these models to predict and make sense of it. Through this process, your brain constructs the reality that you live in.

In this book Daniel Yon takes the research one step further, uncovering how your brain colours your perception of the world, the judgements you make about other people and the beliefs you form about yourself. With transformative applications for how we engage with other communities and approach mental illness, A Trick of The Mind will revolutionise the way you think.

  • Published: 26 June 2025
  • ISBN: 9781804956113
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $29.99
Categories:

Praise for A Trick Of The Mind

A fascinating insight into how your brain conjures up its picture of the surrounding world, models the inner mental states of others, and understands itself. This book will profoundly change the way you consider your own mind

Lewis Dartnell, bestselling author of THE KNOWLEDGE, ORIGINS and BEING HUMAN

Your brain, and with it, your mind is isolated inside your skull. And yet we are not lonely. We experience ourselves moving freely through a world of things, people, and ideas. In this delightful book Daniel Yon reveals how our brain makes this possible. His paints the brain as a scientist using the crude data from our sense to make models of the world. Yon’s story is firmly based on complex empirical studies, many conducted by him and his colleagues. He guides the reader through them all with wit and clarity. You will not a find a more up-to-date or more compelling account of how a mind emerges from the brain

Chris Frith – Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at University College London

A dazzling exploration of the "skull-bound scientist" in your head — juggling expectations, sensations, and past experiences to make sense of the world. Blending lucid, lively science with wit and wonderlust, Yon takes readers on a journey through baseball coaches, medieval mystics, Jimi Hendrix, and Borges’ Infinite Library, all while probing the power of uncertainty and the perils of overconfidence. The science hooks you, the storytelling keeps you, and the humour makes it unforgettable.

Cecilia Heyes, Professor of Psychology, All Souls College, University of Oxford

Are you seeing the world as it truly is? A Trick of the Mind shatters the illusion of objective reality, revealing how our brains actively construct our perceptions, often shaping them in surprising and misleading ways. With captivating storytelling and cutting-edge science, neuroscientist Daniel Yon explores the power and the perils of the brain's internal models, offering a provocative look at the hidden forces shaping our thoughts, beliefs, and even our sanity. Prepare to question everything you thought you knew

Daniel Z. Lieberman, author of THE MOLECULE OF MORE
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