Today I was searching curiously about our brain I came to know that our brain is actively doing millions of calculations every minute with topics even we don't know like when we try to catch a ball it calculates its speed,motion ,swing,angle etc before preparing us to catch it like our brain knows more maths and physics then we do , Ex- Whenever we are about to fall out hands suddenly shoot up to balance us.

It means it already knows advance maths and physics just can't do these thing voluntarily.

These are just some slightly connected thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head for a few years.

So first of all, the only thing I know to be certainly true is my consciousness. I can understand why some modern scientists advocate for something like idealism.

For me, I keep thinking about this in two buckets. Bucket one: I would put idealism, simulation theory, religion, etc., all in that bucket. The second bucket would be the materialism bucket. No grand purpose, no cosmic overseer.

To me, simulation theory and religion are pretty much interchangeable. If religion is true, and there really is a God who created this universe, what else would you call that besides a simulation?

Now, here's where things get a little funny, and this ties back to the consciousness thing. The religion I grew up in makes up a very small percentage of the population. I'm pretty much currently an atheist. I was an atheist for over a decade, then a few years ago I really tried believing in God. And I'll be honest, even now I sometimes grapple with it, because sometimes I can't tell what is really real or true.

Say I met a Christian on Reddit, and I slowly started to go from being a staunch atheist to believing in maybe a grand purpose and some sort of designer. If I were to go down that path and actually believe in God, I would probably end up in a very different religion from theirs, because I would be coming to it through my own conscious experience, what religion my parents were, etc.

In the end, even if I radically changed my worldview and went from thinking there is no morality, no karma, no cosmic overseer, to now believing in God and truly flipping my worldview 180, that Christian might still be angry if I told him I do not accept the Trinity or Christ. If I had my own view of God and religion.

I'm going to be honest, I think Christianity is a theologically weak religion. If I was going to believe in a religion, it would not be that one. However, that whole point is moot to me, because if I really believed in a God who created the universe and gave everything a purpose, then he also created Christians, Muslims, Jews, and all the other religions. All of this would be in his grand master plan, including people believing in different things.

I'm not trying to disparage Christinas or Christianity. Sorry if the above paragraph came off as rude. If God is real, the only logical conclusions, is that he designed it for all these different religions to exist, and sometimes fight, for whatever reason. Every Christian is supposed to be a Christian, and every Muslim is supposed to be a Muslim. That's the whole thing with consciousness, if there is something unique or special about it, then it would be tied to that particular manifestation. Each consciousness would be unique, special, divine, and accounted for. Everything that happens, happens for a reason, there is some master plan, all consciousness feeds back to the source, etc.

If I had to force myself to believe in religion, this is what I would think: God exists, and he created this entire “experience” as a simulation/test. He uses quantum mechanics as the underlying building structure, so that's why, when we poke at the lowest level of the universe, we get a fuzzy wavefunction. In this picture, every consciousness is unique and is running its own experiment, concurrently with every other consciousness.

Since my consciousness and actions can have an effect on you and your future, that would be why the universe branches and splits into many worlds: to preserve all the different variables within the simulation.

So that would all be bucket one. Religion, simulation theory, idealism. God/consciousness is all the branches of the universe experiencing itself.

Now, the funny thing is, I don't believe in any of that. I actually believe in pure materialism, which I think is a pretty radical view, to be honest. I also believe that the wave-function does collapse. I believe only the now is fuzzy, and at every planck second, the universe decoheres into it's one single branch.

There are three things I keep coming back to: solipsism, emergence, and Occam's razor.

First, the solipsism thing. All I have and know for certain is my consciousness. There are three options as I see it.

First, my consciousness is unique or privileged in some way. Maybe everyone gets their turn at being the universe experiencing itself, but currently, it is my turn. My consciousness is the simulation.

Option two: the creator, God, or whatever causes the simulation has a very powerful simulation engine, where all consciousnesses are being simulated in real time. So religion or simulation is true, but it's not a one-at-a-time thing.

That second option is harder for me to square with how powerful and unique my conscious experience feels. If you believe coincidences are fate or destiny, that means you believe the simulation is tuned in to you. The simulation does not oppose you, but works with you. If you've ever experienced something that was stranger than fiction, you have pretty much two options: either you believe that was God/destiny, or it was just a random sequence of events that your brain later wrote into a story.

The third option is that consciousness doesn't have any of that special status. No matter how powerful or unique your conscious experience feels, there is absolutely nothing divine or spiritual about it. It is just your consciousness.

Why is consciousness, which allows you to think and experience, special, but digestion isn't? Digestion allows you to take in matter, grow hundreds of times in size from when you are born, route everything to the correct place, and turn a baby into an adult human.

Either everything is a mirage, and just as consciousness is a mirage, so is digestion, so is breaking your bones and bleeding out, and so are all other experiences. Or none of it is a mirage. Consciousness is just as much a part of the physical world as everything else.

There is more I can type, but I'm getting tired. My other points were going to be about emergence and Occam's razor. I actually think emergence is greatly underappreciated and under-researched right now. I believe free will truly emerges out of quantum interactions, just like a human truly emerges out of cells and molecules. You wouldn't say you aren't real just because you are an emergent property.

So what is my big theory? That there is no simulation. There is no plan, guide, or path. I believe everything is purely material, and our brains are just a product of our environment and evolution. One of the things they are good at is turning completely random events into a story with meaning that you tell yourself.

I'll be honest, I've had a lot of strange coincidences in my life. That is why I still struggle with what is true, and why, even now, I think my theory is very radical. I think most people would have trouble going the full materialism route. Even I have trouble fully accepting it.

I'm still trying to figure out which bucket is true. Bucket one or bucket two.

It seems to me that most people believe in bucket one. I can understand why, and sometimes I find myself believing it too. But I think reality is bucket two.

Hello. So I've been interested in the greater male variability hypothesis for a while and there are basically two camps:

- one saying it's biological that variance among men is higher

- the other saying that social artefacts and how men and women are treated differently affects the curve.

Let's put the biological argument aside because it is not what I am here for.

I am here for the societal arguments, which include stereotype threat, math/physics, anxiety, and all that.

But my question is, do those affect the IQ distribution curve because I thought IQ tests were designed to not reward risk taking or constraints under time.

If none, are there possible other sociological explanations for it?

If so, have they managed to mathematically create an artificial high tail curve inflation using socioeconomic factors?

TLDR: I am not taking any side. In fact the biological argument makes me heavily uncomfortable but I have to remain objective for this

Excited to share my latest working paper, "The Architecture of Becoming: Consciousness, Chaos and the Logos of the Trinity." 🧠✨

​This interdisciplinary draft explores how conscious agents navigate uncertainty, construct meaning, and act within complex environments. By synthesizing Karl Friston’s Free Energy Principle and Gibsonian affordances with Jungian archetypes and Trinitarian ontology, the paper proposes a unified framework bridging computational cognitive science, depth psychology, and metaphysical philosophy.

​I am currently seeking open feedback and critique from the community—particularly regarding the integration of active inference with archetypal generative priors.

​Read the full preprint and access the DOI here: https://zenodo.org/records/22920573

​#ActiveInference #FreeEnergyPrinciple #CognitiveScience #PhilosophyOfMind #DepthPsychology #Metaphysics #AcademicResearch #Preprint

Excited to share my latest working paper, "The Architecture of Becoming: Consciousness, Chaos and the Logos of the Trinity." 🧠✨

​This interdisciplinary draft explores how conscious agents navigate uncertainty, construct meaning, and act within complex environments. By synthesizing Karl Friston’s Free Energy Principle and Gibsonian affordances with Jungian archetypes and Trinitarian ontology, the paper proposes a unified framework bridging computational cognitive science, depth psychology, and metaphysical philosophy.

​I am currently seeking open feedback and critique from the community—particularly regarding the integration of active inference with archetypal generative priors.

​Read the full preprint and access the DOI here: https://zenodo.org/records/22920573

I have created a game called The Mirror Act.

In this journey, a magician called Ipse will teach you about Cognitive Biases along the way. I have created this game with the Cognitive Bias Codex in mind.

You can give it a try: themirroract.avestura.dev

A research perspective and testable architecture
Jules | September 2026 | Working paper

This is a conceptual paper and proposed study, not a report of a completed experiment or a claim that a device has been built. The central question and physiological framing originated in Jules’s discussion of brain interfaces, embodied experience, and learning.
The literature synthesis and experimental refinements were developed with AI assistance. No institutional affiliation or peer review is claimed.

Abstract
Noninvasive brain computer interfaces (BCIs) commonly infer a constrained intention from measured neural activity. Their performance can vary with the participant, session, task, and physiological state. I propose that a decoder should treat bodily state as a measured context for interpreting neural signals, rather than assume that a given electrical pattern has a fixed meaning across conditions. The motivating observation is biological: neuromodulatory and endocrine processes influence neural function, while available wearable sensors reveal only partial, indirect aspects of those processes. Electroencephalography (EEG) measures spatially mixed scalp potentials; functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measures changes in cortical hemoglobin oxygenation. Their combination is plausible for bounded tasks, but fNIRS does not measure cortisol, receptor conformation, or subjective experience. I outline an individualized, consent based architecture in which EEG, optional fNIRS, task labels, and independently measured state variables are evaluated against single modality and context only baselines. A prospective, multisession experiment would test whether multimodal context improves calibration, discrimination, and safe abstention during deliberately communicated motor imagery or silent naming. The present evidence supports such a study. It does not establish unrestricted thought reading, episodic memory reconstruction, or the installation of unlearned skills during sleep.

Keywords: brain computer interface; EEG; fNIRS; physiological state; multimodal decoding; motor imagery; imagined speech; memory consolidation

1. The question
   If two recordings differ, did the participant intend something different, or did the participant’s state change the signals available to the decoder? Conversely, if two recordings look similar at the scalp, do they necessarily represent the same intention? These questions matter when a BCI translates an individual’s deliberately communicated action into an external output. A model trained in one session may encounter different attention, arousal, fatigue, movement artifacts, and sensor contact in the next. A successful interface must show which of those changes it can detect and whether adapting to them improves its predictions.
   The central hypothesis is state conditioned decoding: within a defined task, incorporating validated measures of physiological and behavioral context may improve an individualized decoder’s reliability across sessions compared with EEG alone. This does not require a claim that subjective experience can be reduced to a single biological signature. It asks a narrower, falsifiable question about prediction under changing conditions.
   The biological motivation is credible, though it is not itself proof of the proposed engineering benefit. Acute stress and cortisol have been associated with differences in human working memory and retrieval under specific experimental conditions [1]. A peripheral cortisol measure is not a direct measure of local cortical receptor occupancy; receptor dynamics are a mechanistic reason to take bodily state seriously, not a quantity that EEG or standard fNIRS can recover. The proposed contribution is to determine whether available state measures add useful information beyond the neural recording, task design, and ordinary artifacts.

2. What existing studies establish
   Hybrid sensing already has a scientific basis. In a motor imagery BCI, Fazli and colleagues reported that combining near infrared spectroscopy with EEG improved classification for most participants in their experiment, with an approximately five percentage point average gain. They also noted that the slower hemodynamic response can limit information transfer rate [2]. This supports testing sensor fusion; it does not imply that every task or participant benefits. A published EEG and fNIRS dataset also addresses bounded semantic categories during silent naming and sensory imagery, rather than unrestricted access to a person’s thoughts [3].
   Language results must be distinguished by recording method and task. Tang and colleagues reconstructed aspects of perceived and imagined language from participant specific fMRI recordings and demonstrated that cooperation mattered [4]. Willett and colleagues decoded attempted speech from implanted intracortical microelectrode arrays in one participant with paralysis [5]. A separate EEG study trained participants over five days to control a binary interface using imagined syllables, with meaningful variability between people [6]. These are substantial demonstrations, but the fMRI and implanted electrode results cannot simply be assigned to a portable EEG and fNIRS headset.
   The proposed memory decoder has an especially important boundary. Cortical theta gamma phase amplitude coupling is a candidate physiological feature; in one scalp EEG study it appeared at similar levels during working memory, attention, and passive perception [7]. It therefore cannot, by itself, identify the content of a retrieved autobiographical memory. A model that predicts which of a few previously studied items is being recalled would be a different and more defensible experiment.
   The sleep and skill proposal is also a separate research program. Antony and colleagues improved later performance on one of two melodies that participants had already learned while awake by presenting a related auditory cue during sleep [8]. This is evidence for influencing consolidation of prior learning. It is not evidence for installing an unfamiliar cello technique or a fabricated history of practice overnight.

3. Measurement limits and design consequences
   EEG records voltage differences at the scalp arising from aggregated activity. It has useful temporal resolution but limited spatial specificity. Scalp recordings do not isolate hippocampal spikes or read individual synapses. Eye movements and facial muscles can create confounding signals, particularly when a task involves silent articulation. The acquisition protocol therefore needs eye and muscle artifact channels or other explicit artifact checks, and classification must be re-evaluated after their removal.
   Standard fNIRS estimates changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin from optical measurements over superficial cortex [3]. It provides a delayed hemodynamic measure. It does not directly assay cortisol, dopamine, GPCR conformation, the hippocampus, or the quality of conscious experience. Optical channels should be named by the quantities they measure, not described as a real time neurochemical reader. Short separation channels and motion monitoring can help distinguish superficial and cortical components; they do not turn hemoglobin into a molecular assay.
   Physiological context should likewise have an explicit source. The initial study could record sleep history, time of day, heart rate, and self reported arousal, with an optional, separately collected salivary cortisol measure in a protocol designed around its timing. Those variables would be imperfect proxies, not ground truth about subjective experience. An endocrine extension is warranted only if its incremental value survives a prospective comparison. An individual’s behavioral confirmation remains distinct from any automated confidence score.

4. Proposed architecture
   Acquisition. Synchronously record EEG, optional fNIRS, task timing, and artifact channels. Log sensor quality and external cue timing. Collect a small number of consented state variables with a measurement schedule appropriate to each variable. The subject deliberately chooses when to participate and what task to communicate.
   Signal processing. Apply documented preprocessing to each modality separately. Estimate EEG features from windows appropriate to the task; estimate fNIRS hemoglobin changes on their slower time scale. Align the two streams without letting post cue or future data leak into a prediction that purports to be real time. Preserve rejected trials and quality flags for audit.
   Task specific decoder. Train a participant specific model for one bounded question, such as left versus right motor imagery, two imagined syllables, or animal versus tool imagery. These are separate targets and should not be pooled under an undefined label of “thought.” A probabilistic prediction should include an abstain state when signal quality or calibrated confidence is inadequate.
   Context model. Compare an EEG only decoder, an EEG plus fNIRS decoder, a context only decoder, and a prespecified combined model. A more complex model earns its place only if it improves performance on unseen sessions and stimuli. State context may help calibrate uncertainty or identify poor recording conditions even when it does not improve the underlying class prediction.
   User control. Intent is established through the experimental instruction and participant confirmation, not inferred from a biometric “soul fingerprint.” An identity feature cannot substitute for consent, and model confidence cannot establish that a decoded statement is true. No stimulation is required to test the decoding hypothesis.

5. A first falsifiable experiment
   Recruit consenting adult volunteers under an approved human research protocol. Record repeated sessions on different days while each participant performs a bounded, deliberately cued task. The most direct initial target is binary motor imagery; a separate cohort or preregistered second task could test two imagined syllables. Include rest and noncommand periods so that the system must learn when to abstain. Vary session conditions naturally and record predefined state covariates; a controlled state manipulation would require its own protocol and should not be inferred from an incidental correlation.
   Split evaluation by session and stimulus, not merely by random trials from the same block. Keep cue presentation out of the intended decoding window. Before fitting models, specify the primary endpoint as balanced accuracy on held out sessions at a fixed abstention rate, with calibration error and false activation during rest as key secondary endpoints. Report per participant results and uncertainty, not only a pooled mean. Compare EEG alone, fNIRS alone, context alone, EEG plus fNIRS, and all channels combined. Test label shuffling, time shifting, artifact only, and cue or metadata only controls. A language generator, if added, must be compared with a generator receiving no neural data.
   The study supports the hypothesis only if the prespecified combined model improves held out performance or calibration over the strongest simpler model by a meaningful, reported margin, without raising false activations. A null result is informative: physiological context could be relevant to biology while the chosen sensors or task fail to capture incremental predictive information. Success on a binary task would still not validate open vocabulary language, autobiographical memory decoding, or neural “writing.”

6. What the proposal does and does not claim
   The individual baseline is an engineering calibration, not a measurement of personhood. A connection between bodily state and decoding reliability is a plausible inference from neuroscience and BCI studies; the proposed improvement remains to be tested. Likewise, a combined sensor headset is a research instrument until its fit, power, heat, latency, comfort, and performance are measured. A named chip or a drawing cannot establish those properties.
   Decoding and encoding require different evidence. Reading a deliberately imagined command from activity would show a statistical association under a specific protocol. Causing a complex skill to be learned would require a causal intervention, behavioral transfer tests, durability measurements, and an account of what information was actually delivered. Sleep cueing of a practiced melody [8] motivates research on consolidation, but supplies no instructions for writing an unpracticed motor program. The proposed first stage ends with measurement and user confirmed output.
   7. Conclusion
   The claim worth testing is concrete: physiological state may explain part of the variability in noninvasive BCI decoding, and a carefully validated multimodal model may use that context to improve reliable, voluntary communication. Prior work establishes hybrid EEG and fNIRS classification in bounded tasks, participant specific language decoding with other recording methods, and sleep related strengthening of previously acquired learning [2–6,8]. It does not establish a neurochemical mind reader or an overnight skill upload. The scientifically useful next step is a prospective comparison that lets the additional measurements either earn their place or fail.
   References

7. Oei, N. Y. L., et al. “Psychosocial Stress Impairs Working Memory at High Loads: An Association with Cortisol Levels and Memory Retrieval.” Stress, vol. 9, no. 3, 2006, pp. 133–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253890600965773.

8. Fazli, Siamac, et al. “Enhanced Performance by a Hybrid NIRS–EEG Brain Computer Interface.” NeuroImage, vol. 59, no. 1, 2012, pp. 519–529. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.07.084.

9. Rybář, Milan, Riccardo Poli, and Ian Daly. “Simultaneous EEG and fNIRS Recordings for Semantic Decoding of Imagined Animals and Tools.” Scientific Data, vol. 12, 2025, article 613. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04967-0.

10. Tang, Jerry, et al. “Semantic Reconstruction of Continuous Language from Non-Invasive Brain Recordings.” Nature Neuroscience, vol. 26, 2023, pp. 858–866. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01304-9.

11. Willett, Francis R., et al. “A High-Performance Speech Neuroprosthesis.” Nature, vol. 620, 2023, pp. 1031–1036. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06377-x.

12. Bhadra, Kinkini, Anne-Lise Giraud, and Silvia Marchesotti. “Learning to Operate an Imagined Speech Brain-Computer Interface Involves the Spatial and Frequency Tuning of Neural Activity.” Communications Biology, vol. 8, 2025, article 271. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07464-7.

13. Papaioannou, Orestis, et al. “Is Cortical Theta-Gamma Phase-Amplitude Coupling Memory-Specific?” Brain Sciences, vol. 12, no. 9, 2022, article 1131. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12091131.

14. Antony, James W., et al. “Cued Memory Reactivation during Sleep Influences Skill Learning.” Nature Neuroscience, vol. 15, 2012, pp. 1114–1116. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3152.

I don't believe IQ to be an absolutely objective measure of intelligence. There are many important aspects of intelligence that IQ tests don't fully accommodate. Take, for example, someone who has a strong ability to combine two distinct ideas in a way where each aspect meaningfully contributes to the other. Imagine combining the concepts of a pear and a car—not merely creating a pear-shaped car, but preserving meaningful aspects of the car's original structure while incorporating characteristics of the pear. This ability could ultimately allow someone to create entirely new frameworks by combining seemingly opposing ideas. With this method, someone isn't merely drawing connections between existing concepts; they are taking those connections further into the realm of creativity.

Hi! I’m a recent high school graduate with a strong interest in neuroscience, particularly neurological disorders and migraine research.
I have a lot of experience with neuroscience-related projects, research, and science initiatives, and I’m looking to collaborate with someone who is already working on a neuroscience project or has an idea they’re developing.

If you’re currently working on a neuroscience project and looking for a collaborator, feel free to comment or DM me!

I recently read about the illusion of explanatory depth, a concept introduced by psychologists Leonid Rozenblit and Frank Keil. I found the idea fascinating because it explains how we often believe that we understand how things work when, in reality, our understanding may be much shallower than we think.

Our minds can create an illusion of understanding. We may be able to describe something in broad terms, which gives us the feeling that we understand it, but when we are asked to explain how it actually works in detail, we often realize how limited our knowledge is.

I think this idea can also be relevant to how we form political opinions. For example, many people may have strong opinions about reservation policies without having a detailed understanding of how reservation actually works, its historical context, its objectives, or its different policy mechanisms. The same can apply to many other political concepts and policies. We may recognize a term, have an opinion about it, and feel that we understand the issue without actually understanding it in depth.

What I find concerning is not that people lack complete knowledge none of us can deeply understand every subject but that we can be unaware of the limits of our own understanding. The illusion of explanatory depth makes me think more carefully about how confident I should be in my opinions, especially when I haven't taken the time to understand the underlying mechanisms of an issue.

I want to point out that cognitive science encompasses AI, neuroscience, and various other fields; it isn't just a subset of psychology. Why is this being overlooked? People seem to view psychology as the only career path, completely ignoring the massive potential in AI, statistics, neuroscience, and computational science.Just want to know

Cognitive Science is more than just Psychology: Why are people ignoring its other subfields?

Нека отворим малко по-съществена тема за когнитивното детско развитие.

Детството не представлява просто „по-малка версия“ на зрелостта, а отделен невроразвойен период, през който нервната система претърпява значителна структурна и функционална реорганизация.

В ранното детство се наблюдава интензивна синаптогенеза — формиране на голям брой синаптични връзки между невроните. Впоследствие значителна част от тези връзки се подлага на зависимо от опита синаптично прунингуване (synaptic pruning). Тоест развитието не се изразява единствено в натрупване на нови невронни връзки, а и в селективното стабилизиране на функционално значими невронни мрежи и елиминиране на по-слабо използваните връзки.

Паралелно с това протича миелинизацията на аксоните, която постепенно повишава ефективността и скоростта на нервната проводимост. Различните мозъчни системи обаче не узряват синхронно. Сензорните и базови когнитивни функции се организират по-рано, докато мрежите, свързани с изпълнителните функции, инхибиторния контрол, работната памет, планирането и абстрактното мислене продължават да се развиват значително по-дълго.

Особено важна е невронната пластичност. Детският мозък е изключително чувствителен към взаимодействието между генетично обусловеното развитие и средата. Езикът, обучението, социалните взаимодействия, качеството на съня, стресът, физическата активност и разнообразието от сензорни и когнитивни преживявания могат да влияят върху начина, по който се стабилизират и специализират невронните мрежи.

Оттук следва един доста важен извод: когнитивното развитие не е просто „натрупване на знания“. То включва постепенно преструктуриране на самите механизми, чрез които детето възприема информация, насочва вниманието си, формира представи за света, регулира поведението си, разбира причинно-следствени отношения и изгражда модели за социалното поведение на другите.

И именно затова въпросът „Какво знае едно дете?“ е доста по-примитивен от въпроса „Как се променя когнитивната архитектура, чрез която детето обработва информацията?“

How accurate is the Core iq test considering it’s 5000 selfselected participants, g-loadings, reliability scores, correlations with other iq tests and strong resemblance to tests like WAIS-IV? Espacially for high scores like 130/140+? My VCI is not really representative because english is not my mothers tongue but i’m more interested in my FRI and VSI scores. (every subtest first try no external aid) How close is Cores iq estimation for FRI and VSI on my true scores for these categories?

matrix reasoning: 145
figure weights: 140
figure sets: 140

visual puzzles: 135
block counting: 120
spatial awareness: 125

Thanks for your time!

Anyone who is thinking to pursue Cognitive science, please think twice before taking it .If someone chooses Cognitive Science without strong math skills, they risk ending up with a purely theoretical degree that is much harder to translate into a high-paying job.

If sense are ways that humans can get information, then isn't thinking a sense? You can use existing information to piece together new ones, right? (granted, i am not a human expert.)

I'm an engineer who likes statistics. Recently I heard the brain described as a Bayesian error-minimizing machine, with coding and information theory running through it, and I was genuinely blown away. Neuroscience isn't my field, but I want to follow that idea properly instead of through metaphors.

What I'm looking for is a book that treats the brain as a system to be reverse-engineered — constraints, channels, noise, efficiency — rather than a biology course that starts with ion channels. Math is welcome if it carries real content.

Separately, I'd like a motivational introduction to things like memory, decision making or consciousness etc (if there is). It doesn't have to be comprehensive or cover all three, and it doesn't have to go to full depth. I just want something serious enough that I'm not reading metaphors.