Mind Reads; February/March 2007; Scientific American Mind; by Kurt Kleiner, Jonathan Beard, Nicole Branan, Phil Cohen; 2 Page(s)

Your brain is a highly efficient choosing machine, a biological computer designed by evolution to make the best possible choices using the least possible resources.

If you doubt it, just touch the top of your head. The fact that it is only warm and not hot, like the processor in your desktop computer, is testament to your brain's efficiency. And that we are alive at all is evidence that the choices our brains make are pretty good ones. Baylor College of Medicine neuroscientist Read Montague shows how this need for efficient choice has shaped the way our brains work.