Five or six years ago，I attended a lecture on the science of attention．A professor who conducts（主持）research over in the medical school was talking about attention blindness，the basic feature（特征）of the human brain that，when we concentrate on one task，causes us to miss just about everything else．Because we can't see what we can't see，our lecturer was determined to catch us in the act．He had us watch a video of six people tossing （投掷） basketballs back and forth，three in white shirts and three in black，and our task was to keep track only of the tosses among the people in white．The tape rolled，and everyone began counting．

Everyone except me．I'm dyslexic （患阅读困难症的），and the moment I saw that tape with the confusing basketball tossers，I knew I wouldn't be able to keep track of their movements，so I let my mind wander．I became curious，though，when about 30seconds into the tape，a gorilla （大猩猩） walked in among the players．She （we later learned a female student was in the gorilla suit） stared at the camera，beat her chest with her fist，and then went away while they continued passing the balls．

When the tape stopped，the professor asked how many people had counted at least a dozen basketball tosses．Hands went up all over．He then asked who had counted 13，14，and congratulated those who'd scored the perfect 15．Then he asked，"And who saw the gorilla？"

I raised my hand and was surprised to discover I was the only person at my table and one of only three or four in the large room to do so．He'd set us up，trapping us in our own attention blindness．Yes，there had been a trick，but he wasn't the one who had played it on us．By concentrating so hard on counting，we had managed to miss the gorilla in the midst．

Attention blindness is the fundamental organizing principle of the brain，and I believe that it presents us with a great opportunity．My take is different from that of many neural（神经学）scientists：Where they see