Jack would like to thank an awful lot of people. This book is dedicated to his loving parents Phil and Virginia Lewis for providing for an education they never had the opportunity to enjoy themselves, for many fascinating discussions about biology and psychology and for helping me believe deeply both in myself and that anything is possible if you set your mind to it. “So long as you can honestly say to yourself that you have given it your best – then that's good enough for us” was a consistent refrain growing up in the Lewis family household that made high performance easy by taking away all the stress. Points for effort rather than points for achievement was always the spirit of support in our home and it helped me not to panic when the pressure was on in innumerable situations. I am much obliged to my brother and sister, David and Mel, for putting up with their big brother with tolerance and amusement, despite decades of often eccentric behaviour.

I have had many excellent teachers all of whom I wish to thank for imparting their knowledge and a love of acquiring it to me over the years. I would like to thank all the teachers of North Ealing Primary and Middle school for moulding my brain nicely through childhood and those of Latymer Upper School for developing my intellectual, communication and sporting skills throughout adolescence. I have never enjoyed being taught more than during the lessons of my beloved biology teacher Marian Nott – who inspired my passion for the brain by strategically placing a magazine about neuroscience at the front of the class for me to find.

All the tutors that lectured me during my Neuroscience BSc at the University of Nottingham deserve high praise, in particular Dr Kevin Fone and Prof. Charles Marsden (whom we undergraduates often referred to as God based on his seeming omniscience). Of my many undergraduate neuroscience colleagues who never tired of putting up with my hare-brained ideas, nor begrudged me their lecture notes when it came to revision time – I must give special mention to Dr Kate Atherton, Dr John Messenger and Oxford University's Dr Andy Sharott. My dear friends of the OTM Collective deserve special mention for endlessly distracting my attention with flyering and flyposting duties. To build a successful club night from scratch whilst simultaneously earning a 1st class degree in neuroscience was no mean feat. Thanks for the challenge.

I owe a great debt of gratitude to Prof. Semir Zeki for taking me on to do my PhD at University College London and teaching me what being a scholar is all about; without doubt the most intellectually stimulating (and intimidating) experience of my life so far. To Dr Matt Self and Prof. Andreas Bartels who taught me everything I know about Matlab coding and fMRI studies. To “opt out” Ollie Hulme (PhD), Barrold Roulston (PhD), Ulrich Kirk (PhD) and all the other “baboons” of the Zeki lab for their help, moral support and for accompanying me to SOAS on so many great Friday nights for endlessly inspirational discussions about brains et al.

I would like to thank all the principal investigators at the FIL in Queen Square for opening my mind to the broad reaches of neuroscience research and for invaluable feedback on my studies. A special mention must go to my second supervisor Prof. Karl Friston (quite the loveliest and most intellectually stupefying person I have ever met), but also Prof. Ray Dolan, Prof. Cathy Price, Prof. Jon Driver (RIP), Profs. Chris and Uta Frith who continue to inspire me to this day. And on to my post-doctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany. Thank you so much Prof. Uta Noppeney (now at University of Birmingham) for forgiving me my three-year excursion into television and having enough faith in my potential to bring me into your lab and provide the foundation upon which our Journal of Neuroscience paper could be realized.

I owe a great deal of debt to my colleagues Dr Sebastian Werner and Dr Hwee-Ling Lee for their tireless counsel, as well as Prof. Heinrick Buelthoff, Prof. Mark Ernst, Dr Chandrasakar Pammi and many others for their help and support. Thanks also to Andi Lampi and the Roigel for keeping me sane in those months of isolation on the edge of the Black Forest. In order for these acknowledgements to not exceed the length of the whole book I will conclude by thanking everyone who has ever encouraged me to pursue a career in neuroscience outside of mainstream academia.

My good friends Scott, George, Xan, Ben, Dan, Festa, Leo, Eco, Laz, Vladimir, Chris, Chris, Henry, Angie, Tammy, Emmy, Amy, Sophie, Jess, Emma, Geordie Chris, Def and many others – your encouragement and support kept me going through times of despair and re-kindled my determination to pull off yet another unlikely achievement. And finally to three very special women, who each nourished my soul for a period of several years along the way, to whom I owe a special debt of gratitude: Kate, Bex and Lucie.

Adrian would like to thank James Poole for being such a great friend.

Adrian and Jack would both like to thank Charlie for his wonderful illustrations, Neil Crespin for bringing them together on that fateful day in Tenerife and Holly Bennion whose idea it was that they write this book in the first place.