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From YouTube: David Eagleman - Interview with a Neuroscientist
Description
Matt interviews famous neuroscientist David Eagleman, bestselling author of INCOGNITO and host of the PBS series "The Brain". Matt and Dr. Eagleman discuss several neuroscience topics, including synesthesia, competing unconscious drives, the 2 hemispheres of the cortex, and the binary nature of brain communication.
A
A
B
Writing
it
I
thought
what
if
nobody
cares,
but
it
became
a
New,
York,
Times,
bestseller
and
and
out
came
the
big
thing,
and
so
that
was
a
really
cool
thing
for
me
to
win
this
because
they
told
me
that
people
care
about
this
stuff.
It's
really
you
know,
topics
from
what
your
brain
is
doing
under
the
hood,
all
the
way
to
neuroscience
in
the
legal
system
where.
B
A
B
A
A
B
A
A
B
B
Passion
what
this
refers
to
is
the
ancient
Greeks
had
made
this
model
where
they
said
you
know
it's
as
though
you
are
a
charioteer
and
you're
holding
on
to
the
white
horse
of
reason.
The
black
horse
of
passion
and
they're
always
trying
to
pull
you
in
different
directions,
and
your
job
is
to
stay
down
the
middle
of
the
road,
and
that
was
the
first
reference.
B
I
could
ever
fly
in
well
to
this
model
that
I
built
out
more
in
incognito,
but
what
I
call
the
team
of
rivals
model,
which
is
to
say
your
brain,
is
actually
built
of
all
these
different
networks
that
have
different
drives
they're,
worrying
about
different
things
and
they're,
always
a
competition.
So
what
we
have
is
this
machine?
B
That's
built
out
of
conflict
which
is
very
different
than
how
we
build
computers
and
so
on
mm-hm,
and
so
it's
like
a
knurled
parliament
in
there,
where
you've
got
all
these
different
political
parties,
all
of
whom
love
their
country,
but
just
had
very
different
ways
of
thinking
about
things
right,
we're
the
country
that
gets
steered
around
by
this,
and
this
is
why
humans
can
be
conflicted
or
nuanced
or
they
can.
You
know,
contract
with
themselves
or
control
themselves
or
cause
of
themselves
all
the
things
that
make
humans
interesting.
A
A
B
B
Oh
you
know
you
want
to
get
in
shape
for
this
upcoming
race,
and
so
don't
do
the
cookies
and
part
of
me
thinks:
okay,
maybe
I'll
eat
the
cookies,
but
all
I'll
go
to
the
gym
tonight
and
all
these
things
can
happen
even
while
we're
talking,
but
it's
not
clear
but
but
but
some
of
its
triggered
by
the
cookie
sitting
there.
Other
networks
they're
triggered
by
other
issues
that
don't
care
about
the
cookies
at
all,
but
care
about.
B
You
know
what
kind
of
person
do
I
want
to
be,
or
what
am
I
gonna
do
about
this
dinner
tonight
that
I
have
to
go
to,
and
you
know
these
are
the
unconscious
drivers.
Almost
all
of
the
team
of
rivals
is
happening,
unconsciously,
all
the
complex
nuanced
things
are
happening
under
the
surface.
You
don't
even
know
until
something
battles
its
way
up
to
the
top
and
suddenly
I.
Think.
Oh
I've
got
the
dinner
tonight,
yeah
or
oh
I,
just
thought
of
something
or
whatever.
A
B
A
B
We
don't
care
at
all
about
that
scale,
we're
dealing
with
things
on
a
much
bigger
scale,
yeah
like
mates
and
food
and
whatever
else
were
caring
about
and
so
yeah.
It's
not
surprising
that
if
you
get
down
to
the
level
of
a
code,
there
just
doesn't
mean
anything
to
us
right
and
its
own
at
the
top
of
the
stack
that
has
something
to
do
with
us
right,
yeah,
okay,.
B
A
B
Is
a
blending
of
the
senses
and
so
common
forms
of
synesthesia
are,
for
example,
where
people
look
at
letters
or
numbers
and
that
triggers
a
color
experience.
So
M
is
you
know
purple
and
you
know,
C
is
the
red
color
and
F
is
blue.
It's
on
and
it's
different
for
every
person
what
the
correspondents
are
between
the
letters
and
number
you
used
to
be
thought.
This
is
very
rare,
but
we
now
know
that
about
3%
of
the
population
has
some
form
of
synesthesia.
There
are
many
different
flavors
yeah.
B
Well,
it's
you
know
3
times
higher
than
schizophrenia.
For
example.
The
interesting
part
is
that
synesthesia
is
not
a
disease
or
a
disorder.
It's
just
what
what's
always
attracted
me
about
visits.
It's
an
alternative
consciousness,
just
an
alternative
way
of
having
a
perception
of
the
world.
There's.
B
B
B
A
B
A
B
B
Not
like
I
feel
like
I
want
to
dance.
It's
like
right
there
actually
and
the
thing
about
the
colors
is
that
it's
extremely
specific.
So
it's
like
when
I
hear
the
note
F,
that
is
a
silvery
color
like
moonlight
and
when
I
went
when
I
hear
the
note
D.
That's
you
know,
sort
of
like
a
red
pomegranate
color,
so
people
are
extremely
specific
in
what
they're
experiencing.
So
this
is
not
something
that
is
taught
to
them
right
and
in
fact,
what
I've
studied
our
synesthetes
in
the
same
family.
B
A
B
Right
so
that
okay,
that's
exactly
right.
There
is
some
invent
of
environmental
factor
and
the
reason
that
we
were
able
to
tease
this
out
is
because
so
at
this
point,
I've
tested,
36,000,
synesthetes
and
I've
bought
their
detailed,
colors
and
songs.
And
what
you
find
is
that
there's
no
relationship
between
one
synesthesia,
the
next.
But
what
a
couple
colleagues
in
Stanford
I
found
is
that
there
are
people
born
sort
of
at
the
end
of
the
late
1960s,
who
all
started.
Having
the
same
color
palette.
A
B
A
Sort
of
okay-
let
me
go
through
that
experience.
Let's
say
you
cut
someone's
head
off
and
look
at
their
spinal
cord.
Okay,
I,
always
like
the
visualize,
this
historical
fiber,
optics,
cable,
axons,
yeah,
and
if
you
just
freeze
time
and
you
cut
it,
some
of
those
are
gonna
be
firing.
At
that
moment,
that's
a
binary
stream.
Oh
yeah
right
I
mean
the
brain
is
getting
this
massive
binary
stream
from
all.
Oh.
B
B
That's
right,
so
yes,
of
course,
you're
exactly
right
that
this,
the
main
signals
and
brains
are
spikes
which
are
0
or
1,
but
there
are
also
are
all
these
analog
things
in
brains
like
neurotransmitters
that
can
do
what's
called
volume
neurotransmission.
So
you
know,
there's
a
ton
of
neurons
and
you
get
more
dopamine
in
this
region
that
changes
their
behavior.
B
It's
only
so
it's
interview
about
brains
is
it's
this
mixture
of
digital
and
analog
signaling
that
it's
sort
of
unbelievable
to
me,
because
I've
been
in
neuroscience
for,
like
3
million
years
now
and
I
thought,
when
I
was
young,
I
thought
wow.
We
for
sure
you
know
the
answers
to
all
these
questions
by
the
time.
It's
you
know,
2017
yeah,.
B
B
A
B
A
A
B
Exactly
exactly
right,
so
I
think
in
the
super
distant
future.
We're
talking
five
years
now
sure
that
the
idea
of
can
I
upload
information
to
you
like
how
to
fly
a
Black,
Hawk,
helicopter
gray
or
the
equivalent
is
five
hundred
years
now,
if
I'm
uploading
that
information
to
you
first,
what
I'd
have
to
do
is
system
identification,
which
is
figured
out
everything
that
is
your
entire
history
of
experiences
and
ideas
of
probably
region
etics.
B
Also,
all
leading
up
to
your
brain
right
now
really
figure
out
that
and
then
say:
okay
well
to
teach
you
how
to
fly
a
Black,
Hawk
helicopter.
You
would
think
about
it
as
okay
was
that,
like
that
time,
I
sat
on
a
horse,
I
sort
of
pulled
the
horse.
This
way
that
way
about
for
me
might
be
a
completely
different
thing.
I'm
like
oh,
is
that
time
I
sat
on
a
sailboat
I
hold
on
the
snake
yeah.
B
B
B
A
B
A
B
We
are
symmetric
creatures
around
this
axis,
so
we
have
two
legs
and
two
arms
and
two
eyes
and
two
ears
is
up
and
there
all
kinds
of
advantages
we
get
from
that.
You
know
like
binaural,
hearing
and
stereo
vision
and
so
on,
but
it's
something
about
the
way
this
machine
is
built
and
unpacks.
That
gives
us
this
radial.
Symmetry
most
most
features
have
this
sort
of
body
plan.
But
there
are
other
body
plans.
B
It
can
be
like
a
starfish
or
an
octopus,
or
you
know
this
room
spiders
have
eight
eyes
and
so
on,
and
you
know
there
are
lots
of
different
ways
that
could
be
done,
but
for
whatever
reason,
what
worked
really
well
on
this
planet
was
to
have
this
symmetric
thing.
So
in
that
sense,
it's
no
surprise
that
our
brain
consists
of
these
two
halves
that
are
essentially
identical
there.
B
There
was
a
period
of
time
when
there
was
a
lot
of
attention
in
this
idea
of
right,
brain
and
left
brain,
but
it
turns
out
sort
of
apocryphal
in
the
sense
that
the
right,
brain
and
left
brain
are
almost
identical
and
is
the
case
that,
with
time
your
right
brain
starts
caring
more
about
certain
kinds
of
tasks
and
left
brain
about
certain
kinds
of
tasks.
Left
brain
really
cares
about
things.
B
A
B
To
remove
a
whole
hemisphere
of
the
brain
so
that
all
you
have
left
is
one
half
of
the
brain,
and
the
surprise
is
that
as
long
as
you
do
that
surgery
before
the
kid
is
about
six
years
old,
kids,
totally
fine
I'm
fine,
they
have
a
slight
limp
on
the
other
side
of
their
body,
where
they're
now
missing
a
hemisphere.
But
otherwise
you
can't.
B
What's
interesting
is
originally
when
they
started
doing
this,
you
know
now
there's
a
whole
empty
half
of
the
brain,
so
they
put
in
sterile
ping-pong
balls
to
support
the
brain,
but
but
then
they
Rosie
didn't.
You
need
to
do
that
because
it
just
fills
up
with
sarira
spinal
fluid
and
holds
it
in
place.
We.
B
A
A
B
Both
halves
yeah
yeah.
Well,
it
is
the
case
that
you're
right
half
is
involved.
The
left
half
that's
very
clearly
involved
in
language.
If
you
look
at
the
right
side
on
the
equivalent
areas,
that's
very
involved
in
music.
So
if
you
get
a
lesion
here,
you
lose
the
ability
to
understand
and
produce
language.
If
you
get
a
lesion
here.
A
B
Out
that
if
you
get
a
right-sided
lesion
damage
to
this
part
of
the
brain,
there's
very
subtle
things
that
you
can
understand
the
meaning
of
what
somebody's
saying.
But
you
lose
the
ability
to
understand
that
the
prosody
of
speech.
You
know
whether,
if
somebody's
being
sarcastic,
we're
not
surprised
its.
A
B
Exactly
exactly
so,
you
can
still
get
by
and
understand
language
without
the
right
hemisphere,
but
that's
been,
but
they
think
the
thing
I
want
to
emphasize,
though,
is
that
this
all
develops
and
wires
up
through
time.
It's
probably
genetically
predisposed
to
do
so.
But
the
point
is
that
if
you
remove
a
hemisphere
of
somebody's
brain,
all
of
the
functions
that
would
have
get
you
know
been
taken
care
of
over
on
the
sometimes
you're.
Just
things
get
rewired
onto
here
and
it's
of
being
being
a
problem.