#58: Wonderbrain
The most unusual brains are not the largest, nor the ones that can remember the most digits of the number pi. What fascinates Helen Thomson\u2014a neuroscientist by training, a journalist by trade\u2014are the brains that see auras, feel another\u2019s pain, or play music around the clock. In her new book, Unthinkable, she travels the globe to find out what life is like for these people who perceive a completely different world than she does. How does a man who believes he\u2019s a tiger live in a human community? How can a father who believes that he\u2019s dead go to dinner with his kids? What\u2019s it like to be lost in your own living room? The answers can teach you something about your own noggin.
Go beyond the episode:
- Helen Thomson\u2019s Unthinkable
- Read her interview with a dead man\u2014or at least, a man who thinks he\u2019s dead
- Scientific American lists 10 of the biggest ideas in neuroscience of the 21st century
- Meet the scientists who discovered the brain\u2019s internal GPS
- Think you might be a synesthete? Take neuroscientist David Eagleman\u2019s \u201cSynesthesia Battery\u201d questionnaire to measure your perception
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