I'll get a team. It's a bloody you project, of course it is. Moe is all the way from the UK joining us in a moment, but I'll say hello to the girl who's not that far away. She's in Elwood or somewhere elston Wick. Is it elston Wick or Elwood Elwood, Elwood just down the road? I should know. Tiffany and Cook is the life force, of course of t YP when when you know she allows me to be on the show. That is Hi, Tip, good morning Apps. Are you all right?
I am, I'm very well.
Thanks.
Can I just point out to Moe, who's probably looking at your right shoulder thinking, oh my god, that girl's got leprosy.
I don't notice until you I want.
You to have a good look. Can I?
How is?
Firstly, before we get into the real conversation with the actual grown up in the room, what is going on with your right shoulder? Because from here it looks, well, it looks kind of like some disease that nobody wants. Can you share with us what has been going on?
I am using treatment on a basil cell superficial basil cell carcininoma, so skin cancer, and the treatment is a cream that sends a little message to your immune system to say, hey, there's something going on here, can you guys come and fix it. So I've been putting that on for six weeks. It is quite sore and raw now and I'm just waiting for my immune system to do its job.
Did you go that option because you didn't want the bloke or the blowcat to just slice into your deltoid and you didn't want to lose any muscle.
So well, it was actually quite a large lesion which was going to require a large incision and a flap. So he suggested that this route would mean that it will either completely hopefully fingers crossed, get rid of the BCC, or if worst case scenario, it'll be a lot smaller and the incision will be a lot more manageable, which he will not be touching.
By the way, I will be.
Getting a much better surgeon to address that if that is the case.
Well, as someone who's had about twenty bays will sell Carsinomas cut off, but would advise you come over to my joint later.
I'll do it.
I'm pretty handy. I mean I was not gonna ask. I'm not fully qualified, but Moe probably is he could talk me through it. I mean, we'll get some ice cubes, we'll get something that's not very rusty and pretty sharp. I'll turn on a video for you. You'll be distracted.
Then, what's already going on on my shoulder?
Can it? No?
Mo? Were you thinking what the fuck have I agreed to do? Are you thinking that right now?
Well? I've only agreed to a podcast so far. I was just wondering, is this not because of this related to having too many Christmas barbies on the beach or what.
It's related to being a very pale, freckly Tasmanian that's seen a little bit too much of Tassy has quite harsh son actually Tazzy Son compared to Melbourne Son is very harsh.
Yeah.
Yeah, well and also a treatment. Sorry. I hope it goes as well as it can me.
Too, Yeah, all of us, all of us. Hey Moe officially, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being part of the You project. I did a little bit of a I won't say deep dive because that would take weeks on you and your books and your content and your videos and your appearances on podcasts and your significant research. But I did somewhere between deep and shallow dive in the last twenty four hours, and I literally could do I won't burden you with ten, but I
could literally do ten podcasts with you. So I'm very excited to talk to you. Could you, rather than me read a bio which nobody wants, could you just tell my audience who you are, what you do, and whatever it is you want them to know about you.
Well, first of all, thanks very much for inviting me on your too kind really so, I actually left the PhD in developmental neurobiology that was twenty five years ago and without finishing it, and eventually started working as a writer specializing in neuroscience. About it, really, Well.
You've done a bit more than that, don't be too humble, but all right. So one of the things that this is I've written a few books as well, and I was looking at your book called Body Am I The Science The New Science of Self Consciousness. Do you realize that you wrote that ten years ago?
Now?
Does it feel like a decade.
I was just thinking about this the other day, and yes, it occurred to me that no, hold on, that was the one before I wrote ten years ago, Body Am I was published in twenty twenty two. But nevertheless I quite remember but anything about it, So please don't ask me any questions related to it.
No, I'm definitely going to so you know, Yeah, all right, let me ask you this to start, So, I'm what is Let's start with what is self consciousness? Then like, what what to me? When we in general terms? And then I'll shut up when we go, oh, I'm self conscious? It kind of means I'm somewhat worried about what you think of me, how you see me, what I look like, all that kind of what seems to be insecurity and fear based kind of stuff.
Yeah, well, self consciousness is really it's an aspect of consciousness, of course, which which we we still can't define consciousness. We've been trying to define consciousness itself for a for a very long time, and we still can't reach a consensus on exactly what consciousness is or or or how it arises. But self consciousness is we could simply define it as as awareness of one's self within one's environment.
That's that's a very basic definition of self consciousness. And in my last book that you just mentioned, I argue that bodily awareness is a critical component of self consciousness. Then you mentioned but being self conscious and worrying about about what other people might think of us and other people other people's perceptions do play some role in our awareness of our selves, but but not not a really huge one. I would argue two.
I mean, and I know there's no number, but you know, generally speaking to what kind of extent do we identify with or get our sense of self from our body?
Yeah, I think the role of the body in our sense of self our self identity is really underappreciated. So I think it plays It plays a huge role. The body, that is, plays a huge role in our in our sense of self identity. You mentioned obesity, that's a that's a great example. There are there are numerous other examples of how our awareness all or perception of our bodies is crucial to our sense of self identity. And I'd say perception, because our awareness of our bodies is nothing
is little more than a perception. You perceive your body through the senses in the same way that you perceive my voice, the computer screen in front of you. In some sense, the body is just another object that the brain perceives through sensory signals. But it's a very special object because the result of that perception is what you call me or or I. So the body and the body and the brain, they're both the object and the subject.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's so interesting. I feel like, you know, we say, oh, you know, I'm much more than a body, like in a pop culture, I'm not a body. I just live in a body. I'm much more than that, you know. But at the same time, we so strongly identify with that. And if you look at especially social media, you know, where so many people are looking for acceptance and approval and validation and love and connection and perhaps
fame popularity through their appearance. You know, it's like they I guess, people's identity and sense of self varies wildly person to person.
Yeah yeah, I think, well, I know, there are a lot of studies showing that social media can be very detrimental to how the a person perceives them selves. I think, you know, we think it's pretty clear now that no one is who they really say they are on the Internet, and of course, using social media, people put their best image of themselves there. They use filters and manipulate the photographs of themselves in various ways. Now that creates unrealistic
expectations I think in other users. But then you know, mass media has been doing that for decades anyway.
Yeah, when you think about without trying to get too metacognitive, but when you think about how you think right and you think and you start to get curious around why do I think this way? Where did this come from? Why do I see the world this way? Why do I think this about that religion, or this about that politician, or this about this kind of nutritional paradigm. Don't eat this, do eat that. If you eat this, you're a bad person. If you eat that, you're a good person. If you
do these things, you're noble. If you don't do these, you know, all that kind of stuff. So we grow up in this echo chamber quite often, I've thought and philosophy and ideology and depending on what context you grew up in. But I grew up I basically was just a version of my parents and my peers and the religion that I grew up in, which was Catholicism, and
all of the ideas that I was exposed to. And so you get to well, I got to a point where I whatever, let's say I was thirteen fourteen, and I saw the world through this particular lens, which was an intersection of different beliefs and ideas and values. But I didn't choose any of that. That was just a byproduct of growing up where I like, I didn't choose my beliefs. I didn't go, you know what, here's what
I believe about God. I just believed whatever. And I never made a decision that I barracked for the team I barracked for in the AFL. I just barracked for them because Dad does. And I just eat the way that I eat, because that's the way we've always eaten.
You know.
So how much of who we are is really self generated? And how much is just a byproduct of programming and conditioning and proximity to everyone else's thoughts and philosophies and behaviors.
That's a great question. I'm not really sure I can give you a satisfactory answer. Personally, I'll try. These days, I try to avoid thinking at all costs. You know, according to according to Taoism, thoughts weaken the mind. So you know, it follows that the less the less one thinks, the stronger their mind will be. And that's what that's
what I'm going for. But I think I think that our environment, our culture, socialization early in life, of course, they play huge roles in behaviors and thought processes and beliefs and and values. But it's not it's not that that doesn't mean that one can't realize that these are behaviors and thoughts that that can change or can can be changed. But I think I think that also requires some degree of self for awareness and understanding of one's self and to be able to question one's own deeply
hell beliefs. Yeah, yeah, one zone actions, it's I think those are things that not enough people can actually manage to do.
Yeah, I think it's really hard when you've believed something for a long time and your identity is intertwined with that belief, because when you question my belief, you question my identity, and so fuck you, you know what I mean. It's like that that it was really hard for me when I grew up in a particular religious model. Two one to question anything, just for the reason that I
was indoctrinated. But two, whenever you do live in an echo chamber, be it a theological, philosophical, nutritional, academic, whatever, echo chamber, you are very strongly within the group, discouraged from thinking anything different because you basically, you know, a backslider, you know, like, so it's this whole thing of we're not taught what to or we're not taught how to think, we're taught what or we're told what to think, and so then you go and then when you do try
to think critically and independently, depending on you know, for me, I was very much discouraged, if not criticized, you.
Know, Yeah, that's very true. The church that I was born into, the Coptic Church, that's the Egyptian Orthodox Church. There are a lot of Copts in Sydney, in Australia. Actually the largest Coptic community outside of Egypt is in Australia. Wow, or at least it used to be. That may have changed, but yeah, there are lots of us out there. The Coptic Church is very very strict and you're not supposed to question anything. I mean, it's similar to Catholicism in that respect.
I suppose, well, I guess, you know, how do you control a group of people, you know, with fear, with threats, with intimidate if you do this, if you question that you're bad, You're a sinner, You're going to hell, you know, pick your poison, Like, here are all of these things that are going to happen to you if you don't conform in a line and just believe. And by the way, your job is not to think. Your job is just to believe. I'm like, well, that's super fucking convenient, but
it doesn't really. How did that affect you then? Growing up in cognitive kind of environment or a kind of certain environment where you had to think and be and behave a certain way. That was that hard for you to step out of that and think independently.
Not really, you know, I had it. I had it thrilled into me still do for my for my whole life. That one parent is very say, fanatical, I suppose isn't an exaggeration. The other was, let's say, open minded, So there was there was room for me to to think independently. As you say, So it didn't a massive effect on me. I love having one. Having a parent that was so we say, over zealous, just actually pushed me, pushed me in the pushed me in the other direction.
Yeah, I think, yeah, I think that's I don't know if this is true. I feel like that's more common with boys than girls, is to push back against that kind of stuff. But that's just my my perspective, all right. I want to change track a little bit. So you're your original or not your original, but one of your your undergrad was in neuroscience, am I correct?
That's right? And the masters as well, and half a PhD in developmental neurobiology. I feel you.
I've so many times, Nelly, Now go on, God, what made you walk away halfway through your PhD?
I didn't have much choice. I actually got kicked off Craig. What did you do?
Mo?
Mo?
What did you do?
Well? It was more what I didn't do was my experiments. I lost motivation doing the same experiments over and over again and not getting not getting results, and so it was decided that I should leave the lab. That was a long time ago now twenty five, twenty five years ago in November, actually just gone.
So it didn't hurt, it didn't hurt your career. You've done okay?
So do you?
How do you? I mean, I didn't intend to.
Ask this question.
I don't think I've ever asked anyone this question, But so you are an I mean you've got a master's degree, let's call it half a PhD. So you're a I mean, you're much more than an academic. You're like, for me, you're more of a pro academic than an academic because you kind of teach high level science in a user friendly, you know, public friendly, understandable, practical, operationalizable way.
I'll take that.
Yeah, I think that's what you do. It's like I try to be a bit of that as well. It's like, I think, what's the point of having a podcast or a public platform if you're talking about concepts and using language that is not familiar to most people, then you're
just pumping up your own ties. But how do you feel about, you know, academic learning versus you know, self research or independent research and experiential learning and not necessarily what's better, but like the intersection of that, like being at university doing all of these degrees. You know, I did my first degree a long time ago and I'm just finishing my doctorate now at the ripe old age
of sixty two. And for me, it was kind of a good I don't know, just a good fit because I've had a lot of real world experience around all of that.
What about for you? Well, when I look at how academia has changed in the twenty five years since I left the lab, I'm glad I'm not in. I'm glad I'm not there anymore. I mean, academia has basically turned to shit in the twenty first century. There are a lot of a lot of it is, you know, bureaucracy, funding, funding cuts. There's no there's no room for what's called blue sky research any anymore. Blue skies, blue blue blue
sky research. So an example of that is going back to the nineteen sixties, Japanese researcher working at woods Hole I think it's a lab in a labin on the east coast of the United States somewhere and arbor, I think, and he'd walk along the waterfront and he noticed these jellyfish that fluoresce, They glow in the dark with this brilliant green color, and decided that he wants to understand
and how this happened. So he spent years collecting millions of specimens of these jellyfish from the harbor and eventually isolated the green fluorescent protein, which eventually revolutionized all of biology and medicine. I mean, virtually every every molecular biology lab in the world uses GFP as a tool to do all sorts of different things. And he shared a Nobel Prize for his discovery. But you know, he spent
he spent years and years. He was given funding to just collect these jellyfish day in, day out, and just spent years studying this organism and eventually isolated the protein for the hell of it, right, And that's that's Blue Sky's research. And there's very little room for that in
in in academia today. And there seem to be much more or many more constraints on the kind of the kind of research that that you can do in your in your lab unless you're you know, a superstar scientist who's you know, won no prize or or something like that. You know, the most labs, I think there there's huge competition for for for the funding, to the research funding these days. So there are there are a lot of a lot of constraints to being in in in academia.
I mean, I'm not you know, I'm not an expert in how these things work, but you know, I have friends that that have their own labs. Now, you know, I follow lots of researchers or on media, not that I use it that much any more, but there there are lots of lots of problems with with the with the academia. I mean, I don't really well, I don't do any research myself. I just read a lot and and and rite. But I still feel like, you know,
I trained as a scientist. I still feel that I'm a that I'm a scientist, and I can still think about scientific ideas. There there might be one or two original ideas in in my in my book about bodily awareness, that that researchers can couldn't go out there and test if they yeah want to. I don't know if that.
You're still a researcher. You're still a researcher. You just kind of research the research, you know. It's like one of the things I did in mind my PhD was a systematic literature review, and basically you're just looking at everybody else's, you know, research around the thing that you're researching, and then you you know, my initial search for my topic and my for all the studies I.
Was doing it.
It ended up being I think it was one one hundred and twenty papers that that came in and I had to go through and then I ended up focusing on ninety three different papers, and some of those, some of those individual research kind of papers had you know, five, six, seven studies in them, and then, you know, so you're basically analyzing what everyone else is doing and trying to find threads and trying to find you know, what is
what is helpful, what is not. So I think you, yeah, you're not sitting in a lab and doing that ground breaking necessarily new research, but you still and I think the beauty of it is like to have a really broad, deep understanding you need to know what everyone or at
least a lot of people are doing. I think one of the you know, obviously there are pros and cons for doing a master's or a PhD or whatever, but I think one of the pros of not doing it is that you can research or at least explore whatever you want however you want, on whatever timeline. You don't need fucking ethical approval, you don't need somebody to give you money, you don't need somebody to tell you it's
all right. You know, it's like, no, I'm just going to open the door on this and I'll see what I find, you know, and then you know, my job, as I said to you before we started, is corporate speaking.
So what I do is I take all of the things that I learn and understand and I believe are relevant for people in positions of leadership or management or anyone within organizations, but it a business or not, and go, well, what matters well communication, problem solving, teamwork, leadership, conflict resolution, asking great questions, being present, Like all of my research ties into that, so I don't need to talk to them like they're a room full of academics in a
lecture theater. I can explain something simply like I go, oh, there's this thing called the consensus effect, and they all go, we don't know what that is, and I go, all, it is the false consensus effect, I should say. All it is is this thing where people think that other people think like them. That's it, And they go, oh, I go. You know, most people when they're talking to a group, they think that the group think like them, so what makes sense to them will make sense to
the group. But that's really true, and they go, you know, so just understanding the only person who thinks like you, like truly is you, is you, So don't operate on the assumption that anybody fucking understands you, because that's a mistake. Operate on the assumption that they might, but they more than likely won't exactly connect with how you think or why you think the way you do.
You know.
So I think that ability that you have, and I've watched some of your stuff and listened to some of your stuff to be able to, you know, explain things in a way which is actually helpful. All right, I want to change tact If ten one to ten. If ten is everything that we can know about the brain in twenty twenty six, how much do we know about the brain? If ten is everything zero point.
Far less than one, We've only just started to scratch the surface. We basically know next to nothing.
That is from someone who wrote a book called Neuroplasticity. That is quite the revelation. Okay, unpack that a little bit for me. Why do you say that? And like, yeah, let's start there. Why do you say that?
Well, I think I read I read somewhere that we've learned more about the brain in the past twenty years than we did in in all of you know, in all of history before that, you know, modern neurosciences. I mean you know, it's barely is barely two hundred years old, you know. And it's true that we we've learned a lot, quite a lot, or we think we've learned quite a
lot about how the brain works. Just in the in the past couple of decades, there's there's been a lot of technological advances that that enable us to to probe the brain in more detail than than ever before, brain imaging techniques, ways of mapping, mapping the connections between between neurons, and that sort of thing. But at the same time, it seems that discoveries, discoveries that make us question what we thought to be the fundamental principles of brain functions,
seem to be happening more and more frequently, you know. So, for example, I just saw a paper the other day about about cells called astrocytes. They're not neurons, they're glial cells, gleamines, glue. They get that. They're one type of gle or cell in the brain, and glial cells get their name because one hundred, one hundred and fifty years ago, when people were looking at brain tissue under the microscope and examining, examining how it works, and so on, they thought that
gle or cells would just support cells. They hold the neurons in place, and that is one of their functions. But we've always believed that it's that the neurons that play, is the neurons that process process information, is the neurons
that that communicate with each other. And so you know that the predominant view of of how memory works, for example, for the last twenty or so years, is that memories form when by should I say, the formation of a unique combination of synaptic connections within the brain, certain regions of the brain, the hippocampus, that's crucial for memory formation.
We know that, But we think that a memory formation involves this creation of a unique, a unique set of synaptic connections within a widely distributed network of neurons, possibly thousands, tens of thousands, we don't know, We can't really put a figure. And of course each of each individual cell is likely to contribute to the formation of countless other
memories as well. You know, if you think you've got eighty six billion neurons and at least twice as many gli or cells, you know, and we're talking quadrillions of connections, and they can change, they constantly change anyway, I'm digressing. So the view of memory formation is that it involves this creation of a unique neural network, and if you reactivate that same network that was created during the formation of the memory, then you will trigger recall of that memory.
A paper published just a week or to ago that provides evidence now that actually it might be the astrocites that are surrounding the neurons and they outnumber the neurons throughout the braid. It may actually be the astrocites that
that are that are encoding the memories. Wow, every it's it just seems like these discoveries which make you scratch your head and think, wow, this this idea that I've learned or been been taught or come to accept mm hmm for the past twenty years may actually be completely uh completely wrong. And so there's always you know, the brain is such a complex, mysterious organ. It's just I personally don't think we'll ever fully understand it.
Yeah, it's it's so interesting, the like the complexity, but also the like there's so much that we don't know, but we we still have to teach about it, right, We still need to teach neuroscience. We still you know, and we are. I wish that science would be more
open and honest. This is a dumb thing to say, but it's what I wish about the fact that we really don't know a lot like and it's like we you know, we so many things that we get wrong in science, like the design of the research, the interpretation of the data, the way the data was collected, and then you know, and then oh and by the way this research is funded by that organization that wants a
particular outcome, and you know. So it's it's definitely not this faultless, flawless, pure kind of protocol, right, we know that. But it's just to say, look, we do our best and we this is what we believe at the moment, but we could be wrong, right, because so many times science has been wrong about so many things. I don't know if this is remotely interesting to you, but did you see that the in the US in the last few days, they've been out the new food Pyramid. Did you see that?
No? I haven't seen this now.
Yeah, So they basically introduced the new food pyramid for the US, and it's essentially an inversion of the old food pyramid. So instead of lots of carbs and grains and whatever at the bottom, and minimal fat and protein, you know, in the top third of the pyramid. It's been Yeah, but it's just funny how for I don't know whatever, fifty years or something that a particular way of you know, low fat eating equals low fat people.
That was essentially the hypothesis. And then when you do it without boring my audience who've heard this before, but then when you do a deep dive into how that research came into being and who did it, and then how the actual studies unfolded, and how they manipulated the data and omitted certain data and got funded by certain groups that wanted certain outcomes, and that became the standard
for half a century, you know. But even with I think, was it Norman Deutsche who wrote the Brain that Changes Itself? Was that him?
Yes? It was?
And that was what was that in that?
Oh?
There you go, right there? What was that about? I don't know, ninety ninety or thereabouts.
Yeah, it was. Let's see, actually it says first published in two thousand and seven, now twenty years ago.
Now, really, tiff, can you look that up? I doubt that I could be completely wrong. I'm mostly completely wrong with the brain that changes itself first year of publication.
But I'm sure that.
I was going to call you the prof.
The would be prof. What I actually didn't read this while I was writing my own book about plasticity.
When did we first realize as a science community that the brain was malleable, that it was you know, the neuroplastic.
Well, people have various investigators have been have been saying it forever, but it wasn't. Actually, it didn't actually become widely accepted until the nineteen the early nineteen nineties. Actually, right, right, although.
It's very recent. Yes, sorry, got an answer.
For us to twy and seven?
Okay, I stand corrected. Apologies prof questioning?
No, yeah, in fact finding skills there no, you fucking you fucking geezer.
I won't fucking think of it. What I No, You're right, I'm wrong, which is pretty much standard for me. Yeah, I remember reading.
I think you were were actually thinking of when plasticity was first widely accepted within the scientific community.
So you were just trying to make it. You're just trying to make me feel good. Do you don't have to do it? And you wrote a book just called Neuroplasticity. Yeah, and that sold pretty well. That went pretty well. How is putting that together for you? Did you enjoy writing that?
I did, Yeah, enjoyed it very much. It's one of the best selling in the series. Actually, it's it's one of a series of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge books, and I think it's sold around thirty thousand copies so far, which is fantastic. I really enjoyed writing that. It was very straightforward I wrote that. I think it took me about two months to write that book. I mean it's quite a small book. Yeah, but one side, I figured out the content of each the chapters that I wanted
to include and the content of each chapter. Then it was just a matter of sitting down and writing it. And I did write it in in about eight or ten weeks. I think it was much easier to write than the last book about Bodily Awareness, which took several years. Think because the book about Neuroplasticity, there's no narrative arc. You know, you don't have to read it from cover to cover. You can just every chapter is a standalone chapter.
And it's the same with the first book. I wrote fifty ideas about the Brain, which was also part of a series, but the last one Body am I because it was there is some sort of narrative in that book. It's and one chapter follows on from another, and I really enjoyed writing that as well at times. At other times it felt like really hard work. I would describe
that as having a million piece jigsaw puzzle. You've got all the pieces in front of you, but you don't have you don't have a picture of of what it should look like at the end, So you have to put each piece in its in its place as you as you go along, without having without having a big picture to to refer to.
That sounds like a metaphor for life. Yeah, I suppose it is, Yeah, my life anyway. Hey, we're going to wind up and let you go, but I want to throw one or two curly ones at you. Is the mind real?
No, it's an abstract concept. Yeah, so you've.
But what why where does it come? Like? Has the idea of a mind been around forever? Like do we not just go, Well, my brain does the thinking. So the the the filter through which I process the world as my brain or like what's the relationship or the space between the brain and the mind one's physical. It's not like is it just a term that we use to kind of make it more understandable for us.
Well, you know. Ambrose Pare wrote The Devil's Dictionary defined the mind as the Oh No, he defined the brain as the organ with which we think that we think, and he defined the mind as a I think I'm paraphrasing now, but he defined the mind as as a mysterious substance secreted by the brain. I think of the mind as as an emergent property of the brain. I think, you know, you can you can have a mind without
a brain. Sorry, you can have a You can have a brain without a mind where you you most people you know do. But you can't have a mind without the brain. But is the brain. The brain is necessary for the mind, but is it sufficient? That's another question. So one of the things I discuss in in my last book is is that the body plays a big role in in our emotions, in how we think, and in how we feel. So, yeah, I view the mind as an emergent property of the of the brain. The
brain generates the mind, but but not by itself. The body and the environment also play important roles. It also contribute to the generation, shall we say, of mental mental processes. I don't distinguish between mental and physical, right, you know this goes back to Rene DCOs in this mind body dualism. Yeah, I'm a monest. I would say suggest that most neuroscientists are also monests. There is nothing mental, it's all all physical. But how do physical processes in the brain generate conscious
subjective experiences? Or that's that's the big question.
Yeah, that's we're getting you back for that next episode. Hey, so you wrote a book called fifty Brain Idea or fifty human Brain Ideas. You really need to know, which was your first book? Am I correct?
That's right? Yeah, so twenty thirteen that came out.
So one of the things, one of my favorite kind of tidbits about the brain is that about twenty percent of our energy or calories every day goes on the brain, this little one point three kilo thing sitting in our head.
Right.
I'm like, when you think about someone who weighs me, so me eighty kilos, so one point three is whatever that is, you know, maybe one point four percent of my body weight, but it uses twenty percent of my calories. So that fascinates me. So I need from you one idea or one factoid about the brain that most of us won't know that's really interesting, No pressure, And you've got fifty in your book. So what's one you want to share with us that we're going to go? I
did not fucking know that. I'm going to tell someone.
All right, here's one. Did you know that a young a young child can have an entire brain hemisphere removed and live a perfectly normal life. No?
I did not know that. So either side right or left? Is that correct?
Or either side that this you know doesn't happen very often, but in young children, say five six seven year olds with with severe drug resistant epilepsy. Yeah, as a last resort, can can have an entire brain hemisphere removed to to alleviate the seizures or prevent prevent them all together. And as they grow up, thanks to neuroplasticity, the the remaining hemisphere can perform all of the functions that would normally have been carried out by the other or both hemispheres.
I definitely don't want to be the person that they discover that on imagine imagine ground zero for that.
But there was actually a very interesting case study about i'll say fifteen or fifteen or twenty years ago of a civil servant of all things. I don't know why. He went in for a brain scan, but they they scanned his brain and discovered that actually half of it was missing. Yeah, he'd he'd maybe I forget, I forget the details. But I'm going to have to look this up now because it was a fascinating study amid aged man.
I think, yeah, yeah, I think he was complaining of headaches or or something, went to hospital, had a brain scan, and they discovered that an entire hemisphere of his brain was missing. And he'd lived his whole life completely for that fact. Yeah, so he was born like that. Possibly. This is why I'm going to have to look up this, uh, this paper, because I've forgotten the details. I can't think of.
I mean, there may be very rare genetic mutations that the result in half a brain forming during during development. I can't think of any. And of course, if if an older person were to have half their brain removed, the older the person is, the far more severe would be the consequences. Because the brains, the brain's capacity to adapt to anything gradually decreases with age. A five six year old's brain is much more malleable plastic than than a fifty year old's brain.
That's that's good mate, that's great. That's bloody interesting. Hey, we appreciate you. Thanks for coming to hang out on the You project.
Thanks again. Yeah, say goodbye.
We'll say goodbye off here, but for the moment, no, we appreciate you and have a good night.