Where do you end and others begin?Episode 54← All Episodes

From the brain’s point of view, what is the self? How do 30 trillion cells come to feel like a single entity? Does the “self” of a blind person include the tip of her walking stick? How flexible is our sense of self? And what does any of this have to do with psychedelics, trauma, synchronized swimmers, religious rituals, cheerleaders, or why soldiers across time and place love to march in lockstep? Join Eagleman for this week’s episode of surprises about how the brain computes the self.

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Vaughn DA, Savjani RR, Cohen MS, Eagleman DM. (2018). Empathic neural responses predict group allegiance. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2018 Jul 31;12:302.

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