A couple posts back, I asked what you thought it’d be like to not have a self. Today, I want to ask a related question with a very different set of implications. Exactly where are the boundaries of your self? Maybe you’d say its limits are defined by the physical boundaries of your nervous system. [...]
Archive for May, 2011
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Sexy Neuroscience
May 23rd, 2011 
The Connectome Q. Would you like to hear about a study that involves the keywords “fMRI” and “orgasms?” A. Yes. Yes you would. A team of neuroscientists at Rutgers are working to unravel the neurophysiological correlates of female sexual arousal and climax. What they’re finding, intriguingly enough, is (gasp!) that creativity and empathy are just as crucial [...]
Kinds of Selves
May 12th, 2011 The Connectome What do you think it’d be like to not have a self? Take a moment and actually try to imagine it: a subjective experience that’s just as rich with sensory experiences, thoughts, and feelings as your life is now – but entirely devoid of an “I” to assign them to. If your mind works anything [...]
A Dangerous Addiction
May 3rd, 2011 The Connectome “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” – Confucius Today, I want to ask an important scientific question: how the hell does Jonah Lehrer write such insightful articles so quickly? Osama bin Laden was killed Sunday night (Monday morning in Pakistan’s time zone), and by 10:30 this morning, Lehrer had posted [...]
