David Eagleman

We absorb all of that such that we can then springboard off of that and create our own things. There are many things that are essentially pre-programmed in us. But we are incredibly flexible. And that is the key about live wiring. When I ask you to think of the name of your fifth grade teacher, you might be able to pull that up, even though it's been years since you saw that fifth grade teacher.

But somehow there was a change made in your brain and that stayed in place. You've got 86 books. billion neurons. Each neuron is as complicated as a city. This entire forest of neurons, every moment of your life is changing. It's reconfiguring, it's strengthening connections here and there. It's actually unplugging over here and replugging over there.

But somehow there was a change made in your brain and that stayed in place. You've got 86 books. billion neurons. Each neuron is as complicated as a city. This entire forest of neurons, every moment of your life is changing. It's reconfiguring, it's strengthening connections here and there. It's actually unplugging over here and replugging over there.

But somehow there was a change made in your brain and that stayed in place. You've got 86 books. billion neurons. Each neuron is as complicated as a city. This entire forest of neurons, every moment of your life is changing. It's reconfiguring, it's strengthening connections here and there. It's actually unplugging over here and replugging over there.

And so that's why I've started to feel that the term plasticity is maybe underreporting what's going on. And so that's why I may have the term live wiring.

And so that's why I've started to feel that the term plasticity is maybe underreporting what's going on. And so that's why I may have the term live wiring.

And so that's why I've started to feel that the term plasticity is maybe underreporting what's going on. And so that's why I may have the term live wiring.

It is organized around the senses, but the interesting thing is that the cortex, this wrinkly outer bit, is actually a one-trick pony. It doesn't matter what you plug in. It'll say, okay, got it. I'll just wrap myself around that data and figure out what to do with that data.

It is organized around the senses, but the interesting thing is that the cortex, this wrinkly outer bit, is actually a one-trick pony. It doesn't matter what you plug in. It'll say, okay, got it. I'll just wrap myself around that data and figure out what to do with that data.

It is organized around the senses, but the interesting thing is that the cortex, this wrinkly outer bit, is actually a one-trick pony. It doesn't matter what you plug in. It'll say, okay, got it. I'll just wrap myself around that data and figure out what to do with that data.

It turns out that in almost everybody, you have functioning eyeballs that plug into the back of the head, and so we end up calling the back part of the brain the visual cortex. We call this part the auditory cortex, and this the somatosensory cortex that takes in information from the body and so on.

It turns out that in almost everybody, you have functioning eyeballs that plug into the back of the head, and so we end up calling the back part of the brain the visual cortex. We call this part the auditory cortex, and this the somatosensory cortex that takes in information from the body and so on.

It turns out that in almost everybody, you have functioning eyeballs that plug into the back of the head, and so we end up calling the back part of the brain the visual cortex. We call this part the auditory cortex, and this the somatosensory cortex that takes in information from the body and so on.

So what you learned back in high school or college is correct most of the time, but what it overlooks is the fact that the brain is so flexible. If a person goes blind or is born blind, That part of the brain that we're calling the visual cortex, that gets taken over by hearing, by touch, by other things. And so it's no longer a visual cortex.

So what you learned back in high school or college is correct most of the time, but what it overlooks is the fact that the brain is so flexible. If a person goes blind or is born blind, That part of the brain that we're calling the visual cortex, that gets taken over by hearing, by touch, by other things. And so it's no longer a visual cortex.

So what you learned back in high school or college is correct most of the time, but what it overlooks is the fact that the brain is so flexible. If a person goes blind or is born blind, That part of the brain that we're calling the visual cortex, that gets taken over by hearing, by touch, by other things. And so it's no longer a visual cortex.

The same neurons that are there are now doing a totally different job.

The same neurons that are there are now doing a totally different job.

The same neurons that are there are now doing a totally different job.

Turns out the kid will be just fine. You can be born without half the brain or you can do what's called a hemispherectomy, which happens to children who have something called Rasmussen's encephalitis, which is a form of epilepsy that spreads from one hemisphere to the other. The surgical intervention for that is to remove half the brain.