David Eagleman

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.

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.

You can just imagine as a parent the horror you would feel if your child had to go in for something like that. But you know what? Kid's just fine. I can't take my laptop and rip out half the motherboard and expect it to still function. But with a brain, with a live wired system, it'll work.

You can just imagine as a parent the horror you would feel if your child had to go in for something like that. But you know what? Kid's just fine. I can't take my laptop and rip out half the motherboard and expect it to still function. But with a brain, with a live wired system, it'll work.

You can just imagine as a parent the horror you would feel if your child had to go in for something like that. But you know what? Kid's just fine. I can't take my laptop and rip out half the motherboard and expect it to still function. But with a brain, with a live wired system, it'll work.

So it turns out that blind people can make all kinds of sounds, either with their mouth, like clicking... or the tip of their cane, or snapping their fingers, anything like this, and they can get really good at determining what is coming back as echoes and figure out, oh, okay, this is an open space in front of me. Here, there's something in front of me.

So it turns out that blind people can make all kinds of sounds, either with their mouth, like clicking... or the tip of their cane, or snapping their fingers, anything like this, and they can get really good at determining what is coming back as echoes and figure out, oh, okay, this is an open space in front of me. Here, there's something in front of me.

So it turns out that blind people can make all kinds of sounds, either with their mouth, like clicking... or the tip of their cane, or snapping their fingers, anything like this, and they can get really good at determining what is coming back as echoes and figure out, oh, okay, this is an open space in front of me. Here, there's something in front of me.

It's probably a parked car, and oh, there's a little gap between two parked cars here, so I can go in here. The key is the visual part of the brain is no longer being used because for whatever reason, there's no information coming down those pipelines anymore. So that part of the brain is taken over by audition, by hearing and by touch and other things.

It's probably a parked car, and oh, there's a little gap between two parked cars here, so I can go in here. The key is the visual part of the brain is no longer being used because for whatever reason, there's no information coming down those pipelines anymore. So that part of the brain is taken over by audition, by hearing and by touch and other things.

It's probably a parked car, and oh, there's a little gap between two parked cars here, so I can go in here. The key is the visual part of the brain is no longer being used because for whatever reason, there's no information coming down those pipelines anymore. So that part of the brain is taken over by audition, by hearing and by touch and other things.

What happens is that the blind person becomes really good at these other things because they've just devoted more real estate to it. And as a result, they can pick up on all kinds of cues that would be very difficult for me and you because our hearing just isn't that good.

What happens is that the blind person becomes really good at these other things because they've just devoted more real estate to it. And as a result, they can pick up on all kinds of cues that would be very difficult for me and you because our hearing just isn't that good.

What happens is that the blind person becomes really good at these other things because they've just devoted more real estate to it. And as a result, they can pick up on all kinds of cues that would be very difficult for me and you because our hearing just isn't that good.

That is exactly right. This was my colleagues at Harvard. They did this over the course of five days. They demonstrated that people could get really good at, there are actually a number of studies like this. They can get really good at reading Braille. They can do things like echolocation. And the speed of it was sort of the surprise.

That is exactly right. This was my colleagues at Harvard. They did this over the course of five days. They demonstrated that people could get really good at, there are actually a number of studies like this. They can get really good at reading Braille. They can do things like echolocation. And the speed of it was sort of the surprise.

That is exactly right. This was my colleagues at Harvard. They did this over the course of five days. They demonstrated that people could get really good at, there are actually a number of studies like this. They can get really good at reading Braille. They can do things like echolocation. And the speed of it was sort of the surprise.

But the real surprise for me came along when they blindfolded people tightly and put them in the brain scanner and they were making sounds or touching the hand. And they were starting to see activity in the visual cortex after 60 minutes of being blind.

But the real surprise for me came along when they blindfolded people tightly and put them in the brain scanner and they were making sounds or touching the hand. And they were starting to see activity in the visual cortex after 60 minutes of being blind.

But the real surprise for me came along when they blindfolded people tightly and put them in the brain scanner and they were making sounds or touching the hand. And they were starting to see activity in the visual cortex after 60 minutes of being blind.