Lisa Feldman Barrett

don't hold to that view anymore because for the most part, there are many, many ways to inherit things.

And a lot of what we think of as inheritance is really more what's called epigenetic, meaning it doesn't really involve DNA very much.

And I would say, the way I like to say it is that we have the kinds of nature that requires a nurture.

We have the kind of genes that require experience before anything is wired into our brains.

And most of our characteristics work that way.

Very few characteristics work just by genes alone.

What always happens in a neurotypical brain is that you're born with your brain incomplete, right?

An adult brain has, we say that it's wired to its world.

That world includes your own body.

But a baby's brain is not a miniature adult brain.

It's a brain that's waiting for wiring instructions from the world and from its own body.

So your brain is wired for you to see out of eyes that are the exact distance of your eyes.

from each other.

If somehow, you know, magically we could transplant your brain into somebody else's skull, you would not be able to see out of that skull.

You would not be able to see out of those eyes because they're not in the right place.

You hear with ears.

Your ability to hear comes from signals that are shaped by the shape of your ear.

So your brain is wired to hear out of these ears, not any ears, these ears.

Similarly, you, as a baby, you are taught the meanings of physical signals.

You're taught how to make sense of these things.