David Eagleman Quotes

90 Sourced Quotes

None of the individual metal hunks of an airplane have the property of flight, but when they are attached together in the right way, the result takes to the air. A thin metal bar won't do you much good if you're trying to control a jaguar, but several of them in parallel have the property of containment. The concept of emergent properties means that something new can be introduced that is not inherent in any of the parts.

David Eagleman
Once you begin deliberating about where your fingers are jumping on the piano keyboard, you can no longer pull off the piece.

David Eagleman
The deep secret of the brain is that not only the spinal cord but the entire central nervous system works this way: internally generated activity is modulated by sensory input. In this view, the difference between being awake and being asleep is merely that the data coming in from the eyes anchors the perception.

David Eagleman
As we develop better technologies for probing the brain, we detect more problems.

David Eagleman
All life is no more than a match struck in the dark and blown out again.

David Eagleman
Even though the outside world has not changed, your brain dynamically presents different interpretations.

David Eagleman
As Carl Jung put it, "In each of us there is another whom we do not know." As Pink Floyd sang, "There's someone in my head, but it's not me."

David Eagleman
Modern neuroimaging is like asking an astronaut in the space shuttle to look out the window and judge how America is doing.

David Eagleman
If choices and decisions derive from hidden mental processes, then free choice is either an illusion or, at minimum, more tightly constrained than previously considered.

David Eagleman
Think about the brain as the densest concentration of youness. It's the peak of the mountain, but not the whole mountain.

David Eagleman
If you ever feel lazy or dull, take heart: you're the busiest, brightest thing on the planet.

David Eagleman
When a male vole repeatedly mates with a female, a hormone called vasopressin is released in his brain. The vasopressin binds to receptors in a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, and the binding mediates a pleasurable feeling that becomes associated with that female. This locks in the monogamy, which is known as pair-bonding. If you block this hormone, the pair-bonding goes away.

David Eagleman
We are not the ones driving the boat of our behavior, at least not nearly as much as we believe.

David Eagleman
This is the hallmark of a robust biological system: political parties can perish in a tragic accident and the society will still run, sometimes with little more than a hiccup to the system. It may be that for every strange clinical case in which brain damage leads to a bizarre change in behavior or perception, there are hundreds of cases in which parts of the brain are damaged with no detectable clinical sign.

David Eagleman
Awareness of your surroundings occurs only when sensory inputs violate expectations. When the world is successfully predicted away, awareness is not needed because the brain is doing its job well.

David Eagleman
If you have certain problems with your brain but are raised in a good home, you might turn out okay. If your brain is fine and your home is terrible, you might still turn out fine. But if you have mild brain damage and end up with a bad home life, you're tossing the dice for a very unlucky synergy.

David Eagleman
We are not at the center of ourselves, but instead - like the Earth in the Milky Way, and the Milky Way in the universe - far out on a distant edge, hearing little of what is transpiring.

David Eagleman
You gleefully say, "I just thought of something!", when in fact your brain performed an enormous amount of work before your moment of genius struck. When an idea is served up from behind the scenes, your neural circuitry has been working on it for hours or days or years, consolidating information and trying out new combinations. But you take credit without further wonderment at the vast, hidden machinery behind the scenes.

David Eagleman
The main thing known about secrets is that keeping them is unhealthy for the brain.

David Eagleman
Nothing is inherently tasty or repulsive - it depends on your needs. Deliciousness is simply an index of usefulness.

David Eagleman
Because vision appears so effortless, we are like fish challenged to understand water.

David Eagleman
The brain internally simulates what will happen if you were to perform some action under specific conditions. Internal models not only play a role in motor acts (such as catching or dodging) but also underlie conscious perception.

David Eagleman
You are part of a complex social network that changes your biology with every interaction, and which your actions can change.

David Eagleman
At least 15 percent of human females possess a genetic mutation that gives them an extra (fourth) type of color photoreceptor - and this allows them to discriminate between colors that look identical to the majority of us with a mere three types of color photoreceptors.

David Eagleman
Keep in mind that every single generation before us has worked under the assumption that they possessed all the major tools for understanding the universe, and they were all wrong, without exception.

David Eagleman
Brains are like representative democracies. They are built of multiple, overlapping experts who weigh in and compete over different choices.

David Eagleman
You are more likely to believe that a statement is true if you have heard it before - whether or not it is actually true.

David Eagleman
All activity in the brain is driven by other activity in the brain, in a vastly complex, interconnected network.

David Eagleman
Knowing yourself now requires the understanding that the conscious you occupies only a small room in the mansion of the brain, and that it has little control over the reality constructed for you.

David Eagleman
Some men may be genetically inclined to have and hold a single partner, while some may not. In the near future, young women who stay current with the scientific literature may demand genetic tests of their boyfriends to assess how likely they are to make faithful husbands.

David Eagleman