How our brains create our sense of self

Every morning we wake up and regain consciousness. But what exactly is it that we regain? Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio uses this simple question to give us a glimpse into how our brains create our sense of self.

Sheila Nirenberg studies how the brain processes information; how it takes information in from the outside world and converts it into patterns of electrical activity. And then how it uses these patterns to allow you to do things. To see, to hear, to feel, to smell, to reach for an object. Sheila shows how to create sight in people with certain kinds of blindness: by hooking into the optic nerve and sending signals from a camera direct to the brain. Image -> Retina -> Brain. When you look at something, it goes into your eye, and it lands on your retina. On the fertinent cell, the photo-receptors. The retina converts the information into a code. Adn the code is into the form of electrical pulses that goes into the brain. Being able to communicate with the brain, in its language, and the potential power to do that. To communicate from the outside world to the brain, and to be understood. When we can Understand the code, the language of the brain, things become possible that were not possible before.
Neuroscientist Allan Jones uses visual mapping to begin to understand the way the brain works. He uses the same way we begin to understand a city: by making a map. In this visually stunning talk, Allan Jones shows how his team is mapping which genes are turned on in each tiny region in the brain, and how it all connects up.