Stanford Neuroscientist: Can’t Remember Your Dreams? Your Brain May Be Warning You!

If a person goes blind, the visual cortex in the back of their brain gets taken over by hearing and touch.

The purpose of dreaming is to defend the visual territory of the brain from takeover by other senses.

Dr. David Eagleman's childhood experience of falling 12 feet and perceiving the event in slow motion sparked his lifelong interest in brain perception.

Humans are not single individuals but a "team of rivals" composed of multiple neural networks with different, often competing, drives.

The brain contains 86 billion neurons that communicate at a blindingly fast rate.

The brain's plasticity means it can be molded into a shape and hold that shape, allowing for adaptation and learning.

The Religious Orders Study found that some Catholic nuns with physical Alzheimer's degeneration showed no cognitive deficits due to maintaining high cognitive reserve through constant mental and social challenges.

Social interaction is crucial for brain health because "nothing is as hard for the brain as other people," constantly challenging cognitive processes.

Physical changes in the motor cortex are observable in musicians, with pianists showing a larger tissue loop in both hemispheres and violinists showing activity in one half.

The brain's cortex is a "one-trick pony" that can adapt to different sensory inputs, such as the visual cortex being taken over by other senses if a person is born blind.

The long-term effects of social media and the internet on children's brain development are currently unknown due to the lack of a proper scientific control group.

Isaac Asimov predicted in a 1988 interview a future where a central supercomputer would contain all human knowledge, accessible from every home, foreseeing the internet's educational potential.

By one estimate, a billion people are currently engaged in relationships with AI, such as virtual girlfriends or boyfriends.

The new theory of dreaming posits that every 90 minutes, an ancient part of the midbrain blasts random activity into the visual system to defend it from takeover by other senses.