A mind drawn
to minds

I find it fascinating that one organ, sitting in utter darkness inside our skulls, creates an entire world of light for us. Every colour we see, every person we love, every story we tell ourselves about who we are, all of it begins there.

Memory alone feels like a magic trick. Each time we reach for one, it can shift before we tuck it away again. Perception is just as strange: the brain guesses, filters, and fills in the gaps, which means that attention, expectation, and experience can change the world we think we are seeing. We are not simply watching life unfold; in some small, astonishing way, we are helping create it.

Wanting to understand this has taken me from psychology at Penn State to neuroscience at Columbia, and into EEG, brain imaging, cognitive assessment, and the many ways technology can help us make sense of the brain. Each has opened a different door: listening to the brain’s electrical rhythms, finding patterns in images and numbers, and asking what those patterns can tell us about how people think, feel, and remember.

There is always another enigma in the brain, another question waiting to be explored. That is what makes neuroscience so exciting to me. I’m especially curious about how neurotechnology can turn what we discover into something useful: reducing suffering, helping people keep their brains healthy, and protecting the quality of life that makes all those memories, relationships, and experiences possible.