Andrew Huberman· PhD
What's really incredible is that the language that those neurons use is exactly the same.
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The headline is broadly defensible, but the qualifications matter. Effect sizes vary by population, the strongest claims rest on shorter trials, and credible voices push back on how it's typically framed.
What's really incredible is that the language that those neurons use is exactly the same.
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Native comments, Twitter mentions, and Reddit threads about this claim — surfaced together so the conversation isn't fragmented across platforms.
Bookmarking — the dossier-vs-overview split is the right call. Most of the time I want overview; sometimes I want receipts.
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These wires are positioned within the skin to respond to mechanical forces, so maybe light touch. Some will only send electrical activity up toward the brain in response to light touch. Others respond to coarse pressure, to hard pressure, but they won't respond to a light feather. Others respond to temperature, so they will respond to the presence of heat or the presence of cold. And still others respond to other types of stimuli, like certain chemicals on our skin.
the language that those neurons use is exactly the same. The neuron that responds to light touch sends electrical signals up toward the brain. The neurons that respond to cold or to heat or to habanero pepper, they only respond to the particular thing that evokes the electrical response. I should say that they only respond to the particular stimulus, the pepper, the cold, the heat, et cetera, that will evoke an electrical signal, but the electrical signals are a common language that all neurons use. And yet, if something cold is presented to your skin, like an ice cube, you know that that sensation, that thing is cold. You don't misperceive it as heat or as a habanero pepper, okay? So, that's amazing. What that means is that there must be another element in the equation of what creates pleasure or pain, and that element is your brain.