Interestingly, schizophrenics can tickle themselves because of a problem with their timing that does not allow their motor actions and resulting sensations to be correctly sequenced.

As an undergraduate I majored in British and American literature at Rice University.

My lab and academic work fill my day from about 9 am to 7 p.m. Then I zoom out the lens to work on my other writing.

The first lesson about trusting your senses is: don't. Just because you believe something to be true, just because you know it's true, that doesn't mean it is true.

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

This is what consciousness does: it sets the goals, and the rest of the system learns how to meet them.

What a life in science really teaches you is the vastness of our ignorance.