David Eagleman Books
David Eagleman is an American neuroscientist and author, known for his research on time perception, synesthesia, and brain plasticity. He is also a professor at Stanford University and the creator of several popular science books and television series that make neuroscience accessible to general audiences.
Known for: Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain, Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives, The Brain: The Story of You, The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World
Books by David Eagleman

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
In this thought-provoking work, neuroscientist David Eagleman explores the vast hidden world of the unconscious brain. He guides readers through the intricate mechanisms of perception, decision-making...

Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain
Livewired es una exploración de cómo el cerebro humano se adapta y cambia constantemente. David Eagleman, neurocientífico, describe la plasticidad cerebral y cómo las conexiones neuronales se reorgani...

Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives
Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives es una colección de cuarenta viñetas imaginativas que exploran posibles escenarios del más allá. Cada historia ofrece una perspectiva filosófica y poética sobre la...

The Brain: The Story of You
In this accessible exploration of neuroscience, David Eagleman takes readers on a journey through the inner workings of the human brain, revealing how billions of neurons create our perceptions, emoti...

The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World
The Runaway Species explores the neuroscience and psychology of human creativity, examining how the brain recombines existing ideas to generate innovation. Eagleman and Brandt draw from art, science, ...
Key Insights from David Eagleman
The Hidden Workings of the Brain
To grasp how little conscious control we actually exert, we must first understand how much the brain does behind the scenes. Imagine your brain as a vast metropolis by night: millions of lights flickering, each representing neurons communicating, forming patterns that amount to thought, memory, perc...
From Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
The Illusion of Conscious Control
Consciousness likes to believe it’s in charge. But consider the evidence: experiments using brain scans and electrophysiology have consistently shown that neural activity predicting a decision occurs hundreds of milliseconds before we become aware of making it. In other words, by the time you think ...
From Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
Core Idea 1: The Brain as a Dynamic, Constantly Changing System
The central argument of *Livewired* is that the human brain is not hardwired—it’s *livewired*. Every thought, every experience, every movement of attention changes its circuitry. Unlike computers, where electrons flow through predetermined paths, our neurons continually remodel their connections. Th...
From Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain
Core Idea 2: Sensory Substitution and the Brain’s Capacity to Reinterpret Input
One of the most fascinating demonstrations of livewiring is sensory substitution—the process by which the brain learns to translate one type of sensory data into another. If a person loses their vision, for example, the brain can use touch or sound as alternative channels for constructing the same s...
From Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain
Tale 1: 'Sum' — The Afterlife as Reordered Life
In the opening tale, I imagined an afterlife where you relive your existence, but instead of time unfolding naturally, every moment is regrouped by similarity. You spend two hundred days brushing your teeth, a year reading, seven months having sex, fifteen months looking for lost things. At first, t...
From Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives
Tale 2: 'Egalitaire' — Equal at Last
In this afterlife, equality reigns with absolute perfection. Every soul is adjusted to a neutral midpoint: talents leveled, beauty balanced, memories averaged out. At first, there’s relief—a utopian fairness where envy and pride evaporate. Yet as the realization sets in, this fairness feels suffocat...
From Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives
About David Eagleman
David Eagleman is an American neuroscientist and author, known for his research on time perception, synesthesia, and brain plasticity. He is also a professor at Stanford University and the creator of several popular science books and television series that make neuroscience accessible to general aud...
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David Eagleman is an American neuroscientist and author, known for his research on time perception, synesthesia, and brain plasticity. He is also a professor at Stanford University and the creator of several popular science books and television series that make neuroscience accessible to general aud...
David Eagleman is an American neuroscientist and author, known for his research on time perception, synesthesia, and brain plasticity. He is also a professor at Stanford University and the creator of several popular science books and television series that make neuroscience accessible to general audiences.
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David Eagleman is an American neuroscientist and author, known for his research on time perception, synesthesia, and brain plasticity. He is also a professor at Stanford University and the creator of several popular science books and television series that make neuroscience accessible to general audiences.
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