Cover for the European Journal of Neuroscience
Nov 2024

Carl Sagan says that we are a way for the cosmos to know itself. Neuroscience is trying hard to understand how and why we are this way.

Cover for Nature Medicine (not selected)
Jul 2024 | Rohaut et al., 2024, Nature Medicine︎︎︎ 

Where is consciousness in a vegetative brain?

Press release
Dec 2023 | Thoret et al., 2024, PLoS Computational Biology︎︎︎

Your voice might be secretly telling everyone how sleepy you are. And now we have machine learning to spill the beans.

Cover for Cortex
Dec 2023 | Rowe et al., 2024, Cortex︎︎︎

Did you see that shooting star? Even if you didn’t, you brain might have — we’re always noticing more than we realize.

Cover for Nature Neuroscience
Sep 2023 | Turker et al., 2023, Nature Neuroscience︎︎︎

Pillow talk is taken to a whole new level: Your sleeping self listens and... talks back :)

Entering a dream while being aware of it (what is called lucid dreaming) is a very strange experience. You step in a world that’s all wobbly and trembling at first. Weirdly, it shapes itself where your gaze lands. If you stay calm, the surroundings slowly stabilize and only then you can start moving around.

I came across an AI-based app called Luma and created a 3D render of a bottle in my bedroom. It struck me how the render resembled the way I experience the beginning of a lucid dream.  

Luma, Premiere Pro

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After the eclipse passes, you see the sun differently.

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Look away from the problem you’re trying to solve. The brain will play with it and make connections behind the scenes.

At best, an insight hits you like a bolt of lightning. 

At worst, you’ve cleared your mind and start again with a clean slate. When you dive back in, you have a clear perspective to see what the project needs.

Illustrator

When falling asleep, your awareness of what surrounds you disappears. It feels like your body becomes weightless. The experience of being you fades away.

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It is difficult to say more because trying to watch yourself falling asleep is tricky. The moment you direct your attention towards it, you are pulled back to wakefulness. But in that fleeting moment, you might also catch a glimpse of unexpected thoughts: a random music, a weirdly shaped object, a bizarre conversation with your boss or some surreal scenario on Mars.

Before you get to a state of nothingness, take notice of what crosses your mind. You will realize that the experience of falling asleep is more intriguing than the flip of a light switch.

Here is a great recent review on the complexity of the transition to sleep.

Illustrator, animated using RunWay