In an experiment, doctors tried to stop a woman from having a seizure by stimulating her brain with electrodes. As they did this, she laughed and said it was because the people were so funny standing around like that. She had no idea when or how much stimulation is going on but didn't feel any pain at all. The question for us now is: How do we know when we laugh?
How does the mind work? What makes us sad? What makes us laugh? Despite advances in neuroscience, the answers to these questions remain elusive. Neuroscientist Patrick House talks about these mysteries and about his book Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. House's insights illuminate not just what we know and don't know about our minds--he also helps us understand what it means to be human.