My first book, PLAYING WITH REALITY: HOW GAMES HAVE SHAPED OUR WORLD comes out next week! I was constantly surprised while researching this book—and learned so much about people by studying something that fascinates them (thread) When lockdowns hit, I turned to games to pass the time (like a lot of people) and rediscovered their brilliance. Not my proudest moment, but my sisters could tell how depressed I was by how elaborate I’d made my Animal Crossing garden. (Yes, I bred blue roses.)

Thread: I’m pleased to share my new paper, wherein we devised a novel optical brain machine interface (BMI) to investigate how the brain infers and controls a causal relationship between its activity and the outside world.
biorxiv.org/content/10.110… The experience of agency is integral to our sense of self and responsibility, and its dysfunction in a number of psychopathologies can have devastating social effects.

It's a great honor to share this piece I wrote for @WIRED about two beautiful humans, Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel (@cureffi). They’re a married couple using science to save Sonia’s life--you can read all about their amazing quest in the article. wired.com/story/sleep-no… If you’re looking to fund a worthy cause, consider donating: prionalliance.org If you're a philanthropist, consider how modest funding for their work will change the regulatory space for neurodegenerative disease, and pave the way for others like Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s!