Where Am I in Space and Self: The Neuroscience of Orientation and the Self

Short Summary

The Rest Is Science dives into one of humanity’s oldest questions: where is the self, and where is the body in space? The episode unfolds through two complementary parts. First, it asks how we know which way is up and where we are in the world, drawing on everyday situations, avalanche disorientation, spaceflight, and piloting, to illustrate how vision, inner ear balance signals, and proprioception collaborate with memory to keep us oriented. The second part travels into the brain’s navigation system, explaining place cells, grid cells, and the entorhinal cortex, and how these maps cooperate with language and culture to shape our sense of being. Expect fascinating experiments, quirky anecdotes, and a richer sense of how the brain anchors the self in space.

Overview

This video from The Rest Is Science interrogates the question of where we are located in space and, more philosophically, where the self resides in the body. The hosts explore practical and theoretical angles, from everyday orientation in a familiar room to extreme environments like avalanches and microgravity, and then connect these experiences to the brain’s navigation machinery, including place cells and grid cells. The discussion blends neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, and even urban knowledge in London to illustrate how perception, memory, and culture cooperate to anchor our sense of self and space.

Key Concepts

• Orientation cues: visual input, vestibular signals from the inner ear, and proprioception as a body map
• Spatial navigation systems: place cells in the hippocampus and grid cells in the entorhinal cortex
• The ego center: how people anchor their sense of self in the body, influenced by culture and language
• Proprioception and the Waterman case: sensory nerve loss and the recalibration of body awareness
• Language and space: how absolute directions versus relative terms shape spatial thinking across cultures
• The cyclops effect and body representation: how perception of self can shift in unusual perceptual setups
• Implications for real-world tasks: driving, piloting, and navigation in VR

Why It Matters