### more\/we are all embodied, neurodiverse, situated, adaptive In the past two decades science moved us far from the old image of the brain as a collection of controls for the different cognitive functions and of emotions as separate from (and even interfering with) cognition. Cognition and consciousness are now understood to be in the body as much as the brain, with emotions and bodily states an integral part of cognition. As for the brain, we now know that the assumed "typical brain" does not exist. We are all neurodiverse simply because there are always many ways to skin a cat (which should not take away from the usefulness of the neurodiversity label to push back on the pathologizing of particular groups of people). We are also situated, meaning that cognition cannot be separated from society, culture and physical environment. As an example, a remarkable discovery is that reading makes it harder to remember faces. This (right-hemispheric bias in facial processing) was assumed to be a basic feature of human brains but turns out to be a side effect of literacy, an evolutionary change in our wiring that did not require changing the genetic code. It means that culture completely changes how evolution works in humans. It also means that culture literally gives us blinkers. - [A. Seth, Being You: A New Science of Consciousness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_%20You:_%20A_%20New_%20Science_%20of_%20Consciousness) - [PJ. Richardson and R. Boyd, Not by Genes Alone](https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo3615170.html) - [J. Henrich, The WEIRDest People in the World](https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo3615170.html)