Understanding conscious experience isn’t beyond the realm of science

If only we could swap bodies, we could see and feel the world as others do. This idea isn’t just a favourite Hollywood plot, but was also conjured up by 17th-century philosopher and physician John Locke, a pioneer of empiricism. He used it to explore one of the biggest philosophical conundrums of the human condition – is your subjective experience the same as that of others?

For Locke, the appeal of the body swap narrative probably lay in a conviction that endures today – that it is impossible to objectively measure subjective experience. This yawning gap in science is a problem.

Take the example of pain, which is notoriously hard to gauge objectively. Multiple studies indicate that women are given less pain relief than men even when in similar amounts of agony; things are worse for those from marginalised groups. Fortunately, research now under way by neurologists could rewrite how we communicate our sense of pain, with major implications for equalising treatment. A new approach to answering the question of whether colour perception is the same for everyone has also proven fruitful (see “Do we all see red as the same colour? We finally have an answer”).

Colour perception is one thing, but what about more hazy concepts, such as energy? Trying to measure someone’s subjective energy levels might feel beyond the realm of investigation, more likely to be filed under “woo-woo”.

And yet, as our cover story describes (see “A fresh understanding of tiredness reveals how to get your energy back”), a fresh look at the mind-body connection, along with the biological mechanisms for energy production in our cells, is revealing a new understanding of what might be driving a seemingly intangible feeling of lacking energy.

That such science is coalescing is worthy of tentative celebration. Working to understand that which appears, at first, to be beyond objective measurement isn’t just a way to satiate our fascination. It will help doctors to better understand and treat their patients, and help us all live better. No Freaky Friday-style body swap required.