Bodyswap AU And Brain Chemistry - Tumblr Posts

This fucks me up, because so much of personality is adaptive responses to how our brains work, right? I can’t wrap my mind around what this AU would be, and it makes me deeply uncomfortable but somewhat wistful to imagine as a real-life possibility, but I’d read it. 

(Although, if each body kept its physical brain and brain chemistry, that brings up thorny questions of where one’s consciousness resides and how it actually would be swapped...since the brains have physical neural pathways that we develop over the years, and different parts of the brain developed more than others, right? the mechanism by which we have all our thoughts? so would the connection patterns of thoughts get transferred over to the new brain but find certain pathways really unfamiliar?? how are memories even encoded??? someone get a neurologist, help!)

Also interesting to contemplate: the role gut flora play in influencing moods!

Okay but here’s the thing about bodyswaps

It’s usually explicitly one’s consciousness or literal soul being switched around, right? It’s not your actual, physical brain and brain chemistry

So what if one person has clinical depression and the other doesn’t? Someone’s probably got ADHD, is on the autism spectrum, has OCD or anxiety or PTSD. And maybe some of that follows the original owner, because they’re used to dealing with in unconsciously, but whoever replaced them is getting the brunt of it

Focusing on the physical aspect of bodyswaps is cool and all but let’s see some more on the psychological too?