WHAT WE ARE BENEATH THE SKIN

A neuroscientific journey into gender identity, the body and the making of the self 
How does the brain create the feeling of being ourselves?
And why can that inner identity differ from the body we are born with?
In this ambitious narrative essay, neuroscientist Dr. Emilia Redolar explores one of neuroscience's greatest challenges:how the brain constructs the self. Through the life story of Almudena, a transgender woman who has known since
childhood that the person beneath her skin did not match the body she inhabited, Redolar guides readers through the neural foundations of identity.
Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience, she takes readers from perception, memory, emotions and body awareness to brain development, genetics, hormones and social cognition, revealing that identity cannot be reduced either to biology or to culture alone, but emerges from the dynamic
interaction between the brain, the body, lived experience and the social world. Along the way, she untangles concepts that are frequently confused in public debate—from biological sex and gender identity to sexual orientation—while dismantling widespread misconceptions through scientific evidence.
Blending cutting-edge neuroscience with a deeply human story, What We Are Beneath the Skin transforms one of today's most polarized debates into a profound exploration of identity.

Where the story of a transgender woman meets cutting-edge neuroscience to illuminate one of today’s most misunderstood human experiences.