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Nov 2, 2025
It’s in the Eyes
For as long as people have been people, we’ve had this sense that the eyes aren’t just there for seeing, they tell you what’s going on inside someone. Long before neuroscience was a thing, the eyes showed up everywhere as symbols of the mind in ancient culture. The Eye of Horus watching over the dead, the Evil Eye across the Mediterranean and South Asia, the Greeks imagining sight as light coming out from the soul. Different stories, same basic feeling: the eyes give something away.
You can see it in how we talk, too. “The look in their eyes.” “Eyes that don’t lie.” “A distant gaze.” These phrases stuck around because they match something we all intuitively notice.
As we better understand the science behind it, LC–NE coupling, neurodevelopment, all of it points to the same conclusion our ancestors intuited: your pupils are a live readout of your brain state. They react to cognitive load, fatigue, arousal, attention, way more than most people realize.