"Join UCSD's Larry Squire in a fascinating presentation of recent research about memory systems in humans and other mammals."
"Why do we crave love so much, even to the point that we would die for it? To learn more about our very real, very physical need for romantic love, Helen Fisher and her research team took MRIs of people in love -- and people who had just been dumped. "
"Martin Seligman talks about psychology -- as a field of study and as it works one-on-one with each patient and each practitioner. As it moves beyond a focus on disease, what can modern psychology help us to become?"
"Closer to Truth brings together leading scientists, scholars and artists to debate the fundamental issues of our times. One problem is that there are too many definitions! And getting these four guests to agree on what consciousness is and what causes it, is a fun but hopeless task that is revelatory at the same time. Joining host Robert Kuhn are Leslie Brothers, Psychiatrist; Joseph E. Bogen, Neurosurgeon; Stuart Hameroff, Anesthesiologist; and Christof Koch, Computation and Neural Systems."
"We make thousands of decisions every day: where to go, what to do, when to do it. Join UCSD's William Kristan and discover how neurons, synapses, and chemical input play out in decision making."
"Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most."
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“Philosophers have long sought to answer questions about who we are, where we come from and where we’re going. Stephan Chorover frets that a widening circle of contemporary scientists embrace Sigmund Freud’s approach to these questions, which is to say, “Biology is destiny.” Neuroscientists are promoting an even narrower dogma, says Chorover, where “everything we are trying to understand can be understood in terms of underlying brain mechanisms, neurons and molecules.” How can we cultivate individual ethical acts, and how can society hope to respond to such challenges as violent conflict, or social and economic inequity, if all human behavior reduces to a set of neurological inevitabilities?” |
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"Philip Zimbardo knows how easy it is for nice people to turn bad. In this talk, he shares insights and graphic unseen photos from the Abu Ghraib trials. Then he talks about the flip side: how easy it is to be a hero, and how we can rise to the challenge. "
"Why are humans the only species to have language? Is there something special about our brains? Are there genes that have evolved for language? In this talk, Jeff Elman, UCSD professor of cognitive science and co-director of the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, discusses some of the exciting new research that helps us understand what it is about human language that is so different from other animals' communication systems, and what about our biology might make language possible."
