For more than a year, my lab worked with filmmaker Van Yang to present ideas from my book, How Emotions are Made, as a 40-minute "cinematic …
Blog
How to be Misquoted
One of the perils of speaking to the media about science is that occasionally, I'm misquoted in print. …
You aren’t at the mercy of your emotions (TED Talk)
Can you look at someone's face and know what they're feeling? Does everyone experience happiness, sadness and anxiety the same way? What are …
Poverty on the Brain
By now, you’ve probably heard about Ben Carson’s astonishing statement that poverty is largely “a state of mind.” …
The Mental Inference Fallacy
Dr. Frankenstein was up late one night, working on his monster project. He popped open the monster's skull, attached electrodes to the brain …
Simulation
Let's play a game. I hand you a diaper with a brownish smear in the center. I tell you that the smear is baby food and ask you to smell it. …
Brain Circuits for Emotion?
Imagine that you live in the world of Harry Potter. One morning, while reading the Daily Prophet, you notice an intriguing news headline: …
Talking About the Brain with Maria Shriver
After my appearance on the Today Show this month, I had an interesting, informal chat with host Maria Shriver about emotion and the brain, …
Population Thinking
Charles Darwin and Aristotle walk into a bar and order martinis. Aristotle's drink comes first and he takes a sip. …
Pattern Classification Explained
I dreamed last night that my phone had a magical app to distinguish between healthful foods and desserts. …