Tackling the Greatest Challenge of the 21st Century:
Understanding the Human Brain
Brain science is at a tipping point, entering a new era in which an ever deeper understanding of how the brain works will challenge our very sense of what it means to be human.
Through citizen juries, online discussions, participatory science, and other means, The Brain Dialogue aims to share the journey. And to share it with everyone — opera singer, engineer, CEO, or chef.
We will talk about what we are learning about the human brain, how we are learning it, and what still seems frustratingly unlearnable.
We will contemplate how understanding the human brain, the most complex object in the known universe, will change how we educate our children, mete out justice, or design our roads.
And last, but certainly not least, we will listen to what non-neuroscientists think and feel about this new frontier.
DISCOVERY
-
Redrawing the map of brain connections involved in extinguishing learned fear
In a nutshell: The identification of a new connection in the brain involved in reducing the fear response upends the current model of fear extinction. Read more
-
Polar expedition: mapping connections at the tip of the brain
In a nutshell: Humans are not the only primate species to have subdivisions in the frontopolar cortex. Read more
-
What’s that? How the brain makes sense of objects in surprising and unsurprising places
In a nutshell: Several areas of the brain involved in processing visual information respond differently depending on whether an object is in an expected or an unexpected location. Read more
Trending on Twitter
