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Big Think Interview with Helen Fisher

Neuroanthropologist Helen Fisher talks about love, human behaviour, and the brain systems behind it. In this in-depth interview, she discusses the drive to love, casual sex, cheating and recovery from cheating, what makes us attracted to someone, and the age-old question, “What is love?” Is her research unromantic? Describing the chemicals in roses doesn’t make them any less beautiful. Click image to view video.

Wendy Suzuki – Exercise and the Brain

A cognitive neuroscientist gives a rousing talk about the benefits of exercise on memory. She describes being inspired to teach after learning about the brain’s ability to adapt, and experimenting with aerobic exercise, becoming an IntenSati fitness instructor to teach her neuroscience students. She designed a classroom experiment that combined lectures with workouts, and found students were not only more engaged but their cognitive skills improved over time. Mentioning animal models that showed growth in the brain after exercise, as well as research with exercise and Alzheimer’s (see this video), she makes a compelling case to visit the gym.

A Brief Introduction to the Default Mode Network

Good animation, narration, and music (by Ehma, available for free) in this short but comprehensive description of the brain’s default mode network. Made for the 2010 Society for Neuroscience People’s Choice Awards Contest, it’s an excellent entry and an enriching way to spend two minutes.

Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation 2008 Lecture

Ian Hickie presents research on mental health issues in the Australian legal profession. He discusses help-seeking behaviours, productivity, disability, economic burden of illness, suicide and prevention efforts, substance use, neurobiology, treatments, gender and age differences, stigma and discrimination, and more. Extremely well-researched presentation with many statistics and perspectives. The 40 minute lecture is followed by a panel discussion, a Q&A session with the audience, and a brief talk by organization co-founder George Jepson. The Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation works to “raise awareness, improve education and build effective models of support which focus on mental health wellbeing” in the legal profession, and funds relevant research including that of Prof. Hickie.

This is Your Brain on Love: Why Him? Why Her?

The brain’s reward systems and neurobiological changes during romantic love, as studied by neuroanthropologist Helen Fisher. Fisher gives an entertaining talk outlining her research, her online dating site and personality types, and how people create their own “love maps” while biology plays a big role behind the poetry. Great talk and Q&A, archived as part of WGBH’s special Romance & The Brain series. Participate in Fisher’s research online here.

Synthetic Neurobiology

Futuristic lecture covering augmented cognition, neurobiology, neuromodulation, computational neuroscience, optogenetics, mouse studies, neuroengineering, and potential therapies. Includes supplementary slides.

Big Think Interview with Nora Volkow

The Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse is interviewed about the scientific and social causes and courses of substance use disorders, and why they shouldn’t be criminalized. Includes transcript. See also: Volkow and others give lectures on addiction neurobiology at a 2006 symposium at the Picower Institute.

The Signatures of Sleep

The functions and role of sleep in learning and memory consolidation. Sleep consolidates perceptual and motor skills learned during the day, and improves immune and neuroendocrine functioning. Different stages of sleep enhance different types of memory but all play important roles.

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Light Beyond Vision: Day and Night in Building Science and Chronobiology

How natural and artificial light affects our bodies, circadian systems, sleep and mood, and the role of architecture and design for healthy chronobiology. Related videos: Sleep, Genes and Bipolar Disorders, and Hypothalamus and Chronobiology. There’s also a massive amount of info, much of it practical how-to, with plenty of research and news in the comments of the World of Psychology blog post Light and Dark.

The Uniqueness of Human

Neurobiologist, primatologist and stress expert Sapolsky talks about what makes humans different from animals, at the 2009 Stanford commencement. Excellent, entertaining speaker. Lecture via Open Culture. See also: Stress-related Neurodegeneration, Sapolsky on Depression, and the podcast Sapolsky on Stress.