What’s on your mind? For all of us the answer is the same: a culmination of thoughts, memories and emotions.

During this year’s OHSU Brain Awareness Season, discover how your brain uses these tools to formulate decisions, language, rational thought, empathy and self-awareness.

Join our quest to understand the single-most complex machine in the universe by learning firsthand from world-renowned neuroscientists whose research gives us insight into who we are as individuals. Hear for yourself how their discoveries also allow us to understand, diagnose and treat diseases of the brain, which affect millions of American lives.

Brought to you by the OHSU Brain Institute, one of the largest groups of neuroscientists and clinicians in the country… who provide the latest in breakthroughs, understanding and care for each and every Oregonian.

Joseph LeDoux, PhD, New York University

"The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life"

We know our emotions by their intrusions (welcome or otherwise) into our conscious minds. Understanding emotion in the human brain is clearly an important quest, as most mental disorders are emotional disorders. Emotions become powerful motivators of future behaviors. Mental health is maintained by emotional hygiene and mental problems, and to a large extent , reflect a breakdown of emotional order.

Joseph LeDoux , Ph.D., is one of the top world experts on emotional memory. His work, especially on fear, has given us insight into the biological mechanisms of learning about and storing information about danger. This understanding of the role of the amygdala in conscious and subconscious memory and the role of cognition in regulating the fear reaction is both complex and exciting. Dr. LeDoux is the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science and Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at New York University. He is also the director of the Center for the Neuroscience of Fear and Anxiety … and a singer and guitarist in the science-themed rock band; The Amygdaloids!

Season Patron ($210- reserved seats) and Season General Admission ($102.25) tickets are available for the entire lecture series.

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