The Science of Finding True Fulfillment
Berns argues the more complicated and challenging a life you pursue the more likely it is that you will be satisfied. Investigating the brain and its hunger for new experiences, Dr. Gregory Berns surveys the fields of neuroscience, economics, and evolutionary psychology to find answers to the fundamental question of how we can find a more satisfying way to think and live. Berns bridges the gap between everyday experience and cutting-edge research. He follows ultramarathoners across the Sierra Nevadas, enters a suburban S&M club to explore the deeper connection between pleasure and pain, partakes of a truly transporting meal, and ultimately examines his own marriage, where he faces the challenge of incorporating novelty into a long-term relationship.
Speaker Details
Gregory Berns, M.D., Ph.D., is an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University. He studies the relationship of neural systems to behavior by using a combination of computational and functional imaging techniques. His lab is particularly interested in the role of the basal ganglia in processing novelty and reward. As a complement to the imaging, they are developing computer models that link the measured circuit response to behavior. Using neural networks, they model the same tasks that their subjects perform in the scanner. This allows the testing of hypotheses regarding circuit function as well as generating new experiments. Finally, Berns is interested in neuroeconomics, a new field in which he is using imaging techniques to uncover the neural basis for many different types of human interactions and decision-making (e.g. social, economic).Profiled twice in the Science section of The New York Times, Berns and his research have been featured in media as diverse as O, The Oprah Magazine; Forbes; Nature; Money; New Scientist; Psychology Today; Self; Reader’s Digest; International Herald Tribune; and on CNN, NPR, and the BBC. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife and children.
- Date:
- Speakers:
- Gregory Berns
- Affiliation:
- Emory University
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Jeff Running
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