Prejudice and the Human Brain (Part Two)
Social psychologist Mahzarin Banaji continues her discussion of experiments that look into the way the brain reacts to black and white faces. Dr. Banaji notes that there appear to be two systems in the brain that are involved. The first of these inc...
Memory and Videotape Recorders
Experimental psychologist and author Elizabeth Loftus explains that, "...memory does not work like a tape recorder. We don't just record the event and play it back later the way a videotape might work." Instead, Dr. Loftus says, when we are exposed ...
Language and the Mind
Linguist, author and university professor Noam Chomsky explains that the word "mind" is an abstraction which is really just another way to talk about the brain. Dr. Chomsky then discusses the connection between language and the mind. "If my foot is ...
Untreated Manic-Depressive Illness
Professor of psychiatry and author Kay Redfield Jamison says that, when the illness goes untreated, there is a tendency over time for manic-depressive episodes to get more frequent, more extreme and more difficult to treat.
Recognizing Depression
Dr. Andrew Leuchter, Director of Adult Psychiatry at UCLA, talks about the differences between what he calls, "...normal ups and downs," and depression. Dr. Leuchter says that when someone is down for weeks at a time, "...that's when we start to thi...
Exuberance and Intellectual Curiosity
Professor of psychiatry and author Kay Redfield Jamison talks about the link between exuberance and curiosity. "...One of the endearing qualities of exuberance," Dr. Jamison notes, "...is that people are able to entertain themselves almost endlessly...
Alzheimer's Disease and Genetics
Dr. Andrew Leuchter, Director of Adult Psychiatry at UCLA, explains that, "...it's clear that there are genetic predispositions to development of Alzheimer's disease late in life..." Dr. Leuchter adds that some of those who develop Alzheimer's disea...
Psychiatric Illnesses and Creative People
Professor of psychiatry and author Kay Redfield Jamison says that, in rare instances, "...there's an unusual combination that can occur in some people...where you have someone who's imaginative to begin with, and then give them an intense mood disor...
Prejudice and the Human Brain (Part Three)
Social psychologist Mahzarin Banaji continues her discussion of the brain's reactions to racially charged images. Dr. Banaji talks about what she calls the "profound sense of...tension and collaboration between the old brain and the new...about thes...
Prejudice and the Human Brain (Part One)
Social psychologist Mahzarin Banaji talks about experiments that probe racial basis by examining responses of the amygdala in the brain to black and white faces.