Your Emotional Brain

How are you feeling today? Worried, content, nervous, happy? Think about your work and your boss. Are you confident, panicky, annoyed? Now think about your partner, a loved one, your first childhood crush. Are you giddy, anxious, embarrassed, excited? There is such a huge variety of human emotions and we know they can change shockingly fast. Those emotions drive us to do all sorts of things – in fact, they drive most of what we do – all from just 3 lbs. of gray matter between our ears. Aren’t you curious to know how your brain manages all that all the time? Join ISC for an exciting tour through the different parts of your emotional brain to learn how they all interact to guide you, and what happens when something goes wrong.

For the first in our series of programs on the brain, Dr. Robin Nusslock, of Northwestern University, will lay the groundwork by giving us an intriguing tour of the three main systems of your emotional brain – fear, reward, and regulation – that make us so wonderfully (and sometimes annoyingly!) human.

Robin Nusslock, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University where he directs the Affective & Clinical Neuroscience Lab and serves as Director of Clinical Psychology and Clinical Training.

Host or Publisher Illinois Science Council