Antonio Damasio is a professor of neuroscience and director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California. His research helped uncover the neural basis for emotions and has shown that they play a central role in social cognition and decision-making. Since antiquity, artists and philosophers have sought to explain how we perceive, interpret, and shape our existence. Recent advances in brain imaging and fresh insights into the functioning of the human brain at the level of systems, cells and molecules, now provide opportunities for uncovering the neurological basis for a large array of mental functions from emotion and decision-making to the creativity expressed in the arts, sciences and technology.
Antonio Damasio will be in conversation with Amy Standen from KQED Science, an award-winning multimedia science and environment series. Her work has been recognized by the National Association of Public Radio News Directors and Northern California’s Society of Professional Journalists. Standen has been a producer on Pulse of the Planet, editor of Terrain Magazine, an editor at Salon and a roving reporter for KALW’s Philosophy Talk.