From the formation of language to the creation of emotion, and from the puzzle of consciousness to the existence of mental illness, understanding the brain is vital both for our understanding of ourselves and our understanding of reality. What is the brain? What does it reveal about human nature? How has it evolved over the millennia?

Join renowned professor of psychology and award-winning academic, Lisa Feldman Barrett, as she tours some of the most fascinating discoveries about the brain. Professor Feldman Barrett will examine the most recent neuroscience about brain evolution and function, what this reveals about human nature, how this affects the construction of language, and the implications of having socially dependent brains in a culture that prizes individual rights and freedoms.   

By the end of the course, you will have learnt:

• A brief evolutionary history of the brain.
• What makes the human brain so special.
• How the brain creates civilisations.
• The power of words, and how they affect the brain.
• How we can train our brain to make us happier.

IAI Academy courses are designed to be challenging but accessible to the interested student. No specialist knowledge is required.

• Barrett, L. F., How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017).
• Gazzaniga, M. S., The Ethical Brain, (New York: Dana Press, 2005).
• Damasio, A. R., Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, (New York: Putnam, 1994).
• Pinker, S., How the Mind Works, (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997).
• Ramachandran, V. S., Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, (New York: William Morrow, 1998).
• LeDoux, J., The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).
• Churchland, P. S., Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011).