Tuesday, August 20, 8PM @ the Bell House, FREE! Secret Science Club presents Neuroscientist Anne Churchland on Decision Making

Swinging synapses! Decode and dismantle your brain with neuroscientist Anne Churchland

What to do ... what to do? Your brain is working overtime, sifting through sensory input. Both consciously and unconsciously, you're constantly computing the advisability of various actions (and inactions). Should you stay or should you go? Has the mayonnaise gone bad? Is that T-shirt really worth fifty bucks? Is it a good idea to spend the weekend binge-watching three seasons of Breaking Bad?

At Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, neuroscientist Anne Churchland works at the cutting edge of research on decision making. She asks:
--How does your brain compile all the bits of sensory data it receives to make good (and even not so good) decisions?
--What can new technologies and experiments tell us about how we think—even when our “thinking” is subconscious?
--How does the brain handle multisensory input? Is one sense favored over others?
--Why are simple decisions sometimes so complex? What might the neuroscience of decision making tell us about anxiety, addiction, and other ways our brains trip us up?

Before & After

--Try our cunning cocktail of the night, the Best Decision Ever

--Groove to dopamine-spiked tunes

--Stick around for the thought-provoking Q&A

 

This multiple-choice edition of the Secret Science Club meets Tuesday, August 20, 8 pm @ the Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Subway: F or G to 4th Ave.

Doors open at 7:30 pm. Please bring ID: 21+

No cover. Just bring your smart self!

Illustration of Neurons in the Brain by Benedict Campbell, Wellcome Images