The Importance of Context in Neuroscience

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"I don't have an actual equals MC squared answer to anything," he says. "What I find interesting and almost kind of tragic about the study of consciousness and neuroscience is that we're losing what might be unique data sets, which are what's happening on the inside of everybody's heads" Brain stimulation can actually achieve profound changes in a certain center for some patients - but it gets tricky when you get into cognitive functions like memory or motor skills.

While operating on a 16-year-old girl who suffered from severe seizures, neurosurgeon Itzhak Fried stumbled on the region of the brain that makes us laugh. To neuroscientist Patrick House, Fried's ability to produce laughter surgically raises deep and disconcerting questions about how the brain works. Join Fried, House, and EconTalk's Russ Roberts for a live broadcast from Jerusalem's Shalem College that is a sequel of sorts to House's earlier appearance on EconTalk. House and Fried discuss the mystery of consciousness and try to square the biological bases for emotions with the circle of our humanity.