Nicole Rust, director of the Visual Memory laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania and author of 'Elusive Cures', shares her insights on transforming neuroscience to address brain and mental disorders. She discusses the need for a holistic approach, emphasizing how environmental factors shape moods and mental health. Rust also explores the shift in research methodologies, advocating for a view of the brain as a complex, adaptive system. Additionally, she touches upon innovative treatments, including the fascinating role of psychedelics in therapy.
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Crick's Inspiration Shaped Career
Nicole Rust was inspired by Francis Crick's book about consciousness pathways early in her career.
She studied the visual system before shifting focus to broader cognition and mood neuroscience.
insights INSIGHT
Embracing Dynamical Systems View
Nicole Rust initially doubted the importance of dynamical systems in brain function.
Writing her book helped her appreciate its essential role beyond simple feed-forward brain models.
insights INSIGHT
Mood Is Hard To Measure
Mood neuroscience lags other brain functions due to difficulty measuring subjective happiness.
Our understanding of brain mechanisms for mood remains limited compared to perception or memory.
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Francis Crick's "The Astonishing Hypothesis" boldly proposes that 'you,' your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.' This materialistic view challenges traditional notions of the mind and soul, arguing that consciousness is a purely physical phenomenon arising from brain activity. The book explores the biological basis of consciousness, emphasizing the importance of understanding the brain's intricate mechanisms to unravel the mysteries of the mind. Crick's work sparked significant debate and continues to influence contemporary research on consciousness. It remains a landmark contribution to the ongoing quest to understand the relationship between brain and mind.
Elusive Cures
Elusive Cures
Nicole Rust
Inventing Temperature
null
Hasek Chang
Free Agents
How Evolution Gave Us Free Will
Kevin J. Mitchell
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The Transmitter is an online publication that aims to deliver useful information, insights and tools to build bridges across neuroscience and advance research. Visit thetransmitter.org to explore the latest neuroscience news and perspectives, written by journalists and scientists.
To explore more neuroscience news and perspectives, visit thetransmitter.org.
Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn’t Solved Brain Disorders―and How We Can Change That. Nicole Rust runs the Visual Memory laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. Her interests have expanded now to include mood and feelings, as you'll hear. And she wrote this book, which contains a plethora of ideas about how we can pave a way forward in neuroscience to help treat mental and brain disorders. We talk about a small plethora of those ideas from her book. which also contains the story partially which will hear of her own journey in thinking about these things from working early on in visual neuroscience to where she is now.
Brain Inspired 
