Neuroscience of emotion

• 6.30pm – 8.00pm on 05 July 2011
• at The Royal Society, London

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Panel discussion involving Professor David Freedberg,
Dr Daniela Schiller, Ian McEwan and chaired by Professor Ray Dolan FRS, as part of the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition.

Does emotion serve a particular function? How important is emotion in artistic expression? How do we study emotion in science and the arts? Professor Ray Dolan FRS, Professor of Neuropsychiatry, and the panel of experts representing the literary world and the visual arts will discuss these and other fascinating questions.

Professor David Freedberg is Pierre Matisse Professor of the History of Art and Director of The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University. David Freedberg is best known for his work on psychological responses to art, and particularly for his studies on iconoclasm and censorship.

Dr Daniela Schiller is the director of the Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.  Her research focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying emotional control and flexibility. She made significant contributions in the study of reconsolidation and the development of techniques to change old emotional memories.

Ian McEwan is an English novelist and screenwriter, and one of Britain's most highly regarded writers.

Professor Ray Dolan FRS is Mary Kinross Professor of Neuropsychiatry and Director, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London. Professor Dolan has defined the functional anatomy of human emotion and choice behaviour with neuroimaging. His most significant discoveries combine approaches that encompass empirical observation and theoretical models.

Interviews with Professor David Freedberg, Professor Ray Dolan FRS and Ian McEwan are now available.

Image above courtesy of Professor Colin Blakemore FRS.

This event is part of the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition.