Venue: Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown
Speakers: Morten Kringelbach, Scott Rennie
Is it the pleasure of good wine or great sex? The lasting pleasure of helping people in need? Or perhaps it is simply the quiet moments free from stress when we are truly relaxed?
Finding a definition that truly captures this feeling is not as easy as we might expect. For thousands of years ancient contemplative traditions have examined the nature of happiness. More recently, the fields of neuroscience and positive psychology have attempted to do the same. While these efforts have produced many theories of happiness, there are two apparently divergent approaches to how to achieve it. One that has emerged from psychology focuses on a “happiness of pursuit” by searching for pleasurable and meaningful experiences. Another, which comes from ancient contemplative traditions, views happiness as being quite separate from the search for pleasure. Instead, it sees it as a skill that can be trained through meditation. On December 4, 9pm, at the Champalimaud Center of the Unknown Dr. Morten Kringelbach, a professor at Oxford University will tell us about the neuroscience of pleasure. Scott Rennie, a PhD student at the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, will talk about meditative practices and their impact on how the brain functions.
Join us for a thought-provoking exploration of these two paths, and how they impact the brain.
SPEAKERS
ORGANIZERS
Germany for her Master’s. Now she is a PhD student at the CNP in the Cortical Circuits lab where she is examining how cognitive processes affect perception.