This week’s topic: The Mind-Body Connection:

With billions of nerve cells and trillions of connections between them, the human brain is considered the most complex structure in the known universe. But thinking, feeling, and behaving are so fundamental to our existence that healthy individuals rarely stop to ponder the marvelous motherboard behind this effortless functioning. To UC Berkeley professor David Presti, the question of how chemical processes in the brain are related to manifestations of behavior remains one of the most fascinating and challenging issues in neuroscience. How does meditation affect brain chemistry? Why do placebos (sometimes) work? Can our minds influence our health? What do fancy new imaging technologies reveal about the connection between activity in the brain and our thoughts and feelings? Come find out what the current research tells us about these questions and more.

Speaker: David Presti; Professor of Neurobiology, UC Berkeley

About Ask A Scientist:
Ask a Scientist is an informative, entertaining, science lecture series, held at a San Francisco cafe. Each event features a speaker on a current topic, a short presentation, and the opportunity to ask all those burning questions that have been keeping you up at night. No tests, grades, or pressure…just food, drinks, socializing, and conversation about the universe’s most fascinating mysteries!