Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp spent much of his career toiling in relative obscurity, but when he died in April 2017 the Washington Post credited him with "revealing the emotional lives of animals." His book Affective Neuroscience essentially created a new field and he was a very popular guest on the Brain Science Podcast .

This month I want to honor Dr. Panksepp by re-airing the first interview I recorded with him back in 2010.

While newer theories about emotion disagree with Dr. Panksepp's conclusion that all mammals, including humans, share basic subcortical circuits that cause emotions, his appreciation for the affective lives of animals and the role of affect in consciousness will continue to influence research and thought.

How to get this episode:

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Links and References:

• Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions by Jaak Panksepp

• The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions by Jaak Panksepp and Lucy Biven

• Additional Interviews: BSP 91 and Books and Ideas #51

Announcements

• Next month's podcast will be an interview with Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, author of How Emotions Are Made: The New Science of the Mind and Brain

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• Dr. Campbell plans to attend the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, DC this November. Please email her if you will be there.

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