The Human Experience · Episode
Episode 119 – Dr. Moran Cerf – Neuroscience, Philosophy, Physics
A conversation with Dr. Moran Cerf
Moran Cerf Ph.D. is a professor of neuroscience and business at the Kellogg School of Management and the neuroscience program at Northwestern university. He studies patients undergoing brain-surgery to examine…
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Show notes
Moran Cerf Ph.D. is a professor of neuroscience and business at the Kellogg School of Management and the neuroscience program at Northwestern university. He studies patients undergoing brain-surgery to examine behavior, emotion, decision making and dreams. This is done by directly recording the activity of individual nerve cells using electrodes implanted in the patient’s brain for clinical purposes. Dr. Cerf is a also a member of the institute on complex systems. Dr. Cerf holds a Ph.D in neuroscience from Caltech, as well as an MA in Philosophy and a B.Sc in Physics from Tel-Aviv University.
Cerf’s research uses methods from neuroscience to understand the underlying mechanisms of our psychology. His works address questions such as: “How are conscious percepts formed in our brain?”, “How can we control our emotions?” and “Which brain mechanisms determine if we find content interesting and engaging?”. Recently, his focus has been on the neural mechanisms that underlie decision-making, thereby offering a new perspective on predicting future choices and investigating how much free will we have in our decisions.
Dr. Cerf holds multiple patents and his works have been published in wide-circulation academic journals such asNature, as well as popular science journals such as Scientific American Mind, Wired, New Scientist and more. Additionally, his work has been portrayed in numerous media and cultural outlets such as CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, NPR, Time, MSNBC, and dozens of others. He has been featured in venues such as the Venice Art Biennial and China’s Art, Science and Technolgoy association, and has contributed to magazines such as Forbes, The Atlantic, Inc., and others.
He has made much of his research accessible to the general public via his public talks at TED, PopTech, Google Zeitgeist, DLD and other venues, gathering millions of views and a large following.
He was the beneficiary of several awards and grants for his work, including the Instructional improvement grant, and the prestigious president scholarship for excellent Ph.D. He was recently named one of the “40 leading professors below 40”.
Prior to his academic career, Dr. Cerf spent nearly a decade in industry, holding positions in computers security (as a hacker), pharmaceutical, telecom, Fashion, software development, and innovations development.
Additionally, Dr. Cerf is the Alfred P. Sloan professor at theAmerican Film Institute (AFI), where he teaches an annual screenwriting class on science in films, and is a consultant to various Hollywood films and TV shows.
He is left handed.
In this episode we spoke to Dr. Moran Cerf about the cutting edge research his team is conducting on the brain and its practical uses. This is an information loaded episode that will ask you to explore the future of human consciousness and how technology impacts the brain
This conversation will inform, entertain and enthrall you.
Find Moran and his work Visit neuro-hacks.com.
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Transcript
A full transcript has been published for this conversation.
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Quotes
Five substantial excerpts from the published transcript, lightly edited for clarity without changing their meaning.
“In neurofeedback, a sound can represent a person’s sadness. The person learns to make the sound disappear even though the external circumstances that caused the sadness have not changed. By trying different mental techniques, they learn to regulate the emotional state represented by the sound and gain direct experience of influencing their own response.”
From the conversation“Electrode placement changes with each patient and the location of the problem. If epilepsy appears to originate in a particular frontal or middle region, electrodes are placed around that area. The recording can sometimes reveal neural activity related to an action or word shortly before the person consciously reports deciding to produce it.”
From the conversation“When reality presents us with an outcome, we often explain it as though we chose it. We may defend one brand, price, or package even after evidence shows that our earlier choice was different. The mind constructs a story around the situation because we prefer to feel in control rather than recognize how easily our explanations follow events.”
From the conversation“The same brain supports different states of consciousness: waking alertness and sleep, infancy and adulthood, meditation, intoxication, and ordinary attention. As the brain changes across development or temporary states, conscious experience changes with it. Consciousness is therefore not one fixed condition but a range of ways the brain and person can experience reality.”
From the conversation“New sensory access could reveal more of the world already around us. You might see more, smell more, or feel particles on the skin that now fall below the threshold of touch. Extending perception would not necessarily create a new world; it would change which existing information becomes part of conscious experience.”
From the conversation
About the guest
Dr. Moran Cerf
Moran Cerf Ph.D. is a professor of neuroscience and business at the Kellogg School of Management and the neuroscience program at Northwestern university. He studies patients undergoing brain-surgery to examine behavior, emotion, decision making and dreams. This is done by directly recording the activity of individual nerve cells using electrodes implanted in the patient’s brain for clinical purposes. Dr. Cerf is a also a member of the institute on complex systems. Dr. Cerf holds a Ph.D in neuroscience from Caltech, as well as an MA in Philosophy and a B.Sc in Physics from Tel-Aviv University.
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