48 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
American scientist and research strategist — who works on accelerating scientific research through better tools and organization — associated with AI and neuroscience research communities.
Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson's 2017 rigorous review of meditation research — separating well-supported findings from inflated claims — arguing that meditation's most significant benefits require long-term practice and that most studies measure states rather than traits.
American neuroscientist — Stanford School of Medicine (associate professor) — host of Huberman Lab podcast — who became the most widely listened-to science communicator in the US by 2023 through translating neuroscience research into daily protocols.
Portuguese-American neuroscientist who argued that emotions are not opposed to reason but are biologically necessary for rational decision-making — Descartes' Error was the separation of mind and body.
Jeffrey Gray's neurobiological concept of a brain system that responds to signals of punishment, non-reward, novelty, and innate fear stimuli by inhibiting ongoing behavior and increasing attention.
Psychology and wellbeing podcast hosted by Rick Hanson and his son Forrest Hanson — covering neuroscience, therapy, resilience, and psychological development — one of the most listened-to psychology podcasts.
Canadian psychologist who developed the Cybernetic Big Five Theory — integrating the Big Five personality traits into a unified computational/biological framework.
American psychiatrist and neuroscientist — George Washington University — co-author of The Molecule of More — who explores the neurochemistry of desire, creativity, and addiction.
British AI research company co-founded by Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg, and Mustafa Suleyman in 2010 — acquired by Google in 2014 — which built AlphaGo (defeated world Go champion), AlphaFold (solved protein folding), and AlphaZero (mastered chess/shogi/Go from scratch).
British AI researcher — co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind — who led the creation of AlphaGo, AlphaZero, AlphaFold (protein structure prediction) and AlphaGeometry — Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2024) — child chess prodigy, Bullfrog Games designer — the most decorated AI researcher in history.
Robert Sapolsky's 2023 argument that free will does not exist — that every thought and action is the product of prior biology and environment — and that accepting this should make us more compassionate, not less responsible.
Anna Lembke's 2021 book — explaining addiction through the brain's dopamine balance mechanism and arguing that modern life's overabundance of pleasure-inducing stimuli has triggered a mass addiction epidemic — a clinical psychiatrist's account that became a popular bestseller.
American cognitive neuroscientist at UC Davis whose Why We Remember synthesizes decades of memory research — explaining how memory actually works, why we forget what we forget and remember what we remember, and how to harness memory for learning.
Canadian neuroscientist and former academic sex researcher whose The End of Gender argues that biological sex differences in brain and behavior are real and that the current gender ideology denies scientific evidence — making her a prominent heterodox voice on sex, gender, and neuroscience.
American neuroscientist at Northeastern University whose theory of constructed emotion — arguing that emotions are not universal hardwired responses but are constructed by the brain through prediction — represents one of the most significant challenges to the classical view of emotion in psychology.
British neuroscientist and executive coach whose work applies neuroscience to leadership development — and who has also advocated for the neuroscience of manifestation and visualization, a more controversial position within the scientific community.
American neuroscientist and parapsychologist at the University of Virginia's Division of Perceptual Studies — lead author of Irreducible Mind — who argues from neuroscientific and parapsychological evidence that consciousness cannot be reduced to brain function.
British molecular biologist who co-discovered the double helix structure of DNA with James Watson (1953), later formulated the Central Dogma of molecular biology (DNA → RNA → protein), and spent his later career studying the neural basis of consciousness at the Salk Institute.
Andrew Huberman's podcast — translating neuroscience and physiology research into actionable health protocols — which became the most listened-to science podcast in 2022–23 — known for long-form episodes on sleep, light, exercise, and supplementation.
British psychiatrist and literary scholar who argues that the two hemispheres of the brain attend to the world in fundamentally different ways — and that Western civilization has become pathologically dominated by the left hemisphere.
Edward Kelly et al.'s 2007 800-page scholarly work arguing that the standard neuroscientific model of mind (consciousness as produced by the brain) is falsified by the evidence — including near-death experiences, psychical research, and exceptional human experiences — and that William James's 'transmission model' is better supported.
British psychologist — Oxford and Institute of Psychiatry — who created the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System (BIS/BAS) theory of anxiety and personality — whose work is a foundational influence on Jordan Peterson.
American psychologist who wrote The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind — arguing that until approximately 1000 BC, human beings did not have the introspective consciousness we now experience but instead heard the voices of gods as auditory hallucinations from the right hemisphere — and that modern consciousness emerged from the breakdown of this bicameral mind.
British-American sleep scientist — UC Berkeley professor — author of Why We Sleep — the most prominent public advocate for sleep science — whose book has been criticized for overstating research claims while successfully making sleep a health priority.
Jeffrey Gray's neurobiological account of the two major personality dimensions — anxiety (BIS) and impulsivity (BAS) — and their neural substrates.
Canadian philosopher who founded neurophilosophy — the application of neuroscience to philosophical problems about mind, self, and morality — and has argued for a naturalistic account of conscience.
Canadian philosopher who developed eliminative materialism — folk psychology (belief, desire, intention) is a radically false theory that will be replaced by mature neuroscience — and contributed to a neuroscientifically informed epistemology.
Wundt's founding text of scientific psychology — establishing experimental psychology as a distinct scientific discipline by combining physiology and psychology.
Andrew Huberman's 2024 book — compiling the actionable health and performance protocols from Huberman Lab podcast episodes — covering sleep, exercise, stress, nutrition, and cognitive performance.
American dual-trained neurosurgeon and neuroscientist at City of Hope who translates brain science into practical guidance — appearing on Modern Wisdom to discuss brain performance, mental health, and the neuroscience of peak function.
Jeffrey Gray's neurobiological personality theory positing three systems — BIS (Behavioral Inhibition), BAS (Behavioral Activation), FFFS (Fight-Flight-Freeze) — as the neurobiological bases of anxiety, impulsivity, and fear.
American neuroendocrinologist — Stanford (biology and neuroscience) — author of Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, and Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will — who studies stress hormones in baboons and writes the most accessible synthesis of biology and human behavior.
American author and neuroscientist who became one of the Four Horsemen of New Atheism and has since expanded into philosophy of mind, free will, and political commentary.
Deborah Blum's 1997 examination of the biology of sex and gender — exploring evolutionary, neurological, and hormonal explanations for gender differences — an accessible science journalism account of sex biology.
Bessel van der Kolk's 2014 book — arguing that trauma is stored in the body's nervous system and that somatic therapies (EMDR, yoga, theater) can heal what talk therapy cannot — the best-selling psychiatry book of the 2010s.
Iain McGilchrist's 2009 argument that the left and right hemispheres of the brain have fundamentally different 'worldviews' — left hemisphere grasps and manipulates details; right hemisphere perceives wholes and context — and that Western civilization has dangerously over-privileged left-hemisphere thinking.
Daniel Lieberman and Michael Long's 2018 book — arguing that dopamine governs desire for future rewards while 'Here and Now' chemicals (serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins) govern present satisfaction — a framework for understanding ambition, addiction, and creativity.
Jeffrey Gray's 1982 account of anxiety — proposing the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) as the neural mechanism underlying anxiety — integrating animal learning, pharmacology, and neuroanatomy in the most comprehensive biological theory of anxiety.
Charles Duhigg's 2012 bestseller synthesizing neuroscience research on habit formation — presenting the habit loop (cue, routine, reward) as the fundamental mechanism underlying behavioral patterns in individuals, organizations, and societies.
Jeffrey Gray's systematic account of the psychology and neuroscience of anxiety — integrating behavioral, pharmacological, and neurological evidence into a theory of the anxiety system.
Stefan Klein's 2007 exploration of the science of subjective time — examining why time speeds up with age, slows in danger, and varies with attention — synthesizing physics, psychology, and neuroscience.
Sam Harris's account of meditation and spirituality from a secular, neuroscientific perspective — arguing that the transformative potential of meditation is real and available without religious commitment.
American self-taught mathematician who co-developed the McCulloch-Pitts neuron model at age 18 — providing the theoretical foundation for artificial neural networks.
American neurophysiologist and philosopher who co-developed the first mathematical model of artificial neural networks — showing how logical operations could be implemented in networks of simplified neurons.
Matthew Walker's 2017 book on sleep science — arguing that insufficient sleep causes cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental illness, and obesity — the book that made sleep a mainstream health priority but which has been criticized by sleep researchers for overstating evidence.
American neuroscientist, author, and science communicator born in 1971. Directs the Center for Science and Law at Stanford and is known for translating brain science into accessible public discourse. His work investigates unconscious cognition, time perception, and the neural basis of identity and decision-making.
The Genius Life is a health and wellness podcast hosted by Max Lugavere that interviews scientists, doctors, and researchers on topics including nutrition, cognitive health, metabolic disease, sleep, exercise, and mental performance. It translates emerging research in nutritional and lifestyle medicine for a general audience.
Bestselling 2011 book by David Eagleman arguing that the vast majority of brain activity occurs below conscious awareness and that the self is a post-hoc narrator rather than an agent in control. Draws on clinical cases, experiments, and evolutionary reasoning to dismantle the Cartesian homunculus.