Harper Lecture with John T. Cacioppo: The Brain, Social Neuroscience, and Loneliness

NOTE: Because of technical difficulties at the venue, the sound is poor for the first three minutes of this recording. The quality improves at 03:34. We apologize for this and hope you will endure the less than ideal quality at the beginning of the video in favor of John Cacioppo's compelling discussion. The human brain is the most complex living structure known, tasked with producing our mental and behavioral existence. Whether investigating an isolated gene or a larger societal trend, social neuroscience takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the brain and considers how biological systems affect our social processes and behavior. In this lecture, John Cacioppo describes how social neuroscience contributes to our knowledge of the brain and how that knowledge might instruct our responses to contemporary social issues. A pioneer in the field of neuroscience, John Cacioppo is the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, the director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, the founding director of the University’s Arete Initiative, and the chair of the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences at the National Research Council.