Joseph LeDoux: Danger is Ancient—Fear Is A Recent Invention

As soon as there was life, there was danger. Fear, on the other hand, is a recent invention.

So says the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science, neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry at NYU, Joseph LeDoux. Dr. LeDoux studies the question that has long puzzled neuroscientists—what is consciousness? He believes that by understanding the mechanisms of emotions like fear, we can come to finally understand consciousness.

In a mind-opening conversation with prize-winning science writer, Claudia Dreifus, Dr. LeDoux, the author of Anxious and The Emotional Brain, speaks on his newest book, The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four Billion Year Story of How We Got Our Conscious Brains.

A book signing follows the event.