Joseph LeDoux
Joseph LeDoux is a Professor of Neural Science at New York University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received numerous awards for his work and is the author of The Emotional Brain, Synaptic Self, Anxious, The Deep History of Ourselves, and The Four Realms of Existence. He is also the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band, the Amygdaloids. His music has been the subject of a play, Map of Your Mind, and was featured in Werner Herzog’s 2022 film, Theatre of Thought. A documentary on Amazon, Neuroscience & Emotions, explores his life, work, and music.
Time as we know it goes back at least to “the Big Bang,” an occurrence which scientists have dated to some thirteen billion years ago. Of course, this ability to “date” time depends on the human invention of intervals and number systems. It’s hard to imagine what our experience of life would be like without this explicit, conscious sense of historical, linear time. But such awareness evolved from earlier landmarks in the history of what we know as time.
