Turning the brain green
Could a better understanding of the brain’s reward system — a network fine-tuned over millions of years and laser-focused on survival — help mankind skirt environmental disaster? Ann-Christine Duhaime thinks it’s entirely possible. As part of her 2015-2016 Radcliffe fellowship, the Harvard Medical School professor and neurosurgeon studied whether the brain’s inherited drive for stuff and stimulation is making it hard for humans to get by with less, and harming the planet in the process. Her research suggests the answer is yes, and that curbing consumption will require tapping other types of rewards the brain craves. “Our brain evolved with this wonderful system, but now it doesn’t know when to stop,” said Duhaime, Harvard’s Nicholas T. Zervas Professor of Neurosurgery, during a recent Radcliffe talk. “And so now your urges to eat get you into trouble, and your urges to get stuff are getting the planet into trouble.” In wealthy countries the drive...