Watch science in action in this original TED series about cutting-edge neuroscience experiments on a shoestring budget.

Daniel Reisel studies the brains of criminal psychopaths (and mice). And he asks a big question: Instead of warehousing these criminals, shouldn't we be using what we know about the brain to help them rehabilitate? Put another way: If the brain can grow new neural pathways after an injury ... could we help the brain re-grow morality?

Through her fiction, Lisa Genova beckons us into the lives of people with neurological disease, making their worlds real and relatable.

TED Studies, created in collaboration with Wiley, are curated video collections — supplemented by rich educational materials — for students, educators and self-guided learners. In Mapping and Manipulating the Brain, explore the human brain's 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections among them, and learn how neuroscientists are using an a...

Jeff Iliff is a neuroscientist who explores the unique functions of the brain.

From string theory to geopolitics, neuroscience to tissue engineering, watch these talks that make complex topics more understandable.

Science is about discovering the wonders of how our world works. From physics to biology to neuroscience, channel your inner Mr. Wizard as you watch these talks.

Written by the educators who created Mapping and Manipulating the Brain, a brief look at the key facts, tough questions and big ideas in their field. Begin this TED Study with a fascinating read that gives context and clarity to the material.

What makes you, you? Is it how you think of yourself, how others think of you, or something else entirely? Philosopher Julian Baggini draws from philosophy and neuroscience to give a surprising answer.

Can you cram for a test while you sleep? Our intrepid neuroscientists attempt to enhance memory by running experiments on subjects while they sleep. You'll be surprised by the results.

Can we edit the content of our memories? It's a sci-fi-tinged question that Steve Ramirez and Xu Liu are asking in their lab at MIT. Essentially, the pair shoot a laser beam into the brain of a living mouse to activate and manipulate its memory. In this unexpectedly amusing talk they share not only how, but -- more important -- why they do this.

After watching the collection of talks on Mapping and Manipulating the Brain, read a thoughtful recap of the major points in this TED Study, and learn where experts believe things are headed.

In the quest to map the brain, many scientists have attempted the incredibly daunting task of recording the activity of each neuron. Gero Miesenboeck works backward -- manipulating specific neurons to figure out exactly what they do, through a series of stunning experiments that reengineer the way fruit flies percieve light.

The human brain is puzzling -- it is curiously large given the size of our bodies, uses a tremendous amount of energy for its weight and has a bizarrely dense cerebral cortex. But: why? Neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel puts on her detective's cap and leads us through this mystery. By making "brain soup," she arrives at a startling conclusion.

In the US, 80% of girls have been on a diet by the time they're 10 years old. In this honest, raw talk, neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt uses her personal story to frame an important lesson about how our brains manage our bodies, as she explores the science behind why dieting not only doesn't work, but is likely to do more harm than good. She sugges...

If you're diagnosed with Huntington's disease, your treatment would be no more effective today than on the day of its discovery ... in 1872. Why has progress treating brain diseases been so slow? After 20 years of research, neuroscientist James Kozloski has come to a startling conclusion: Scientists are thinking too small. He looks past the usua...

Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist describes the real differences between the left and right halves of the human brain. It's not simply "emotion on the right, reason on the left," but something far more complex and interesting. A Best of the Web talk from RSA Animate.

Miguel Nicolelis explores the limits of the brain-machine interface.

What if we looked at Parkinson's as an neurological electrical problem? Brain researcher Eleftheria Pissadaki and her team study dopamine neurons, the neurons that selectively die during Parkinson's. They discovered that the bigger a neuron is, the more vulnerable it becomes because it simply requires more energy. This new insight is reframing t...

Modern technology lets neuroscientists peer into the human brain, but can it also read minds? Armed with the device known as an electroencephalogram, or EEG, and some computing wizardry, our intrepid neuroscientists attempt to peer into a subject's thoughts.

Dragonflies can catch prey with near perfect accuracy, the best among all predators. But how does something with so few neurons achieve such prowess? Our intrepid neuroscientists explore how a dragonfly unerringly locks onto its preys and captures it within milliseconds using just sensors and a fake fly.

You may remember neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis — he built the brain-controlled exoskeleton that allowed a paralyzed man to kick the first ball of the 2014 World Cup. What’s he working on now? Building ways for two minds (rats and monkeys, for now) to send messages brain to brain. Watch to the end for an experiment that, as he says, will go to ...

TED Fellow Greg Gage helps kids investigate the neuroscience in their own backyards.

Fascinating talks that explore one of the most mysterious phenomenons in the universe: the "self" (and why it exists).

Imagine playing a video game controlled by your mind. Now imagine that game also teaches you about your own patterns of stress, relaxation and focus. Ariel Garten shows how looking at our own brain activity gives new meaning to the ancient dictum "know thyself."

Can the mind be manipulated to love a food we loathe? The evidence from fruit flies is compelling, and perhaps surprising. Our tag team of neuroscientists attempts to change a fly's preference for fruit over vegetables simply by shining a light on their brain.

While exploring the neuroscience of speech and vocal behavior, Sophie Scott stumbled upon a surprising second vocation: making audiences laugh as a stand-up comic.

Brain imaging pioneer Nancy Kanwisher, who uses fMRI scans to see activity in brain regions (often her own), shares what she and her colleagues have learned: The brain is made up of both highly specialized components and general-purpose "machinery." Another surprise: There's so much left to learn.

Julian Baggini is a journalist and philosopher who studies the complexities of personal identity. He is the editor-in-chief of the Philosophers' Magazine.

When Steve Ramirez published his latest study in Science, it caused a media frenzy. Why? Because the paper was on implanting false memories in the brains of mice.