Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux on Anxiety and Fear

Joseph LeDoux is the world’s foremost authority on the neurobiology of anxiety and fear. The author of Anxious: Using the Brain to Understand and Treat Fear and Anxiety (2015), visited the New York State Writers Institute in 2016.

After earning degrees at Louisiana State University, LeDoux received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he worked with pioneering cognitive neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga. He is Director of the Emotional Brain Institute at NYU and also serves as the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science at NYU’s Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology.

LeDoux’s previous books include The Integrated Mind (with Michael Gazzaniga, 1978), The Emotional Brain (1998), and The Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become What We Are (2002).

The son of a travelling rodeo bull rider, Joseph LeDoux was born and raised in the Cajun Prairie town of Eunice, Louisiana. Steeped in the “swamp pop” and Cajun musical traditions of his youth, LeDoux has also earned a measure of renown as cofounder, guitarist, and lyricist for the band, The Amygdaloids, which explores neuroscientific subjects through music. The band’s CD, Anxious, is a companion to his book. The band’s earlier CD, Theory of My Mind, features the vocal talents of Grammy winner Roseanne Cash.

For additional information, visit the Writers Institute online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.