Neuroscientist Answers Emotion Questions | Tech Support | WIRED

Neuroscientist and Psychologist Dr. Richard J. Davidson joins WIRED to answer the internet's burning questions about our emotions. Are men truly less emotional than women? Can stress cause your brain to shrink? What are chemical imbalances and what do they do to our emotions? Why do we have emotions at all? Dr. Davidson answers these questions and more on Emotion Support.

Dr. Richard J. Davidson is the founder of Healthy Minds Innovations and The Center For Healthy Minds.


Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Christopher Eustache
Editor: Richard Trammell
Expert: Dr. Richard Davidson
Creative Producer: Justin Wolfson
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Brandon White
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Talent Booker: Nicholas Sawyer
Camera Operator: Caleb Weiss
Sound Mixer: Sean Paulsen
Production Assistant: Sonia Butt
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Jason Malizia
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds

0:00 Emotion Support is here for you
0:14 Stress causes shrinkage?
0:32 Are women really more sensitive and emotional than men?
1:05 Feelings: Why?
1:54 Botox
2:59 Come on, chemicals
4:14 Are autistic individuals hypersensitive to emotions?
5:00 That feeling in your gut
5:40 Can I turn them off?
7:04 The internet and our emotional state
8:07 Cringe
8:52 How many emotions are there?
10:59 Why is smiling contagious?
11:50 Meditation and the brain
13:01 me need be smarter
14:08 Can I borrow a feeling?
15:23 Emotional maturity etc.
16:24 Laughter
17:40 HI WHY AM I SO MAD
18:45 What is love? (Baby don’t hurt me)


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[jannetteberends]

I loved it that he used one of my statistical statements: the differences in the group are greater than the differences between the groups. That made my day

[quietearthMT]

"What is grief, but love persevering?"

[AndrewMalkin]

Men think that women are more emotional because they don't consider anger as an emotion. Also, many men were raised thinking that anger is the only ok emotion to show.

[reneamuir]

the gut-brain axis is something that i learned about a while back that is still so fascinating. even down to the foods you consume can have an effect on your brain.

[TheBennygutierrez]

When kids are taught that their emotions are ok but need to be addressed and handled, we will eliminate the question of whether men or women are more emotional.

[beckyoehler]

My grandpa had a series of strokes shortly before he passed, and near the end he wasn't able to talk, but he could still laugh. Our brains are amazing!

[she-hulkSMASHES]

I love Tech Support! Wired, please never stop airing this segment!

[shara_kb]

4:45 - just to clarify for folks who might be confused, "Arousing" in terms of the brain just means it triggers more neural activity. Not that they're irresistibly attracted to your face.

[sharoneicher]

First time I have heard anyone in Psychology state that animals have feelings. Anyone who lives with animals knows this to be true, but in my college Psych courses, this was NOT the standard belief and not what we were taught. Happy to see this has changed!!

[Sunflowersarepretty]

Anyone noticed in the chapters and timelines for "what is love?' @ 18:45 there's the "baby don't hurt me" 🤣

[willasd]

When I have random thoughts, I don't let them pass. I write them down and read them later.
Because later, how i feel about what I wrote down will actually come with edits and the thoughts become more well rounded.
Those thoughts could not have grown if I had not wrote them down and revisited them.

[beerasaurus]

Nobody is more emotional than me. I have the biggest emotions, the best emotions. I’ve known emotions personally for years. He’s a great guy a great guy. Let my tell ya.

[dourqueemotive]

Great. Fantastic. Wonderful. Now that I know brain shrinks with stress, I also know why I can't function as well as I used to. Which stresses me out a bit more. But thank you for this. I'll be quitting my job before the year ends.

[bbexx]

Men aren't given permission to be sad and women aren't given permission to be angry.

However, when my grandmother was in hospice my uncle showed a lot of anger and my mother showed a lot of sadness. People were a lot more judgmental of my mom and they disregarded the fact that my uncle was being not only just as emotional, but also hurting people around him. Anger is an emotion.

[chaicoffeecup]

I love that he said, we should try to not use medication so readily. I got diagnosed with PTSD and my former therapist said I should consider taking anti-depressants but I refused, despite my disableing anxiety and depression. And after spending years actively working on my thought patterns and trying to heal my psyche on my own, I'm proud to say I'm a very happy person now, who's very happy to be alive. And most of my PTSD symptoms have actually faded away. It absolutely is possible to change your brain without medication <33

[dannymenendez]

Glad Elliot Gould took some time to become a neuroscientist and give us some great answers

[mreis]

8:07 Originally, 'cringe' was a verb used to describe the physical reaction to secondhand embarrassment. Today, it's commonly used as an adjective, but the emotion it evokes remains the same—secondhand embarrassment. It definitely carries those others mentioned as well.

[JustWastedHoursHere]

Why do we cry when we laugh really hard? Does our body interpret this as some sort of distress? Why lubricate the eye in such a moment?

[Alfred-ql]

When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way.

[thecountofgoldmoor]

I'm only halfway into the video but I LOVE this person.