That Stranger In The Mirror: Neuroscience For Everyone

About Course

• • Knowing Yourself: The course presents different parts of our brains - such as the prefrontal cortex, the limbic system, basal ganglia - and how these brain systems drive our behaviour and motivation.
  • Knowing Others: We will examine one set of personality traits, known as the OCEAN traits or Big-Five traits, and examine 32 different personality types that follow from these.
  • Knowing Stuff: How memories are formed, how this process is influenced by sleep, and how different learning styles interact with memory and understanding.

  Here's what this course includes:

  • Basics of Neuroscience: Different brain systems - the prefrontal cortex as center of our attention; the limbic system which governs our towards/away responses; basal ganglia that manage autopilot routines and habits; the anterior cingulate which craves novelty; the ventrolateral prefrontal which manages the most difficult function of conscious thought - saying No. 
  • Free Will and Free Won't: Conscious thought consists of 5 primary functions: inhibiting, deciding, recalling, understanding and memorising. See why inhibiting is so hard, why decision fatigue makes us procrastinate, and why we should talk in bullets, think in trees, and decide in pairs
  • Seeking Flow: Perhaps the most important concept in this course, flow refers to a state of intense focus, of oneness with one's work. This state sounds almost magical - and it is, but its also real, and backed by hard science. People who get addicted to this state experience a neurochemical high, and what's more, are more successful than those who work for rewards such as money.
  •  Motivations: Our brain has surprisingly complex urges - including cravings for independence, fairness, curiosity, loyalty and vengeance. These motivations make us behave the way we do. We look at the 16 Primary Urges, Maslow's Hierarchy, and the Autonomy-Mastery-Purpose framework of what drives us.
  • Learning: Our brains are wired to very efficiently process spatial stimuli (maps, trees), visual stimuli (images) and auditory stimuli (songs). THink about how much information is packed into a song - tune, beat, lyrics, and these days, visuals. We are not quite so good with numbers or blocks of text - and this is a big part of information overload these days.
  • The Big Five Personality Traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. Collectively, these OCEAN traits can be used to classify personalities into 32 types, and give us real insights into how people are likely to think and behave.
  • Memory: Every experience, every sensation triggers a pattern of neuron firings in our brain - this pattern is unique and is a memory. See how this pattern is reconstructive, and associative.
  • Sleep: Sleep is essential for creativity, memory consolidation, and also just for staying happy. Understand why not getting enough sleep makes us grumpy (it has to do with our limbic alertness to threats being greater than that to rewards!)

Topics covered in this course

• Section 1: You, This Course and Us
  	Lecture 1	You, This Course and Us Preview	02:34
  Section 2: Which voice wins
  	Lecture 2	Knowing Yourself	01:28
  	Lecture 3	The Voices In Our Heads Preview	10:17
  	Lecture 4	Novelty and Dr No	13:36
  	Lecture 5	The Squeaky Wheel	09:08
  Section 3: Conscious_Thought_Introduced
  	Lecture 6	Why Our Minds Like To Wander	12:36
  	Lecture 7	Five Elements Of Conscious Thought	10:34
  	Lecture 8	Walking, Talking And Chewing Gum Preview	11:43
  	Lecture 9	When Thought And Action Merge	06:36
  	Lecture 10	Distractions Make Me Dumber	09:56
  Section 4: Rewards_And_Motivation
  	Lecture 11	Our Motivations	01:00
  	Lecture 12	Caveman Brain, Complex Urges	11:56
  	Lecture 13	Sweet 16 That Make Us Tick	05:27
  	Lecture 14	Auftragstaktik, And A Band Of Brothers Preview	11:31
  Section 5: Primary_Motivations
  	Lecture 15	Motivations Double-Clicked	07:35
  	Lecture 16	The Strength Of The Wolf Is The Pack	06:25
  	Lecture 17	Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death Preview	08:37
  	Lecture 18	Curiosity Belled The Cat	14:02
  	Lecture 19	Peace And Quiet	10:55
  	Lecture 20	Self-Transcendance And Self-Actualisation	09:14
  Section 6: Flow
  	Lecture 21	Its Magical, Yet Real Preview	11:35
  	Lecture 22	A Fine Balance	13:23
  Section 7: Big_Five
  	Lecture 23	Knowing Others - Classification and Categorisation	01:46
  	Lecture 24	The Big Five Personality Traits	09:46
  	Lecture 25	Open Sesame	13:10
  	Lecture 26	Mirror Mirror On The Wall	08:05
  Section 8: Types
  	Lecture 27	Now, Where Have I Seen You Before?	09:41
  	Lecture 28	Different Strokes For Different Folks Preview	10:54
  	Lecture 29	Death Of A (Used Car) Salesman	10:21
  	Lecture 30	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy	13:11
  Section 9: Memory
  	Lecture 31	Knowing Stuff	00:47
  	Lecture 32	Memories Are Like Snowflakes Preview	12:33
  	Lecture 33	You Never Cross The Same River Twice Preview	11:15
  	Lecture 34	What's In A Name?	06:55
  	Lecture 35	Learning Oughta Be Active	08:13
  	Lecture 36	Sleep And Memory	05:16
  Section 10: Examples
  	Lecture 37	Some Ideas For You To Consider	01:48
  	Lecture 38	Try Being A Morning Person - Why	10:04
  	Lecture 39	Try Being A Morning Person - How	14:04
  	Lecture 40	Mentors Don't Grow On Trees Preview	16:50
  	Lecture 41	Why Stephen Curry Loves His Naps	12:11
  	Lecture 42	Talk In Bullets	07:00
  	Lecture 43	Think In Trees	06:32
  	Lecture 44	Choose In Pairs Preview	09:31
  	Lecture 45	Hard Talk

What you get from this course?

• • Identify different parts of our brain, and how they correspond to different voices in our head
  • Understand primary motivations, including complex urges such as craving fairness and independence
  • Seek the state of flow, a mental state of intense concentration and joy, brought on by work
  • Classify personalities into 32 categories using the Big Five Personality Traits
  • Understand how memory works, why it is reconstructive and associative
  • Anyone can remove depression by this online course

For whom this course

• • Anyone curious to understand how our minds work
  • Anyone curious to gain a practical applied understanding of neuroscience and psychology
  • Anyone who want to motivate in life