This TED Talk features neuroscientist K-Tai, recorded live at TED-N-A-S-2019.

I'm going to start by saying something you think you know to be true.

Your brain creates all facets of your mind.

So then why do we treat mental and physical illnesses so differently if we think

we know that the mind comes from the brain? As a neuroscientist, I'm often told that I'm not allowed

to study how internal states like anxiety or craving or loneliness are represented by the brain.

And so I decided to set out and do exactly that.

My research program is designed to understand the mind by investigating brain circuits,

specifically how does our brain give rise to emotion?

It's really hard to study feelings and emotions because you can't measure them.

Behavior is still the best and only window into the emotional experience of another. For both animals and people, yes, self-report is a behavioral output.

Motivated behaviors fall into two general classes,

seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.

The ability to approach things that are good for you

and avoid things that are bad for you is fundamental to survival.

And in our modern-day society,

trouble-telling the difference can be labeled as a mental illness.

If I was having car trouble, and I took my car to the mechanic, the first thing they do is look under the hood.

But with mental health research, you can't just pop open the hood with the press of a button.

So this is why we do experiments on animals, specifically in my lab, mice.

To understand the brain, well, we need to study brains.

And for the first time, we actually can.

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