Merton Society London Lecture
A Life of Pain and Pleasure Imaging the Human Brain
Our speaker this year was Professor Irene Tracey (1985), Warden of Merton, who spoke about her research and career in neuroscience.
Abstract
Our understanding of the human brain has grown considerably over the past few decades, enabled by advanced neuroimaging. Since being a student at Merton, I have been privileged to be working alongside colleagues at the forefront of these emerging technologies and their use to understand the human brain in all its glory. In particular, I have spent the past thirty years determining how humans experience pain, pain relief – even pleasure, as well as altered states of consciousness induced by anaesthetic agents. In this talk, I will provide a brief history of neuroscience and my journey over the past thirty years. It will be pitched to non-scientists and scientists alike with, hopefully, plenty for everyone. I look forward to interacting with alumni via a Q+A session at the end.
For more on Irene's work see:
- How Pain Works BBC Science Focus Magazine, July 2017
- The Neuroscience of Pain, The New Yorker, July 2018
- BBC Radio 4 Series presented by Irene Tracey:
- The Life Scientific - Irene Tracey on pain in the brain. Jim Al-Khalili talks to Irene Tracey on how imaging the brain reveals how and why we feel pain.
Watch the lecture
