The Amygdaloids Warburg Symposium Concert

00:00:00 coming I guess you know where the amygdaloids and we play music about mind and brain and mental disorders so it's fitting that we're in this particular place tonight and the the program is we're going to play a few songs and play about 45 minutes 50 minutes or so but before each sort of Suite of songs which would be one or two songs together on a particular topic I'll just give you a brief kind of a background about the you know the

00:00:30 intellectual background of the topic uh the historical kind of place that the the ideas come from uh that the song is uh sort of based upon and we're going to start off with a couple of songs about one of the deep problems in Psychology philosophy Neuroscience Psychiatry all of the things that we know and care about which is the the Mind Body problem and you know this goes back to the

00:01:01 ancient Greeks we have ideas from the Oracle at Delphi for example that the the article said know thyself and a couple of Millennia later Descartes tried to solve this problem by concluding that the only thing he could know was himself with certainty but um you know this becomes with fraud this becomes more questionable because then we have some issues about how much of what we are is

00:01:31 conscious and how much is unconscious so a couple of themes we'll be exploring tonight through the music is consciousness and unconsciousness and the automaticity of certain aspects of of who we are and we're going to start with a couple of songs that are are more on the I the in the area of Consciousness and particularly with the first one is sort of a tribute to Descartes and he goes like this

00:02:01 thank you I think so I am I feel so I must be sometimes I don't know but it is to be me I see your eyes they're staring at me

00:02:35 the shot does nice oh what do they see you can't see you can't see inside of me inside of me there's a place only I can be

00:03:13 my soul has passion it's trying to feel searching for desire nothing is real my will is weak it's not very free nothing to get hung about well that's just the deal

00:03:44 can't see you can see inside of me that's a place only I can be you can't see you can't see inside of me inside of me as a place

00:04:24 thank you I think so I am I feel so I must be sometimes I don't know

00:04:56 it is to be me I think so I am so I must be sometimes I don't know but it is to be me you can't see you can't see that's the place oh yeah

00:05:53 all right thank you very much um Tyler you'd say something for a minute while I switch guitars well about the Mind Body problem uh yes what's the next song Joe I forgot Mind Over Matter oh mind over matter so yeah um yeah remind we have to well we we of course in culture we think we have a lot of control over matter and we do in a certain uh sort of way but there's

00:06:23 always a longing for more and more Transcendence and so we think of ourselves as immaterial beings as the same times that we're materially embodied and so this next song is a little bit about the uh that kind of conflict between the material and the immaterial yeah and it's about the you know the the longing that you can have for someone who's not here and sort of delude

00:06:53 yourself into thinking you can overcome space and time and bring that person uh together with you

00:07:23 foreign something I'm trying to do I guess it's only physics it keeps me apart from you Mind Over Matter something I'm trying to do break down space and time

00:07:57 be together with you I'm trying to will you here and you wear to pull you in from afar are you still in my time or have you slipped away have you gone forward to back living in

00:08:30 another day thank you where where might you be different continent are on the sea in the air flying free

00:09:01 we're in a place Heavenly wherever you are now where's my mind's defined no amount of space for time to keep you from being mine thank you

00:09:59 Mind Over Matter and something I'm trying to do I guess it's only physics it keeps me apart from you Mind Over Matter something I'm trying to do

00:10:33 break down space and time be together with you be together with you we together with you be together in you thank you okay thank you

00:11:03 okay now uh we're gonna switch gears to the unconscious mind and we're going to do a couple of songs about how we aren't always quite aware of what's driving our Behavior there's a lot of stuff deep below the surfaces Freud said you know most of the the mind is below the tip of the iceberg and this is a song by Tyler called the automatic mind and why don't you tell us a bit about it while I switch guitars again okay this song is about the way the mind uh

00:11:33 Travels by itself on its own Journey you can be not having you cannot have any uh particular stimulus you could be meditating let's say in one of the main lessons or first insights into meditation is gee I I think I'm thinking but the thinking is thinking me I'm just kind of sitting here and here it's all happening and this is an ongoing meditation for me so the song is called the automatic mind of course I want to I still got to write that beyond the automatic mind one of these years Joe

00:12:04 but right now it's the automatic mind okay it's got a it's got a kind of a interesting uh bass part here so when you get there you'll write the song Right Beyond when I get there okay

00:12:40 foreign

00:13:12 are conjured like a dream guiding actions on the waking screen even though I realize it still I feel so blind as I think about and can't live without

00:13:43 the automatic mind thank you foreign

00:14:21 it seems advanced yet hardly in control illusion of the will is Comfort cold even though I realize it still I feel so blind as I think about and can't live without the automatic

00:14:55 mind talk blank drink think you think you think you think you think you think you think you think you think you think you think you think foreign

00:16:01 thank you even though I realize it still I feel so blind as I think about and can't live without

00:16:34 automatic mine all right so let me uh just take that opportunity to introduce Tyler Tyler as a professor of environmental sciences and biology at NYU and he works on uh atmospheric and issues and carbon and things like that anything else you want to add about that car that sounds good Joe okay and Daniela Schiller is a an assistant professor at Mount Sinai she's a cognitive neuroscientist and she

00:17:05 studies recovery from fear and processes in the brain that allow people to get over fears through various ways anything else yeah no that's very good um and she's also an award-winning Storyteller for the moth organization and other places thank you Amanda Thorpe is a world famous International musician she hails from Derby England Darby I

00:17:38 guess it said and we're very fortunate to have her with us although she's not technically a scientist she does have a background in neuropsychology from University College London so we counter as a part of the team stuck here but she's a fabulous musician with a separate solo career altogether with a bunch of CDs you can find her online at demandaththorpe.com right okay okay I'm Joe Ledoux and I'm a professor

00:18:11 of neuroscience at NYU and now we're going to do a song called um my mind's up so my mind's eye is another one about the the way the Mind plays tricks on us and does things that we don't always know too much about and if I can remember where this thing goes this time would be in good shape okay so take it away

00:18:47 I can't can't think too much somatic mind yet one two three if you look into my mind's eye you would see

00:19:19 the way that I cry deep inside in my mind's eye we had love but it was good understood everything yes everything

00:19:53 you can't always trust what you think you know can't trust what you believe sometimes your mind just puts on a show it's simply disease in my mind's eye you were mine but my mind's I was blind if you look into my mind's eye

00:20:25 you would see the way that I cry deep inside and my mind's eye you can't always trust what you think you know and trust what you believe sometimes your mind just puts on a show it's simply deceived

00:21:15 thank you foreign

00:21:54 ah thank you okay uh not to remind say something Tyler yeah map your mind so we have an automatic mind in my mind's eyes like it's part of the the problems with our psyches and uh uh but there's also a lot of uh Joy being a human being as well which I hope we're all smiling about every minute of the day so this show this is actually some of our favorite

00:22:25 songs it's by Joe it's called map of your mind okay here we go okay made a map of your mind I've charted my course

00:22:56 I'm sailing deep inside got the Winds of force got the heat of your heart from the cold the currents of will take me to your soul

00:23:27 I'm on a journey that I've got today it's a thought and I knew I met and Excursion of need and desire desire to trip

00:24:01 fueled by fire made a map of your mind I've charted my course I'm sailing deep inside I've Got The Winds of the floor

00:24:33 the heat of your heart keep me from the cold got the currents of will take me to your soul I'm just hoping hoping our sails will be true

00:25:05 to you when I land my Minds will need

00:25:54 of your heart keep me from the cold got the currents of will take me to your soul map of your mind take me to your soul made a map of your mind

00:26:26 take me to your soul to your soul to your soul to your song to your soul all right thank you

00:26:58 now we have a song called Trace which is something that uh well people up here have studied of traces of memories how they leave permanent records in the neurons and then now the DNA and in the neurotransmitters from having the memory it's it's really there so it's a connection between our daily lives and the discoveries about the neurological systems of our brains This song is called a trace and we're moving now into

00:27:29 the memory part of the show so we do a couple songs about memory this one being the first okay you'll have to trace

00:28:02 in my memory thank you permanent place in my synaptic sea say the time is all pain time can erase your place in my brain

00:28:36 days and nights they were so fun months and years maybe Sublime time Stood Still while it flew on by time into when you said goodbye

00:29:24 you left the trace In My Memory a permanent place your place in my brain please

00:30:07 foreign

00:30:50 you won't erase you're a dominant race you'll never be array

00:31:21 okay thank you so for those uh who um are you know sort of Neuroscience aficionados that song was written over a dinner with uh Richard Morris and yadin do die which Richard challenged me to write a song about yadin's theory of the dominant Trace so just in case you know what that means all right the next song is back to day of the guitar

00:31:54 so this is another song about memory and it's about glue and the way that emotions can glue together your your memories and make them stronger and you've probably noticed that most of our Neuroscience songs or love songs and that's the way we kind of tell the the story of the brain

00:32:24 Miguel is this on thank you okay turn that off for a second very good Amanda Jason's a good scientist s

00:33:09 I saw you leaving you saw me too smiled at me that's what you do try to follow that you were gone now I'm waiting Home Alone

00:33:40 keep thinking about your smile and eyes I can't believe the words were lies you made me happy so very glad can't forget what I had

00:34:13 a brain there must be something in my veins that is my memories

00:34:47 I saw you go I know thought you'd be back and weak also it's so hard realizing that I wasn't really where you're at

00:35:17 I dream about you because every night I dream you're back it's all right I keep hoping dreams will come true but I'll wake up next to you

00:35:48 must be some thing in my brain be something in my veins keeps my memory Stuck on You

00:36:48 I keep thinking that your smile and eyes I can't believe words were lies you made me happy very glad I can't forget

00:37:27 I must be something in my veins I must be some Primal good beats my memories Stuck on You

00:37:58 my memories all right now so we've done memory and the Mind Body problem the unconscious and now returning to fear do a couple songs about that when the 90s dark what time is

00:38:32 all right so uh it's almost uh eight o'clock so if anybody wants us to keep playing raise your hand if you want us to stop uh okay so we I guess we have to stop so we'll play a couple more songs and then we'll call it quits foreign

00:39:19 when the night is dark I lose my fear when the night is dark never shed a tear then the daylight comes scares me away daylight comes and I have to fake

00:39:50 when the night is dark night I feel so free when the night is ah then the daylight comes they like God scares me away it scares me away when the daylight comes when I have to fail

00:40:46 thank you when the night is dark I come alive when the night is dark

00:41:19 I begin to thrive in the daylight comes scares me away comes when I have to fade in the daylight comes scares me awake comes

00:41:50 when I have to fake okay so we're gonna uh close things out here with a song that ends where we started it's called The Mind Body problem and uh we're gonna just solve that problem right here all right ready for a little Blues

00:42:35 foreign body problem I don't know what to do I've got a problem

00:43:05 I don't know what to do my body wants you so my mind says no you said it always loved me to me you'd be true you said you'd love me to me you'd be true

00:43:35 well now you're gone I'm sad and blue well now you're back you want me again oh now you're back you want me again if I relent I lose in the end

00:44:08 I got a mind-body problem got a problem I don't know what to do we don't know what to do I've got a problem he's got a problem I don't know what to do we don't know what to do my body wants you so mom says no no no no no no no no no no no no

00:44:58 I even try religion get over you I even tried religion to get over you my body's hurt your soul oh got me trembling and shaking oh Trump got a problem I

00:45:28 can't get over it I can't get over it I'm going insane

00:46:18 I don't know what to do I've got a problem not a problem I don't know what to do my body wants you so my mind says no okay thank you and good night

00:46:49 thanks you've been great thanks for coming out here tonight enjoy enjoy the conference thank you