Neuroscience of Curiosity

<p>Curiosity might be one of the most powerful things a healthy brain can do — and yet most of us were quietly taught to stop doing it. </p><p><br></p><p>In this episode, we&#39;re exploring the neuroscience of curiosity: why it&#39;s one of the newest and most openly uncertain frontiers in brain research, what happens in your reward, memory, and executive control systems when you follow a thread of wonder, and why your brain&#39;s own motivational kill switch may depend on it more than we ever realized. We&#39;re also looking at what our school systems, our workplaces, and our culture have done to curiosity along the way — and what it might mean that we&#39;re only just beginning to understand how much we need it.</p><p><br></p><p>&gt;&gt; ⁠⁠⁠Support the Brain Blown on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/BrainBlownPodcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Patreon</a></p><p>⁠⁠⁠&gt;&gt; Have questions, stories, or topics you want us to cover? Email us at ⁠⁠⁠<a href="mailto:info@brainblownpodcast.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">info@brainblownpodcast.com</a>⁠⁠⁠.</p><p>&gt;&gt; Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠<a href="www.brainblownpodcast.com⁠" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">www.brainblownpodcast.com⁠</a></p><p><br></p><p>RESOURCES</p><ul><li><em>Systems Neuroscience of Curiosity</em> — Roberto Lopez Cervera, Maya Zhe Wang &amp; Benjamin Y. Hayden</li><li><em>On Curiosity: A Fundamental Aspect of Personality, a Practice of Network Growth</em> — Perry Zurn &amp; Danielle S. Basset</li><li><em>Interest Development and Its Relation to Curiosity: Needed Neuroscientific Research</em> — Suzanne E. Hidi &amp; K. Ann Renninger</li><li><em>Exploring Curiosity in Neuroscience: A Contextual Analysis of Key Studies from 2020 to 2024</em> — Dragoș Grigorescu</li><li><em>A Shared Novelty-Seeking Basis for Creativity and Curiosity</em> — Tal Ivancovsky, Shira Barorc &amp; Moshe Bara</li><li><em>Curiosity as the Impulse to Know: Common Behavioral and Neural Mechanisms Underlying Curiosity and Impulsivity</em> — Caroline B. Marvin, Ellen Tedeschi &amp; Daphna Shohamy</li><li><em>The Psychology and Neuroscience of Curiosity</em> — Celeste Kidd &amp; Benjamin Y. Hayden</li><li><em>Curiosity-Driven Exploration: Foundations in Neuroscience and Computational Modeling</em> — Alireza Modirshanechi, Kacper Kondrakiewicz, Wulfram Gerstner &amp; Sebastian Haesler</li><li><em>Curiosity in Childhood and Adolescence — What Can We Learn from the Brain</em> — Matthias J. Gruber &amp; Yana Fandakova</li></ul>