Science AMA Series: Hi, I’m Peggy Mason, I Study Empathy in Rats, AMA.
Hi Reddit! My name is Peggy Mason and I am a Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Chicago. I am eager to talk with you about three topics.
• First, I can talk about my experimental work on the biological basis of empathic helping in rats. Let me sum it up in one take-home message: The fact that rats are great helpers shows us that helping another in distress is a biological inheritance that does not depend on fancy intellectual thought. We are biologically meant to help – what’s getting in our way these days?
(Here's some background: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/science/observatory-rats-have-empathy-study-finds.html?_r=0
and our new work with rats and strangers: http://sciencelife.uchospitals.edu/2014/01/15/squeaking-terms-only/)
• Second, I am giving a free, massively open online course on coursera, Understanding the Brain: the Neurobiology of Life (https://www.coursera.org/course/neurobio). I am so excited about this and I have already learned so much by preparing the course. We can talk about MOOCs in general, the MOOC that I have prepared for you, or anything else MOOC-related that tickles your fancy.
• Finally, the whole MOOC movement has tapped into a deep feeling within me to engage the general public in talking about the nervous system. Just call me a neuroevangelist! I am on Twitter and I do tweet but 140 characters is not my forte. Therefore, to better satisfy my neuroevangelism, I started a blog (http://thebrainissocool.com/) where I can wax on at a more comfortable length about neurobiology in the news, every day living, and youtube videos. All questions are game. I can’t promise that I can deliver satisfying answers but I’ll try.
edit: You are rocking with all of your great comments and questions. Off to a brief meeting but I'll be back. Do your Reddit thing to show me what to answer first when I get back. This is fun.
edit2: I'm back!
edit3: Taking a break, I'll be back later tonight to answer a few more. Thank you for the great questions!!
Hi everyone! This has been so great talking with you. I am sorry for not getting to many of your comments. Maybe we can do this again in the future. Signing off for now.