The science of emotions: Jaak Panksepp at TEDxRainier (2)

and when we did this and we listened in,

we could tickle animals

and generate a lot of vocal activity

that appeared to be laughter.

These animals would begin to enjoy our company,

and they would start to play with our hands,

and wherever we will put our hands they would follow it.

And when we tested these animals

to ask whether they were enjoying this kind of activity,

the unambiguous answer was yes.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

(On stage) JP: I might share

that the day before that was filmed by the BBC,

our first publication in that area,

they told me I had no more than a year to live, no matter what.

So, glad to be here with you.

(Cheers) (Applause)

If we finally take the emotions of the other animals seriously,

we will finally understand

how we have these feelings of joy and sorrow, anger and sadness.

Essentially, this molecule is called GLYX-13,

it's a very long story

that I don't have time to share with you here,

but it is already in phase two FDA approved human testing.

Single injection produced antidepressant effects immediately,

and those effects from the one treatment lasted a week.

No psychiatric medicine has yet been developed by human knowledge;

so far everything has been discovered by serendipity and chance.

Science has only refined the molecules.

This may be the first psychiatric medicine to come from human knowledge

by taking animal feeling seriously,

and this has no poisonous properties as far as we can tell;

it's also not addictive.

So finally, this is the conclusion of a 50-year-old journey.

I do hope that people take a very different attitude to animals

than has been common,

in research and a variety of other human activities.

We are brothers and sisters under the skin,

and we better recognize that.

And once we understand them, we will finally understand ourselves.

Thank you.

(Applause)