How to design a happier brain: Dr. Matthew Keener, cofounder of Emodt, at TEDx

By Matthew Keener

Emodt sounds like something straight out of the science oddity podcast Radiolab: an app to help you get a better hold of your emotions.

From a team based out of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Emodt is a new tool that mashes up neuroscience research and technology to give you better awareness and control of your emotions. Use the app to track and visualize your mood.

Try Emodt here.

Emodt’s software development team is based in Philly and led by Penn researcher Johannes C. Eichstaedt. The whole Emodt team consists of four people.

Below, Emodt cofounder and University of Pittsburgh neuroscience professor Matthew Keener outlines the main points of his recent TEDx talk about how to “design a happier brain.”

• “Brain health, and specifically emotional health of that is a huge driver of societal ills as well as a main driver in healthcare costs.
• We used to not understand emotional disorders because we didn’t realize they were brain disorders, and we also didn’t have the tools.
• Now that we have the tools and technology (brain imaging, big data approaches), we now not only realize that depression, bipolar, anxiety, PTSD and the like are brain disorders, but that they are disorders of specific brain circuits.
• There are specific things you can do to change brain circuit, and if you can change something, you should bring intentionality to it (design). Therefore, we are entering a period where people will be able to design their brains and their emotional health. In order to do that, you need to use principles of design to monitor, visualize, and manage emotions — and that’s what Emodt does.”