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Robert M. Sapolsky

Robert M. Sapolsky Quotes

Neuroendocrinologist

Robert M. Sapolsky is a renowned neuroendocrinologist known for his research on stress, neurobiology, and evolutionary psychology. His work has revealed how stress affects the brain and body, and how these effects relate to human behavior and health.

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Famous Robert M. Sapolsky Quotes

“The frontal cortex is the last brain region to fully mature, with the most evolutionarily recent subparts the very last. Amazingly, it's not fully online until people are in their midtwenties.”

Mind Brain Youth Development Evolution Human Cognition

Book:Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Source: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

“…we use the dopaminergic power of the happiness of pursuit to motivate us to work for rewards that come -after we are dead- depending on your culture, this can be knowing that your nation is closer to winning a war because you’ve sacrificed yourself in battle, that your kids will inherit money because of your financial sacrifices, or that you will spend eternity in paradise. It is extraordinary neural circuitry that bucks temporal discounting enough to allow (some of) us to care about the temperature of the planet that our great-grandchildren will inherit. Basically, it’s unknown how we humans do this. We may merely be a type of animal, mammal, primate, and ape, but we’re a profoundly unique one.”

Life Mind Happiness Death Sex Brain Goals Pursuit Reward Dopamine

Book:Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Source: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

“Interestingly, pathological liars have atypically large amounts of white matter in the prefrontal cortex, indicating more complex wiring.”

Mind Brain Morality Lie Psychopath Liar Pfc

Book:Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Source: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

“The fascinating thing about our best and worst behaviors isn't the behavior itself - the brain tells the muscles to do something or other - big deal. It's the meaning of the behavior.”

Bigs Deals Brain Worst Behavior Muscles Fascinating Big Deal

Author:Robert M. Sapolsky

“The frontal cortex is an incredibly interesting part of the brain - ours is proportionately bigger and/or more complex than in any other species.”

Interesting Brain Bigger Species Complexes

Author:Robert M. Sapolsky

“Genes are important for understanding our behavior. Incredibly important - after all, they code for every protein pertinent to brain function, endocrinology, etc.”

Important Understanding Brain Behavior Function Code Etc Genes Protein Pertinent Brain Function

Author:Robert M. Sapolsky

“Brains distinguish between an Us and a Them in a fraction of a second. Subliminal processing of a Them activates the amygdala and insular cortex, brain regions that are all about fear, anxiety, aggression, and disgust.”

Brain Anxiety Regions Disgusting Aggression Fractions Processing Activate Subliminal

Author:Robert M. Sapolsky

“On an incredibly simplistic level, you can think of depression as occurring when your cortex thinks an abstract thought and manages to convince the rest of the brain that this is as real as a physical stressor.”

Thinking Real Levels Brain Manage Abstract Convince Stressors

Book:Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping - Now Revised and Updated

Source: Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping - Now Revised and Updated

“Perhaps most excitingly, we are uncovering the brain basis of our behaviors - normal, abnormal and in-between. We are mapping a neurobiology of what makes us us.”

Brain Behavior Normal Bases Abnormal Neurobiology Mapping Uncovering

Author:Robert M. Sapolsky

“Genes are rarely about inevitability, especially when it comes to humans, the brain, or behavior. They're about vulnerability, propensities, tendencies.”

Humans Brain Behavior Tendencies Vulnerability Genes Inevitability Propensity

Book:Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping - Now Revised and Updated

Source: Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping - Now Revised and Updated