Damian Scarf experienced the debilitating effects of anxiety first hand when, shortly after entering university, his anxiety pushed him to cut off his social groups to achieve higher grades. Now it's the topic of his research, and Damian shows us firsthand how anxiety is an expert strategist.

In 2013, Damian became a lecturer in the Department of Psychology. The current focus of Damian’s developmental work is mental time travel and the delay of gratification in young children. Damian’s animal work currently focuses on the neurobiology of sequence learning in pigeons and cognitive abilities of parrots, including kea and kaka.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx