Watch Dr. Jud's Keynote at the Brain Mind Summit at MIT (2019)

Overview

At MIT’s Brain-Mind Summit in May 2019, Dr. Jud delivered a keynote on the neuroscience of habit formation, the roots of everyday addictions, and why willpower is not a winning strategy for changing behavior. Drawing on over two decades of research at Yale, MIT, and Brown University, Dr. Jud presented the science behind how the brain forms habits through reward-based learning and what it takes to effectively change them.

The keynote builds on the same framework Dr. Jud presented at the Fortune Brainstorm Health conference the month prior: the habit loop of trigger, behavior, and reward drives both beneficial routines and destructive patterns. Willpower, while widely promoted as the solution, operates in the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain most vulnerable to shutting down under stress. Dr. Jud makes the case for an alternative approach grounded in curiosity and awareness, which works with the brain’s deeper reward systems rather than trying to overpower them.

Key Takeaways

• Habits form through reward-based learning: The brain creates habits by linking triggers to behaviors and encoding the resulting reward. Over time, this loop becomes automatic — which is efficient for useful habits but problematic for addictive patterns.
• Willpower is the wrong tool for habit change: The prefrontal cortex, where willpower and rational decision-making reside, goes offline when we are stressed, tired, or hungry. This is precisely when bad habits are most likely to activate, making willpower an unreliable strategy.
• Curiosity and awareness work with the brain: Dr. Jud’s research demonstrates that bringing mindful awareness to the actual experience of a habit — rather than trying to suppress it — allows the brain to update the reward value it has assigned. This leads to lasting behavior change without the willpower struggle.

Related Resources

• What Is the Habit Loop?
• Habit Loops and Everyday Addictions
• Curiosity: Our Superpower for Breaking Habits
• A Simple Way to Break a Bad Habit
• Habit Change Strategies Reviewed