The Amygdaloids began in 2006 as a band of NYU scientists. From the beginning they played songs about love and life peppered with insights drawn from neuroscience, psychology, philosophy. They dubbed this genre ‘heavy mental’ and have released five albums. The original members included Joseph LeDoux, Tyler Volk, Daniela Schiller, and Nina Curly. The lineup has changed over the years but has always included LeDoux, who has written most of the band’s songs. These days LeDoux mostly performs acoustic versions of Amygdaloids tunes with Colin Dempsey in a duo called So We Are. A documentary about LeDoux’s life, work and music can be seen on Amazon Prime.