THE BRAIN IS HUNGRY FOR PEOPLE. Keeping in mind new experiences of isolation during the pandemic, recent research shows parallels between a socially-deprived brain craving people and a fasted brain craving food. Full notes at headshake.show/episodes/34
Here’s more involuntary neuroscience: spinal reflexes. They’re so involuntary, your brain doesn’t even know they happened. Full notes at headshake.show/episodes/33
The letter A is always red to some people. To others, the sound of a car horn might always smell like pie. Libby and Ruka sensually explore the rare but real condition of synesthesia. Full notes at headshake.show/episodes/32
Does it feel like you’ve heard this before? An episode on déjà vu. An episode on déjà vu. Full notes at headshake.show/episodes/31
Returning to the land of electrophysiology, Lord Nathan and Lady Kristen focus this time on action potentials, which neurons use to send electrical signals long distances in the body. God save the Baked Bean! Full notes at headshake.show/episodes/30
In 1848, Phineas Gage survived an unfortunate railroad accident that later informed science and medicine’s understanding of how the prefrontal cortex works. Supporting character: Spikey the tamping iron Full notes at headshake.show/episodes/29
It’s Headshake’s anniversary, and the finale of the Gap Junction Almanac. We hope you’ve had the “Time of Your Life,” and we’ll still be “Friends Forever.” Let’s cheer ourselves up with a discussion of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Key Words bipolar ii, circadian rhythm, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), depression, heritable, light box, light therapy, lux, major depression, melatonin, norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor (NDRI), psychotherapy, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), sel...
“Nerves?” This is a neuroscience podcast. Haven’t we been talking about nerves the whole time??? Nope! Learn why. Key Words afferent, anopsia, anosmia, autonomic, axon, cardiac muscle, cardiovascular, caudal, central nervous system (CNS), cervical nerves, coccygeal nerves, cranial nerve, efferent, gastrointestinal (GI), innervate, larynx, lateral, lumbar nerves, mastication, medial, motor, nerve, nucleus ambiguus, peripheral nervous system (PNS), pharynx, ptosis, pulmonary, rostral, sacral nerve...
There are two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of microbes in your gut. Are these little residents controlling your brain? If so, how? Poop Detectives Libby and Ruka are on the case. Key Words autism, bacteria, depression, enteroendocrine, fecal transplant, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), gastrointestinal (GI) system, gut flora, gut microbiome, immune cells, inflammation, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), kynurenine, neuropod cells, Parkinson’s disease, psychobiome, psychobiotics, schizophrenia, serotonin, ...
Hair cells in your inner ear and piano keys in your brain. This is our second episode on the sense of hearing. Libby and Ruka wrap up the year with thicker-than-usual Wisconsin accents. Happy birthday to Libby, and Happy New Year! Key Words amplitude, auditory cortex, basilar membrane, brain stem, calcium, cochlea, cochlear duct, cocktail party effect, cranial nerve viii (vestibulocochlear), decibels, depolarization, frequency, gating, glutamate, hair cells, helicotrema, inner hair cells, mechan...
This is part one of two episodes about the auditory system. You could say it’s a “preliminary hearing.” Key Words amplitude, audition, auditory system, aurical, cochlea, cochlear duct, deaf, decibel, eardrum, endolymph, eustachian tube, external auditory canal, frequency, hearing impaired, hearing, helicotrema, incus, inner ear, malleus, middle ear, organ of Corti, outer ear, oval window, perilymph, pinna, pitch, round window, scala tympani, scala vestibuli, stapes, tympanic membrane, volume, zo...
Bad news/good news: Grand mal got run over by a reindeer, BUT we got new microphones! In addition to learning what science does and doesn’t know about brain lightning storms (seizures), hear Libby’s seasonal reflections on the Little Drummer Boy. Key Words absence, amygdala, anticonvulsant, apoptosis, atonic, aura, benzodiazepine, carbamazepine (Tegretol), cellular signaling cascade, clonic, complex, cortex, cyanotic, diazepam (Valium), electroencephalogram (EEG), epilepsy, excitotoxicity, GABA,...
Who are you?! Oh, right. Hi, Jeff! Sorry about that. Our forgetting neurons were working particularly hard last night. Yes, you have neurons that make you forget. Turns out they’re important in memory. This Episode’s Spotify Playlist Neuralized Key Words action potential, amygdala, anxiety, appetite, CA1, calcium transients, chemogenetics, consolidation, contextual fear conditioning (CFC), cued fear, dreams, electroencephalogram (EEG), electromyography (EMG), electrophysiology, fiber photometry,...
IN CASE OF EMERGENCY BREAK GLASS. Libby and Ruka are busy or dead. Either way, you get to listen to this episode recorded as a backup for times like these. Hear their joy, and remember them as they were before the pandemic. Key Words boredom susceptibility, cortisol, disinhibition, dopamine, experience seeking, mindfulness, norepinephrine, sensation seeking, thrill and adventure seeking, zorbing The big five: Openness to experience Conscientiousness Agreeableness Extroversion Neuroticism Old Wes...
Headshake’s personal chef (a.k.a. Ruka’s spouse) is also an electrical and electronic engineer. Steven A. Gago helps Libby and Ruka tackle the mysteries of newly-developed microcircuit chips that could one day become implants to replace diseased neurons. Key Words Alzheimer's, analog, assimilate, bioimplant, Bötzinger region, brain stem, bursts, CA1, chip, circuit, current, digital, hardware, hippocampus, Hodgkin-Huxley model, medulla, model, pyramidal cells, respiratory neuron, solid state neur...
In this elephant-themed episode, Headshake’s male and female hosts talk about whether or not there are differences in the brain between the sexes. If there are, how do they get there, and do they even matter? Key Words ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, behavior, conduct disorder, corpus callosum, development, eating disorders, environmental, frontal lobe, gender, generalized anxiety disorder, genes, hormones, hypothalamus, innate, intersex, major depression disorder, parietal lobe, phrenology, pla...
Does listening to Headshake activate your fight or flight response? Or maybe it leaves you comfortably in your rest and digest state. Ruka and Libby talk about the differences between these systems while planning Libby’s self-eulogized Viking funeral. Key Words acetylcholine, adrenal medulla, adrenaline, afferent, autonomic motor, autonomic nervous system, blood pressure, central nervous system (CNS), cervical, collateral ganglia, efferent, enteric, epinephrine, fight or flight response, ganglio...
Want to lose 1.5 pounds fast? Get a hemispherectomy! Libby and Ruka discuss research on highly-functioning adults who, for medical reasons, had half their brains removed as kids. Key Words anatomical hemispherectomy, behavior, brain stem, cerebellum, cerebrum, chronic focal encephalitis, cognition, connectome, control/executive, cortical dysplasia, default, dorsal attention, emotion, functional hemispherectomy, intelligence, functional network, hemispherectomy, limbic, parcel, perinatal stroke, ...
Libby and Ruka learn about the strange but harmless experience of being awake and not being able to move. This episode is brought to you by the letter P and delicious chocolate frosted Kooky Monkey Brains: “They’re mentally delicious.” Key Words atonia, brain stem, general anxiety disorder, glycine, hallucinate, interneurons, jet lag, medulla, midbrain, narcolepsy, non-rem, panic disorder, pons, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), rapid eye movement (REM), REM-off, REM-on, shift work, sleep o...
In an attempt to recover from the last episode’s derailment by boy bands, Ruka speeds through an overview of the hypothalamus and the anterior pituitary. In the process, she discovers Libby’s deep past with the movie Cool Runnings . Key Words - New record: 46! adrenal cortex, adrenaline, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), anterior pituitary, biogenic amine, catecholamine, corticotropin, corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), dopamine, endocrine feedback loop, epinephrine, estradiol, follicle-st...
A discussion of the hypothalamus and posterior pituitary gets derailed when Libby uncovers Ruka’s painfully comprehensive reserve of 2000’s boy band knowledge. Key Words anterior pituitary, antidiuretic hormone (ADH), autonomic, Bader-Meinhof phenomenon, diencephalon, endocrine, epithalamus, frequency illusion, hypophysis, hypothalamo-hypophysial portal vessels, hypothalamus, infundibulum, lactation, magnocellular neuron, mammillary bodies, median eminence, nuclei, optic chiasm, osmolality, oxyt...
Libby and Ruka use their artificial artificial intelligence to discuss how actual artificial intelligence helps researchers understand the ways the human brain values art. Celebrate their first in-person recording in eight episodes! Key Words abstract, art preference, artificial intelligence (AI), association cortex, color field, cubism, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), impressionism, internal review board (IRB), lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC), mechanical Turk, medial prefrontal c...
It’s Headshake’s first guest ever! Theanne Griffith, Ph.D. joins as a third host to discuss her neuroscience research on specialized ion channels in cold sensation, as well as her brand new STEM-themed children’s book series The Magnificent Makers ! Dr. Griffith’s research starts at 00:23:47 The Magnificent Makers starts at 01:02:56 Key Words action potential, blocker, caliper, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, cold-sensitive neurons, diversity, dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons, F &am...
Can you feel it? Your pointer finger can. After a visit to the land of Complicatia, Libby and Ruka return to Gap Junction to discuss somatosensation and ask important personal questions about the little man living in your cortex. Key Words analgesia, anterolateral column, capsaicin, cation, contralateral, dorsal column, free neuron ending, gate, habituation, homunculus, hyperalgesia, insult, ion channel, ipsilateral, ligand, mechanoreceptor, Meissner’s corpuscle, menthol, Merkel’s corpuscle, mod...
Your body isn’t strung with copper wire. So how does the nervous system send electrical signals? Libby and Ruka discuss this question and attempt to do math. When you’re done listening, remember to write that letter to your Nana Amps. She misses you. Key Words action potential, axon terminal, axon, cell membrane, current, electrical potential, excitatory, extracellular, gap junction, graded potential, inhibitory, intracellular, ions, leak channels, megaohms (mΩ), membrane potential, millivolts (...
Fast cars, Froot Loops, and poops! This episode has it all, brought to you by psychology researchers who put rats in little rat-sized cars. Spoiler: Rats are better at learning how to drive if they’ve played with more toys and friends. Key Words corticosterone, cortisol, DHEA, emotional resilience, enrichment, fecal bolus, Froot Loops, group housing, hormones, maze, mental health, Morris water maze, neuroplasticity, pair housing, reward, rodent operated vehicle (ROV), stimulus, stress Old West W...
Remember us? We’re Libby and Ruka, and we’re going to talk about the fundamentals of memory. Where does it happen? How does it happen? How long does it last? Why is there a Pokemon shaped like garbage? Key Words ACTH, Alzheimer’s, amygdala, anterograde amnesia, association cortex, attention, basal nuclei, cerebellum, consolidation, declarative memory, epinephrine, explicit memory, hippocampus, implicit memory, learning, limbic, long-term depression, long-term memory, long-term potentiation, memo...
BONUS EPISODE! Ruka scored an EXCLUSIVE interview with the famous supermassive black hole M87*, the first ever black hole to be imaged on Earth only one year ago. Recorded in front of a live remote audience. Interview begins at 10 min 57 sec. Connect with us! FB @HeadshakeShow T @HeadshakeShow ‘Sta @HeadshakeNinja Site headshake.show OR headshake.ninja References https://eventhorizontelescope.org/press-release-april-10-2019-astronomers-capture-first-image-black-hole https://www.nasa.gov/mission_...
With many of our routines upended these days, our circadian rhythms are getting thrown off, causing what is known as social jet lag. Don’t get too sleepy listening to the soothing sounds of the second remote recording from Libby and Ruka. Key Words biorhythm, circadian rhythm, diurnal, endogenous, entrain, free-run, hypothalamus, jet lag, melatonin, nocturnal, pacemaker cells, phase advance, phase delay, phase shift, pineal gland, retina, retinohypothalamic tract, shift work, sleep/wake cycle, s...
Motion sickness on a pre-apocalyptic cruise prompted Ruka to reflect extensively on the vestibular system. She talks with Libby about this sixth sense and how it affects the body’s balance, movement, and vision. Key Words acceleration, ampulla, aspartate, cochlea, cranial nerve VIII, crista, cupula, endolymph, glutamate, hair cell, macula, motion sickness, myelin, otoconia, otolithic membrane, saccade, saccule, semicircular canal, stereocilia, utricle, velocity, vestibular labyrinth, vestibular,...
