I am including the transcript of this episode for free because it is an encore presentation of an interview that originally aired as BSP 72. It features Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde, authors of Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions .
Brain Science is entering its 14th year and for the first time since 2008 I will be producing two episodes a month. They will come out on the 2nd and 4th Friday every month. This trailer provides a brief introduction to new listeners and a few announcements. The next full episode will be released on January 10, 2020.
This is our 13th annual review episode. I share a few highlights from episodes 153-163 and include a few extra reflections on the recent 4-part series about the neuroscience of Consciousness. This month's episode transcript is included for FREE. Partial list of Books/Authors featured in 2019: Understanding the Brain: From Cells to Behavior to Cognition by John E. Dowling ( BS 153 ) Better with Age: The Psychology of Successful Aging by Alan D. Castel ( BS 154 ) Brain Inspired (podcast) with Paul...
This episode of Books and Ideas is an interview with Susan Schneider , author of a fascinating new book called Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind . Schneider's book goes beyond the question of whether AI might become conscious to issues that might affect us on a more personal level. I am cross posting this in the feed for Brain Science because there is an obvious overlap with the issue of consciousness, which we often discuss on Brain Science. Links and References: Susan Schneider (p...
Christof Koch returns to Brain Science for the 3rd time and in this episode he shares his new book The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness Is Widespread but Can't Be Computed . He tells us why he doesn't think the Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCC) are enough to explain subjective experience and he gives us a brief overview of the Integrated Information Theory (IIT) of Consciousness. Links and References: Please visit http://brainsciencepodcast.com for references and episode transcri...
This episode is an interview with Dr. Michael Graziano, author of Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience . We discuss how his Attention Schema Theory compliments several current theories and how it answers the question of how the brain generates subjective experience ("qualia"). Links and References: Please visit http://brainsciencepodcast.com for references and episode transcripts. Announcements: Please complete a brief audience survey. Send email to brainscience...
Respected neuroscientist Dr. Joseph Ledoux's new book is The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains . In this episode we discuss Dr. Ledoux's ideas about the relationship between emotion and consciousness. His conclusions are controversial, but thought provoking. Please visit http://brainsciencepodcast.com for complete show notes with links and episode transcripts. Links and References: Please visit http://brainsciencepodcast.com for references and ...
This month's episode is the beginning a four part series about the Neuroscience of Consciousness. This month I am discussing and comparing the ideas from several recent books on the subject in preparation for several upcoming interviews on the subject. Many people consider consciousness to be the biggest mystery of all, but in this episode we explore how progress has been made in unraveling the ultimate "mystery of how our brain makes us human." Books featured in BS 160 (listed in the order cite...
BS 159 is an interview with Dr. Kevin Mitchell, author of Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are . We discuss the fact that our brain-based behavior is actually more innate than is commonly realized. Even identical twins are innately different despite having nearly identical genomes. This is because of events that occur during brain development. Listen now to learn more about what science is revealing about this fascinating topic. (PS: we also talk about the role of brain plastic...
This month marks the return of popular Brain Science guest Dr. Patricia Churchland ( BS 55 and BS 81 ). We talk about her new book, Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition . This book is a great combination of up to date neuroscience and critical thinking. It is recommended for listeners of all backgrounds. Please visit http://brainsciencepodcast.com for detailed show notes and episode transcripts. Links and References: Please visit http://brainsciencepodcast.com for references and episode tr...
This episode of Brain Science features Dr. Donald MacKay, author of Remembering: What 50 Years of Research with Famous Amnesia Patient H.M. Can Teach Us about Memory and How It Works . H.M. may have been the most studied patient in history, but Mackay's work uncovers some surprising discoveries about the role of the hippocampus in language, as well as important implications for the aging brain. Please go to http://brainsciencepodcast.com for complete show notes and episode transcripts. Announcem...
This month's episode of Brain Science is an interview with Stanford psychologist, Dr Russell A. Poldrack, author of The New Mind Readers: What Neuroimaging Can and Cannot Reveal about Our Thoughts . We discuss a brief history of the use of fMRI brain imaging with an emphasis on how to avoid the mistakes that plagued the field early on. Listeners will come away with an appreciation of both the promise and limitations of brain imaging, including an understanding of why it is NOT ready for use as a...
BS 155 is an interview with neuroscientist Paul Middlebrooks , host of the Brain-Inspired podcast . We explore the main theme of his show, which is the intersection between neuroscience and artificial intelligence. For complete show notes and episode transcripts please go to http://brainsciencepodcast.com . Announcements: Send email to brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis . To win an Amazon gift certificate: post a review of Brain Science in iTu...
BS 154 is an interview with Dr. Alan Castel , author of Better with Age: The Psychology of Successful Aging . In the past we have discussed how our brain changes as we age, but it turns out successful aging requires more than "good genes." Our attitudes and our behaviors have a huge impact. More importantly, it is never too early to begin preparing for successful aging. For detailed show notes and episode transcripts please visit http://brainsciencepodcast.com . Send you feedback to brainscience...
Episode 153 of Brain Science is an interview with Harvard neuroscientist John Dowling. We talk about his latest book Understanding the Brain: From Cells to Behavior to Cognition with a special focus on Vision. If you listen to this episode in the Free Brain Science mobile app you can also listen to BSP 4 , which featured one of Dowling's earlier books, The Great Brain Debate: Nature Or Nurture? . Just look under Extras. For complete show notes and episode transcripts please visit http://brainsci...
BS 152 is our 12th annual review episode. In 2018 nine new books were featured and the subjects covered included memory, peri-personal cells, creativity, language, reading, the cerebral mystique, synapses, happiness, emotion and work of Eve Marder. We had 4 new guests and 4 returning guests along with an encore interview with Dr. Eve Marder. This episode includes highlights from all 11 episodes that were released between January and November 2018. Go to http://brainsciencepodcast.com for complet...
BS 151 is a discussion of The Neuroscience of Emotion: A New Synthesis by Ralph Adolphs and David J. Anderson. We talk about key ideas from the book and relate them to several previous episodes about emotion including interviews with Jaak Panksepp , Lisa Feldman Barrett and Luis Pessoa . Details show notes and episode transcripts will be available in a few days. Please visit our sponsors: The Great Courses Plus Babbel promo code ginger Leave voice feedback via Speakpipe or send email to brainsci...
BS 150 is my 4th interview with Dr. Seth Grant, the molecular biologist who has discovered surprising things about the evolution of the synapse, including the fact that vertebrates have much more complex synapses than invertebrates. In this interview we talk about his latest paper in Neuron in which his team has developed a method for mapping the synapses across the entire mouse brain. This is called a synaptome and reveals that there is surprising diversity depending on which part of the brain ...
This brief announcement is to correct a mistake I made in BS 148. For several months I have been talking about my trip to Australia in 2019. I have posted this brief audio to clarify that October 1 was the first day to put down your deposit for the trip (not the deadline). The dates in Australia will be May 20-30, 2018 and I have included the PDF with details with this announcement. There is room for 16 listeners. Please write to a brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com for more details. Also, I will be ...
Brain Science 149 is an episode for listeners of all backgrounds. It is an interview with Dr. Dean Burnett, author of Happy Brain: Where Happiness Comes From, and Why . We look beyond the hype about dopamine and consider how our social nature impacts our happiness. Complete show notes and episode transcripts are available at http://brainsciencepodcast.com . Please visit our sponsor: http://thegreatcoursesplus.com/ginger Send feedback to brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com....
BS 148 is the interview with pioneering neuroscientist Dr. Eve Marder, which I originally recorded back in 2009. I am reposting it now as a follow-up to last month's review of Charlotte Nassim's excellent biography Lessons from the Lobster: Eve Marder's Work in Neuroscience . The topics discussed in this interview are just as relevant as they were back then. A highlight of this interview is Dr. Marder's insights into what it was like to be part of the first large cohort of women entering science...
BS 147 is a discussion of the new biography Lessons from the Lobster: Eve Marder's Work in Neuroscience by Charlotte Nassim. This is an intellectual biography of one of neuroscientists least know pioneers. Dr. Marder was interviewed on this podcast back in BSP 56 , which is also now free to download. In this episode I take you through some of Dr. Marder's key discoveries. Her work is unique because even as a graduate student she was challenging long held assumptions in her field. Although Nassim...
This is an interview with MIT neuroscientist, Dr. Alan Jasanoff about his book The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body, and Environment Collaborate to Make Us Who We Are . We talk about what he calls the "cerebral mystique" and why it is important to remember because the brain is embodied it is not autonomous. The Mind is the result of the interaction of the brain, body, and its environment. Please visit http://brainsciencepodcast.com for full show notes and episode transcripts. Try a free month of...
BS 145 celebrates the return of Dr. Maryanne Wolf who was featured back in BSP 29 when we talked about her bestseller Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain . In this episode we talk about her recent book Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century . Our focus is two-fold. First we consider the implications of the fact that while language is acquired naturally, reading is a cultural invention that must be taught. Second, we explore how the brain is changed by reading and con...
This is an interview with Dr. Angela Friederici, author of Language in Our Brain: The Origins of a Uniquely Human Capacity . Her book is an extensive review of decades of research, but this interview provides an accessible introduction to listeners of all backgrounds. Don't miss our new monthly Facebook live sessions where listeners can submit questions about past episodes. Learn more at our Facebook Fan Page . Full episode show notes and episode transcripts are available at brainsciencepodcast....
BS 143 is an interview with Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg, author of Creativity: The Human Brain in the Age of Innovation . We explore the roles of both the pre-frontal lobes and the right cerebral hemisphere, and we consider how the rapid rate of change may actually be decreasing the incidence of dementia by forcing older people to learn new skills rather than getting stuck in the rut of years of "auto-pilot." Show notes and episode transcripts are available at http:brainsciencepodcast.com . Important ...
BS 142 is an interview with neuroscientist Michael Graziano about his latest book The Spaces Between Us: A Story of Neuroscience, Evolution, and Human Nature . We explore the discovery of peripersonal neurons and discover how deeply they are imbedded in our daily lives. For show notes and complete transcripts go to http://brainsciencepodcast.com Send email to brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com or submit audio feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis . This episode will be discussed on the Brain Sc...
BS 141 is an interview with Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, author of The Forgetting Machine: Memory, Perception, and the "Jennifer Aniston Neuron." We explore how our brains construct both perception and memory, with an emphasis on meaning over exact detail. We also explore why this is important and how it makes humans very different from artificial intelligence. For detailed show notes and episode transcripts please visit http://brainsciencepodcast.com . Send feedback to brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com T...
BS 140 is our 11th Annual Review episode. We look back at the highlights from 2017. New listeners will get a good feel for the ideas and guests that appeared, while regular listeners will have a chance to review a few key ideas. This year I also include a few highlights from the 2017 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Please visit http://brainsciencepodcast.com for detailed show notes and episode transcripts. Listeners can get a free month of access to The Great Courses at http://th...
Jeff Hawkins founded Numenta in 2005, shortly after publishing his best seller "On Intelligence." Numenta's goal is to create a computer model of how the human cortex functions and more importantly advance our theoretical understanding of why it has the structure that it does. In BS 139 Hawkins describes some of his team's latest research and some exciting new ideas. Complete show notes and transcripts are available at http://brainsciencepodcast.com . Send feed back to brainsciencepodcast@gmail....
