Sep 22, 2023

This month's episode of Brain Science features Thomas Metzinger, author of "The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self." Metzinger is a philosopher with a longstanding interest in Philosophy of Mind with a focus on incorporating the findings of neuroscience. We discuss the implications of the...

Aug 25, 2023

This episode of Brain Science features the return of molecular biologist Seth Grant. We briefly review his decades of research into the complexity of the protein structure of the synapse and then we focus on his most recent paper, which describes how the life-span of synapse proteins appears to change as animals age....

Jul 28, 2023

This episode is our first review of neurotransmitters since episode 8 way back in 2007. We start with some basics of neuron function and brain anatomy, but the meat of the episode is a discussion of neurotransmitters and how they work. The key idea is that a simple molecule, such as dopamine, can have a wide variety of...

Jun 23, 2023

This month's episode of Brain Science is an interview with Luiz Pessoa, author of The Entangled Brain: How Perception, Cognition, and Emotion Are Woven Together.

This is Pessoa's first book aimed at a general audience and it provides a concise overview of our current understanding of basic brain function. However, he...

May 26, 2023

This month's episode is an interview with Cambridge Psychology professor Sander van der Linden, author of "Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity." We discuss the important topic of how techniques like appealing to emotion contribute to the spread of misinformation. Dr. Campbell...