I am mystified by the polls that show how popular Sarah Palin with women voters, but today I got an email from a fan of the Brain Science Podcast who pointed me to a piece by Sam Harris that may shed some light on the phenomena. Harris is a neuroscientist and he observes that when [...]

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In Episode 33 Futures in Biotech host Marc Pelletier, PhD interviews pioneering researcher Dr. Brenda Milner from the Montreal Neurological Institute. Dr. Milner is best known for her work with HM, the patient that she worked with for many decades. Her work helped neuroscientists appreciate the role of the hippocampus in memory and the [...]

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The June 14 Episode of All in the Mind has a thoughtful discussion of the implications of using drugs to improve cognitive performance. Natasha Mitchell interviewed Barbara Sahakian, professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge (UK) and William Glannon, a bioethicist from the University of Calgary (Canada). Several important issues emerged including the [...]

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Last week I had Dr. Michael Arbib on the Brain Science Podcast. While our discussion focused on his work related to mirror neurons, we also talked a little about his general area of expertise, which is cognitive neuroscience. Most of us don’t have a real feel for what this field involves, but those of you [...]

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I want to recommend this short piece on the Scientific American website:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-neuroscience-of-illusion
It includes an excellent slideshow that I am sure you will enjoy.

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The May 10th episode of All in the Mind is an excellent discussion of the latest research about nicotine addiction. It includes a very balanced look at the controversy over the new smoking cessation drug, varenicline, which is sold in the US as Chantix. Nicotine has a unique effect on certain neurotransmitter receptors in the [...]

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Episode 31 of the Brain Science Podcast was a challenging interview with György Buzsáki about his book Rhythms of the Brain. Thanks to listener Diane Jacobs we now have a transcript available for Episode 31.
Click here for the transcript.
Be sure to visit Diane’s Blog at http://humanantigravitysuit.blogspot.com/. When it comes to reading books about neuroscience, Diane [...]

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In Episode 33 of the Brain Science Podcast, Harvard’s Dr. John Ratey introduced us to brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), which he described as “Miracle Grow for the Brain” because it actually stimulates the grow of new neurons in the brain. The emphasis in our discussion was on the importance of exercise in stimulating the release [...]

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Jamie Davis of Mediccast sent me a link to an interesting article from the CNN website. It describes how mirror box therapy is being used to help veterans who have suffered amputations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those of you who heard Sandra Blakeslee’s interview about body maps back in Episode 23 will remember that she [...]

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Most of you know that I am a fan of the All in the Mind podcast from Australian radio. I want to recommend the two most recent episodes:
The March 22 Episode is actually  hosted by Volkart Wildermuth, from Germany. He interviews several of the world’s leading primate researchers. You will learn some of the recent [...]

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