Last month I announced that the next new episode of the Brain Science Podcast will be posted in the second week of September 2010. Today I am posting a brief update in the feed.

Listen Now

Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:

Show notes:

Some Advice for new listeners: The summer break gives new listeners an excellent chance to listen to past episodes of the Brain Science Podcast, but now that there are 69 episodes available, a little guidance might be helpful. If you are new to neuroscience I suggest that you listen to episodes 1-27 in order. That will give you a solid foundation for enjoying more recent episodes. Naturally I hope you will listen to them all, but the order is not critical. There are a few exceptions, but I think these are clearly labeled.

This week’s podcast also includes a little about how the Brain Science Podcast has evolved since it started back in December 2006. At the end of the announcements I describe the features of updated Brain Science Podcast application for iPhone/iPod Touch.

Announcements:

• The Beautiful Brain is a new podcast that BSP fans might enjoy. This month’s episode is an interview with memory researcher Todd Sacktor.
• Next month, I will be participating in several panels at The Amazing Meeting 8 in Las Vegas, NV. If you are attending please let me know.
• I will also be a guest at Dragon*Con 2010 over Labor Day Weekend. I will be interviewing Dr. Scott Lillienfield, co-author of 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior. (An edited version of the interview will probably appear as an episode of Books and Ideas later in the fall.)
• If you are looking for more science podcasts don’t forget to visit http://sciencepodcasters.org. Send me email if you would like to recommend a podcast for the site.
• Please check out my other podcast Books and Ideas. It includes interviews with interesting people from a wide variety fields.
• The Brain Science Podcast Application for iPhone/iPod Touch has been updated and is now more useful than ever. Click here to learn more or Listen Now.

Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:

Send me feedback at gincampbell at mac dot com or leave voice mail at 205-202-0663.

Recent research has discovered that glial cells (the non-neuronal cells that make up about 85% of the cells in the human nervous system) actually do more than just support neurons. In Episode 69 of the Brain Science Podcast I explore some of these recent discoveries with pioneering researcher, R. Douglas Fields, PhD. Dr. Fields is the author of The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries about the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science. The Other Brain provides a compelling introduction to this exciting new field. It is aimed at general readers, but it should also be on the must-read list for all students of neuroscience.

Listen to Episode 69

Episode Transcript (Download free PDF)

Donations are appreciated

Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:

References:

• The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries about the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science by R. Douglas Fields (2010)
• Glial Neurobiology: A Textbook by Alexei Verkhratsky and Arthur Butt (2007)
• Bullock, T. H., Bennett, M. V., Johnston, D., Josephson, R., Marder, E., Fields, R. D. “Neuroscience. The neuron doctrine, redux.” Science 310. 5749 (2005): 791-3.
  Perspectives
• Bullock, T. H. (2004) The Natural History of Neuroglia: an agenda for comparative studies. Neuron Glial Biology 1:97-100.
• Fields, R. D. (2006) Beyond the Neuron Doctrine. Scientific American Mind June/July 17:20-27.

Links:

• The Other Brain website
• R. Douglas Fields: Chief and Senior Researcher of the Section on Nervous System Development and Plasticity at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which is part of NIH.
• Dr. Ichiji Tasaki; worked at NIH for over 50 years and was a pioneering researcher of nerve conduction. (See the episode transcript for links to the other researchers that were mentioned in this episode.)

Related Episodes of the Brain Science Podcast:

• BSP 8: How Neurons Communicate
• BSP 56: Interview with Dr. Eve Marder

Announcements:

• The Brain Science Podcast application for iPhone/Touch now contains transcripts for all episodes. Your reviews are greatly appreciated.
• The next new episode of the Brain Science Podcast will come out in September, 2010.
• Be sure to check out my other podcast Books and Ideas.
• For more science podcasts go to http://sciencepodcasters.org.
• Stay informed by subscribing to the BSP Newsletter.
• Correction: Barbara Strauch is the author of The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind. (note the correct spelling of STRAUCH)

Join our Discussion Forum:

Join our Facebook Fan Page:

Send me feedback at gincampbell at mac dot com or leave voice mail at 205-202-0663.

]]> http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2010/05/bsp69-glia/feed/ 2 http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2010/04/bsp68-whitehouse/ http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2010/04/bsp68-whitehouse/#comments Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:00:33 +0000 Ginger Campbell, MD http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/?p=1379

Brain Science Podcast 68 is an interview with Dr. Peter Whitehouse, co-author (with Daniel George) of The Myth of Alzheimer’s: What You Aren’t Being Told About Today’s Most Dreaded Diagnosis. Alzheimer’s Disease originally referred to a relatively rare form of premature dementia, but in recent decades the diagnosis has been expanded to include patients of all ages. This change is not based on science and in this interview we talk about why being labeled with with Alzheimer’s may be doing older patients more harm than good.

Dr. Whitehouse is one of the pioneering researchers in this field, but advocates devoting resources to helping elders with with a wide range of age-related brain changes. This interview should be of interest to physicians, scientists, as well as patients and their families. I will be posting a supplemental interview with Daniel George, the co-author of The Myth of Alzheimer’s later this month. (Learn more at http://booksandideas.com.)

Listen to Episode 68

Episode Transcript (download PDF)

Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:

References:

• The Myth of Alzheimer’s: What You Aren’t Being Told About Today’s Most Dreaded Diagnosis by Peter J. Whitehouse, Daniel George
• Dementia Reconsidered: the Person Comes First by Tom Kitwood
• Self, Senility, and Alzheimer’s Disease in Modern America: A History by Jesse F. Ballenger

Links:

• Peter Whitehouse, MD: neurologist at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine
• The Myth of Alzheimer’s website (includes a discussion forum)
• The Intergenerational School in Cleveland, OH
• Tom Kitwood: pioneered the “person-centered” approach to dementia
• Dr. Alois Alzheimer: described  several cases of premature dementia (around 1901) that seemed to be associated with distinctive brain changes (discovered during autopsy)
• Emil Kraepelin: a contemporary and adversary of Sigmund Freud who introduced the term “Alzheimer’s Disease” in his influencial textbook Psychiatry (1910)
• Robert Butler, MD: the first director of the National Institute on Aging
• drapetomania: an alleged mental illness invented in 1851 that supposedly caused slaves to run away. As Dr. Whitehouse observed during his interview, “diseases are not discovered by doctors, they are invented.”

Announcements:

• Subscribe to the Books and Ideas podcast to get the extra interview with Daniel George
• The Brain Science Podcast iPhone application also works on the new iPad, but we are having to re-upload our old episode transcripts.
• Don’t forget you can get show notes to each episode automatically if you subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast Newsletter.
• This podcast is supported by listener donations.

Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:

Join our Discussion Forum:

Join our Facebook Fan Page:

Send feedback to gincampbell at mac dot com or leave voice mail at 206-984-0358.

The free podcast version of Brain Science Podcast 67 is now available. It is an interview with German philosopher Thomas Metzinger, author of The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self and Being No One. Dr. Metzinger argues that any credible model for how the brain generates the mind must incorporate unusual human experiences, such as so-called out of body experiences (OBE), and psychiatric conditions. In this interview we explore how OBE and virtual reality experiments shed light on how the brain generates the sense of self that characterizes normal human experience.

Listen to Episode 67

Episode Transcript (Download PDF)

Premium Version Available

Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:

Links:

• Thomas Metzinger: University of Mainz, Wikipedia entry
• Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC)
• Olaf Blanke: Swiss scientist and physician who has demonstrated that out of body experiences (OBE) can be generated by electrical stimulation of the brain
• YouTube video of Thomas Metzinger’s Being No One lecture
• For more links download the free transcript of BSP 67.

Related Episodes of the Brain Science Podcast:

• BSP 21: A look at how our brain create body maps that may incorporate tools
• BSP 22: Interview with Christof Koch, author of The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach
• BSP 35: An introduction to Mirror Neurons
• BSP 55: Interview with philosopher Patricia Churchland
• BSP 57: (mention in the podcast)Interview with neuropsycologist Chris Frith, author of Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World

References:

• The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self by Thomas Metzinger
• Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity by Thomas Metzinger
• How the Body Shapes the Mind by Shaun Gallagher
• Blanke, et al., “Stimulating Illusory Own-Body Perceptions,” Nature, 419:269-270 (2002)  Click here for more papers by Olaf Blanke.
• Beyond the Body: An Investigation of Out of Body Experiences by Susan Blackmore (click here for more publications from Susan Blackmore)
• O Blanke & T. Metzinger,”Full-Body Illusion and Minimal Phenomenal Selfhood,” Trends in Cognitive Neuroscience 13(1):7-13 (2009)
• T. Metzinger, “Out of Body Experiences as the Origin of the Concept of a ‘Soul,’”  Mind and Matter 3(1):57-84 (2005) Click for more papers by Thomas Metzinger.

Announcements:

• BSP 68 will be an interview with geriatric neurologist Peter Whitehouse, author of The Myth of Alzheimer’s: What You Aren’t Being Told About Today’s Most Dreaded Diagnosis. The premium version will be available on April 1 and will include an additional interview with his co-author Daniel George. The free podcast will come out the second week of April. Click here to learn more about the new premium versions of the Brain Science Podcast.
• The latest episode of my Books and Ideas podcast is an interview with best-selling horror writer Scott Sigler. We discuss the challenges of incorporating accurate science into fiction writing. (Listen to the end to get a coupon code for his book The Rookie.)
• Read episode transcripts right on your iPhone® or Touch® with the BSP application
• Get episode show notes automatically via the free Brain Science Podcast Newsletter
• Leave your feedback in the Discussion Forum or on our Facebook Fan Page or send email to gincampbell at mac dot com.

Episode 66 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Randy Gallistel, PhD, Co-Director of the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science and co-author (with Adam Philip King) of Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cognitive Science will Transform Neuroscience. We discuss why read/write memory is an essential element of computation with an emphasis on the animal experiments that support the claim that brains must possess read/write memory. This is significant because current models, such as neural nets, DO NOT incorporate read/write memory in their assumptions about how brains work. It is not necessary to have any background in information theory or computation to appreciate the experiments that are discussed in this episode. Episode 3 and Episode 12 of the Brain Science Podcast provide  background information for this episode.

Listen to Free Podcast

Episode Transcript (Download free PDF)

Premium Version available (with extra content)

Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:

References and Links:

• Spikes: Exploring the Neural Code by Fred Rieke, David Warland, Rob de Ruyter van Steveninck, William Bialek
• Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cognitive Science will Transform Neuroscience by C. R. Gallistel, Adam Philip King
• Claude E. Shannon:  His paper (A Mathematical Theory of Communication, Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 27, pp. 379–423, 623–656, 1948) is a cornerstone of information theory.
• Rüdiger Wehner: Swiss researcher who has studied dead reckoning in insects
• Nicky Clayton and Tony Dickinson: these researchers have performed elegant experiments that study scrub jay caching.
• Christof Koch: was interviewed in Episode 22 of the Brain Science Podcast

Announcements:

• This was Dr. Campbell’s 100th podcast (BSP 66 plus Books and Ideas 34)! How long have you been listening?
• Please sign up for the Brain Science Podcast Newsletter.
• If you have an iPhone® or iPod Touch® check out the BSP application in the iTunes® Store.
• Premium versions (CD and mp3 downloads) are now available for Episode 65. The premium version of this episode (coming soon!) will contain extra content.
• Coming Soon: subscribe to the premium version of your choice (CD or download) and premium versions of previous episodes. We need your feedback: which episodes do you want? Which ones would you like to give as gifts?

Send feedback to gincampbell at mac dot com or leave voice mail at 205-202-0663.

Join our Discussion Forum:

Join our Facebook Fan Page:

]]> http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2010/02/bsp66-gallistel/feed/ 1 http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2010/01/podcast-extra-bruce-hood-on-believing-the-unbelievable/ http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2010/01/podcast-extra-bruce-hood-on-believing-the-unbelievable/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:05:09 +0000 Ginger Campbell, MD http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/?p=1274

Episode 34 of Books and Ideas is an interview with Bruce M Hood, author of SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable.Dr. Hood is a developmental psychologist with a long-standing interest in why people believe weird things. In SuperSense he argues that innate cognitive structures (how we think without being taught) give people a natural tendency toward belief in the supernatural. Our intuitive sense of how the world works is often at odds with the findings of modern science.

In this interview we discuss the evidence for these conclusions and their implications.

Listen to Episode 34 of Books and Ideas

Episode Transcript (Download PDF)

If you are subscribed to the Brain Science Podcast you should receive this as an extra episode.

Click here for detailed show notes and to learn more about Books and Ideas.

Episode 65 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Jaak Panksepp, PhD, author of Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. Dr. Panksepp has done pioneering work on the neural origins of emotions. In this interview we discuss how his work challenges some of the common assumptions about emotions and some of the important implications of his discoveries. New listeners may want to go back and listen to Episode 11 for an introduction to the neuroscience of emotion.

Listen to Episode 65 (Free Podcast version)

Episode Transcript (Download PDF)

Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:

Click here for Premium Versions

References:

• Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions by Jaak Panksepp.
• “How to Undress the Affective Mind: An Interview with Jaak Panksepp,” S Gallagher, Journal of Consciousness Studies, Volume 15, Number 2, 2008 , pp. 89-119(31).
• “Affective consciousness: Core emotional feelings in animals and humans,”J Panksepp,  Consciousness and Cognition 14 (2005)30-80. Elsevier. (available on-line via ScienceDirect.com)
• Visit Dr. Panksepp’s faculty page for more references.

Scientists Mentioned in this Episode:

• John Bowlby: studied the effects of maternal deprivation, helped develop attachment theory
• John Cacioppo: developed the concept of social neuroscience.
• Antonio Damasio: neurologist and author of several books including The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness.
• Walter Hess: work in the 1930′s showed that stimulation of the cat hypothalamus led to anger. He shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1949.
• Tom Insel: Director of the National Institutes for Mental Health (NIMH)
• William James: early pioneer of scientific psychology. The James-Lange Theory of emotion is an outdated theory that emotion result from the brain’s interpretation of signals coming from the body.
• Eric Kandel: won the Nobel Prize in 2000 for his work with memory in the Aplysia.
• Brian Knutson: former student of Panksepp
• Joseph Ledoux: well-known for his work with fear and memory
• Endel Tulving: memory researcher at the University of Toronto
• For all the scientists mentioned see the episode transcript.

Announcements:

• Reminder: sign-up for the BSP Newsletter to get show notes and other updates via email.
• I am working on a CD version of this episode. It will be divided into multiple track to make it easier for you to find the parts you want to listen to again, and allow you to find your place if you are interrupted. It will also have most of the announcements and music removed.
• Don’t forget to check out the BSP iPhone/Touch application.

Join our Discussion Forum:

Join our Facebook Fan Page:

Send feedback to gincampbell at mac dot com or leave voice mail at 205-202-0663.

]]> http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2010/01/bsp-65-panksepp/feed/ 7 http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2009/12/64-year3review/ http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2009/12/64-year3review/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:00:24 +0000 Ginger Campbell, MD http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/?p=1186

Episode 64 of the Brain Science Podcast is our Third Annual Review Episode.

It includes a review of some of the major ideas we talked about in 2009 and a look ahead to what I have planned for 2010.

Listen to Episode 64

Episode Transcript (Download PDF)

Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:

Main Books Discussed in 2009:

• Teenagers: A Natural History by David Bainbridge (BSP 63)
• Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown, MD (BSP 60)
• Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World by Chris Frith (BSP 57)
• Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?: Philosophical and Neurobiological Perspectives on Moral Responsibility and Free Will by Nancey Murphy and Warren S. Brown (BSP 53 and BSP 62)
• Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness by Alva Noë (BSP 58)

Guests who appeared on the Brain Science Podcast in 2009:

• David Bainbridge, PhD: University Clinical Veterinary Anatomist from Cambridge University (BSP 63)
  
• Stuart Brown, MD: retired psychiatrist and founder of the National Institute for Play (BSP 60)
• Warren S Brown, PhD: experimental psychologist from Fuller Theological Seminary (BSP 62)
• Guy Caldwell, PhD: molecular biologist from the University of Alabama (BSP 59)
• Patricia Churchland, PhD: neurophilosopher from University of California at San Diego (BSP 55)
• Chris Frith, PhD: neuropsychologist from University College London (BSP 57)
• Allan Jones, PhD: Chief Science Officer at the Allen Institute for Brain Research (BSP 61)
• Eve Marder, PhD: neuroscientist from Brandeis University (BSP 56)
• Michael Merzenich, PhD pioneer in neuroplasticity (BSP 54)
• Alva Noë, Phd: philosopher from the University of California (BSP 58)

Reminders:

• Brain Science Podcast Facebook Fan Page
• Brain Science Podcast iPhone application
• Brain Science Podcast Discussion Forum
• Brain Science Podcast Flickr Group
• Your Donations help keep the Brain Science Podcast going

Coming in 2010:

• Episodes about emotion and memory, plus many other topics
• Newletters
• Purchase Transcripts, episode CDs and get continuing education credits

Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:

Join our Discussion Forum:

Join our Facebook Fan Page:

Send feedback to gincampbell at mac dot com or leave voice mail at 206-984-0358.

]]> http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2009/12/64-year3review/feed/ 0 http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2009/11/bsp63-bainbridge/ http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2009/11/bsp63-bainbridge/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:00:37 +0000 Ginger Campbell, MD http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/?p=1159

Episode 63 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with David Bainbridge, author of Teenagers: A Natural History. Our focus is on how the brain changes during the teenage years. Bainbridge teaches vetinary anatomy and reproductive biology at Cambridge University and has published several other popular science books including Beyond the Zonules of Zinn: A Fantastic Journey Through Your Brain, which I discussed back in Episode 32.

Listen to Episode 63

Episode Transcript (Download PDF)

Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:

Additional Show Notes:

Links:

• David Bainbridge’s home page
• Teenagers: A Natural History by David Bainbridge
• Beyond the Zonules of Zinn: A Fantastic Journey Through Your Brain by David Bainbridge
• Episode 32: Introduction to Neuroanatomy based on Beyond the Zonules of Zinn by David Bainbridge

Announcements:

• New iPhone app available in the iTunes Store
• New voice mail number: 206-984-0358

Join our Discussion Forum:

Join our Facebook Fan Page:

Send feedback to gincampbell at mac dot com or leave voice mail at 206-984-0358.

]]> http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2009/11/bsp63-bainbridge/feed/ 0 http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2009/10/62-warrenbrown/ http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/2009/10/62-warrenbrown/#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:00:26 +0000 Ginger Campbell, MD http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/?p=1125

Warren Brown and Nancey Murphy

Episode 62 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Warren Brown, PhD, co-author (with Nancey Murphy) of Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?: Philosophical and Neurobiological Perspectives on Moral Responsibility and Free Will. This book was discussed in detail back in Episode 53, but this interview gave me a chance to discuss some of the book’s key ideas with Dr. Brown. We focused on why a non-reductive approach is needed in order to formulate ideas about moral responsibility that are consistent with our current neurobiological understanding of the mind.

Listen to Episode 62

Episode Transcript (Download PDF)

Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast:

Additional Links and References:

• Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?: Philosophical and Neurobiological Perspectives on Moral Responsibility and Free Will by Nancey Murphy and Warren S. Brown
• Episode 53 of the Brain Science Podcast: a detailed discussion of Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?
• Tom Clark’s review of Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?
• Episode 30 of Books and Ideas: Dr. Campbell interviews Tom Clark about Naturalism and Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?
• “Neuroscience and the Soul,” letter in Science 2/27/09 Vol. 323, page 1168 (available on-line to AAAS members)
• Additional References are included in the episode transcript.

Join our Facebook Fan Page