Neuroscience Highlights for 2012 (BSP 92)

/

The Brain Science Podcast recently passed 4 million downloads and it remains entrenched at or near the top of the iTunes rankings for Science and Medicine. So now it's time for our 6th Annual Review Episode. The purpose of this year-ending podcast is to review some of the year's highlights and key ideas. As I reviewed the transcripts of this year's episodes, I was struck by the fact that although each episode stands alone, they also inform one another. One unifying theme was the importance of taking an evolutionary approach to understanding how the human brain generates complex features like mind and consciousness.

Interviews have become an outstanding feature of the Brain Science Podcast. This year I interviewed 10 scientist, including five who have appeared in past podcasts.

Scientists Interviewed in 2012:

#Indicates returning guest. See Guest List for previous episode.

*See the Bibliography page for books featured on the Brain Science Podcast.

In addition to discussing the books by these guests, I also reviewed Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain, by Michael S. Gazzaniga, and Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain, by Antonio Damasio.

Related Episodes: 

  • BSP 32: Brief Introduction to brain anatomy.
  • BSP 47: Basics of brain evolution.
  • BSP 57: Chris Frith, author of Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World.
  • BSP 67: Thomas Metzinger, author of The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self.

Announcements:

  • Pschologists can now earn CEUs for listening to selected episodes of the Brain Science Podcast.
  • I am closing down the website SCIENCEPODCASTERS.ORG, which I founded back in2008. If you are looking for more high quality science podcasts I suggest the NSF-funded Science 360 Radio.

Ways to Support the BSP:

Tell me what you think:

To get show notes automatically and never miss an episode of the Brain Science Podcast sign up for the BSP newsletter.

The Origin of Emotions with Jaak Panksepp (BSP 91)

/

Dr. Jaak Panksepp

In his new book, The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions, Jaak Panksepp set out to make his life's work more accessible to a general audience.  To be honest, reading this book requires a significant commitment, but I think he does a wonderful job of updating his classic textbook, Affective Neuroscience.  Anyone who is interested in this field will definitely want this book as a reference.

The other strength of Archeology of Mind is its evolutionary approach.  The primary emotional processes that Panksepp has spent his career studying have their origins in the ancient parts of the brain that are shared by all mammals.  This contradicts longstanding assumptions in neuroscience, but it has important implications for both humans and other animals.

In Episode 91 of the Brain Science Podcast, Dr. Panksepp and I talked about some of the new information contained in Archaeology of Mind, with a particular focus on FEAR, which, contrary to what many researchers claim, does NOT begin in the amygdala, but begins much lower.  We do talk briefly about the experimental evidence, but this was covered in more detail during Dr. Panksepp's previous appearance on the Brain Science Podcast in BSP 65.

CEUs for Psychologists (Coming Soon from Mensana)

References:

Related Episodes:

Announcements:

NMX - I'll Be There

The earliest episodes of the Brain Science Podcast  are now disappearing from iTunes but they remain freely available here.  They are also available within the Brain Science Podcast  app for mobile devices.  By the way, the mobile app has been updated, and I need users to post new reviews.

Attention Psychologists! CEUs are now available for selected episodes of the Brain Science Podcast.  Click here for a complete list.

Don't forget to get your copy of my eBook, Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty, from Amazon.com.  If you don't have the Kindle app, just send me your Amazon receipt and I will send you the PDF.

The Brain Science Podcast is supported by listener Donations.  It also relies on your word of mouth, so don't forget to share it with others.

Next month's Brain Science Podcast  will be our annual review episode. Meanwhile don't forget to check out my other podcast, Books and Ideas.  The most recent episode is an interview with Emily Reese from Minnesota Classical Radio.

Join the Brain Science Podcast Fan Page on Facebook, Google+, and share your thoughts in our Discussion Forum on Goodreads.  Of course, you can also send me email at gincampbell at mac dot com.

To get show notes automatically and never miss an episode of the Brain Science Podcast sign up for the BSP Newsletter.

"The Self Illusion" with Bruce Hood (BSP 88)

/

Bruce Hood, PhD

The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity, by Bruce Hood, is a fascinating look at how our brains create both our experience of the world and our sense of being a single, coherent self.  As the word "illusion" in the title indicates, neither is exactly what it seems.  When I interviewed Dr. Hood (BSP 88), he explained that The Self Illusion is a broad introduction to this somewhat surprising idea. The  Self Illusion was written with a general audience in mind.  For those already familiar with the topic, he also puts a new emphasis on the role of development.  All readers should come away with a new appreciation for the critical role social interactions play through out human life.

Related Podcasts:

Additional References:

Announcements:

  • Because the Brain Science Podcast is free to everyone, it relies on listener donations.  Click here to learn how you can help.
  • Continuing educations credit is now available for selected episodes of the Brain Science Podcast.  Please send me an email if you would like to learn more.
  • I will be in Philadelphia, PA October 16-21 to attend the AAFP annual meeting.  Listeners who live in the area and physicians who are attended this meeting are invited to drop me an email if interested in getting together in person.
  • The latest episode of Books and Ideas is an interview with Jonathan Gottschall, author of The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. This episode continues some of the same themes explored in BSP 88.
  • Upcoming episodes: Discussion of Self Comes to Mind, by Antonio Damasio, and interviews with Evan Thompson (Mind in Life) and Jaak Panksepp (The Archaeology of Mind).
  • Sign up for the Brain Science Podcast  Newsletter:  You will get the show notes automatically and never miss a new episode.
  • Don't forget to post your review of my eBook, Are Your Sure? The Unconscious Originis of Certainty, on Amazon.com, Goodreads.com or your favorite website.  (Send me your Amazon receipt to get a free PDF.)
  • Connect with other BSP fans: BSP Facebook Fan Page, Google +, Discussion Forum on Goodreads.com.
  • Follow me on Twitter: @docartemis.
  • Send me feedback (or respond to any of these announcements) at gincampbell at mac dot com.

Disgust with Rachel Herz (BSP 86)

/

Disgust is an universal emotion, but unlike emotions like fear and anger, disgust must be learned.  This is the main conclusion of Dr. Rachel Herz's latest book, That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion.  In a recent interview (BSP 86), Dr. Herz told me why she spent the last several years studying this rather unusual subject.  We also discussed what the study of disgust can tell us about how our brains process emotion.

This is Dr. Herz's second visit to the Brain Science Podcast.  Back in BSP 34 we talked about her first book, The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell.

Announcements:

"Mind and Brain" with William Uttal (BSP 83)

/

William Uttal, PhD

There is nothing more exciting than the mind/brain problem" according to Dr. William Uttal, author of Mind and Brain: A Critical Appraisal of Cognitive Neuroscience.  In the latest episode of the Brain Science Podcast  (BSP 83) I talked with Dr. Uttal about why he feels that brain imaging can not solve this mystery.

First, there is the problem that brain imaging represents the wrong level of analysis because every spot you see on a brain scan actaully represents thousands of neurons.  This means that the activity and interaction between individual neurons has been lost. Then there is the problem of reproducibility, with divergent results between studies.

The evidence is accumulating that "much of the brain responds to any stimulus, and every area of the brain participates in multiple functions."  This means that asking where a given function occurs may be the wrong question.

BSP 83 represents an on-going discussion of these issues, so I have included links to related episodes in the show notes. 

References: 

Related Podcasts:  

Reminders:

Send me feedback at gincampbell at mac dot.com.

Cognitive Dissonance (BSP Extra)

/

I am putting Episode 43 of Books and Ideas into the Brain Science Podcast feed because it should be of interest to BSP fans. This episode is an interview with psychologist Carol Tavris.

We talk about the relationship between psychology and neuroscience as well as cognitive dissonance, which is the subject of Dr. Tavris's recent book Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts.

Post your comments in the thread on the BSP Discussion Forum in Goodreads or send me feedback at gincampbell at mac dot com.

Celebrating 4 Years of the Brain Science Podcast (BSP 71)

/

The latest episode of the Brain Science Podcast (BSP 71) is our 4th annual review episode.  As usual, I review highlights from this year's interviews, but this year I added a new feature: my personal reflections on how the Brain Science Podcast has impacted my life.  This episode also contains a special announcement for UK listeners.

Major Topics from Season 4:

  • Emotions with Jaak Panksepp (BSP 65).
  • Memory with Randy Gallistel (BSP 66).
  • Consciousness with Thomas Metzinger (BSP 67).
  • Alzheimer's Disease with Peter Whitehouse (BSP 68 and Books and Ideas 36).
  • Glia Cells with R. Douglas Fields (BSP 69).
  • Pop Psychology Myths with Scott Lilienfeld (BSP 70).

References:

Announcements:

  • The Brain Science Podcast app is now available for both iPhone and ANDROID (NEW!)
  • Please share your thoughts in our new Guest Book.
  • Be sure to subscribe to my Books and Ideas podcast. The next episode will come out in December.
  • The next episode of the Brain Science Podcast will come out in January 2010. 
  • Sign up for our Newsletter so that you won't miss any episodes.

 

discussionforum

Join our Discussion Forum:

FacebookFanBSP

Join our Facebook Fan Page:

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

Pop Psychology Myths with Scott Lilienfeld (BSP 70)

/

The latest Brain Science Podcast (BSP 70) is an interview with Dr. Scott Lilienfeld, co-author of 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior.  This episode was recorded live at Dragon*Con 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia.  We focused our conversation on the fact that scientific reasoning and critical thinking do NOT come naturally; instead, we all tend to make similar errors, such as mistaking correlation for causation.  Dr. Lilienfeld shared his experiences, and an extensive question and answer session with the live audience allowed him to explore additional examples.

Detailed Show Notes:

This episode includes an extensive Q and A between Dr. Lilienfeld and the live audience. Here is a list of some of the questions:

  • A mother asked for advice for being pressured to have her child subjected to treatment approaches that may not be evidence-based.
  • Is hypnosis an effective treatment?
  • Another woman asks for Dr. Lillienfeld to give some examples of practices that were popular in the 90's, which caused him concern.
  • Myths about anger management.
  • Problems with validity of self-evaluations.
  • Claims about changing your brain and bringing it into balance esp with regards to elementary education.
  • Problems with staff in mental health institutions believing in pseudoscience.
  • Problems with portrayal of psychological issues in movies and TV.
  • What about IQ tests and theories of Multiple intelligence?

References:

  • 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior, by Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio, Barry L. Beyerstein.
  • What Intelligence Tests Miss: The Psychology of Rational Thought, by Keith E. Stanovich.
  • Rotton, J, & Kelly, I. W. (1985). Much ado about the full moon: A meta-analysis of lunary-lunacy research. Psychological Bulletin, 97, 286-306.
  • Dunning, D., Heath, C., & Suls, J.M. (2004) Flawed Self-Assessment: Implications for Health, Education, and the Workplace. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, (5.3) 69-106.
  • Delmonico, L.M., & Romancyzk, R.G. (1995). Facilitated Communication: A critique. Behavior Therapist, 18, 27-30.
  • Jacobson, J.W., Mullick, J.A., & Schwarz, A.A. (1995) A history of facilitated communication: Science, pseudoscience, and antiscience. American Psychologist, 50,750-765.

Links:

  • Scott Lilienfeld, PhD (Emory University).
  • Dr. Lilienfeld's book has an extensive list of recommended websites.

Announcements:

  • Starting this month the Brain Science Podcast will come out every other month.
  • Don't forget to check out my other podcast Books and Ideas. There will be a new episode in October.
  • For more science podcasts go to http://sciencepodcasters.org.
  • Nursing continuing education is available on a cruise being organized by Jamie Davis of The Nursing Show. Learn more at http://NursingAtSea.com and be sure to let them know I sent you. If you aren't a nurse let them know if you would like a Brain Science Podcast cruise.
  • Listener donations help me provide podcasts and transcripts for free to listeners around the world.
  • I am recruiting volunteers to help get the Brain Science Podcast to more listeners. If you are interested send me email at gincampbell at mac dot com.
  • Special thanks to Diane Jacobs, Jeff King, Paul Hoffmaster, and Lori Wolfson.
  • Don't miss upcoming episodes. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter:

Send comments to gincampbell at mac dot com.

"SuperSense": Bruce Hood on Believing the Unbelievable

/

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.

 

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.

Why Play is Essential to Brain Health with Dr. Stuart Brown (BSP 60)

/

In Episode 60 of the Brain Science Podcast, Ginger Campbell, MD, interviews Dr. Stuart Brown, author of Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul.  Our focus is on the importance of play for normal mental development and psychological health. We also explore the importance of play in adults.

discussionforum

Send email to Dr. Campbell at gincampbell at mac.com.

Scientists mentioned in the podcast:

  • John Ratey, MD (Harvard Medical School): author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.
  • Sergio Pellis, PhD (Canadian Centre for Behavioral Neuroscience): has studied rough and tumble play in mice and rats for many years.
  • Roger Guillimen, PhD (The Salk Institute): won the 1977 Nobel Prize in Medicine for "discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain."

Books about Play and Related Topics:

Useful Links:

Send email to Dr. Campbell at gincampbell at mac.com.

Join our new Brain Science Podcast Fan Page on Facebook

How our Brain Creates Our World with Chris Frith, PhD (BSP 57)

/
frith

Episode 57 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with neuropsychologist, Dr. Chris Frith, author of Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World.   Our brain processes information about the world outside us (via our senses) in the same way that it processes information from within our bodies and from our own mental world.  In this interview.  Dr. Frith and I explore the implications from recent discoveries about how our brain generates our mental world.

Useful Links:

  • Necker cube: a visual illusion that shows that some visual processing can not be changed by top-down feedback.

Selected References:*

Bayes, T (1763). An essay toward solving a problem in the doctrine of chance. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 53, 470-418.

Blakemore, SJ, Wolpert DM, and Frith, CD (1990) Central Cancellation of self produced tickle sensation. Nature Neuroscience, 1(7), 635-640.

Botvinick, M and Cohen, J (1998)  Rubber hands "feel" touch that the eyes see. Nature, 391(6669), 756.

Kilner, JM, Paulignan, Y,  and Blakemore, SJ, (2003) An interference effect of observed biological movement on action.Current Biology, 13(6), 522-525.

Rizzolatti, G and Craighero, L (2004). The mirror-neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27, 169-192.

Wicker, B, Keysers, C, Plaily,J, Royet, JP, Galese, V, and Rizzolatti, G (2003).  Both of us disgusted in My insula: The common neural basis of seeing and feeling disgust.Neuron. 40(3), 655-664.

Wegner, D (2003). The Illusion of Conscious Will, MIT Press.

Wegner, DM, Fuller, VA and Sparrow, B. (2003)  Clever hands: Uncontrolled intelligence in facilitated communication. Journal of Personal Social Psychology, 85(1), 5-19.

*These references are from Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World by Chris Frith.

discussionforum

Join our Discussion Forum:

podtrac_survey_125x60_v2

All in the Mind: Is the Adolescent Mind a Myth?

/
natasha_mitchell The March 28th episode of All in the Mind is an excellent discussion of the controversy surrounding the meaning of adolescence. While some researchers point to the growing evidence that parts of the brain (such as the frontal lobe and its connections) do not mature until early adulthood as evidence that the adolescent brain is different, some writers, like Dr. Robert Epstein, argue that the problems of adolenscence are created by Western culture not changes in the brain. The episode includes a several distinguished guests with different view points. One of the guests was David Bainbridge, whose book Beyond the Zonules of Zinn: A Fantastic Journey Through Your Brain was discussed in Episode 32 of the Brain Science Podcast. I am looking forward to reading his new book Teenagers: A Natural History when it is released in the United States (August, 2009).
Read More

ISDP Celebrates 40 years of Neuroscience Research

/

I am in Washington, DC to cover Neuroscience 2008, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience; but yesterday, thanks to Kathleen Burke, PhD, of USC, I also had the opportunity to visit a poster session at the International Society of Developmental Psychobiology (ISDP), which is celebrating it 40th year.  The focus of the ISDP is on the relationship between brain developmental and behavior.  This is an area of research that has many practical applications.

For example, it is well-known that excessive alcohol consumption in pregnancy can cause the devastating condition known as fetal alcohol syndrome.  Researchers are trying to uncover the mechanisms of this damage.  They are also trying to determine whether there are any countermeasures, such as iron-supplementation, that really help prevent the damage.

The research topics are quite diverse.  They range from questions about how babbling relates to language development to questions about adolescent brain.  Jack Turman, PhD, arranged for me to talk to numerous researchers, and I hope to have some of them on a future episode of the Brain Science Podcast.  You can learn more about ISDP at http://www.isdp.org/

.

Dr. Brenda Milner: Pioneer in Memory Research (BSP 49)

/

Brain Science Podcast #49 is an interview with pioneering neuroscientist, Brenda Milner, PhD.  Dr. Milner is known for her contributions to understanding memory and her work with split-brain patients.  Her work as an experimental psychologist has been fundamental to the emergence of the field of cognitive neuroscience.

This interview is a follow-up of Dr. Milner's recent interview with Dr. Marc Pelletier on Futures in Biotech.  I highly recommend listening to both interviews.

Listen to Dr. Milner on Futures in Biotech (Episode33)

Additional Links:

Announcements:

  • Dr. Campbell will be attending the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, DC, November 14-19. Scientists wishing to share their work can contact her at docartemis at gmail.com.

Send email feedback to Ginger Campbell, MD at docartemis at gmail.com

Share your comments on the Discussion Forum

Brain Imaging: Recorded LIVE at Dragon*Con 2008 (BSP 46)

/
Dragon*Con 2008

Dr. Campbell at Dragon*Con 2008

Brain Science Podcast #46 is a discussion of brain imaging with Dr. Shella Keilholz and Dr. Jason Schneiderman.  The focus of our discussion is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which is revolutionizing neuroscience.  We talked about both the strengths and weaknesses of this technique.  Both of my guests agree that mainstream coverage of this technique tends to exaggerate what we can actually tell from this kind of brain scan.  An important principle is that the scan of any single individual can vary greatly from day to day, which means that valid conclusions require data from a large number of people.

Since this episode was recorded LIVE in the Podcasting Track at Dragon*Con 2008, it includes audience questions at the end, which helped bring out additional ideas.  I have posted an edited version (but there is still some noise from the room next door).  If you are interested in hearing the raw unedited version, click here.  I also want to thank Swoopy from Skepticality for all the work she did to make the podcasting track a great success.

More about my guests:

Shella Keilholz, PhD, is an assistant professor of Biomedical Engineeering at Georgia Tech and the Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA.  She is doing studies that involve correlating fMRI scans with the reading from electrodes placed in rat brains.  This work is fundamental to improving the correlation between fMRI scans, which reflect brain activity only indirectly, and what is actually happening in the neurons of the brain.

Jason Schneiderman, PhD studied psychology before earning his PhD in neuroscience.  His dissertation involved the use of diffusion tensor imaging, which is a new method of scanning that is being used to track the axonal connections in the brain.  He is currently doing a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, where his team is trying to determine if the connections in the brains of young schizophrenics are different from normal.  The goal is to improve early diagnosis because early intervention makes a big difference.

Some recent discussions of fMRI:

 

Donations and Subscriptions are appreciated.

brainsciencestore.gif

Send email feedback to Ginger Campbell, MD at docartemis at gmail.com.

John Ratey, MD Discusses ADD (BSP 45)

/

John J. Ratey, M.D.

Have you ever wondered why a child with ADD can play videos games for hours, but can't concentrate on his homework for a few minutes?  This is one of the paradoxes of attention-deficit disorder that John J Ratey, MD, co-author of, Driven To Distraction : Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood, explains in Episode 45 of the Brain Science Podcast.

During this interview, Dr. Ratey discusses the latest findings about the biological basis of what he calls "attention variability disorder."  He also offers practical advice for patients and parents dealing with ADD/ADHD.  One very important, and somewhat surprising, fact that he shares is that patients who are treated with medications during adolescence have a significantly lower risk of developing problems with addiction and drug abuse later on compared to those who are not treated.  Also, successful "ADD-ers" like Michael Phelps show that "having a mission" makes a huge difference.

Dr. Ratey's most recent book is Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, which he discussed with me (Dr. Campbell) in Episode 33.

Continuing Education Credit for Psychologists

Detailed Show Notes

Topics discussed:

  • Why our current cyber-culture  exacerbates symptoms.
  • The genetic component.
  • The role of dopamine and epinephrine.
  • The relationship between ADD and addiction.
  • Why ADD effects all the brain systems including memory.
  • The importance of strengthening executive (frontal lobe) function.

Successful people with ADD:

  • Michael Phelps-winner of 8 Gold Medals for Swimming in 2008 Olympics.
  • Rick Warren-founder of The Purpose Driven Church.

Practical Advice:

  • the need for a mission.
  • environmental changes.
  • the role of meditation and exercise.
  • why stimulant medication helps.
  • training the cerebellum.
  • Omega 3 Fatty Acids (Dr. Ratey recommends OmegaBrite™).

Links:

  • Dore Centers: mentioned in interview, but currently closed in the US.

  • Edward M. Hallowell: has developed programs for training the cerebellum that show promise in ADD; co-author of Driven to Distraction.

Send email feedback to Ginger Campbell, MD at docartemis at gmail.com

brainsciencestore.gif

Donations and Subscriptions are appreciated

Meditation and the Brain with Daniel Siegel, MD (BSP 44)

/

Daniel Siegel, M.D.

In Episode 44 of the Brain Science Podcast I talk with Daniel Siegel, MD about meditation and the brain.  Dr. Siegel is the author of several books including The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being.  In this interview, we review the scientific evidence about how mindfulness meditation changes the brain, both in terms of short term activity and in terms of long-term structural changes.  The evidence is convincing that a regular mindfulness practice can be an important element of brain health.

Show Notes and Links

Daniel J. Siegel, M.D.:

Scientists and writers mentioned in Episode 44:

  • Richard Davidson (University of Wisconsin): imaging studies of long-term meditators.
  • Sara Lazar (Harvard): imaging studies that show thickening of certain brain areas in long-term meditators.
  • Ruth Baer (University of Kentucky): studies mindfulness based therapies.

More information about meditation:

  • Spirit Rock  (Insight Meditation Center in northern California).

Note: Insight Meditation is based of vipassana meditation, the mindfulness practices of Theravada, the oldest branch of Buddhism.  Insight Meditation is easily adapted to secular purposes because it not based on beliefs or dogmas.  The most well-known secular form is called mindfulness meditation, which begins with a focus on breath awareness and then advances to developing compassion for oneself and others.

Researchers are studying people who practice other types of mediation also. Richard Davidson has focused his work on the study of Tibetan Buddhist monks.  Their practice emphasizes the development of compassion.

*I discussed the therapeutic use of mediation with Delany Dean, PhD, in Episode 20 of Books and Ideas.

Donations and Subscriptions are appreciated

brainsciencestore.gif

Send email feedback to Ginger Campbell, MD at docartemis at gmail.com

"On Being Certain": Interview with Robert Burton, MD (BSP 43)

/

Robert A Burton, MD

Previous Episodes of the Brain Science Podcast:

  • Episode 42: Part 1 of our discussion of On Being Certain.
  • Episode 13: Unconscious Decisions-featuring Blink, by Malcom Gladwel.l
  • Episode 15: Interview with Read Montague about unconscious decisions.

Other scientists/writers mentioned in this episode:

  • Benjamin Libet: important experiments showing that unconscious signals precede our awareness of deciding to act.

Other terms mentioned in the interview:

Cotard's Syndrome: when the patient believes they do not exist or that they are dead

Cognitive dissonance: a mismatch between what one believes and what the evidence supports

 

Donations and Subscriptions are appreciated

brainsciencestore.gif

Send email feedback to Ginger Campbell, MD at docartemis at gmail.com

"The Psych Files" Explores the "Mozart Effect"

/

Dr. Michael Britt of The Psych Files podcast has just completed an excellent two-part discussion of the so-called Mozart Effect.  With his guest, Dr. Kenneth Steele, he examines the origins of this popular idea, as well as the fact that no one has replicated the original research that suggested such an effect might exist.  If you have ever wondered whether listening to classic music could make you (or your baby) smarter, you will want to listen to this podcast.  Also, check out his blog for a full list of references.

I recently started listening to The Psych Files , and  I think the style and content of The Psych Files compliments the Brain Science Podcast.  For that reason, I have just added the feed from Dr. Britt's blog to our new Brain Science Podcast room in FriendFeed.

"Predictably Irrational" with Dan Ariely

/

Dan Ariely is a professor of behavioral economics at MIT and author of the bestseller, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.  He was my guest for episode 19 of Books and Ideas.

During the interview, he explains how his came to study human behavior.  He uses examples from his book to explore the question, "What makes a good experiment?"  He also discusses how he hope that his findings can help strengthen our society, despite our human tendency to make "irrational" choices.

Go to top of page
Copyright 2013 Virginia Campbell, MD. All Rights Reserved.

Another website made with love by Sue Wallis Williams