Update on Consciousness Research with Christof Koch (BSP 84)

Christof Koch, PhD

he scientific study of consciousness was once viewed with skepticism, but this has changed dramatically in recent years.   According to pioneering neuroscientist, Christof Koch, "the great thing is we’re not condemned to just sort of philosophical speculation, but we can make some predictions, and then go out and measure them.  And those are the things I talk about in this book, Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist." In Brain Science Podcast  #84, Koch reflects on the progress that has been made since I interviewed him back in 2007 (BSP 22), and he also talks about the latest initiatives at the Allen Institute for Brain Research, where he as recently become the chief science officer. 

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References:

• Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist, by Christof Koch.

• The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach, by Christof Koch.

• BSP 22: Interview with Christof Koch.

• BSP 61: Interview with Allan Jones of the Allen Institute for Brain Research.

• Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain, by Michael S. Gazzaniga.

• BSP 82: Discussion of Who's in Charge?

• Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter, by Terrence W. Deacon.

• Tononi, G. An Information Integration Theory of Consciousness. BMC Neuroscience 2004, 5:42.

Announcements:

• Complete the Brain Science Podcast Audience Survey for a chance to win a free book.

• Next month's podcast will be an interview with Sebastian Seung, author of Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are.

• The Brain Science Podcast is supported by listener Donations.

• Post comments on the BSP Facebook Fan Page, in our Goodreads Discussion Group, or the BSP Google+ page.

• Sign up for the BSP Newsletter to receive episode announcements and show notes automatically.

• I would love to hear from you. You can send me email at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

How Mind Emerges from Brain (BSP 82)

In his latest book, Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain, respected neuroscientist, Michael S. Gazzaniga, explores how the discoveries of neuroscience impact how we see ourselves as human beings.  After providing a brief review of 20th century neuroscience, and even some of the work from the past decade, Dr. Gazzaniga concludes that nothing neuroscience has discovered changes the fact that "we are personally responsible agents and are to be held accountable for our actions."

Gazzaniga's position contrasts with those who think that recent discoveries show that the brain creates the mind in solely "upwardly causal" way, and who argue that since much of what our brain does is outside our conscious awareness or control, we should not be held responsible for our actions.  Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain presents what I think is a convincing argument against this common position.

In the latest episode of the Brain Science Podcast (BSP 82) I present a detailed discussion of Dr. Gazzaniga's book.

How to get this episode:

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Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

References:

• Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain, by Michael S. Gazzaniga.

• The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas, by Michael S. Gazzaniga.

• A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down, by Robert B. Laughlin (2006).

• Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter, by Terrence W. Deacon.

• Anderson, P. W., (1972). "More is different." Science, 177(20470, 393-396.

• See the free episode transcript for additional references.

Related Episodes:

• Links to episodes of the Brain Science Podcast that are mentioned in BSP 82.

• BSP 81: Interview with Patricia Churchland about the brain and morality.

• BSP 53: Discussion of Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?: Philosophical and Neurobiological Perspectives on Moral Responsibility and Free Will by Nancey Murphy, Warren S. Brown.  (Also BSP 62)

• BSP 35: Discussion of Mirror Neurons.

• BSP 66: For more on scrub jays.

• BSP 3: Memory and the use of animal models.

• BSP 38: Interview with Jeff Hawkins.

• BSP 47: Brain Evolution.

• BSP 74: "Small world architecture" in brain networks (Olaf Sporns).

• BSP 75: Interview with David Eagleman (arguments for legal reform).

• BSP 76: "Choking" with Dr. Sian Beilock.

• BSP 56: Interview with Eve Marder (implications of muliple realizability in neuronal circuits).

Announcements:

• Post comments on the BSP Facebook Fan Page or on the BSP Google+ page.

• Join the BSP Group at Goodreads.com.

• Don't forget to sign up for the Brain Science Podcast  Newsletter.

• Next month's episode will be an interview with Bill Uttal, author of Mind and Brain: A Critical Appraisal of Cognitive Neuroscience

• This podcast is supported by listener donations. Thank you!

Send feedback to brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

Miguel Nicolelis, MD, PhD (BSP 79)

Dr. Miguel Nicolelis at Duke University is pioneering brain-machine interfaces.  In his book, Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines---and How It Will Change Our Lives, he puts his groundbreaking work into an historical context.  I discussed his book briefly in BSP 78, but I have now posted an in-depth interview.  The focus of our conversation is on why his work challenges longstanding assumptions about the primacy of the single neuron in brain function.

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• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

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References:

• Don't miss Dr. Nicolelis interview on Triangulation.

Announcements:

• Post your comments on the BSP Fan Page on FaceBook or in the discussion thread on Goodreads.

• Listener donations are greatly appreciated.

• Please check out my other podcast Books and Ideas.

• Send feedback to me at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

Brain Machine Interfaces (BSP 78)

In his book Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines---and How It Will Change Our Lives neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis puts his recent work with brain machine interfaces into historical context and explains why this work should change the way we understand how brains work.

Nicolelis challenges several long-standing assumptions including the primacy of the single neuron and strict localization, which is the idea that each area of the brain has a relatively fixed function.

Episode 78 of the Brain Science Podcast is a brief discussion of the key ideas presented in Beyond Boundaries, including a look at the implications of experiments such as the wide publicized work that culminated in demonstrating that a monkey in Nicolelis' lab at Duke (North Carolina, USA) could control a robot arm in Japan using only its brain. 

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

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• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

References:

• Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines---and How It Will Change Our Lives by Miguel Nicolelis (2011).

• In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind by Eric R. Kandel (2006).

• Nicolelis, Miguel A.L., Rick C. S. Lin, et al. "Peripheral block of ascending cutaneous information induces immediate spatiotemporal changes in thalamic networks.: Nature 361 (1993): 533-536. (Abstract)

• Nicolelis, Miguel A.L, and John K. Chapin. "Controlling robots with the Mind." Scientific American 287, no. 4 (2002) 24-31.

Related Episodes:

• BSP 3: a discussion of In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind by Eric Kandel.

• BSP 21: introduction to Body Maps

• BSP 23: interview with Sandra Blakeslee author of The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better.

• BSP 74: interview with Olaf Sporns, author of Networks of the Brain.

Announcements:

• I hope to interview Miguel Nicolelis for a future episode of the Brain Science Podcast. If you would like to ask him a question please post it in the thread I have started on our GoodReads page.

• I will be attending ScienceOnline 2012. If you want to come be sure to sign up NOW.

• The Brain Science Podcast is supported by donations from listeners like you.

Neurobiology of Placebos with Fabrizio Benedetti (BSP 77)

Fabrizio Benedetti, MD

 Fabrizio Benedetti is one of the world's leading researchers of the neurobiology of placebos.  In a recent interview (BSP 77) he explained to me that he believes that "today we are in a very good position to describe, from a biological and from an evolutionary approach, the doctor-patient relationship, and the placebo effect, itself."

To appreciate Dr. Benedetti's work, one must first realize that his approach differs from that of the typical clinical trial.  As he observed, "To the clinical trialist, a placebo effect means any improvement which may take place after placebo administration.  To the neurobiologist, a placebo response, or placebo effect means only something active in the brain happening after placebo administration: learning, anxiety reduction, activation of reward mechanisms."

In contrast, he explains, "The real placebo response, the real placebo effect is a psychobiological phenomenon.  It is something active happening in the brain after placebo administration: like learning, like anxiety reduction, and such like." Brain Science Podcast #77 provides an introduction to this complex, but fascinating topic.

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• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• This interview has been remastered and is now available for free as BSP 122.

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Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

References

• Benedetti F, Mayberg HS, Wager TD, Stohler CS, Jon-Kar Zubieta J (2005) Neurobiological Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect. The Journal of Neuroscience, 25,10390-10402. (Full article)

• Benedetti F (2009) Placebo Effects: Understanding the mechanisms in health and disease. Oxford University Press.

• Benedetti F (2011) The Patient's Brain: The neuroscience behind the doctor-patient relationship. Oxford University Press.

• Levine JD, Gordon NC and Fields, HL (1978) The mechanisms of placebo analgesia. Lancet, 2, 654-7. (Abstract)

• Levine JD, Gordon NC and Fields, HL (1978) “The mechanisms of placebo analgesia.” Lancet, 2, 654-7. (Abstract). See also a follow-up paper: Levine JD, Gordon NC, Bornstein JC, and H L Fields HL (1979) “Role of pain in placebo analgesia.” Proc Natl Acad Sci76(7): 3528–3531. (full text)

• Volkow, ND, Wang JG, Ma Y, Fowler JS, Zhu W, Maynard L et al. (2003) Expectation enhances the regional brain metabolic and the reinforcing effects of stimulants in cocaine abusers. Journal of Neuroscience, 23, 11261–8. (Full text)

• de la Fuente-Fernández R, et al. (2001) Expectation and Dopamine Release: Mechanism of the Placebo Effect in Parkinson's Disease. Science293, 1164. (Abstract)

• Benedetti F, Colloca L, Torre E et al. (2004) Placebo-responsive Parkinson patients show decreased activity in single neurons of the subthalamic nucleus. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 587-88. (Abstract)

• Herrnstein RJ, (1962) Placebo Effect in the Rat. Science138, 677-678.

• Linde K, Witt CM, Streng A et al. (2007) The impact of patient expectation in four randomized control trials of acupuncture in patients with chronic pain. Pain, 128, 264-71. (Abstract)

Announcements

• The Brain Science Podcast is made possible by listener support. Don't forget to tell your friends or leave a review in iTunes.

• Please check out my Books and Ideas podcast. Later this month I will be posting an interview with Carol Tavris, co-author (with Elliot Aronson) of Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts.

• Don't forget to leave your comments in the BSP Guest Book.

Corrections

•  32:48 only NON-members are eligible to get a free audiobook download from our sponsor at http://audiblepodcast.com/brainscience.

• Dr. Benedetti’s first book is called Placebo Effects, not Placebo “responses”.

• Special Thanks to Lori Wolfson for finding these mistakes and correcting them in the episode transcript.

Send me feedback at gincampbell at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com

David Eagleman on The Secret Lives of the Brain (BSP 75)

David Eagleman, PhD

In his new book, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, neuroscientist, David Eagleman, describes consciousness as "the smallest player in the operations of the brain" (page 5) because most of what the brain does is outside conscious awareness (and control).  In a recent interview (BSP 75), Dr. Eagleman reviews some of the evidence for this startling position, as well as the implications both for the average person and for social policy.

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

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• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

References:

• Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, by David Eagleman.

• Eagleman, D. "The Brain on Trial," the Atlantic Monthy; July/Aug 2011 ONLINE.

Related Episodes of BSP:

• BSP 13: Our first discussion of unconscious decisions.

• BSP 15: Interview with Read Montague, PhD, author of Why Choose This Book?: How We Make Decisions.

• BSP 19: Review of Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious, by Gerd Gigerenzer.

• BSP 42: Review of On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not, by Robert Burton.

• BSP 43: Interview with Robert Burton, MD.

Send me feedback at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

"Why Neuroscience Matters"

On May 11, 2011 I gave a talk entitled "Why Neuroscience Matters" at the London Skeptics in the Pub.  Episode 42 of Books and Ideas is an edited version of that talk, including the lively Q and A with the audience.

References

• Bayes, A., Grant, S., et al. "Characterization of the proteome, diseases and evolution of the human postsynaptic density." Nature Neuroscience 14, 19–21 (2011) (Published online 12/23/2010).

• Libet, B. "Do We Have Free Will?"Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6. No. 8-9, 1999, pp. 47-57.

• On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not (2008), by Robert Burton; p 127.

• Philosophy in the Flesh : The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought (1999), by George Lakoff, Mark Johnson; p 4.

• Brain Waves Module 2: Report on Education and Neuroscience from the Royal Society (2011). 

From the Brain Science Podcast

• BSP 25: Rolf Pfeifer, PhD, author of How the Body Shapes the Mind.

• BSP 26: Norman Doidge, MD, author of The Brain That Changes Itself.

• BSP 42:On Being Certain; and BSP 43: Interview with Robert Burton, MD

• BSP 51: Evolution of the Synapse, with Seth Grant, PhD.

• BSP 59: Use of C. elegans in Neuroscience, with Guy Caldwell, PhD.

• BSP 65: Subcortical Origins of Basic Emotions, with Jaak Panksepp, PhD.

Announcements:

• Dr. Campbell will be a speaker at The Amazing Meeting 9, which is coming up in Las Vegas, Nevada July 14-17.

Please send your feedback to Dr. Campbell at gincampbell at mac dot com, or post a comment on the Facebook Fan Page.

Don't forget to sign up for Ginger Campbell's Newsletter so you can get show notes for every podcast.

Brain Networks with Olaf Sporns (BSP 74)

Networks of the Brain by Olaf Sporns is an excellent comprehensive introduction to the use of Network Theory to study both the brain and the nervous systems of invertebrates.

In Episode 74 of the Brain Science Podcast, I interviewed Dr. Sporns (Indiana University) about some of the key ideas in his book.  Network Theory is becoming increasingly important as a tool for dealing with the massive amounts of data being generated by current techniques, such as brain imaging.  It is also a valuable tool for dealing with the fact that nervous systems consist of multiple scales (from the molecular level up to billions of neurons), which can not be reduced to a single scale.

While Networks of the Brain will be of greatest interest to those working in neuroscience and to those with a background in fields like engineering, mathematics, and computer science, this interview provides an introduction for listeners of all backgrounds.

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How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

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• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

Links:

• Olaf Sporns, PhD (Indiana University): website, email: osporns at indiana.edu.

• Brain Connectivity Toolbox.

• Human Connectome Project.

References:

• Networks of the Brain, by Olaf Sporns (MIT Press, 2011).

• Rhythms of the Brain, by György Buzsáki.

• Watts, DJ, Strogatz SH. "Collective Dynamics of 'small-world' networks." Nature 393: 440-442 (1998).

• Fodor, JA. The Modularity of the Mind. (1983).

Related Episodes:

• BSP 31: Interview with György Buzsáki, author of Rhythms of the Brain.

• BSP 46: Discussion of Brain Imaging, including Diffusion Imaging.

• BSP 56: Interview with Dr. Eve Marder about the use of circuit theory in neuroscience.

• BSP 61: Mapping the Brain (and generating huge amounts of data).

Announcements:

• The Brain Science Podcast will be returning to a monthly schedule on July 1, 2011.

• Please join the new Brain Science Podcast Discussion Forum at GoodReads.com.

• Dr. Campbell gave a talk in London last month entitled "Why Neuroscience Matters." (Available here.)

• Dr. Campbell will be a speaker at The Amazing Meeting 9, July 14-17,2011 in Las Vegas, NV.

• Don't forget to check out the Books and Ideas podcast and SCIENCEPODCASTERS.ORG.

The Brain Science Podcast app is available for iPhone, Android, and iPad. If you have purchased the iPhone version, it will now work on your iPad (no additional purchase needed). The iPad is the perfect device for reading episode transcripts, especially if you want to read along as you listen.

Contact Dr. Campbell:

• Send Dr. Campbell email at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

Embodied Cognition with Lawrence Shapiro (BSP 73)

In his new book, Embodied Cognition, Dr. Lawrence Shapiro provides a balanced introduction to embodied cognition's attempts to challenge standard cognitive science.  His interview in Episode 73 of the Brain Science Podcast is a discussion of a few of his book's key ideas. It also continues our ongoing exploration of the role of embodiment. 

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

Related Episodes:

• BSP 25: Embodied Artificial Intelligence with Dr. Rolf Pfeifer.

• BSP 36: Introduction to Embodied Cognition with Dr. Art Glenberg.

• BSP 58: "Extended Mind" with philosopher Alva Noë.

• BSP 66: Computational cognitive science with Dr. Randy Gallistel.

Some scientists mentioned in this episode:

• Lawrence Shapiro (University of Wisconsin).

• James J Gibson: founder of ecological psychology and the theory of affordances.

• Jerry Fodor: a proponent of standard cognitive science.

• Noam Chomsky: linguist who greatly influenced standard cognitive science.

• Rodney Brooks (MIT): pioneer of embodied artificial intelligence.

• Rolf Pfeifer: embodied AI (interviewed in BSP 25).

• Art Glenberg: discussed embodied cognition in BSP 36.

• Andy Clark: along with David Chalmers he has proposed the idea of "extended mind".

• Alva Noë: philosopher intervied in BSP 58.

• Randy Gallistel: discussed the computational approach to cognitive science in BSP 66.

References:

• Embodied Cognition, by Lawrence Shapiro.

• Radical Embodied Cognitive Science, by Anthony Chemero.

• How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence, by Rolf Pfeifer and Josh C. Bongard.

• Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness, by Alva Noë.

• Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cognitive Science will Transform Neuroscience, by C. R. Gallistel and Adam Philip King.

• Held, R. Hien, A. (1963) "Movement-Produced Simulation in the Development of Visually Guided Behavior," Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 56: 872-6. (Discussion)

• Brooks, R. (1991) "New Approaches to Robotics," Science 253: 1227-32.

• Brooks, R. (1991) "Intelligence without Representation," Artificial Intelligence 47: 139-59.

• Clark, A. and Chalmer, D. (1998) "The Extended Mind." Analysis 58: 7-19.

• Glenberg, A. and Kaschak, M. (2002) "Grounding Lanquage in Action," Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 9: 558-65.

• Ehrlich, S., Levine, S., and Golden-Meadows, S. (2006) "The Importance of Gesture in Children's Spatial Reasoning," Developmental Psychology 42: 1259-68.

• Thelan, E. and Smith,L. (1994) A Dynamical Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action (Cambridge: MIT Press).

• See Episode Transcript for additional references.

Announcements:

• Join the discussion of this episode in our new Discussion Group at Goodreads.com.

• Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast newsletter to get detailed show notes for every episode.

• The next episode of the Brain Science Podcast will be an interview with Dr. Olaf Sporns, author of Networks of the Brain. I am also hoping to interview Antonio Damasio later this spring.

• The Brain Science Podcast application is now available for iPhone, iPad Touch, and Android Devices.

• Please listen to my other podcast Books and Ideas, which comes out in the alternate months between episodes of this podcast.

• I will be giving a live talk in London, UK on May 11. Visit the London Skeptics in the Pub website for more details, or send me email.

• For more science podcasts visit http://sciencepodcasters.org.

• Follow me on Twitter or join the Brain Science Podcast Fan Page on Facebook.

Send feed back to Dr. Campbell at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com

Magic and the Brain (BSP 72)

Dr. Susana Martinez-Conde

Neuroscientists Dr. Stephen Macknik and Dr. Susana Martinez-Conde have an unusual hobby: Magic!  Actually, it is more than a hobby since for the last several years they have been working with leading magicians from around the world to create a new field: the neuroscience of magic.  In Episode 72 of the Brain Science Podcast, I talked with them about their new book Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions, which is the first book to explore the neuroscience of magic.

With the help of their co-author Sandra Blakeslee, Macknik and Martinez-Conde provide an excellent overview of this new and exciting field.  Their book also provides an excellent review of many of the principles that I have introduced in the last 4 years.

How to get BSP 72:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

 Links and References

• Stephen Macknik, PhD: Director, Director, Laboratory of Behavioral Neurophysiology, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, Arizona.

• Susan Martinez-Conde: Director, Laboratory of Visual Science, Barrow Neurological Institute.

• Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions, by Stephen L. Macknik, Susana Martinez-Conde, Sandra Blakeslee.

• http://sleightsofmind.com: for videos and links to their Scientific American articles.

Scientists mentioned during the podcast

• David Hubel: Nobel Prize for vision research.

• Margaret Livington (Harvard).

• Zachary Mainen (Cold Springs Harbor, NY).

• Daniel Simons (University of Illinois): change blindness.

• Derren Brown (London): memory fallibility.

• Jose-Manual Alonso (SUNY): neural basis of visual attention.

Magicians mentioned during the interview

• James Randi: famous proponent of skeptical thinking.

• Juan Tamariz: This Spanish magician is an important magic theorist.

• Penn and Teller: Go to http://sleightsofmind.com to see a video of the balls and cup illusion discussed in BSP 72..

Announcements:

• I will be giving a live talk at the London Skeptics in the Pub on May 11, 2011. Stay tuned for more details or visit http://london.skepticsinthepub.org/.

• The Brain Science Podcast  Discussion Forum is moving to Goodreads.com. Click here to visit our new group.

Send me feedback at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

Exploring Glial Cells with R. Douglas Fields (BSP 69)

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.

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

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)

Send me feedback at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

Affective Neuroscience with Jaak Panksepp (BSP 65)

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.

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

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.

Send feedback to brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

Allan Jones from the Allen Institute for Brain Research (BSP 61)

Episode 61 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Allan Jones, PhD, the Chief Science Officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Research in Seattle, Washington.  The Allen Institute is a non-profit research organization founded by Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) and is best known for its Mouse Brain Map, which is being used by researchers around the world.  The Institute has several other on-going projects including a project to create a map of the human cortex that shows which genes are active in each area.

In this interview we discuss both the mouse brain project and the human cortex project, with an emphasis on the importance of these projects to neuroscience research.  All the maps created by The Allen Institute are freely available on the internet.  Dr. Jones also shares his own story and the challenges and rewards of pursuing a career in the non-profit biotech world.

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

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• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

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SHOW NOTES

• "Scientists Map the Brain, Gene by Gene," Wired Magazine, 03-28-09.

Previous Episodes mentioned in this podcast:

• BSP 59: Interview with Guy Caldwell, PhD who studies the dopamine neurons in C. elegans.

• BSP 60: Interview with Stuart Brown, MD about the importance of play.  This is an excellent episode for new listeners.

Announcements:

• Next's month's episode will be an interview with Warren Brown, PhD, co-author of Did My Neurons Make Me Do It? which was discussed in Episode 53.

• This month's book winner is Ernest S. Croot, from the School of Mathematics at Georgia Tech.  He will be receiving a copy of Memory and the Computational Brain:  Why Cognitive Science Will Transform Neuroscience, by C. R. Gallistel and Adam Philip King.

• Don't forget to join the Brain Science Podcast Fan Page on Facebook.

Send email feedback to Dr. Campbell at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

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.

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

Scientists mentioned in the podcast:

• Anthony Pellegrini, PhD (University of Minnesota): Studies rough and tumble play.

• Brian Sutton-Smith, PhD (Strong Museum of Play, NY): studies the storytelling aspects of play.

• 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.

• Marian C Diamond, PhD (University of California-Berkeley): pioneer in the study of effects of enrichment on the mammalian brain. Recent Video.

• Richard Feynman, PhD (1918-1988): Nobel physicist who is also remembered for finding the cause of the Challenger disaster. (see the video)

• 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:

• Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul ,by Stuart Brown, MD with Christopher Vaughn

• A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting, by Hara Estroff Marano

• The Gift of Play: Why Adult Women Stop Playing And How To Start Again, by Barbara Brannen

• Exuberant Animal: The Power of Health, Play, and Joyfill Movement, by Frank Forenich

• Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, by John J. Ratey

Useful Links:

• National Institute of Play

• The Association for the Study of Play

• Alliance for Childhood

• Sports for Kids Foundation

• KaBoom!

Send email to Dr. Campbell at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

Using C. elegans in Neuroscience with Guy Caldwell, PhD (BSP 59)

Episode 59 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with molecular biologist, Guy Caldwell, PhD, from the University of Alabama.  We talk about the role of the tiny worm C. elegans in neuroscience research.  Dr. Caldwell is collaborating with other leading researchers (including his wife, Kim Caldwell, PhD) in work that may lead to a cure for movement disorders like dystonia and Parkinson's Disease.

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

Show Notes and Links:

During this interview, Dr. Caldwell emphasized the importance of collaboration.  His work involves tagging the dopamine neurons in C. elegans with green florescent protein (GFP).  His work depends on the pioneering work of many scientists (some of whom I list below).  He also collaborate with researchers who are doing similar work in yeast, mice, and human cell cultures.

Scientists mentioned in this interview:

• Martin Chalfie (Columbia University): Caldwell's mentor won the Nobel Prize in 2008 for his work with using Green Florescent Protein (GFP) to tag specific cells inside C. elegans.  Dr. Chalfie was interviewed on Futures in Biotech: Episode 37 and Episode 38.

• Susan Lindquist (MIT): a leading geneticist who is using to take human alph-synuclein protein and place it into yeast to study the effects of protein clumping due to misfolding. (Futures in Biotech #1)

• Sydney Brenner (Salk Institute): a leader in C. elegans research.

• John Sulston (University of Manchester): pioneer in C. elegans research.

• Robert Horvitz (MIT): well-researcher in the field of worm biology.

• Cynthia Kenyon (University of California-San Francisco): is studying aging in C. elegans.

• John White (University of Wisconsin): worked with John Sulston to determing the complete "wiring diagram" for C. elegans (which has only 302 neurons).

• Jeff Becker (University of Tennessee): Caldwell's mentor in graduate school.

• Chris Rochet (Purdue University): his study of mid brain cultures of rat neurons allows Caldwell to validate his findings in mammalian neurons.

• Richard Myers (Boston University): human geneticist who has done important work in Parkinson patient genotyping.

• Rudolph Jaenisch (MIT): expert at reprogramming skin cells into pleuripotent stem cells. This technique shows great promise for the treatment/cure of diseases like Parkinson's.

• Xandra Breakefield (Harvard): discovered the torsin gene in 1997.

Three recent Nobel Prizes have been awarded to researchers working on C. elegans.

• 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for green florescent protein.

• 2006 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

• 2002 Nobel Prize in Medicine went to Brenner, Horvitz, and Sulston for establishing the complete cell lineage in C. elegans.

Announcements: 

• Dr. Campbell is the guest speaker at the July 18 meeting of Skeptics in the Pub in Atlanta, Georgia.

• Dr. Campbell was interviewed on Episode 96 of Brains Matter.

• Transcripts are now available for all past episodes of the Brain Science Podcast.

• Please join our new Brain Science Podcast Fan Page on Facebook.

• Donations of $25 or more qualify you for the new monthly book give away.

Join our Discussion Forum:

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

Interview with Philosopher Alva Noë (BSP 58)

Episode 58 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with philosopher, Alva Noë, whose book, Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness, argues persuasively that our minds are MORE than just our brains.  He says that "the brain is necessary but not sufficient" to create the mind.     

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Show Notes and Links:

• Alva Noe (University of California, Berkeley).

• Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness, by Alva Noé.

Important scientists mentioned in the interview:

• Paul Bach-y-Rita: pioneering studies in sensory substitution using tactile stimuli to substitute for vision.

• Held and Hein: experiments with cats showing that development of normal vision requires motor-sensory feedback.

References:

• Brain Mechanisms in Sensory Substitution by Paul Bach-y-Rita, 1972.

• Bach-y-Rita, P "Tactile-Vision Substitution: past and future", International Journal of  Neuroscience 19, nos. 1-4,  29-36, 1983.

• Held, R and Hein, "Movement-produced stimulation in the development of visually guided behavior." Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. 56(5), 872-876, 1963.

• Held, R.  "Plasticity in sensory-motor systems." Scientific American. 213(5) 84-91, 1965.

Announcements:

• Special thanks to Diane Jacobs, Jenine John and Lori Wolfson for transcribing all the episodes of the Brain Science Podcast.

• Don't forget to post your reviews in iTunes®. Your word of mouth helps us find new listeners.

• The Brain Science Podcast is supported by listener donations.

Please send your feedback to brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

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

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.

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE. All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free. See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

Useful Links:

• Chris Frith, PhD: University College London Wellcome Trust Center for Neuroimaging.

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

• PubMed: a public service of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

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.

Send feedback to brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

Interview with Neuroscience Pioneer Eve Marder, PhD (BSP 56)

Episode 56 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with neuroscientist, Eve Marder, PhD.  Dr. Marder has spent 35 years studying the somatogastric ganglion of the lobster. In this interview we talk about how she got into neuroscience during its early days, her recent tenure as president of the Society for Neuroscience, and how some of her key discoveries have implications for studying more complex nervous systems.

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Listen or Download FREE MP3

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

Links:

• Eve Marder's lab.

• Gina Turrigiano (synaptic scaling).

• The Practical Psychiatrist website.

• Society for Neuroscience.

• Brain Awareness Week.

• Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS).

• International Brain Research Organization (IBRO).

• Wikipedia links: Eve Marder, central pattern generator.

Announcements:

• The Practical Psychiatrist has chosen the Brain Science Podcast for its semi-annual Community Service Award in Mental Health. 

Michael Merzenich Talks About Neuroplasticity (BSP 54)

Brain Science Podcast #54 is an interview with Dr. Michael Merzenich, one of the pioneers of neuroplasticity.  We talk about how the success of the cochlear implant revealed unexpected plasticity in adult brains and about how brain plasticity can be tapped to improve a wide variety of problems including dyslexia, autism, damage from disease and injury.  Healthy people of all ages can also tap the resource of brain plasticity to help maintain and improve their mental functions.

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

Links and References

• Dr. Merzenich's Blog.

• Posit Science Corporation.

• Scientific Learning (Fast Forward™).

Previous Episodes on Brain Plasticity

• Episode 10.

• Episode 26.

• Episode 28.

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

Review of Year 2 of the Brain Science Podcast (BSP 52)

Brain Science Podcast #52 is our Second Annual Review Episode.  We review some of the highlights from 2008.  I also discuss the various other on-line resources that I have created for listeners.  Then we look ahead to what I have planned for 2009. This episode is aimed at all listeners, including those who are new to the show.

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

Highlights from 2008:

Early in the year (#30) I discussed language evolution.  My criticism of Noam Chomsky's claim that human language results from a Universal Grammar Module generated quite a bit of discussion.  My main purpose was to emphasize that current neuroscience does not support this hypothesis.  I discussed Chomsky's work in follow-up interviews with Dr. Michael Arbib (BSP 39) and linguist Alice Gaby (BSP 41).

It is my impression that, at least to some extent, this debate comes back to the age-old "nature versus nurture" controversy, which I discussed more explicitly way back in Episode 4.  The evidence seems to be mounting that human intelligence is a product of  both processes.

There is no doubt that the capacity for language is inherited, but brain plasticity appears to be equally important.  One piece of evidence for this is that the changes in the brain that occur when people learn to read are different between languages like English and German and those like Chinese and Japanese. (Episode 24 and Episode 29)

We had 17 guests on the Brain Science Podcast in 2008, so I can't mention them all here.

• John Ratey, MD: In Episode 33 we talked about exercise and the brain, while in Episode 45 we talked about ADD.

• Robert Burton, MD:  In Episode 43 talked about the implications of the discovery that our sense of knowing (feeling certain) is generated by parts of the brain that are outside our conscious control!

• John Medina, PhD: In Episode 37 we considered the practical implications of neuroscience, such as the importance of getting enough sleep and why true multi-tasking is actually impossible.

• Dr. Brenda Milner: In Episode 49 this pioneering neuroscientist shared highlights from her long career.

Another highlight was our first live podcast, which was recorded at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia on August 31.

In the fall I returned to the subject of evolution with a three part series on the evolution of the brain.

• Episode 47, Episode 48, and Episode 51.

• Episode 51 is an outstanding interview with Dr. Seth Grant in which we discuss the surprising discovery that synapse complexity seems to have evolved BEFORE larger more complex brains.

Online Resources for Listeners:

• I encouraged listeners to frequent this website and to subscribe to the RSS feed so as to receive information between posts.

• I encouraged listeners to explored the sidebars and tabs on the website for links to other sites of interest.

• I reminded listeners that this website includes a complete listing of previous episodes as well as a list of all the guests that have been on the show.

• It is now possible to support the Brain Science Podcast  via both PayPal and by direct mail.

• I encouraged listeners to participate in our Discussion Forum and to post pictures to our Flickr Group.

• I invited listeners to contribute content to the Brain Science Podcast Room on FriendFeed and the new Neuroscience News Network on SocialMedian.

• I reminded listeners that my personal blog is now at http://gingercampbellmd.com.  This site includes abridged show notes for the Brain Science Podcast as well as the complete show notes for Books and Ideas.

• Listeners are encouraged to continue to post reviews on iTunes™, Podcast Pickle, Podcast Alley, Digg, and similar sites. All blog posts and tweets are greatly appreciated.

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