Neuroplasticity: A Review of its Discovery (BSP 10)

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In this episode of the Brain Science Podcast we explore the recent research that has established, contrary to long-standing dogma, that our brains our able to change throughout our lives, based on our experience.

How to get this episode:

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

  • Buy BSP 1-10 (zip file of mp3 files)

  • Transcripts: BSP 1-14

  • 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

The reference for this episode is Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves, by Sharon Begley.  This book describes the 2004 meeting between the Dalai Llama and several leading neuroscientists.  To learn more about these meetings, go to the Mind and Life Institute website.  All the studies that I mention in the podcast are referenced in the back of the book.

List of the some of the scientists and their work:

  • Michael Meany- McGill University: He has shown that the way that a mother rat treats her babies determine which genes in the baby's brain are turned on and which are turned off.

  • Fred Gage- the Salk Institute:  His work with lab animals showed that adult brains do change.  (more from Google)

  • Helen Neville-University of Oregon: She has shown that the auditory and visual cortices are rewired in people who are born blind or deaf.

  • Phillip Shaver-UC-Davis: He is a pioneer in attachment theory: how people's sense of emotional security, acquired in childhood, affects their adult behavior, including their response to other ethnic groups and their willingness to help others.

  • Richard Davidson-Wisconsin:  He has done studies showing how the brain is changed by meditation.

  • Edward Taub- University of Alabama in Birmingham:  He helped develop a revolutionary treatment for stroke victims.

  • Jeffery Schwartz-UCLA:  He has used mindfulness meditation to treat obsessive compulsive disorder, showing that meditation can change the brain in beneficial ways.

  • Jon Kabat-Zinn- University of Massachusetts:  He has done many years of work using mindfulness meditation to treat stress related diseases.

  • Michael Merzenich:  Pioneer researcher who also founded FastForward™ and Posit Science™.

More Links of Interest:

I am sure this list is incomplete.  If you have a question or comment about a topic mentioned on the show, leave a comment below, or send me email at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

Review: "The Future of the Brain" (BSP 9)

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Show Notes for Episode 9

This episode is a discussion of The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow's Neuroscience, by British neuroscientist, Steven Rose.  Unlike most episodes of the Brain Science Podcast, the emphasis of this episode is on asking what kind of ethical dilemmas might be posed by our increased knowledge of how the brain works.

Topics discussed:

  • Why the mind is more than the brain.

  • Why the mind is more than genetics and biochemistry.

  • How we still have a long way to go before we can fully understand how the brain-body generates the mind.

  • Problems and dangers of reductionism.

  • Implications for freedom and personal responsibility.

  • Examples from the history of science that demonstrate why these concerns are valid.

  • The "Paradox of Memory."

  • Some email from listeners.

One issue I only mention briefly on the podcast is Rose's attack on evolutionary psychology.  If you are interested in learning more about this, you might want to read the transcript of a debate between Steven Rose and Stephen Pinker, which was held in 1998.  It is on the Edge website, which is an interesting website even though it lacks an RSS feed.

How to get this episode:

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

  • Buy BSP 1-10 (zip file of mp3 files)

  • Transcripts: BSP 1-14

  • 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.

How Neurons Communicate: A Detailed Introduction (BSP 8)

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When I started preparing for this week's episode I realized that before I could discuss neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) I would need to discuss some basic information about how neurons work. Thus this episode is rather long and technical, but hopefully understandable to those who are new to the field. I am including more detailed show notes than I usually do, along with the approximate times for the main sections, in case there is a particular topic you want to go back and review.

How to get this episode:

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

  • Buy BSP 1-10 (zip file of mp3 files)

  • Transcripts: BSP 1-14

  • 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.

The main source for this episode was the textbook, From Neuron to Brain: A Cellular and Molecular Approach to the Function of the Nervous System, Fourth Edition (2001)

Topic Outline:

2:39-11:33 Neuronal signaling-the basics of electrical and chemical signaling types of signaling-electrical and chemical introducing the synapse the importance of membrane proteins

11:55 - 13:03   A bried discussion of how the brain differs from a  digital computer

13:3 3-13:50   Definition of neurotransmitters-

13:56 -22:10   How neurotransmitters interact with receptors in the synapse

-direct and indirect  chemical synapses-why they are important

-neuromuscular junction-an example of a direct chemical synapse

-the importance of synaptic delay

-the role of second messengers in indirect chemical synapses

-release and recycling of neurotransmitters

22:25 -29:42 Types of Neurotransmitters and how they work-with examples

-how neuropeptides differ from low molecular weight neurotransmitters

-a little about how drugs work

29:58 - 41:54  How Neurotransmitters function in the Central Nervous System-with examples

-Glutamate is the key excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain

-an aside about Nutrasweet™ (30:33)

-glycine and GABA are inhibitatory

-acetycholine (33:32-34:34)

-discussion of Molecules of Emotion by Candace Pert (35:30-36:55)

-serotonin

-histamine

-dopamine and Parkinson's disease

42:07 - 43:36  Closing Summary

Latest Episode of Books and Ideas Posted in Brain Science Podcast Feed

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This week's episode of Books and Ideas is a discussion of the book, Challenging Nature: The Clash of Science and Spirituality at the New Frontiers of Life , with author Lee M. Silver of Princeton University.  I have inserted it into the Brain Science Podcast feed so that listeners can sample my second podcast. If you are already subscribed to both podcasts this will be a duplicate, which you can delete.

Review of "The First Idea" by Shanker & Greenspan (BSP 6)

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Episode 6 of the Brain Science Podcast is a discussion of The First Idea: How Symbols, Language, And Intelligence Evolved from Our Primate Ancestors to Modern Humans, by Stanley I. Greenspan, MD and Stuart G. Shanker, DPhil.

I wanted to talk about emotion, but I generally base the Brain Science Podcast on my current reading; which is why I chose this rather difficult book that touches on psychology, child development, evolution, and theories about the emergence of language and intelligence.

The basic premise which is discussed in the podcast is that emotional signaling is the basis for the emergence of language and intelligence.  Evidence supporting this hypothesis is discussed, as is how the theory challenges long-standing theories about language and intelligence.

How to get this episode:

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

  • Buy BSP 1-10 (zip file of mp3 files)

  • Transcripts: BSP 1-14

  • 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.

Review of "The Great Brain Debate" (BSP 4)

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The debate about the relative contributions of nature versus nurture has probably been going on as long as humans have wondered about the origins of human behavior.  In his 2004 book, The Great Brain Debate: Is it Nature or Nurture?, Harvard neuroscientist, John E Dowling, describes how recent discoveries about brain development shed light on this controversy.  Episode 4 of the Brain Science Podcast discusses the main ideas of Dowling’s book.

How to get this episode:

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

  • Buy BSP 1-10 (zip file of mp3 files)

  • Transcripts: BSP 1-14

  • 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.

Send me feedback at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

Review of Eric Kandel's "In Search of Memory" (BSP 3)

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Show Notes for Episode 3:  In Search of Memory, by Eric R Kandel

Dr. Eric R. Kandel won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2000 for his work with the giant marine snail Aplysia.  His work helped uncovered the molecular mechanisms of short- and long-term memory.

In this episode, I talk about Dr. Kandel’s autobiography, In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind.  The focus of the podcast is what has been learned about how memory works.  A key principle is that the molecular mechanisms of memory are the same in all animals, including people.

There is lots of good information on the web about Aplysia’s role in understanding learning and memory.  If you know of a particularly good website for non-specialists, please leave a comment on this page.  

How to get this episode:

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

  • Buy BSP 1-10 (zip file of mp3 files)

  • Transcripts: BSP 1-14

  • 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.

Send me feedback at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.

Review of "On Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins (BSP 2)

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I first reviewed On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins for The Sci Phi Show.  I am including that review here.  Also in this episode, I consider some of the topics I hope to discuss in future episodes.  Besides intelligence, we will be considering consciousness, emotions and feelings, the role of vision in brain research, and what we can learn from people with brain damage and memory.

Please send me email or leave comments suggesting what topics you want to here about.

How to get this episode:

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

  • Buy BSP 1-10 (zip file of mp3 files)

  • Transcripts: BSP 1-14

  • 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.

Review of "Mind Wide Open" (BSP 1)

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This episode is a review of Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life (2005) by Steven Johnson.

How to get this episode:

Here are some other podcasts worth listening to:

Send me feedback at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com.