A Podcast that Explores how neuroscience is unraveling the mystery of how our brain makes us human
Brain Science is a monthly podcast Brain Science, hosted by Ginger Campbell, MD. We explore how recent discoveries in neuroscience are helping unravel the mystery of how our brain makes us human. The content is accessible to people of all backgrounds.
BS 212 is a free encore presentation of an interview with Thomas Metzinger, author of The Ego Tunnel. We focus on Consciousness as a biological process created by the interaction of the brain, body, and external world.
Read MoreBS 196 features Hakwan Lau author of In Consciousness we Trust: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Subjective Experience.
Read MoreBS 188 is a fascinating interview with neuroscientist Anil Seth about his new book Being You: A New Science of Consciousness. He shares his Beast Machine theory of consciousness.
Read MoreIn this month's episode of Brain Science, neuroscientist Mark Solms talks about his new book "The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Origins of Consciousness." Solms was inspired by the pioneering work of Jaak Panksepp who argued that the origins of consciousness can be traced to the brainstem. In his new book Solms presents the evidence for this viewpoint and explains how the work of computational neuroscientist Karl Friston has provided additional support. We consider the implications for our understanding of both human consciousness and our appreciation for the consciousness of other animals.
Read MoreBS 180 features E Bruce Goldstein, author of The Mind: Consciousness, Prediction, and the Brain. It is a great episode for listeners of all backgrounds and highly recommended to share with potential new listeners.
Read MoreIn BS 163 renowned neuroscientist Christof Koch discusses is latest book, The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness Is Widespread but Can't Be Computed. He explains why he doesn’t think the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) are enough to explain experience. This is the 4th in our 4 part series on the neuroscience of consciousness.
Read MoreWhat is consciousness? BS 160 is an overview of the current neuroscience of consciousness. I take a deep dive into 5 recent books on the topic. We explore questions such as What is the definition of consciousness? Which non-human animals are conscious? Could AI become conscious? and the big one: Can neuroscience solve the so-called “Hard Problem” of subjectivity.
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Robert Burton, MD
In On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not, Robert Burton showed that the feeling of certainty, which is something we all experience, has its origin in brain processes that are both unconscious and inaccessible to consciousness . Now in his new book, A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves, he extends these ideas to other mental sensations such as our feeling of agency and our sense of causation. The idea that much of what our brain does is not accessible to our conscious awareness is NOT new, but Dr. Burton considers the implications for our understanding of the MIND.
When we talked recently (BSP 96), Dr. Burton explained that his new book has two main parts. In the early chapters, he extends the principles he developed in On Being Certain to other mental sensations. We tend to take things like our feeling of certainty, agency, and causation for granted, but he points out that these are generated in parts of the brain that we can neither access or control. What makes A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind stand out is that Burton then explores the implications of this reality. He argues that while we can become ever more knowledgeable about how our brain works, the MIND, which is something that we each experience subjectively, is much more elusive.
The fact that we are trying to study the MIND with the MIND has inherent limitations and I think that Dr. Burton is right when he says our response should be HUMILITY.
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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.
A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves, by Robert Burton
On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not, (2008) by Robert Burton
Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty, by Ginger Campbell
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, by David Hume (1748)
See the episode transcript for additional links and references.
BSP 42: A discussion of On Being Certain
BSP 43: Interview with Robert Burton about On Being Certain
BSP 67: Interview with Thomas Metzinger, author of The Ego Tunnel
BSP 85: Interview with Sebastian Seung, author of Connectome.
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