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 174 is an interview with Georg Northoff about his book The Spontaneous Brain: From the Mind–Body to the World–Brain Problem. We explore the surprising discovering that much of the brain’s activity is entirely independent of inputs from the senses, how this spontaneous activity interacts with stimuli, and the implications of these discoveries on our understanding of how the brain generates conscious experience.
Read MoreBrain Science 173 features host Dr. Ginger Campbell reading an excerpt from her bestseller Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty. She explains why this topic is extremely relevant during these times of of extreme uncertainty.
Read MoreIn BS 172 we talk with neuroscientist György Buzsáki about his new book The Brain from Inside Out . Several key ideas emerge including the importance of the brain’s spontaneous activity and the implications for learning and memory.
Read MoreBS 171 is an interview with neuroscientist Matthew Cobb about his latest book The Idea of the Brain. We explore how culture and the history of ideas has influenced the history of neuroscience. We also talk about why the current computer metaphor provides an inadequate framework for understanding what the brain actually does.
Read MoreBS 170 is an interview with Andreas Nieder, author of A Brain for Numbers: The Biology of the Number Instinct. We explore the surprising discovery that there appears to be a universal approximate number system that is shared across species and forms the basis for the symbolic mathematics that is unique to humans.
Read MoreBS 169 is an encore presentation of my interview with R. Douglas Fields, author of The Other Brain: The Scientific and Medical Breakthroughs That Will Heal Our Brains and Revolutionize Our Health. Ten years ago these discoveries about glial cells were controversial, but now they are mainstream neuroscience. Listen to learn why glial cells are essential to our health.
Read MoreBS 168 is an interview with psychologist Cecilia Heyes from Oxford University in the UK. We talk about her fascinating book "Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking." Our focus is on exploring the evidence that several cognitive skills that appear to be unique to humans are learned from other people rather than being inherited genetically as is often assumed. The proposal that language is a cognitive gadget NOT a cognitive instinct is controversial and has very important implications.
Read MoreBrain Science 166 is an interview with neuroscientist Stephen Macknik about recent efforts to development a new visual prosthesis based on recent discoveries about vision. His technique also involves tools like optogenetics. This week’s episode is more technical than usual but Dr. Macknik makes his work accessible to all listeners.
Read MoreBrain Science 165 is an encore presentation of my interview with neuroscientists Stephen L. Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde. We talk about their international bestseller "Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions."
Read MoreBS 164 is our 13th Annual Review episode. I share highlights from the episodes of Brain Science released in 2019 and include some additional reflections about the recent 4-part series on consciousness.
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 MoreEpisode 162 is an interview with neuroscientist Michael Graziano about his new book Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience. This is the 3rd of our four-part conversation about the neuroscience of consciousness.
Read MoreBrain Science 161 is an interview with neuroscientist Joesph Ledoux about his new book The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains. It is the second of our 4 part series on the neuroscience of consciousness and focuses on the evolutionary role of emotion. Dr. Ledoux takes a surprising position on the relationship between emotion and 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.
Read MoreBrain Science 159 features Kevin Mitchell, author of Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are.
Read MoreBS 158 is an interview with philosopher Patricia Churchland about her latest book Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition.
Read MoreBrain Science 157 is an interview with Donald Mackay, author of Remembering: What 50 Years of Research with Famous Amnesia Patient H.M. Can Teach Us about Memory and How It Works. We explore the experiments that revealed that the hippocampus also plays a critical role in language.
Read MoreBS 156 is an interview with Stanford psychologist Russell Poldrack, author of The New Mind Readers: What Neuroimaging Can and Cannot Reveal about Our Thoughts.
Read MoreBS 155 is an interview with neuroscientist Paul Middlebrooks, creator and host of the podcast Brain Inspired. His show explores the intersection between neuroscience and artificial Intelligence.
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Copyright 2013 - 2023 | Virginia Campbell, MD. All Rights Reserved.
