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 179 is our 14th Annual Review Episode where we review the highlights and reflect on which ideas connected the diverse guests featured 2020. It is a great place to start if you are new to the show.
Read MoreBS 140 is our Eleventh Annual Review episode. We look back at the highlights from 2017 and also share a few ideas from this years annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Thank you for your support.
Read MoreBSP 118 is a whirlwind tour of brain anatomy based on the book Beyond the Zonules of Zinn by David Bainbridge.
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Ginger CampbeLL, host of the Brain Science Podcast (L>R: Greta, Rusty, & Jake)
The first episode of the Brain Science Podcast appeared on December 5, 2006, which makes it one of the longest running shows in any genre, not just science or medicine. I am especially proud of the fact that we have reached listeners in 219 different countries. BSP 114 is our 8th annual review episode and as a part of our year-end celebration all previous annual review episodes have been added to the FREE feed that also includes our most recent 25 episodes.
The goal of our annual review episode is to highlight some of the key ideas that we have explored during the last years. For 2014 this included discussions of brain plasticity with Dr. Michael Merzenich, the integration of cognition and emotion with Dr. Luis Pessoa, the science of sleep with Dr. Penny Lewis, the hazards of neuromania, consciousness with Dr. Michael Graziano, exercise and the brain with Dr. John Ratey, neurobiology with Dr. Frank Amthor, and mirror neurons with Dr. Greg Hickok. We ended the year with highlights from the event "Neuroplasticity and Healing," which featured the Dalai Lama and three previous Brain Science Podcast guests.
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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.
BSP 105: interview with Michael Merzenich, author of Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life
BSP 106: interview with Luiz Pessoa, author of The Cognitive-Emotional Brain: From Interactions to Integration
BSP 107: interview with Penelope Lewis, author of The Secret World of Sleep: The Surprising Science of the Mind at Rest
BSP 108: interview with Michael Graziano, author of Consciousness and the Social Brain
BSP 109: Avoiding Neuromania (see original show notes for references)
BSP 110: interview with Frank Amthor, author of Neurobiology For Dummies
BSP 111: interview with John Ratey, author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
BSP 112: interview with Greg Hickok, author of The Myth of Mirror Neurons: The Real Neuroscience of Communication and Cognition
BSP 113: Highlights from "Neuroplasticity and Healing," featuring the Dalai Lama
Upcoming episodes of the Brain Science Podcast will feature Evan Thompson, Norman Doidge, and Edward Taub.
All Annual Review Episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are now free. Check the episode listing in your podcasting app to find the ones you may have missed.
The most recent 25 episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE. Older episodes and episode transcripts are available for $1 each. Premium subscribers have unlimited access to all 100+ episodes and transcripts.
Reminder: The Brain Science Podcast mobile app is now FREE for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile. Check newer episodes for extra free content!
Don't forget to check out my other podcast Books and Ideas.
Please share your feedback about this episode by sending email to brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com or going to the Brain Science Podcast Discussion Forum at http://brainscienceforum.com. You can also post to our fan pages on Facebook or Google+. I am looking for help with these community pages so please email me at brainsciencepodcast.com if you are interested.
Michal Graziano and Kevin
In his latest book Consciousness and the Social Brain Princeton neuroscientist Michael Graziano proposes a unique and compelling theory of consciousness. He proposes that the same circuits that the human brain uses to attribute awareness to others are used to model self-awareness. He emphasizes that his attention schema theory is only tentative, but it is testable and it does fit our current knowledge of brain function.
In a recent interview for the Brain Science Podcast (BSP 108), Graziano used the following clinical example to clarify his approach. A colleague had a patient who was convinced that he had a squirrel in his head. When confronted with the illogic of his claim the patient replied “Not everything can be explained by science.” In this example it is clear that the squirrel doesn’t really exist, so the question to be answered is HOW did his brain reach the conclusion that it does.
Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.
New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE. The most recent 50 episodes are also free.
While imagining one has a squirrel in one’s head is thankfully rare, we also know that our subjective experiences of the world are not necessarily accurate. Our perception of the world is shaped by how our brain processes the sensory inputs it receives. For example, we perceive white light as an absence of color even though in reality it consists of all wavelengths.
Perception is something our brains do constantly and which we can not consciously control. In considering awareness (and by extension consciousness) perception-like Graziano is emphasizing several important features. The most important is probably the fact that it is only “quick and dirty model” of what is really going on, which means that our intuitions about consciousness are not necessarily reliable. In fact, humans have a strong tendency to over-attribute awareness to the world around us. This is part of the social circuitry that has made us the most successful species in the earth’s history, but it can also lead to amusing results (as anyone who has interacted with Siri on an iPhone has no doubt observed).
Another implication of considering awareness as a form of social perception is that it reverses the usual approach taken to understanding consciousness. Instead of asking how a physical brain can produce something subjective and non-physical called consciousness, we ask what kind of information processing leads to the conclusion that I (or anyone else) is conscious. As Graziano points out, this is a “mechanistic” model. Not only can it be tested but it has interesting implications. Dr. Graziano concluded that one of the key implications is "that awareness and consciousness are tools for information processing, and they are mechanistically understandable, and presumably can be engineered.”
I find the attention schema theory to be very compelling. Besides being testable, it has a simple elegance that I appreciate. It also explains why most humans experience a world filled with spirits, and are utterly convinced that their own consciousness is something special and non-physical.
Since understanding consciousness is one of the deepest questions facing neuroscience, it has been explored on many previous episodes of the Brain Science Podcast. Rather than list all those episodes I want to mention just a few that I think are particularly relevant to this month’s episode.
BSP 21 and BSP 23 discuss how the brain maps the body. Understanding the concept of a body schema puts Graziano’s attention schema theory into scientific context.
In BSP 57 psychologist Chris Frith (Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World) introduced the idea that our brain creates the world we experience, but that world is not necessarily an accurate representation of the physical world around us.
In BSP 67 philosopher Thomas Metzinger (The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self) considered how unusual experiences (like the out of body illusion) shed light on how our brains create the world we experience, including our experience of who we are.
Please post your comments about this episodes in the new thread on our Goodreads page at http://brainscienceforum.com.
Dr. Campbell will be speaking at The Amazing Meeting this July. This year's theme is skepticism and the brain.
Don't forget to check out listener John Richards new neuroscience glossary at http://richardsonthebrain.com.
Luiz Pessoa of the University of Maryland
In The Cognitive-Emotional Brain: From Interactions to Integration neuroscientist Luiz Pessoa argues that emotion and cognition are deeply intertwined throughout many levels of the brain. In a recent interview (BSP 106) Pessoa and I focused on recent discoveries about the amygdala and Thalamus that challenge traditional assumptions about what these structures do. The amygdala processes more than fear (and other negative stimuli) and the Thalamus is more than a mere relay station.
This a fairly technical discussion but Pessoa did a good job of making the material accessible to all listeners. The reason I think these concepts matter is that not only do they challenge overly simplistic notions of how the brain works, but they also challenge our tendency to see emotion and cognition as separate and often opposing processes.
Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.
New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE. The 50 most recent episodes are also free. Just subscribe in your favorite podcasting app.
The Cognitive-Emotional Brain: From Interactions to Integration by Luiz Pessoa
Pessoa L, Adolphs R. (2010) "Emotion processing and the amygdala: from a 'low road' to 'many roads' of evaluating biological significance.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(11):773-83. doi: 10.1038/nrn2920.
Networks of the Brain by Olaf Sporns
In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind by Eric R. Kandel (BSP 3)
Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines---and How It Will Change Our Lives by Miguel Nicolelis (BSP 79)
Visit Dr. Pessoa's lab at emotioncognition.org to learn more.
BSP 11: Emotion
BSP 32: a brief introduction to Neuroanatomy
BSP 65 and BSP 91 are interviews with Jaak Panksepp about the subcortical origins of emotion
I spoke with Olaf Sporns about the Human Connectome and the use of Network Theory in BSP 74 and BSP 103.
BSP 90: a discussion of Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain by Antonio Damasio.
Please check out my other podcast Books and Ideas. I will be posting a new episode by the end of February.
Visit the Brain Science Podcast Group on Goodreads to learn what books are coming and to post comments about this or any other episode.
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Ginger Campbell with Rusty and Greta
Its time for the Brain Science Podcast's seventh annual review episode. In 2013 we had the chance to talk with ten scientists, including three returning guests. We also celebrated our 100th episode and passed 5 million downloads.
BSP 104 is a review of some of the key ideas we explored in 2013. I also announced the launch of a new Premium Subscription program. Beginning around December 30 the twenty-five most recent episodes will remain free while the rest of the 100+ podcasts and transcripts will be available either by subscription or for individual purchase.
Click here to learn more about our new Premium Content.
The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum by Temple Grandin (with Richard Panek), is a tremendous gift, not just to patients and their families, but also to teachers, mentors, friends, and everyone who is interested in understanding how our brains make us who we are.
I think that this is a book everyone should read because as we come to appreciate the fact that the strengths and challenges of autism occur across a broad spectrum, we may also realize that some of these issues actually affect people who aren't considered autistic. It is not the label that matters. What does matter is recognizing that each of us has his or her own strengths and weaknesses, but thanks to brain plasticity, we all have the potential to nurture our strengths and, when necessary, accommodate our weaknesses.
Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.
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.
The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum by Temple Grandin, with Richard Panek; Also available from Audible.com.
Paul Offit, MD reviews the evidence that autism is NOT caused by vaccines
Please see the episode transcript for additional links and references.
I am still trying to schedule an interview with Dr. Temple Grandin, but there is a possibility that the next episode of the Brain Science Podcast will not come out until August 2013.
The Deadline for listener submissions to Episode 100 is August 1, 2013.
Several products are not available directly on this website including the PDF version of Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty by Ginger Campbell, MD and a zip file contain BSP 1-10. Click here to learn more.
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