Stanislas Dehaene on "How We Learn" (BS 167)

Stanislas Dehaene on "How We Learn" (BS 167)

BS 167 is an interview with neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene about his new book How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine . . . for Now. The surprising discoveries about how babies learn are extremely relevant to teachers, parents, and all life-long learners.

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Stephen Macknik works on Prosthetic Vision (BS 166)

Stephen Macknik works on Prosthetic Vision (BS 166)

Brain 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.

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Christof Koch on the Neuroscience of Consciousness (BS 163)

Christof Koch on the Neuroscience of Consciousness (BS 163)

In 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.

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Joseph Ledoux (BS 161)

Joseph Ledoux (BS 161)

Brain 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.

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What is Consciousness? (BS 160)

What is Consciousness? (BS 160)

What 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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"Remembering" with Donald MacKay (BS 157)

"Remembering" with Donald MacKay (BS 157)

Brain 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.

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12th Annual Review Episode (BSP 152)

12th Annual Review Episode (BSP 152)

BS 152 is our 12th annual review episode. In 2018 nine new books were featured and the subjects covered included memory, peri-personal cells, creativity, language, reading, the cerebral mystique, synapses, happiness, emotion and work of Eve Marder.  We had 4 new guests and 4 returning guests along with an encore interview with Dr. Eve Marder.

This episode includes highlights from all 11 episodes that were released between January and November 2018.

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Neuroscience of Emotion (BS 151)

Neuroscience of Emotion (BS 151)

BS 151 is a discussion of The Neuroscience of Emotion: A New Synthesis by Ralph Adolphs and David J. Anderson. We talk about key ideas from the book and relate them to several previous episodes about emotion including interviews with Jaak PankseppLisa Feldman Barrett and Luiz Pessoa.

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Explore the Synaptome with Seth Grant (BS 150)

Explore the Synaptome with Seth Grant (BS 150)

BS 150 is our 4th interview of Seth Grant, the molecular biologist who has uncovered the fascinating evolution of synapse complexity. In this interview we learn about the first whole brain mapping of the mouse brain synaptome. We discuss the implications of the surprising level of diversity found in synapses in different brain areas. Dr Grant introduces us to a new theory of perception and memory recall.

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