Understanding the Brain
This podcast introduces the modern field of neuroscience to listeners regardless of their scientific background. It draws on everyday experiences, popular books, and current research to make the topic accessible and engaging. The show aims to enlighten its audience about how the brain works. Each episode promises an exciting and fun journey into understanding the mind.
Episodes
How the Brain Adapts to Antidepressants: Receptors, Circuits, and Neuroplasticity
Antidepressants influence neurotransmission relatively quickly, yet meaningful clinical improvement often takes longer. This episode explores receptor signaling, neural adaptation, stress circuitry, and neuroplasticity in depression treatment. Discover why changes in brain function are more complicated than the familiar chemical-imbalance explanation.
Psychosis From the Immune System: The Strange Case of Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis
Imagine developing what appears to be schizophrenia almost overnight, only for doctors to discover that your immune system may be attacking receptors in your brain. Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis provides one of medicine’s most remarkable examples of neurological disease presenting through psychiatric symptoms. The condition also raises a fascinating question: how often can changes in the brain m
Four Roads for One Molecule: Mapping the Brain's Dopamine Pathways
Dopamine doesn't run on a single track — it moves through four distinct pathways in the brain, and each one produces a very different story when its activity shifts. This episode breaks down the mesolimbic, mesocortical, nigrostriatal, and tuberoinfundibular pathways, connecting each to the specific symptoms and medication side effects it produces when dopamine runs too high or too low. We walk th
Dopamine Isn’t Simply the Pleasure Chemical
Dopamine is routinely described as the brain’s “pleasure chemical,” but that description leaves out much of the story. Dopamine systems participate in motivation, learning, movement and the prediction of rewards. Researchers have shown that dopamine responses can shift from rewards themselves toward cues that predict them. This helps explain why anticipation can sometimes become more powerful than
Why You Can Feel Someone Watching You—Even When You Never Saw Them
Have you ever suddenly looked across a room and discovered that someone was staring directly at you? It can feel almost supernatural, as though your brain somehow detected another person’s attention before you consciously saw them. But the explanation may have less to do with a mysterious sixth sense and more to do with the remarkable amount of information your brain processes outside conscious aw
The Brain’s Traffic Controller: How We Turn Thought into Action and Habit
Hidden deep inside the head, a small cluster of control centers decides which of our physical movements and mental impulses actually happen. It acts like a built-in filter, pressing the gas pedal on useful actions while slamming the brakes on distractions. When this internal switchboard works smoothly, everyday habits run on autopilot; when it breaks down, the body can freeze up or move completely
The Brain’s Idle Engine: The Default Mode Network, Internal Narrative, and Network Switching
This episode examines the architecture and physiology of the default mode network (DMN), a large-scale neural network that activates during internally directed cognition and attenuates during externally focused tasks. It breaks down the functional interplay between its core anatomical hubs—the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus—and the dynamic switching orchestrate
Where vs. What: The Parietal Lobe and the Temporal Lobe Are Not Interchangeable Real Estate
The parietal lobe maps the body and space; the temporal lobe maps sound, meaning, and memory. Confusing them is how people turn every MRI finding into a personality theory. This is a working distinction for clinicians, students, and anyone who wants the map before the metaphor.
Map of the Mind: What Each Brain Lobe Is Actually Doing
understanding the brain
The Light Before the Dark: When the Mind Returns- terminal lucidity
WE DISCUSS THE LATEST RESEARCH ON MUSIC'S INFLUENCE ON OUR BRAINS
COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE PERSONALITY THEORIES
PERCEPTION AND ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS
WE DISCUSS HOW MEMORY WORKS
PSYCHONEUROIMMUNOLOGY
LOW LEVELS OF VITAMIN D DURING PREGNANCY INCREASES RISK FOR AUTISM, ADHD AND SCHIZOPHRENIA
NEUROBIOLOGY OF BRAIN DEVELOPMENT FROM CHILDHOOD TO ADULT
THE BIOLOGY OF SLEEP
WE DISCUSS THE BIOLOGY OF CERTAIN PSYCHIATRIC ISSUES
CENTRAL AND PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
DISCUSSING NOREPINEPHRINE, GABA, GLUTAMATE, AND MORE
THE BRAIN ON ALCOHOL
HOW WALKING CAN IMPACT THE BRAIN
OBESITY LINKED TO ALMOST A THIRD OF GENES RELATED TO ALZHEIMERS DISEASE
POOR ORAL HEALTH RELATED TO INCREASED RISK OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS 1
DR. REGO DISCUSSES PRE-FRONTAL CORTEX AND THE INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY
NEW RESEARCH IDENTIFIES WHERE IN THE BRAIN FLUID INTELLIGENCE OPERATES
KETAMINE CAN INCREASE BRAIN NOISE
WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR BRAIN WHEN YOU ARE TIPSY FROM ALCOHOL1
PSYCHOPATHS BRAINS DONT RESPOND TO DRUG CUES THE SAME AS NON-PSYCHPATHSO
ANTIDEPRESSANT USE DURING PREGNANCY MAY ALTER NEUROBIOLOGY OF BABIES BRAIN
HOW MOTOR MEMORY BECOMES CONSOLIDATED WHILE YOU SLEEP
VIRAL INFLAMMATION IN THE OLFACTORY SYSTEM AND THE ACCELERATED ONSET OF ALZHEIMERS
HIGHER LEVELS OF VITAMIN D IN THE BRAIN IS ASSOCIATED WITH BETTER COGNITIVE FUNCTION1
LIFE MAY FLASH BEFORE YOUR EYES JUST BEFORE DEATH4
STUDY SHOWS SUBSTANTIAL DIFFERENCES IN BRAIN STRUCTURE IN PEOPLE WITH ANOREXIA1
NEW STUDY ON THE DEFAULT MODE NETWORK
DR. LANIUS DISCUSSES THE DEFAULT MODE NETWORK IN THE BRAIN
THE BRAINS BUILTIN SYSTEM TO KEEP UNWANTED MEMORIES OUT
DR. PERL DISCUSSES HEAD TRAUMA1
DR. DIAMOND DISCUSSES WITH US EXECUTIVE FUNCTION AND NEUROSCIENCE
ARE PLASTIC TOYS BAD FOR YOUR CHILDREN3
THE DANGERS OF PARABENS
WE DISCUSS THE LATEST RESEARCH ON MUSIC'S INFLUENCE ON OUR BRAINS WITH DR. PATEL3
DR. WRIGHT DISCUSSES THE PERIACQUEDUCTAL GREY AREA OF THE BRAIN1
DR. HELLERSTEIN DISCUSSES THE LATEST RESEARCH ON PSILOCYBIN AND TREATMENT RESISTANT DEPRESSION3
THE FASCINATING ROLE OF THE PLACENTA AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT1
DR. SOLMS DISCUSSES EMOTION CONSCIOUSNESS 2
DR. SIMON BARON-COHEN DISCUSSES AUTISM AND ITS INFLUENCE ON HUMAN INVENTION2
THE EFFECTS OF CREDIT CARDS USE ON OUR BRAIN
KETAMINE INFUSIONS LINKED TO FAST RELIEF OF PTSD1
UNDERSTANDING POLYVAGAL THEORY WITH DR. PORGES
WE LOOK AT PRENATAL CANNABIS USE AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
A DISCUSSION ON THE LEFT BRAIN VS THE RIGHT BRAIN WITH IAIN MCGILCHRIST2
DRINKING BLOCKS A CHEMICAL THAT PROMOTES ATTENTION
HOW ALCOHOL IS LINKED TO THE DECLINE IN BRAIN HEALTH IN THREE KEY TIME PERIODS IN A PERSONS LIFE
BRAIN IMAGING PREDICTS PTSD AFTER TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY
THE LATEST RESEARCH ON YOGA AND MEDITATION WITH DR. SARA LAZAR1
THE SCIENCE OF ATTRACTION AND BONDING 2
DOES COFFEE AFFECT YOUR DNA1
SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF KISSING4
HOW LEAD MIGHT CONTRIBUTE TO CRIME AND PSYCHOPATHY3
Exercise and the hormones they influence
Can serotonin make you more moral?
Dopamine and social media
scientists find neural circuit that drives physical responses
Cuddling and hormones
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