Shows
From Our Neurons to YoursCould brain implants read our thoughts? | Erin KunzImagine what it’s like to lose your ability to speak. You know what you want to say, but the connection between your brain and the muscles that form words is no longer functioning. For people with conditions like ALS, or who experience a severe stroke, this is a devastating reality. Today's guest is Erin Kunz, a postdoctoral researcher in the Neural Prosthetics Translational Laboratory at Stanford, who is part of a global community of scientists working towards the vision of a brain–computer interface — or BCI — to bypass those broken circuits and restore the ability to speak to...
2025-11-1337 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursNeuroForecasting: how brain activity can predict stock prices or viral videos | Brian KnutsonNeuroscientists have spent the past few decades tracing the network of brain systems—some deep and emotional, and others more analytical and deliberate— that work together as we make tough choices like where to invest our money as well as more everyday decisions like which videos to watch online—or, for that matter, which podcast to listen to.You can imagine that the ability to listen in on the brain systems that guide our choices might start to let scientists predict our decisions. But today's guest has taken this a step further, showing that measuring brain activity in jus...
2025-10-3040 minFrom Our Neurons to Yours"Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection" | Ben ReinWe are more isolated from one another than ever before — by our technology, by our political divides, and most of all, by our choices. This week on the show, we talk with neuroscientist Ben Rein about why this social isolation is terrible for our health — implicated in not only rising rates of mental illness, but also heart disease, dementia and more.We discuss Ben's new book, "Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection", published earlier this week, and try to work out a plan for an improved social diet to restore our b...
2025-10-1638 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursFrom doodles to Descartes: sketching and the human cognitive toolkit | Judith FanBefore the written word — and possibly even before speech — humans have communicated through drawing. From crude scratches in the dirt or on cave walls to the arcane symbology of the laboratory whiteboard, our instinct for conveying our thoughts visually is pretty extraordinary. We see or understand something in the world, we build an idea in our mind of what we think we see, and then using our hand and the utensil we re-create it to communicate the share our perception with others. Along the way, we add in our own understanding and experience to craft that...
2025-10-0240 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursWhat is psychosis? Navigating an altered reality | Jacob Ballon & Shannon PagdonImagine if you couldn't distinguish between dreams and reality. If you couldn't tell whether what you were seeing or hearing was really there in front of you. What if you discovered you couldn't trust your own perceptions? Psychosis is something three out of every a hundred people will experience at some point in their lifetimes. But what exactly is it, and is it something people can learn to live with?Today we're fortunate to have on the show Dr. Jacob Ballon, the founding co-director of Stanford Medicine's Inspire Clinic, and Shannon Pagdon, a d...
2025-09-1846 minFrom Our Neurons to Yours"I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine" | Daniel LevitinMost of us can agree: music is awesome. Regardless of which songs speak to you, music probably plays an important role in your life. The question is, what makes music so powerful? Why does a particular combination of sounds and rhythms grab us and affect us in the way that it does? And is it true that music can help heal patients with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, PTSD, chronic pain, and more? To help us understand what we're learning about the neuroscience of music and how it can heal and enrich our lives, we're speaking with Daniel Levitin. He's a...
2025-09-0445 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursHow we learn to read (and why some struggle): what neuroscience teaches us about a transformative human technology | Bruce McCandlissIn this episode, we explore the fascinating neuroscience behind how children learn to read with Bruce McCandliss, director of the Stanford Educational Neuroscience Initiative.Key topics include:• How our brains "recycle" visual and language circuits to create reading expertise• The crucial threshold when reading shifts from effortful to automatic• Why some children struggle more than others to develop reading fluency• How teachers can tailor instruction to help struggling readers• The profound ways literacy reshapes our brains and cognitionJoin us for a mind-expanding look at one of humanity's most transf...
2025-08-2139 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursWhy voices light us up—but leave the autistic brain in the dark | Dan AbramsRecognizing a familiar voice is one of the brain’s earliest social feats. But what are the brain circuits that let a newborn pick out mom in a crowded nursery? How do they change as kids turn toward friends and the wider world? And what are we learning about why this instinct fails to develop in the autistic brain?This week, host Nicholas Weiler joins Stanford neuroscientist Dan Abrams on the quest to understand the neural “hub” that links our brains' hearing centers to the networks that tag voices as rewarding, social, and worth our attent...
2025-08-0731 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursFamous & Gravy: Cosmic Marketer and the Meaning of Life | Stephen HawkingIn this special crossover episode, we’re doing something a little different. From Our Neurons to Yours host Nicholas joins producer Michael Osborne to co-host his podcast Famous and Gravy for a lively conversation about the extraordinary life and mind of Stephen Hawking.Hawking, one of the most renowned scientists of our time, lived with ALS for more than 50 years—defying medical expectations while also reshaping how we understand black holes, the universe, and our place within it. While Hawking wasn’t a neuroscientist, his neurological condition and his remarkable communication of complex ideas make his story especi...
2025-07-241h 01From Our Neurons to YoursCan brain science save addiction policy? | Keith HumphreysIf addiction is a disease of the brain, what does that mean for how we treat people—and how we write policy? In this wide-ranging conversation, Stanford addiction expert and policy advisor Keith Humphreys returns to the show to walk us through what neuroscience has taught us about substance use disorders and how that science intersects with law, public health, and politics.From the biology of craving to the limits of autonomy, we explore the tension between compassion and accountability, and what truly effective treatment and prevention might look like.Episode HighlightsWh...
2025-07-1045 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursHow basic science transformed stroke care | Marion BuckwalterA generation ago, a big clot in the brain meant paralysis or worse. Today, doctors can diagnose clots on AI-enabled brain scans; provide life-saving, targeted medications; or snake a catheter from a patient’s groin into the brain to vacuum out the clot. If they intervene in time, they can watch speech and movement return before the sedatives wear off. How did that happen—and what’s still missing?In this episode of From Our Neurons to Yours, Stanford neuroscientist and neurocritical care specialist Marion Buckwalter, MD, PhD retraces the 70-year chain of curiosity-driven research—biochemistry, imaging, material...
2025-06-2634 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursSurgery as a window into brain resilience | Martin AngstWe've all heard stories about someone who went in for surgery and came out...different. A grandmother who struggled with names after hip replacement, or an uncle who seemed foggy for months following cardiac bypass. But why does this happen to some people while others bounce right back?This week, we explore this question with Dr. Martin Angst, a professor of anesthesiology at Stanford who's studying the biological factors that determine cognitive outcomes after surgery. With support from the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience, Martin and his team are following hundreds of cardiac surgery patients, tracking everything...
2025-06-1237 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursBest of: How neural prosthetics could free minds trapped by brain injury | Jaimie HendersonImagine being trapped in your own body, unable to move or communicate effectively. This may seem like a nightmare, but it is a reality for many people living with brain or spinal cord injuries.We're re-releasing one of our favorite episodes from the archives: our 2024 conversation with Jaimie Henderson, a Stanford neurosurgeon leading groundbreaking research in brain-machine interfaces. Henderson shares how multiple types of brain implants are currently being developed to treat neurological disorders and restore communication for those who have lost the ability to speak. We also discuss the legacy of the...
2025-05-2922 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursThe secrets of resilient aging | Beth Mormino & Anthony WagnerThis week on the show, we're have our sights set on healthy aging. What would it mean to be able to live to 80, 90 or 100 with our cognitive abilities intact and able to maintain an independent lifestyle right to the end of our days? We're joined by Beth Mormino and Anthony Wagner who lead the Stanford Aging and Memory Study, which recruits cognitively healthy older adults to understand what makes their brains particularly resilient — and how more of us could join them in living the dream of healthy aging.Learn MoreSta...
2025-05-1536 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursBuilding AI simulations of the human brain | Dan YaminsThis week on the show: Are we ready to create digital models of the human brain? Last month, Stanford researcher Andreas Tolias and colleagues created a "digital twin" of the mouse visual cortex. The researchers used the same foundation model approach that powers ChatGPT, but instead of training the model on text, the team trained in on brain activity recorded while mice watched action movies. The result? A digital model that can predict how neurons would respond to entirely new visual inputs. This landmark study is a preview of the unprecedented research possibilities ma...
2025-05-0132 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursWhat ChatGPT understands: Large language models and the neuroscience of meaning | Laura GwilliamsIf you spend any time chatting with a modern AI chatbot, you've probably been amazed at just how human it sounds, how much it feels like you're talking to a real person. Much ink has been spilled explaining how these systems are not actually conversing, not actually understanding — they're statistical algorithms trained to predict the next likely word. But today on the show, let's flip our perspective on this. What if instead of thinking about how these algorithms are not like the human brain, we talked about how similar they are? What if we could use these lar...
2025-04-1742 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursWhat the other half of the brain does | Brad ZucheroWe've talked about glia and sleep. We've talked about glia and neuroinflammation. We've talked about glia in the brain fog that can accompany COVID or chemotherapy. We've talked about the brain's quiet majority of non–neuronal cells in so many different contexts that it felt like it was high time for us to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. After all, glia science was founded here at Stanford in the lab of the late, great Ben Barres.No one is better suited to take us through this history and lead us to the fr...
2025-04-0335 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursStimulating the brain with sound | Kim Butts Pauly and Raag AiranAs we gain a better understanding of how misfiring brain circuits lead to mental health conditions, we'd like to be able to go in and nudge those circuits back into balance. But this is hard — literally — because the brain is encased in this thick bony skull. Plus, often the problem you want to target is buried deep in the middle of a maze of delicate brain tissue you need to preserve.Today we're going to be talking with neuroscientists who aim to solve this problem with sound. And not just any sound: ultrasound.Kim Butts Pauly...
2025-03-2030 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursDoes good sleep insulate the brain against Alzheimer's? | Erin GibsonWe're kicking off our new season with a deep dive into one of neuroscience's most fascinating mysteries: sleep. This unconscious third of our lives isn't just about rest – it's absolutely critical for brain health, memory consolidation, and overall well-being. But here's where it gets intriguing: recent research suggests that increased napping as we age might be an early warning sign of Alzheimer's disease.To unpack this complex relationship, we're thrilled to welcome back Erin Gibson, assistant professor of psychiatry at Stanford School of Medicine and Wu Tsai Neuro affiliate. We'll explore whether age-related sle...
2025-03-0639 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursHow to live in a world without free will | Robert SapolskyToday, we are speaking with the one and only Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford neurobiologist, a MacArthur "Genius", and best-selling author of books exploring the nature of stress, social behavior, and — as he puts it — "the biology of the human predicament." In his latest book, Determined, Sapolsky assertively lays out his vision of a world without free will — a world where as much as we feel like we're making decisions, the reality is that our choices are completely determined by biological and environmental factors outside of our control.Before we get into it, it's worth saying that w...
2024-12-0540 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursThe power of psychedelics meets the power of placebo: ketamine, opioids, and hope in depression treatment | Boris Heifets & Theresa LiiJoin us as we dive back into the world of psychedelic medicine with anesthesiologists Boris Heifets and Theresa Lii, who share intriguing new data that sheds light on how ketamine and placebo effects may interact in treating depression.We explore provocative questions like: How much of ketamine's antidepressant effect comes from the drug itself versus the excitement of being in a psychedelics trial? What do we know about how placebo actually works in the brain? And should we view the placebo effect as a feature rather than a bug in psychiatric treatment?Join us as...
2024-11-2135 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursSeeing sounds, tasting colors: the science of synaesthesia with David Eagleman (re-release)Today, we are going back into the archives for one of my favorite episodes: We are talking to neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and best-selling author, David Eagleman. We're talking about synaesthesia — and if you don't know what that is, you're about to find out.Special NoteWe are beyond thrilled that From Our Neurons to Yours has won a 2024 Signal Award in the Science Podcast category. It's a big honor — thanks to everyone who voted!---Imagine Thursday. Does Thursday have a color? What about the sound of rain — does t...
2024-11-0721 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursThe BRAIN Initiative: the national vision for the future of neuroscience is now in doubt | Bill NewsomeEarlier this year, President Obama's signature BRAIN Initiative, which has powered advances in neuroscience for the past 10 years, had its budget slashed by 40%. Over the past decade, the BRAIN Initiative made roughly $4 billion in targeted investments in more than 1500 research projects across the country and has dramatically accelerated progress tackling fundamental challenges in neuroscience. As we head into the next federal budget cycle, the future of the initiative remains uncertain. Today we take stock of how the BRAIN Initiative transformed neuroscience over the past 10 years, and what the outlook is for the future of...
2024-10-2439 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursThe cannabinoids within: how marijuana hijacks an ancient signaling system in the brain | Ivan SolteszGiven the widespread legalization of cannabis for medical and recreational uses, you'd think we'd have a better understanding of how it works. But ask a neuroscientist exactly how cannabinoid compounds like THC and CBD alter our perceptions or lead to potential medical benefits, and you'll soon learn just how little we know.We know that these molecules hijack an ancient signaling system in the brain called the "endocannabinoid" system (translation: the "cannabinoids within"). These somewhat exotic signaling molecules (made of fatty lipids and traveling "backwards" compared to other transmitters) have been deeply mysterious until recently...
2024-10-1037 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursMemory Palaces: the science of mental time travel and the brain's GPS system | Lisa Giocomo (Re-release)Today we are re-releasing an episode we did last year with Stanford neurobiologist Lisa Giocomo exploring the intersection of memory, navigation and the boundaries we create between ourselves and the world around us.This episode was inspired by the idea of memory palaces. The idea is simple: Take a place you're very familiar with, say the house you grew up in, and place information you want to remember in different locations within that space. When it's time to remember those things, you can mentally walk through that space and retrieve those items.This...
2024-09-2625 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursWhy new Alzheimer's drugs don't work | Mike Greicius, Stanford University School of MedicineIn the past few years, Big Pharma has released not one, but three new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Aducanemab (2021), Lecanemab (2023), and Donanemab (2024), are the first treatments to effectively clear the brain of amyloid plaques — the sticky protein clumps whose build-up in the brain has defined the disease for decades. The problem? They may not help patients at all.Today’s guest, Stanford neurologist Mike Greicius, considers the new amyloid-clearing drugs a major disappointment — and worse, says they likely do more harm than good for patients.Despite this critique, Greicius, thinks that the...
2024-09-1225 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursDepression's distinctive fingerprints in the brain | Leanne Williams, Stanford UniversityGetting help for depression can be like purgatory. Setting aside for a moment the stigma and other barriers to seeking treatment in the first place, finding the right combination of medication and/or therapy can be a months- or years-long process of trial and error. And for about one third of people, nothing seems to work.Today we're talking with Dr. Leanne Williams, the founding director of the Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness and Vincent V.C. Woo Professor in the Stanford Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Williams and...
2024-08-2928 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursHow the brain helps cancers grow | Michelle MonjeToday, we're talking with Stanford neuro-oncologist, Michelle Monje. This is actually the third time we've had Michelle on the show, in part because she's been a pioneer of three exciting frontiers in neuroscience — so far! This week, we're going to talk about cancer neuroscience. Michelle founded this new field with her discovery that deadly brain tumors not only link up physically with the healthy brain tissue surrounding them, but the cancers actually need the brain's electrical activity to grow and spread.It turns out that many cancers — not only in the brain — depend on nervous system...
2024-08-1521 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursUnraveling Timothy Syndrome: the new science of human brain development | Sergiu PascaThis week on From Our Neurons to Yours, we're talking about using new techniques for growing human brain tissue in the lab to solve a rare neurological disorder.Host Nicholas Weiler sits down with Sergiu Pasca an innovative Stanford scientist who has developed groundbreaking technologies to grow human brain tissue in the lab, creating "organoids" and "assembloids" that model brain disorders like autism and schizophrenia. Pasca describes the process of turning patient skin cells into embryo-like stem cells and then into functional brain cells that can live and develop for over two years, a...
2024-08-0130 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursHow VR could help treat depression with "radical behaviorist" Dr. Kim BullockToday, we're going to talk about virtual reality and how it could be used to treat depression. We're talking with psychiatrist Kim Bullock, the founding director of Stanford's Neurobehavioral Clinic and Virtual Reality & Immersive Technologies (VRIT) program. Dr. Bullock — a physician certified in Neuropsychiatry, Psychiatry, and Lifestyle Medicine — calls herself a "radical behaviorist." Like other practitioners of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), she sees the troublesome thoughts and emotional states of many psychiatric disorders as just another form of behavior, which can be reshaped through self awareness and practice — much like you might work at avoi...
2024-07-1821 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursElectronic skin and the future of wearable technology | Zhenan BaoThe skin is full of contradictions. It’s soft and sensitive, but also tough and resilient, even self-healing. It’s both the barrier that protects us from infections and our most intimate connection with the outside world. Today’s guest, Zhenan Bao, has spent the last two decades reverse engineering the skin’s many remarkable properties in order to create wearable electronics that are just as soft, flexible, and versatile as the skin itself.Bao envisions a world where stick-on devices could help heal injuries, manage anxiety, and even enhance o...
2024-07-0423 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursHow a new kind of brain plasticity could help make sense of addiction | Michelle Monje and Rob MalenkaThis week, we're diving into recent research that sheds light on a new form of brain plasticity involving changes in the insulation of nerve fibers — called myelin. It turns out that myelin plasticity is implicated in a number of serious conditions, from epilepsy to drug abuse and addiction.We're excited to bring back two previous guests on the show to share their insights on this previously unknown form of plasticity: Stanford psychiatry professor Rob Malenka (S1 E1 - Psychedelics and Empathy), a pioneer in the study of synaptic plasticity and addiction, and neuro-oncologist Michelle Monje (S1 E1...
2024-06-2022 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursOur plastic brains: learning, memory and aging with the one and only Carla Shatz (Rerelease)-- We're re-releasing our conversation with Carla Shatz, one of our favorites from the archive, which comes up all the time on the show in the context of brain plasticity and aging. Enjoy, and see you next time! -NW -- When we're kids, our brains are amazing at learning. We absorb information from the outside world with ease, and we can adapt to anything. But as we age, our brains become a little more fixed. Our brain circuits become a little less flexible. You may have heard of a concept called neuroplasticity, our b...
2024-06-0621 min
AI News po polsku#2423 TDANN / Autobiographer / AlchemistInstytut Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute na Uniwersytecie Stanforda opracował algorytm sztucznej inteligencji, który odtwarza sposób, w jaki mózg organizuje informacje sensoryczne.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-neuroscientists-ai-simulate-brain-visual.html
Autobiographer to startup, który wykorzystuje sztuczną inteligencję, aby pomóc użytkownikom w tworzeniu własnych autobiografii.https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/30/autobiographers-app-uses-ai-to-help-you-tell-your-life-story/
MIT CSAIL i Google Research opracowały model dyfuzji o nazwie Alchemist.https://news.mit.edu/2024/controlled-diffusion-model-can-change-material-properties-images-0528
Odwiedź www.integratedaisolutions.com
2024-06-0303 min
AI News auf Deutsch#2423 TDANN / Autobiographer / AlchemistDas Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute in Stanford hat einen KI-Algorithmus entwickelt, der nachbildet, wie das Gehirn sensorische Informationen organisiert.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-neuroscientists-ai-simulate-brain-visual.html
Autobiographer ist ein Startup, das KI nutzt, um Benutzern beim Erstellen ihrer eigenen Autobiografien zu helfen.https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/30/autobiographers-app-uses-ai-to-help-you-tell-your-life-story/
MIThttps://news.mit.edu/2024/controlled-diffusion-model-can-change-material-properties-images-0528
2024-06-0303 min
AI News#2423 TDANN / Autobiographer / AlchemistStanford's Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute has developed an AI algorithm that replicates how the brain organizes sensory information.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-neuroscientists-ai-simulate-brain-visual.html
Autobiographer is a startup that uses AI to help users create their own autobiographies.https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/30/autobiographers-app-uses-ai-to-help-you-tell-your-life-story/
MIT CSAIL and Google Research have developed a diffusion model called Alchemist.https://news.mit.edu/2024/controlled-diffusion-model-can-change-material-properties-images-0528
Visit www.integratedaisolutions.com
2024-06-0302 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursProgramming AnnouncementHi everyone — quick programming announcement. As we head into summer, we'll be moving to an every-other-week cadence as we prepare more conversations from the frontiers of neuroscience. I'm very excited about what we're working on for you, so stay tuned!In the meantime, we'd love to hear from you! Email us at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu with your thoughts, praise, critiques, or just to say hello. That's all for now. See you next time!Send us a text!Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to...
2024-05-3000 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursNeuroscience and AI: What artificial intelligence teaches us about the brain (and vice versa) | Surya GanguliThe powerful new generation of AI tools that has come out over the past few years — DALL-E, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and the rest — have blown away our old ideas about what AI can do and raised questions about what it means for computers to start acting... intelligent?This week, we ask what the rise of these systems might teach us about our own biological intelligence — and vice versa. What does modern neuroscience have to say about how AI could become as flexible, efficient, and resilient as the human brain. Few people are better positio...
2024-05-2327 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursHow we remember, why we forget | Anthony WagnerAt some point in our lives, we all struggle with memory — learning a new name, remembering that book you were reading just yesterday or that word on the tip of your tongue. So what can neuroscience teach us about why we remember, why we forget, and how we might even improve our memories? To answer this question, I spoke with neuroscientist Anthony Wagner, a memory expert in Stanford's Department of Psychology.Learn MoreWagner lab websiteRecent lab publicationsAnthony's new book: Brain Sciences for Lawyers, Judges, and Po...
2024-05-1629 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursPsychedelics Part 2: How do drugs alter our perceptions? | Boris HeifetsToday, we're going to talk about how psychedelics alter our perception of reality and what that says about... reality! Welcome to part two of our conversation with Stanford anesthesiologist and psychedelics researcher Boris Heifets! Last time, we talked with Boris about the question of why psychedelics help people with mental health disorders. This week, we're going to dive into a different question, which is to explore how psychedelics work in the brain. How are they able to alter something as fundamental as our perceptions of reality — and could understanding these effects tea...
2024-05-0923 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursPsychedelics, placebo, and anesthetic dreams | Boris Heifets (part 1)Psychedelics are a hot topic in psychiatry today. They’re producing dramatic reversals for patients with severe depression, PTSD, and other mental health conditions. But scientists still have fundamental questions about why these drugs are so effective. For example, is the "trip" even necessary? Some think it is not and are working to design drugs with similar brain chemistry but no psychoactive effects — “Taking the trip out of the drug.” Others suspect that many of the benefits of psychedelics can be attributed to hype and expectation: People expect to get better, so they do. ...
2024-05-0230 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursWhy our brains are bad at climate change | Nik SaweThis week on From Our Neurons to Yours, we're talking about the neuroscience of climate change with neuroeconomist Nik Sawe.If you follow the science or the news, you know how big of a risk climate change is. Storms, coastal flooding, heat waves, extinctions, mass migration — the list goes on. But — as you can probably also appreciate — it’s really hard to properly perceive that risk. It’s much easier to focus on today’s emergency, this week’s looming deadline, this quarter’s economic forecast — where the risks are objectively much smaller, but feel more pres...
2024-04-2523 min
Stanford Psychology Podcast130 - Laura Gwilliams: The Needles that Unraveled the Brain’s Language and What We Can Learn from ThemAnjie chats with Dr. Laura Gwilliams. Laura is an assistant professor at Stanford University, jointly appointed between Stanford Psychology, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute and Stanford Data Science. Her work is focused on understanding the neural representations and operations that give rise to speech comprehension in the human brain. In this episode, Laura introduces her recent paper titled” Large-scale single-neuron speech sound encoding across the depth of human cortex”. She shares the insights we can derive from a recently developed technique called Neuropixels, which is essentially a tiny needle that can be placed into the human brain and record from hundr...
2024-04-1140 min
Lean In To Your SuperpowerYOU vs YOU (how to get out of your own way to become your SUPERHERO!)Your life is moving in the direction of your strongest thought! Changing how you view the world is one of the most difficult things you can achieve in your life. Then how does one get out of their own way and start taking action on becoming their authentic self? How does one address obstacles in your way? These questions and many more is answered in YOU vs YOU! Last week we discussed Falling IN LOVE with YOUR SUPERPOWER. How to balance your authentic self in light of other peoples opinions! How it is one of the main blocks...
2024-03-2358 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursFamous & Gravy: Mind Traveler | Oliver SacksThis week we’re doing something a little different. My good friend Michael Osborne, who produces this show also has his own podcast, called Famous & Gravy – Life Lessons from Dead Celebrities.I recently guest-hosted an episode about one of my all time scientific and writerly heros, Oliver Sacks, which we're releasing for both our audiences. I hope you enjoy!---We've concluded Season 3 of From Our Neurons to Yours! Stay tuned for more conversations from the frontiers of neuroscience in Season 4 — from psychedelics to cancer neuroscience to hypnosis — which we’ll share in j...
2024-03-1459 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursThe clocks in your body | Tony Wyss-CorayToday: the clocks in your body.We're talking again this week with Tony Wyss-Coray, the director of the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience here at Wu Tsai Neuro. Last year, we spoke with Tony about the biological nature of the aging process. Scientists can now measure signs of aging in the blood, and can in some cases slow or reverse the aging process in the lab. We discussed how this biological age can be quite different from your chronological age, and why understanding why people age at different rates has become a hot t...
2024-03-0722 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursRedefining Parkinson's Disease | Kathleen PostonToday on the show, a new understanding of Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders — right after Alzheimer's disease. It's familiar to many as a movement disorder: people with the disease develop difficulties with voluntary control of their bodies. But the real story is much more complicated.This week, we speak with Kathleen Poston, a Stanford neurologist who is at the forefront of efforts to redefine Parkinson's disease and related disorders based on their underlying biology — not just their symptoms. As Poston says: "The biology is the disease." ...
2024-02-2924 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursSpace and Memory | Lisa GiocomoThis week on From Our Neurons to Yours, we sit down with Stanford neurobiologist Lisa Giocomo to explore the intersection of memory and navigation. This episode was inspired by the idea of memory palaces. The idea is simple: Take a place you're very familiar with, say the house you grew up in, and place information you want to remember in different locations within that space. When it's time to remember those things, you can mentally walk through that space and retrieve those items.This ancient technique reveals something very fundamental about how our...
2024-02-2225 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursOCD & Ketamine | Carolyn RodriguezIn this episode of "From Our Neurons to Yours," we're taking a deep dive into the neuroscience of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and the recent discovery that the anesthetic ketamine can give patients a week-long "vacation" from the disorder after just one dose.Join us as we chat with Dr. Carolyn Rodriguez, a leading expert in the field, who led the first clinical trial of Ketamine for patients with OCD. She sheds light on what OCD truly is, breaking down the misconceptions and revealing the reality of this serious condition.Dr. Rodriguez, a professor of psychiatry...
2024-02-1522 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursWhy we do what we do | Neir EshelWelcome to "From Our Neurons to Yours," from the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University. Each week, we bring you to the frontiers of brain science — to meet the scientists unlocking the mysteries of the mind and building the tools that will let us communicate better with our brains.This week, we're tackling a BIG question in neuroscience: why do we do what we do? Specifically, we're talking about dopamine, and why the common understanding of this molecule as a "pleasure chemical" in the brain may be missing something fundamental. Joi...
2024-02-0822 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursBrain-Machine Interfaces | Jaimie HendersonImagine being trapped in your own body, unable to move or communicate effectively. This may seem like a nightmare, but it is a reality for many people living with brain or spinal cord injuries. Join us as we talk with Jaimie Henderson, a Stanford neurosurgeon leading groundbreaking research in brain-machine interfaces. Henderson shares how multiple types of brain implants are currently being developed to treat neurological disorders and restore communication for those who have lost the ability to speak. We also discuss the legacy of the late Krishna Shenoy and his transformative work i...
2024-02-0122 min
The Define Success Podcast with Matt LupiEP171: How Your Digital, Social and Personal Distractions Hold You BackAll research from this podcast is linked below: Johanna Lindström: Understanding Digital Distraction (doria.fi) Goals and Distractions: Explanations of Early Attrition from Traditional University Freshmen (core.ac.uk) Why multitasking does more harm than good | Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute (stanford.edu) Find Your Focus Zone: An Effective New Plan to Defeat Distraction and Overload - Lucy Jo Palladino - Google Books How to Eliminate Distractions for Achieving Your Goals - LifeHack Book Recommendation: Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention-and How to Think Deeply Again: H...
2024-01-1536 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursAn electrical storm in the brain | Fiona BaumerImagine an electrical storm in your brain, a power surge that passes through delicately wired neural circuits, making thousands of cells all activate at once. Depending on where it starts and where it travels in the brain, it could make your muscles seize up. It could create hallucinatory visions or imaginary sounds. It could evoke deep anxiety or a sense of holiness, or it could even make you lose consciousness. This kind of electrical storm is what we call a seizure. If your brain is prone to seizures, we call it epilepsy. This...
2023-11-3019 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursSeeing sound, tasting color | David EaglemanImagine Thursday. Does Thursday have a color? What about the sound of rain — does that sound taste like chocolate? Or does the sound of a saxophone feel triangular to you? For about 3% of the population, the sharp lines between our senses blend together. Textures may have tastes, sounds, shapes, numbers may have colors. This sensory crosstalk is called synesthesia, and it's not a disorder, just a different way of experiencing the world. To learn about the neuroscience behind this fascinating phenomenon and what it tells us about how our brains perceive the world, we w...
2023-11-1621 min
The Dissenter#858 Jessica Nowicki: The Evolution of Prosocial Behavior, Pair Bonding, and Empathy------------------Support the channel------------
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2023-11-0951 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursWhy sleep keeps us young | Luis de LeceaWelcome back, neuron lovers! In this week's episode of From Our Neurons to Yours, we're talking about the neuroscience of sleep. Why is slumber so important for our health that we spend a third of our lives unconscious? Why does it get harder to get a good night's sleep as we age? And could improving our beauty rest really be a key to rejuvenating our bodies and our minds?To learn more, I spoke with Luis de Lecea, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford, who has been at the forefront of sleep s...
2023-11-0920 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursWhere ant colonies keep their brains | Deborah GordonWelcome back to "From Our Neurons to Yours," a podcast from the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University. In this episode, we explore the collective intelligence of ant colonies with Deborah Gordon, a professor of biology at Stanford, an expert on ant behavior, and author of a new book, The Ecology of Collective Behavior.We discuss how ant colonies operate without centralized control, relying on simple local interactions, such as antennal contact, to coordinate their behavior. Gordon explains how studying ant colonies can provide insights into the workings of the human brain...
2023-11-0217 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursWhy we get dizzy | Kristen SteenersonWelcome back to "From Our Neurons to Yours," a podcast where we criss-cross scientific disciplines to take you to the frontiers of brain science. This week, we explore the science of dizziness with Stanford Medicine neurologist Kristen Steenerson, MD, who treats patients experiencing vertigo and balance disorders.In our conversation, we'll see that dizziness is not a singular experience but rather a broad term encompassing a variety of different sensations of disorientation. We learn about the vestibular system, a set of biological "accelerometers" located deep within the inner ear that detect linear and angular acceleration...
2023-10-2617 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursHow we understand each other | Laura GwilliamsWelcome back to our second season of "From Our Neurons to Yours," a podcast where we criss-cross scientific disciplines to take you to the cutting edge of brain science. In this episode, we explore how sound becomes information in the human brain, specifically focusing on how speech is transformed into meaning. Our guest this week is Neuro-linguist Laura Gwilliams, a faculty scholar at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute and Stanford Data Science based in the Stanford Department of Psychology. In our conversation, she breaks down the intricate steps involved in transforming speech sounds...
2023-10-1922 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursExercise and the brain | Jonathan LongWe all know exercise has all sorts of benefits beyond just making us stronger and fitter. It lowers and inflammation. It buffers stress and anxiety. It clarifies our thinking. In fact, regular exercise is one of the few things we know with reasonable confidence can help extend our healthy lifespan. But for all the evidence of the benefits of exercise, it's a bit surprising that we don't know more about how exercise does all these great things for our bodies and our brains.Today's guest, Jonathan Long, recently discovered a new molecule produced...
2023-06-2222 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursAging and Brain Plasticity | Carla ShatzWhen we're kids, our brains are amazing at learning. We absorb information from the outside world with ease, and we can adapt to anything. But as we age, our brains become a little more fixed. Our brain circuits become a little less flexible. You may have heard of a concept called neuroplasticity, our brain's ability to change or rewire itself. This is of course central to learning and memory, but it's also important for understanding a surprisingly wide array of medical conditions, including things like epilepsy, depression, even Alzheimer's disease. Today's guest, Carla...
2023-06-0821 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursBrain stimulation & "psychiatry 3.0" | Nolan WilliamsTranscranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a technology that uses magnetic fields to stimulate or suppress electrical activity in brain circuits. It's part of a transformation in how psychiatrists are thinking about mental health disorders that today's guest calls psychiatry 3.0. Nolan Williams has recently pioneered a new form of TMS therapy that has just been approved by the FDA to treat patients with treatment-resistant depression. That actually describes a lot of people with serious depression — somewhere between a third to a half. At some point talk therapy doesn't work, drugs don't work, and for most people, th...
2023-05-2524 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursBrain Fog | Michelle MonjeOne of the strangest and most disconcerting things about the COVID 19 pandemic has been the story of long COVID.Many COVID long-haulers have continued experiencing cognitive symptoms long after their initial COVID infection — loss of attention, concentration, memory, and mental sharpness — what scientists are calling "brain fog". For some patients, the condition is so serious that it can be impossible to go back to their pre-COVID lives.Today’s guest, actually had an early intuition that COVID-19 could trigger a neurological health crisis.Michelle Monje is a pediatric neuro-oncologist here at Stanford...
2023-05-1120 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursAssembling the brain | Sergiu PascaNearly one in five Americans lives with a mental illness. Unfortunately there’s a limited set of options for treating psychiatric disorders. One reason for that is that these disorders are still defined based on people’s behavior or invisible internal states — things like depressed mood or hallucinations. But of course, all our thoughts and behaviors are governed by our brains. And there’s a lot of research that makes it clear that many disorders, including schizophrenia, autism, and probably depression, may have their origin during early-stage brain development. The problem is that we still don’t kno...
2023-04-2723 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursParenting Lessons from Frogs and Spiders | Lauren O'ConnellToday we’re going to talk about frogs — and spiders — as parents. What today’s show is really about is “pair bonding” — that’s the scientific term for the collaborative bonds that form between two parents — as well as the bonds between parents and their offspring. It turns out that if you look across the animal kingdom, strong family bonds are way more widespread than you might imagine. Frogs have them. Spiders have them. Fish have them.We wanted to learn more about the neuroscience behind these familial bonds across the animal kingdom — an...
2023-04-1319 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursVirtual Touch | Allison OkamuraRecently on the show, we had a conversation about the possibility of creating artificial vision with a bionic eye. Today we're going to talk about technology to enhance another sense, one that often goes underappreciated, our sense of touch. We humans actually have one of the most sensitive senses of touch on the planet. Just in the tip of your fingers, there are thousands of tiny sensors, which scientists call mechanoreceptors that sense texture, vibration, pressure, even pain. Our sense of touch also lets us track how our bodies are moving in space. In fact...
2023-03-3019 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursBrain Rejuvenation | Tony Wyss-CorayHi listeners, we're shifting to a biweekly release schedule after this episode. See you in a couple weeks!---Most of us probably know someone who developed Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia as they got older. But you probably also know someone who stayed sharp as a tack well into their 80s or 90s. Even if it’s a favorite TV actor, like Betty White. The fact that people age so differently makes you wonder: is there some switch that could be flipped in our biology to let us all live...
2023-03-1616 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursBuilding a bionic eye | EJ ChichilniskyWe take this for granted, but our eyes are amazing. They're incredible. We process the visual world so automatically and so instantaneously, we forget how much work our eyes and our brains are doing behind the scenes, taking in light through the eyeball, transforming light into electrical signals in the retina, packaging up all that information, and sending it on to the brain, and then making sense of what it is we're seeing and responding to it.In fact, new science is showing that the eye itself, meaning the retina, is actually doing...
2023-03-0917 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursRespect your Biological Clock | Erin GibsonWe've probably all heard of circadian rhythms, the idea that our bodies have biological clocks that keep track of the daily cycle, sunrise to sunset. Maybe we've even heard that it's these biological rhythms that get thrown off when we travel across time zones or after daylight savings.So on one hand, it's cool that our body keeps track of what time it is, but today our question is just how important are our circadian rhythms to our health and wellbeing? Do we need to be paying attention to these daily rhythms and what happens...
2023-03-0215 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursIs Addiction a Disease? | Keith HumphreysWhat makes addiction a disease? I think we all know at this point that addiction is another major epidemic that is sweeping our country and the world, but there are few topics that are more misunderstood than addiction. In fact, some people question whether addiction is even truly a disease. To delve into this question of why neuroscientists and health policy experts do think of addiction as a disease, I spoke to Keith Humphreys, the Esther Ting Memorial Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, who is a leading expert on the ad...
2023-02-2310 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursYour gut - the second brain? | Julia KaltschmidtYou may have heard the idea that the gut is the second brain, but what does that really mean? Maybe it has to do with the fact that there are something like 100 to 600 million neurons in your gut. That's a lot of neurons. That's about as many as you'd find in the brain of say, a fruit bat, or an ostrich, or a Yorkshire Terrier. And it turns out, this network of intestinal neurons, termed by scientists the "enteric nervous system," can actually have a lot of impact on our daily lives – not jus...
2023-02-1614 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursThe Octopus Brain | Ernie Hwaun & Matt McCoyWhat can octopus and squid brains teach us about intelligence?One of the incredible things about octopus's is that not only do they have an advanced intelligence that lets them camouflage themselves, use tools and manipulate their environments and act as really clever hunters in their ecosystems, they do this with a brain that evolved essentially from something like a slug in the oceans hundreds of millions of years ago.Our brains share virtually nothing in common with theirs. The question for scientists is what can studying a creature with a completely different...
2023-02-0913 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursThe Mystery of Migraines | Gabriella MuwangaIf you've ever had a migraine, you know that the symptoms — splitting headache, nausea, sensitivity to light — mean you're going to want to spend some time in bed, in a dark room. Migraines are flat out debilitating, and the statistics back this up.Migraines are the third most common neurological disorder. They affect as many as a billion people around the world, making them one of the world's 10 most disabling diseases according to the World Health Organization. But for all the misery for those who suffer from migraines, it's been a long haul for...
2023-02-0213 minFrom Our Neurons to YoursPsychedelics and Empathy | Rob MalenkaWhy are psychiatrists taking a fresh look at MDMA? Recently, there's been growing excitement in the scientific community about revisiting the potential medical benefits of psychedelic drugs that have been off limits for decades. Scientists are discovering or rediscovering applications of psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, and other compounds for treating people with depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute has several leading experts paving the way in this field, including today's guest, Robert Malenka. Beginning in the 1980s, Malenka pioneered neuroscientists' understanding of how our brain circuits to change with experience by...
2023-01-2618 min
From Our Neurons to YoursAnnouncing: From Our Neurons to Yours!Announcing: From our Neurons to Yours, the new podcast from the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University.On this show, we criss-cross scientific disciplines to bring you to the frontiers of brain science, one simple question at a time. Send us a text!Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to...
2023-01-1001 min
Top of the NOGNRerouting... (feat. Isabel Low)Isabel Low is a PhD student at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University in the lab of Dr. Lisa Giocomo. You can learn more about Isabel's research here (https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(21)00504-3) and the Giocomo lab here (https://giocomolab.weebly.com).
2022-04-2937 min
Stigma Podcast - Mental Health#89 - The Future of Precision Psychiatry with Dr. Amit Etkin of Alto NeuroscienceDr. Amit Etkin is pioneering a revolution in the way mental health medications are designed, developed, prescribed, and brought to market. Precision psychiatry is the future of mental health treatment and Dr. Etkin is leading the way with his drug development platform, Alto Neuroscience. In this episode, Dr. Etkin explains why psychiatric drugs have failed, what he is doing about it and why it will work. Prior to Alto Neuroscience, Dr. Etkin was a tenured professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and a member of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute. Dr. Etk...
2021-10-1750 min
We Might Be TablesEpisode 25: Don't Wake the Lucid Dead (Waking Life - Richard Linklater)Waking Life is one of those movies that penetrates the deepest layers of your mind and stays there. The complex plot and themes often feel overwhelming, but satisfyingly so. Not to mention, the visceral and mesmerising animation leaves barely any room for distraction. It's a film to be watched on the big screen, and not just once.In today's episode, we discuss Linklater's experimental masterpiece, rotoscoping and all. Visual appeal aside, it is also fairly dense in its ideas (as mentioned previously), so it does call for close attention, and we've tried our best to cover everything...
2021-04-111h 08
Curiosity WeeklySelfish People Remember Being Generous, Why We Can’t Transplant Brains, and Buying Life Insurance from Vending MachinesLearn about why selfish people have false memories of being generous; why we can’t do brain transplants; and why you used to be able to buy life insurance from airport vending machines.
Selfish people actually have false memories of being generous by Kelsey Donk
Memory misfires help selfish maintain their self-image. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/yu-mmh042820.php
Carlson, R. W., Maréchal, M. A., Oud, B., Fehr, E., & Crockett, M. J. (2020). Motivated misremembering of selfish decisions. Nature Communications, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15602-4
Listener Question: Why can’t we do brain transplants? by Ashley Ha...
2020-05-2911 min