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This week on Brains & Bourbon, we share a Manhattan with H. Craig Heller who talk us through the "how" and "why" of sleep and explains what hibernating astronauts have in common with ground squirrels. Plus much more! Dr. Heller is a professor of biology and is the co-director of the Stanford Center for Down Syndrome Research.
This week on Brains & Bourbon, we share a Manhattan with H. Craig Heller who talk us through the "how" and "why" of sleep and explains what hibernating astronauts have in common with ground squirrels. Plus much more!
Dr. Heller is a professor of biology and is the co-director of the Stanford Center for Down Syndrome Research.
Do some people experience a rush of dopamine when they pray or preach the gospel?
Becca Krock's fascinating answer evokes a wide range of subjects, from St. Teresa, "who certainly seems to have enjoyed praying", to the handful of studies that have measured brain activity during prayer, to the writings of William James, "the father of modern psychology".
In the end, she writes, it may be reasonable to conclude that "prayer is an intricate composite of many more run-of-the-mill psychological processes (attention, memory, emotion, speech). And each one...is accompanied by the neural correlates you’d expect to see during that process, regardless of whether it’s occurring in a religious or secular context."
Image source: continuedon.wordpress.com
Read MoreHow many types of neurons are there?
Joran Sorokin discusses one popular property used for distinguishing between neurons: neurotransmission, or how individual cells communicate with one another. How do neuroscientists use this property to break neurons into subtypes? And where does this leave glia??
Read on to learn more.
Read MoreIt is possible to eat until your stomach bursts open, but most people will never come close to this horror. ... The neuronal circuits that control our eating behavior have evolved to keep us well fed, but not overfed. There are triggers that tell you to start eating, such as hunger and the availability of food, and triggers that tell you to stop, such as sensation of dangerous foods or gut distension.
But what if that system was broken? Kristin Scott’s lab at UC Berkeley has discovered a small set of neurons in the fruit fly that chronically inhibit eating. Without them, the animal will eat until it regurgitates, excretes, or explodes.
Image credit: Allan-Hermann Pool, Kristin Scott’s Lab at UC Berkeley.
Read MoreThis week on Brains and Bourbon, we share whiskey sours with Daniel Hawes, a post-doctoral fellow studying the interplay between personality and decision making in Sam McClure’s lab. We ask Daniel about his journey from agricultural engineering student in Germany to psychologist at Stanford, and how the different perspectives of engineering, economics, psychology and neuroscience interact to influence his approach to understanding how individuals make decisions. Daniel tells us about how psychologists currently think about defining individual differences between people, and how his research is revealing differences in brain activity during decision making that are related to the "big five" dimensions of personality. In the end, we wax philosophical about the importance of understanding personality in developing self-awareness and whether it would be a good idea to tickle people in an fMRI machine. --- In the interview, we mentioned the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. If you haven't heard of this, you should really see the videos of cute kids trying their best to avoid sweet, white, gooey temptation. Check out a recreation of the original experiment here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3S0xS2hdi4.
This week on Brains and Bourbon, we share whiskey sours with Daniel Hawes, a post-doctoral fellow studying the interplay between personality and decision making in Sam McClure’s lab. We ask Daniel about his journey from agricultural engineering student in Germany to psychologist at Stanford, and how the different perspectives of engineering, economics, psychology and neuroscience interact to influence his approach to understanding how individuals make decisions.
Daniel tells us about how psychologists currently think about defining individual differences between people, and how his research is revealing differences in brain activity during decision making that are related to the "big five" dimensions of personality. In the end, we wax philosophical about the importance of understanding personality in developing self-awareness and whether it would be a good idea to tickle people in an fMRI machine.
---
In the interview, we mentioned the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. If you haven't heard of this, you should really see the videos of cute kids trying their best to avoid sweet, white, gooey temptation. Check out a re-creation of the original experiment here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3S0xS2hdi4.
This week on Brains & Bourbon, we share a cocktail with Rob Malenka, who describes his journey from party animal to world renowned scientist, and gives a beautiful and in-depth history of one of the most important fields in neuroscience. Plus much more! Dr. Malenka is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science here at Stanford.
This week on Brains & Bourbon, we share a cocktail with Rob Malenka, who describes his journey from party animal to world renowned scientist, and gives a beautiful and in-depth history of one of the most important fields in neuroscience. Plus much more!
Dr. Malenka is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science here at Stanford.
As students across the country graduate, let’s take a quick look at the degree that most of us at Neuwrite West either already have or wish to have: the PhD.
Read MoreThis spring, I supervised three students from the California College of Arts (CCA) who were taking a course called Biological Design. This new course aims to give artists insight into biological structures and evolutionary principles, to provide biologists with new ways of looking at their data, and to "explore the synergies between biology, design and art" according to the course curriculum. One issue I discussed with my students was vaccination, and how it can be challenging for people to decide if vaccination is the right thing for them. If you haven’t suffered from flu for the last few years, why should you race to CVS in September and roll up your sleeve for your shot? Watch the video I made using my students' artwork to explore this qustion.
Read MorePatients suffering from complete anterograde amnesia are (luckily) very scarce, but their condition is very interesting as it helps us understand how memories are formed. As a consequence, these patients tend to become very famous in the scientific world because of the numerous experiments they participate in.
A particularly famous example is Henry Molaison; over the years Henry’s participation in research led to many insights (and new questions) about the processes that underlie the fate of our beloved memories. Because of all the attention Henry receives, in textbooks and classrooms alike, you might think that he was the only amnesiac that affected neuroscientific theories.
This is not true.
The recently deceased Kent Cochrane has meant a lot to memory research as well, because of his own particular amnesia.
Image Source: Medical Art Service, Munich; Wellcome Images
Read MoreThis week on Brains and Bourbon, science journalist Greg Miller talks about the psychological cost of drone warfare, DIY brain stimulation, science journalism, and a lot more! Greg Miller spent 11 years as a reporter for Science magazine and is now a senior writer at WIRED magazine.
This week on Brains and Bourbon, science journalist Greg Miller talks about the psychological cost of drone warfare, DIY brain stimulation, science journalism, and a lot more!
Greg Miller spent 11 years as a reporter for Science magazine and is now a senior writer at WIRED magazine.
You can find Greg's article on the psychological impact of drone warfare here: Drone Wars
You can also find Greg's series on treating mental illness in developing countries here: The Unseen: Mental Illness's Global Toll
And you can read his article about DIY brain stimulation here: Inside the Strange New World of DIY Brain Stimulation.
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