Brain Science Podcast #35: Mirror Neurons

Brain Science Podcast #35 is a discussion of Mirrors in the brain: How our minds share actions, emotions, and experience by Giacomo Rizzolatti and Corrado Sinigaglia. Mirror neurons were discovered in Rizzolatti's lab in Parma Italy in the early 1990's and his book is a detailed to discussion of the experimental evidence in both monkeys and humans. Direct single neuron recordings have been made in monkeys. The evidence in humans is indirect since it is based on mainly on neuroimaging studies like PET scans and fMRI scans. Even so mirror neurons appear to be essential to our ability to understand both the actions and emotions of others. Listen Now.

In this episode we also explore the evidence that there are other neurons in the motor areas of the brain that have sensory properties and that the areas of the brain traditionally thought to be devoted to sensory functions also contain neurons with motor properties. Another fascinating discovery is the fact that there are neurons that respond not only to somatosensory inputs (such as being touched) but also to visual or auditory inputs from objects within our peri-personal space. For background on these body maps I recommend listening to Episode 21 and Episode 23. If you are new to the Brain Science Podcast you may want to listen to those episodes first because this week's episode is a little more technical than most.

I will be exploring the importance of these discoveries in future episodes.

Listen to Brain Science Podcast Episode 35 (mirror neurons) NOW.

Links:

Giacomo Rizzolatti- University of Parma

Mirror neurons (wikipedia entry)

Mirror neurons (Scholarpedia entry written by Dr. Rizzolatti)

Listen to Brain Science Podcast #35 (mirror neurons) Now

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FINAL TAXI -- Moses With A Gun

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Charlton Heston, who won an Oscar for his leading role in Ben-Hur, has taken His Final Taxi at 84. On screen, Heston was best known as the star of religious and historic epics—he played Moses in The Ten Commandments and John the Baptist in The Greatest Story Ever Told also Sci-Fi movies like Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man. But off-screen he was an influential political activist, first as a proponent of civil rights in the 1960s, and more recently as an outspoken advocate of gun rights.

Brain Science Podcast #34: Exploring our sense of smell with author Rachel Herz

Rachel Herz

Episode 34 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Rachel Herz author of The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell (2007). Dr. Herz teaches at Brown University and she is a leading authority on the psychology of smell. We talk about the how smell works, its role in emotion and memory, why it is so vulnerable, and why smell is much more important than most of us realize. We also consider some of the questions that remain unanswered.

Listen to the Rachel Herz interview now. (Right click to download.)

Links and References:

Rachel Herz

• Brown Medical School faculty page
• Wikipedia: a good source for further references
• RachelHerz.com
• thescentofdesire.com

The 2004 Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology was awarded to Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck for their discoveries of "odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system."

BuckL, Axel R "A novel multigene family may encode odorant receptors: a molecular basis for odor recognition."
Cell. 1991 Apr 5;65(1):175-87.

"The (Shocked) Nose Knows" by Gisela Telis ScienceNOW Daily News 27 March 2008

The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell (2007) by Rachel Herz

Listen to Episode 34 (Right click to download)

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Books and Ideas #18: Interview with Tabitha Grace Smith of Buffy Between the Lines

Tabitha Grace Smith

Episode 18 of Books and Ideas is an interview with writer and podcaster Tabitha Grace Smith. Tabitha is the creator of Buffy Between the Lines, an award-winning podcast set in the universe of my favorite TV show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She is also a writer and works on several other podcasts. In her interview we talk about writing, podcasting, and why we love the work of Joss Whedon.

Included in this episode is the Valentine episode of Buffy Between the Lines, which is the episode in which I had my voice-acting "debut."

Listen to Episode 18 Now.

Links:

Jane Espenson's blog: (Jane is one of our favorite TV writers)

The Myth of Free Will: Revised & Expanded Edition (2008) by Cris Evatt (I have a short chapter in this edition.)

Buffy Between the Lines

Tabitha Grace Smith

Listen to Episode 18

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Brain Science Podcast #33: Exercise and the Brain

Episode 33 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Harvard physician, Dr. John Ratey about his new book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.

John J Ratey, MD

We explore the exciting evidence about how exercise helps the brain. It stimulates the release of a number of different neurotransmitters and neuropeptides, but probably more importantly it helps keeps these compounds balanced. We consider why exercise is so important in dealing with stress, in treating a wide range of mental illnesses including depression, anxiety, and attention deficit disorder. There is also evidence that exercise improves our ability to learn and our ability to avoid the loss of mental agility associated with aging.

Listen to Episode 33 Now.

This episode contains information that everyone can use. I hope you will share it with your friends and family.

Links and References:

Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (2008) by John J. Ratey

Dr. Ratey's website: Go here for more interview of Dr. Ratey and also to find links to the latest research about exercise and the brain.

Listen to Dr. Ratey's Interview Now.

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Brain Science Podcast #32: Illustrations and Enhanced Podcast

Episode 32 of the Brain Science Podcast was a whirlwind tour of brain anatomy based on Beyond the Zonules of Zinn: A Fantastic Journey Through Your Brain (2008) by David Bainbridge. The author has graciously share the illustrations from his book and I have posted a special page that is keyed to the podcast. I have also created an enhanced version (AAC) version of the podcast, which will not appear in the feed. I think the images are best viewed on the web, but I would appreciate your feedback on both the website illustrations and the enhanced podcast.

See the illustrations on the Brain Science Podcast website.

View the enhanced podcast (requires Quicktime).

Brain Science Podcast #32: A Whirlwind Tour of the Brain

Episode 32 of the Brain Science Podcast is a whirlwind (55 minute) tour of brain anatomy. It is based on David Bainbridge's new book: Beyond the Zonules of Zinn: A Fantastic Journey Through Your Brain (2008). Within the next few days I will be expanding the show notes to include key illustrations from the book. I want to thank David for sharing these images and I encourage everyone to read the book.

Listen to Episode 32

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Books and Ideas #17: Interview with author Mur Lafferty

Ginger and Mur

Episode 17 of Books and Ideas is an interview with writer Mur Lafferty. Mur's podcasts I Should Be Writing and Geek Fu Action Grip helped inspire me to start podcasting, so I was excited to get a chance to talk with her about her new novel, Playing for Keeps. We also talk a little about the challenges of podcasting.

Listen to episode 17

Part 1 of the audio version of Playing for Keeps is included in this episode. It starts at 30:48. You can find the novel at http://playingforkeepsnovel.com or at http://podiobooks.com.

Mur emphasized that her "street team" has done a lot to promote Playing for Keeps. Special thanks go to Natalie Metzger and Jarod Axelrod for artwork, and to Chris Miller for the companion video podcast, which is available on youtube.

Mur co-wrote Tricks of the Podcasting Masters with Rob Walch.

She has also had several great stories on Escape Pod. My favorite is "I look Forward to Remembering You," which is scheduled to become a video on http://strangerthings.tv.

To find more of Mur's work go to http://murlafferty.com.

Listen to Episode 17 of Books and Ideas

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Brain Science Podcast #31: Brain Rhythms with György Buzsáki

György Buzsáki, author of Rhythms of the Brain (OUP 2006) is a Professor of Neuroscience at Rutgers University. His book is a comprehensive review of the current state of research in the field of brain oscillations. It includes the role of these oscillations in sleep and memory. In episode 31 of the Brain Science Podcast Dr. Buzáki explains why the rhythms of the brain are important and reflects on why this field has been neglected by some neuroscientists. I think he makes a convincing case for the position that these rhythms are an essential component of brain function.

Listen to Dr. György Buzsáki's interview about Brain Rhythms

• György Buzsáki, Professor of Neuroscience at Rutgers University
  • Learn about his lab and research
  • Contact information

SHOW NOTES:

Partial List of Scientists Mentioned:

• Stephen Strogatz: known for his discovery of "small world" architecture
  • His 2003 bestseller Sync: The emerging science of spontaneous order is aimed at a general audience
• Nancy Kopell: mathematician
  • Buzsaki recommends her review of the analytical approaches to neuronal oscillators: We got Rhythm: Dynamical Systems of the Nervous System. N Am Math Soc 47: 6-16 (2000).
• Zoltán Néda (Bebes-Bolyai University Romania): the spontaneous synchronization of hand clapping
• Hermann Haken: German laser physicist who studies bidirectional causation
  • The Science of Structure: Synergetics (1984)
• John O'Keefe (University College, London): along with Lynn Nadel he discovered how the hippocampus forms a cognitive map of the world
  • He has shown how the timing of osscillations in the hippocampus are important
  • "Independent rate and temporal coding in hippocampal pyramidal cells" by John Huxter, Neil Burgess, and John O'Keefe. Nature 425, 828-832 (23 October 2003)
• David McCormick (Yale University): showed that neurons from the thalamus of a ferret can oscillate spontaneously
  • He has also studied the oscillations of place cells in the hippocampus
• David Hubel and Thorston Wiesal: along with Vernon Montcastle they pioneered the use of single neuron recordings in the neocortex of casts and monkeys
  • Montcastle, VB (1997) "The Columnar Organization of the Neocortex." Brain 102:01-722.
• Claude Shannon: founder of Information Theory
• Jan Born (University of Lübeck, Germany): experiments with how sleep improves both memory and problem solving
  

Topics and questions:

• Basics of oscillations and synchrony
• What functions are accomplished by brain rhythms?
• The role of hippocampal ripples in memory
• What happens to our brain rhythms while we sleep
• The importance of synchrony in saving energy in the brain

This episode will appeal to listeners with a background in math or engineering, but Dr. Buzsáki provides numerous everyday examples that make the material accessible to everyone.

Listen to this episode now.

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Brain Science Podcast #30: The Evolution of Language

Episode 30 of the Brain Science Podcast is a discussion of The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language by Christine Kenneally. We focus mostly on the first part of the book, which tells the story of how the study of language evolution has grown from almost a banned subject to a new field of inquiry called evolutionary linguistics. We also reflect on how recent findings in neuroscience like the importance of plasticity are influencing the field.

Listen to Episode 30

Scientists Discussed in the Episode:

• Noam Chomsky
• Sue Savage-Rumbaugh
• Stuart Shanker
  • Brain Science Podcast #6: Discussion of The First Idea
  • Brain Science Podcast #7: Interview about bonobos
• Steven Jay Gould
• Steven Pinker and Paul Bloom
• Philip Leiberman

*References:

Pinker, Steven, and Paul Bloom, "Natural Language and Natural Selection," Behavioral and Brains Sciences 13 (1990): 707-84.

Marc D. Hauser, Noam Chomsky, and W. Tecumseh Fitch (2002). "The Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who Has It, and How Did It Evolve?" Science 298:1569-1579.

Christine Kenneally, The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language (2007).

Stanley I. Greenspan and Stuart G. Shanker, The First Idea: How Symbols, Language, and Intelligence Evolved from our Primate Ancestors to Modern Humans (2004).

*Additional references can be found in Kenneally's book and at the websites of the scientists listed above.

Listen to this episode now.

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