Podcasts about fmri

Valentine's Day may be all about couples, but this week's episode celebrates heartbreak, breakups, and proudly being single as a Pringle.Part 1: Getting dumped is the push psychologist Jiawen Huang needs to step outside his comfort zone.Part 2: While completing her PhD in neuroscience, Leslie Sibener is determined to fix her relationship. Jiawen Huang obtained his PhD in Psychology from Columbia University, where he studied how prior knowledge provides a scaffold for prediction and memory. He grew up in China, and did his undergrad at University College London where he scanned people watching movies in fMRI scanner. In his free time, he can be found dancing salsa, practicing Spanish, and whittling wood carvings, all of which he started doing this past year.Leslie Sibener is a neuroscientist and science communicator based in New York City. She received degrees in Neuroscience and Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University, and her PhD at Columbia University where she studied movement and motor learning. Now as a postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University, Leslie researches the mechanisms that allow specific memories to be stored for long term memory in the brain, while others are forgotten. She has always been passionate about sharing science outside of the lab. This has manifested in being the group leader the science writing group NeuWrite, a team member of Stories of WiN, and founder of Scientist on the Subway. Additionally, she has collaborated with a variety other groups, such as BioBus, Facts Machine Podcast, and the Dance Theatre of Harlem, to engage the public with science.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of The Science of Creativity, Dr. Keith Sawyer interviews cognitive neuroscientist Dr. John Kounios, one of the world's leading researchers on insight, the "aha moment," and the neuroscience of creativity. Kounios—coauthor of The Eureka Factor—has spent decades studying how sudden breakthroughs emerge, what's happening in the brain when insight strikes, and how we can increase the odds of having more creative ideas. Together, Keith and John unpack the mysteries of insight, from Archimedes' bathtub to shower thoughts, jazz improvisation, and why some kinds of creativity flourish only when we're relaxed, a little fuzzy, and not trying too hard. You'll learn what brain areas activate during an aha moment, how EEG and fMRI reveal the timing and location of insight, and why creativity requires both hard analytical work and moments of letting go. This wide-ranging conversation covers the neuroscience of insight, the psychology of mind-wandering, the power of sleep, the secrets of flow states, improvisation, ADHD and creativity, and practical techniques anyone can use to boost creative thinking. In This Episode What the "Eureka effect" really is—and what makes an insight different from everyday thinking Why most people have many small insights they never notice How researchers trigger and measure insights in the lab The brain signature of an aha moment (and why it's like a sudden electrical "pop") Why insight and analytical thinking rely on different brain systems How positive mood, low pressure, and "psychological safety" expand thought Why we get ideas in the shower—and why Thomas Edison napped with steel balls How sleep reorganizes memory and produces breakthrough ideas Why creativity is a "strong spice"—powerful, but only useful at the right moment The surprising connection between ADHD symptoms and insight-based problem solving The neuroscience of flow and why expertise makes effortless creativity possible What jazz improvisation teaches us about creative brain states Practical steps for becoming more creative this week Five Key Takeaways Insight is sudden, non-obvious, and comes with a burst of neural activity. It's a different cognitive process than deliberate problem-solving, and each mode has strengths. Positive mood, reduced pressure, and mind-wandering increase insight. Psychological safety and relaxation widen the scope of thought, allowing remote associations to surface. You can't have insights without preparation. Expertise and hard work load the mind with the building blocks that insights rearrange in new ways. Sleep is one of the most powerful creativity boosters. It consolidates memory, breaks fixation, and often produces solutions you couldn't find the day before. Flow emerges from expertise and reduced frontal-lobe control. In high-skill improvisation (like jazz), creativity becomes automatic, effortless, and deeply absorbing. Practical Advice from John Kounios Get more sleep. It improves mood, reorganizes memory, removes fixation, and dramatically increases insight. Make time for creativity. Insights won't happen if you never give yourself space to think, wander, or play. Music by license from SoundStripe: "Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ "Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ "What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich   Copyright (c) 2026 Keith Sawyer

What if most of your automatic thoughts aren't true—and your body pays the price when you believe them? We sit down with Dr. Lee Warren, W. Lee Warren, MD, is a neurosurgeon, an award-winning author, an Iraq War veteran, and the host of The Dr. Lee Warren Podcast. He teaches the art of connecting neuroscience, faith, and daily practices for leading a healthier, better, and happier life. www.DrLeeWarren.com The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery - https://www.netgalley.com/widget/897209/redeem/8bef54f4147ff6d63f2dfe6b94784e67155f495b79ab8b6190a88f48c82ddb68SELF-BRAIN SURGERY MIGHT JUST SAVE YOUR LIFE - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bd26c48b2cf79b5897a6c45/t/68b701504975283eb3c60afb/1756823889694/Press+Kit+-+The+Life+Changing+Art+of+Self-Brain+Surgery.pdfThrough a vivid fMRI moment and hard-won personal story, he shows how a single choice of thought can alter brain activity, shift physiology, and open a path out of anxiety, grief, and chronic stress.We unpack the difference between emotions and feelings, and why your heart racing can signal fear or excitement depending on the story you attach to it. Dr. Warren explains neuroplasticity in plain language—neurons that fire together wire together—and how rumination keeps cortisol high, sleep poor, and pain persistent. You'll learn his “thought biopsy” method to test whether a thought is true before letting it run your day, plus how to move decisions from the amygdala's fight-or-flight to the frontal lobes where wisdom lives. We also dig into patterns behind migraines and avoidance loops, and how reframing, gratitude, and scripture-backed replacements can transform relationships—starting with a powerful marriage turnaround story.If you've felt stuck, spiritually numb, or trapped by old patterns, this conversation offers a practical, hopeful plan: notice, pause, and rewire with truth. Dr. Warren shares three steps you can start today to separate mind from brain, reclaim agency, and build healthier defaults that feel like peace. His new book, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery, lands on February 3 with tools, stories, and science to help you renew your mind and restore your life.If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a quick review so more people can find these tools. Your next thought could change everything.✨ Join the EMPOWERED BY FAITH: 5 Days To A Lighter You Challenge!

Send us a textMohammed “Mo” Abouelsoud is a neuroscientist-entrepreneur whose career sits at the intersection of brain science, noninvasive neuromodulation, and precision healthcare. He is the CEO of U: The Mind Company ( https://uthemind.company ), where he leads the development of precision, noninvasive neuromodulation technologies aimed at restoring dysfunctional brain networks in Parkinson's disease and other neurological disorders. Mo's journey into neuroscience began long before the boardroom—rooted instead in hands-on clinical exposure and early immersion in brain imaging and data science. While training at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, he worked in a neuromodulation data analysis lab, learning to map structural and functional brain connectivity using DTI and fMRI, and gaining fluency in tools such as MATLAB and FSL. This early exposure shaped his enduring interest in the brain not as isolated regions, but as dynamic, networked systems that can be measured, modeled, and—critically—modulated.At OSU, Mo further expanded his technical foundation through research spanning nanotechnology, fluorescence imaging, and signal measurement, synthesizing DNA-gold nanoparticle conjugates for precision sensing. Across these experiences, a unifying question emerged: how can we quantify brain function objectively, and how can we intervene noninvasively to restore lost connectivity?That question became the backbone of his entrepreneurial work. Prior to founding U: The Mind Company, Mo co-founded Tremo, a quantitative tracking platform designed to objectively measure motor symptoms and treatment response in neurological disease—an early step toward personalized, data-driven neurology.At U: The Mind Company, Mo now leads a multidisciplinary effort combining transcranial electrical stimulation (tES), neuroimaging, advanced signal analytics, and AI-driven interpretation within the company's Compressive Healthcare Intelligence Platform (CHIP). His work has helped demonstrate that targeted frontal lobe stimulation can significantly enhance functional connectivity in Alzheimer's disease networks, with observed increases in local and interhemispheric coherence that suggest meaningful neuroplastic re-engagement of impaired circuits. In Parkinson's disease, his team has shown measurable reductions in tremor and dyskinesia using objective video analysis and motor tracking—bringing rigor and quantification to outcomes that have traditionally been subjective.Threaded throughout Mo's neuroscience journey is an unusually holistic worldview. Before entering research and medicine, he spent years working in permaculture and regenerative farming, an experience that deeply influenced his systems-level thinking. Just as ecosystems thrive through balance, feedback, and interdependence, Mo approaches the brain as a living network—one that can be guided back toward health through precise, adaptive intervention rather than blunt force. Today, Mo Abouelsoud is driven by a singular mission: to translate neuroscience into scalable, noninvasive technologies that restore brain function, dignity, and agency to patients, while redefining how neurological disease is measured, treated, and understood.Important Episode Link - Virtual tES Device Treatment for Parkinson's Disease Motor Symptoms -https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07182058 #MohammedAbouelsoud #UTheMindCompany #Noninvasive #Neurotechnology #Neuromodulation #Electroceuticals #TranscranialElectricalStimulation #TranscranialDirectCurrentStimulation #TranscranialAlternatingCurrentStimulation #AlzheimersDisease #ParkinsonsDisease #PsychiatricDisorders #DigitalTwinBrain #STEM #Innovation #Science #Technology #ReSupport the show

Send us a textListen to a fascinating conversation with neurosurgeon Dr. Lee Warren about how the art of "Self-Brain Surgery" can change your life for the better. Do you want to have more peace, contentment and happiness? How about less ruminating and worrying? If so, Dr. Warren's teachings can help you.We explore how the mind directs the brain, why most automatic thoughts are untrue, and how to use a “thought biopsy” to stop rumination, lower cortisol, and build realistic hope that holds up under grief and stress. Practical tools turn faith and neuroscience into daily habits that steady sleep, speech, and relationships.• mind versus brain distinction and why it matters• fMRI evidence of thoughts changing physiology• neuroplasticity creating worry racetracks• thought biopsy and replacement with realistic truths• one-thought-at-a-time focus and gratitude anchors• chronic stress, cortisol, and long-term health risk• hope and meaning amid sorrow without toxic positivity• shifting from patient to doctor of your own mind• practical steps to feel calmer and act wiserGet the book “The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery” and “Hope Is The First Dose.” Find Dr. Warren at drleewarren.com and follow @DrLeeWarren on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube Save 70%! Order Stephanie's book Imagine More: Do What You Love, Discover Your Potential Learn more at StephanieNelson.comFollow us on Instagram @stephanie_nelson_cmFollow us on Facebook at CouponMom

Hello Interactors,Minnesota has seen federal incursion and overreach before. And not just in 2020. These removal tests we're witnessing are rooted in the premise of US ‘manifest destiny' and how quickly the notion of ‘home' can be made fungible by a violent state. But likeminded bodies always resist being bullied.SCAFFOLD, SOVEREIGNTY, AND SEIZUREOn December 26, 1862, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln authorized the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Mankato, Minnesota. The execution, staged as public theater, was not a solemn judicial act. A special scaffold was built, martial law was declared, and an estimated 4,000 spectators witnessed the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The spectacle mattered because it carried meaning beyond Mankato. The hanging marked the end of the six-week U.S.–Dakota War of 1862. This brutal conflict devastated the Minnesota River Valley and left deep trauma in Dakota communities. It also conveyed that the state could swiftly and effectively attempt control of contested land by violent force.Mankato was the visible climax, but Fort Snelling was the quieter cruelty that continued. After the war, Dakota families — women, children, elders — were confined in harsh conditions near the fort during the winter of 1862–63. Disease and exposure killed between 130 and 300 Dakota people. Execution and exile worked together. One provided public power, the other attempted to ensure territorial outcomes.Here's what Dakota Chief Wabasha's son-in-law, Hdainyanka, wrote to him shortly before his execution:“You have deceived me. You told me that if we followed the advice of General Sibley, and gave ourselves up to the whites, all would be well; no innocent man would be injured. I have not killed, wounded or injured a white man, or any white persons. I have not participated in the plunder of their property; and yet to-day I am set apart for execution, and must die in a few days, while men who are guilty will remain in prison. My wife is your daughter, my children are your grandchildren. I leave them all in your care and under your protection. Do not let them suffer; and when my children are grown up, let them know that their father died because he followed the advice of his chief, and without having the blood of a white man to answer for to the Great Spirit.”This moral failing was part of a larger burgeoning political economy. In 1862, the Twin Cities were still emerging, with mills, river commerce, and infrastructure. Yet the region's future as an urban, financial, and political center depended on converting Dakota and Ojibwe homelands into transferable property. The spring prior to the massacre, in May 1862, Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, handing out 160-acre chunks of stolen land labeled now as “public.” Colonizers and immigrants could occupy this land, and be defended by the US government, if they showed they could “improve” it through five years of occupation.This act negated all Dakota treaties, seized 24 million acres of Minnesota lands, and mandated removal of what were now called Dakota “outlaws.” This converted communal Indigenous homelands into surveyed “public domain” eligible for homesteading, auctions, and rail grants, directly feeding wheat production for Minneapolis mills. Speculators and railroads exploited the act via proxy filings, reselling “cleared” parcels at profit to European immigrants.By 1870, non-Native population surged from 172,000 to over 439,000. The “clearing” of land was not metaphorical. It was the prerequisite for surveying, fencing, settlement, rail corridors, and the wider commodity circuits that would bind the Upper Midwest to national and global markets.That is what Harvard historian Sven Beckert calls war capitalism. He argues that global capitalism's ascent was not a clean evolution toward free exchange. It relied on coercion, conquest, and violence. As his book on the history of Capitalism lays out, state funded war capitalism fundamentally relied on slavery, the dispossession of Indigenous peoples, imperial expansion, armed commerce, and the imposition of sovereignty over both people and territory. In this framing, the Dakota and Ojibwe were obstacles to industrialization and commodification. The frontier needed to be safe for settlement and investment of Germans, Irish, and Scandinavians, as well as railroads and industry. This included these two flour mills, the world's largest by 1880: General Mills and Pillsbury.The gallows in Mankato were the blunt instrument that made the state-capital alliance credible. The point was not only to punish alleged crimes, but to demonstrate a capacity and will to kill. The American state needed to show it could override Indigenous sovereignty and reorder space. The subsequent removals and confinement at Fort Snelling completed the transformation. “Home” was recoded from relationship into asset. This land was no longer lived geography but extractable territory, from stewarding real soil to the selling of real estate.TOPHOPHILIA, TIES, AND TENSIONSWar capitalism is not merely to punish resistance, but to convert a lived place into a fungible asset. But violence plays a deeper role than just legal rearrangement. It has to break this constant of human life: our attachment to place.Behavioral geographer Yi-Fu Tuan borrowed the term topophilia to describe this attachment — the “affective bond between people and place or setting.” The phrase can sound soft and sentimental but it can also cause friction in projects of political economy.The state may be able to abolish or rewrite a treaty, redraw a border, rename a river, and issue new deeds, but it still confronts bodies that have been oriented by firm ground. It's on these grounds that paths are walked, food gathered, relatives buried, stories anchored to landmarks, and seasonal rhythms internalized as a habit of life. The obstacle is embedded and embodied in the physiology, including cognitive, and grounds to location.Modern neuroscience gives a concrete account of how place becomes part of a person. The hippocampus plays a central role in spatial memory and navigation, and research on place cells shows that hippocampal neurons fire in relation to specific locations in an environment. Familiar surroundings are not only around us they are within us. The brain builds spatial scaffolding that links location to memory, routine, prediction, and emotional regulation.When cognition is tied to the specificity of place, it becomes hard for a parcel to be made equivalent to another. Commodification demands interchangeability. A home cannot easily be made equivalent to another home when it's part of the nervous system — not quickly, not cleanly, and often not at all. When the state-capital alliance imagines territory as a grid of extractable value, it is implicitly trying to override how humans experience territory. That is why “simple” displacement so often produces disproportionate harm. Psychiatrist Mindy Fullilove coined the term root shock to describe the traumatic stress that follows the destruction of one's “emotional ecosystem.” Root shock is not only grief or nostalgia. It is a stress response to the sudden loss of the social and spatial cues that stabilize daily life. The shredding of a mesh of relationships, routines, and meanings embedded in a neighborhood or homeland.The root shock of the state violence of 1862 was not just incidental to the project of transformation. It was structurally necessary. If topophilia is a biological and psychological anchor, then a purely legal or economic strategy (bureaucratic coercion) will often be insufficient because the anchor of topophilia holds. To clear land at speed and scale, the state reaches for tools that can sever attachment abruptly. Public executions, mass incarceration, forced marches, and exile doesn't just relocate people. They're violent attempts to scramble the conditions under which people can remain attached at all. It transforms topophilia into vulnerability.Work on social exclusion and “social pain” helps explain why. In a widely cited fMRI study, Naomi Eisenberger and colleagues found increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex during experiences of exclusion. This parallels patterns seen in physical pain studies where distress is tracked with painful activities. The point is not that social threat is “just like” physical injury, but that the brain treats social severing as a serious alarm condition. It's something that demands attention, vigilance, and behavioral change to overcome.ROOTS, RESISTANCE, AND REPAIRTopophilia doesn't end with the so-called frontier or attempts at ‘removing' its inhabitants. It reappears wherever people form durable bonds. That includes the streets and schools, churches and parks, language, kin, and the local economies and cultures war capitalism eventually built. The Dakota and Ojibwe were never “removed” in any final sense. Many live and organize in and around the Twin Cities today.In South Minneapolis, the Indigenous Protector Movement, a biproduct of the American Indian Movement, works out of the American Indian Cultural Corridor along Franklin Avenue — an immediate target for ICE. The protectors made their presence known as a form of ongoing place-based care and defense. It is a living archive of tactics for defending attachment under pressure through direct action, community building, patrols, and the mundane discipline of showing up. What it offers is not merely a critique of state violence, but vigilance without spectacle, care without permission, and solidarity as a daily habit rather than a momentary sentiment.Other areas of Minneapolis show how when federal enforcement turns public space into a zone of uncertainty, topophilic neighbors often respond by adopting exactly those same “weapons” of persistence — care, documentation, rapid communication, mutual aid — that have long characterized Indigenous resistance and slavery abolitionist networks.Standing Rock, where the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and allies gathered in 2016 to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline, demonstrated how quickly infrastructure can scale when a place becomes a shared object of defense.The #NoDAPL movement assembled a broad coalition of Indigenous nations and allies, over 200 tribes, alongside legal support, medical care, and communications systems designed to withstand state patience. The 2020 George Floyd uprising in Minneapolis also revealed how love of place can become a platform for organized care rather than retreat. Alongside protest, residents built mutual-aid channels, street-medic networks, food distribution, and neighborhood defense efforts that treated the city as an emotional ecosystem worth repairing. What looked to outsiders like spontaneous eruption was, on the ground, a rapid layering of roles that included medics, legal observers, supply runners, translators, and de-escalators. This ecology of participation made it possible for large numbers of people to act without centralized command.Social psychology helps explain why these movements generate allies rather than only sympathizers. One key concept is collective efficacy — the combination of social cohesion and a shared willingness to intervene for the common good. It blossoms when people repeatedly see each other act, learn local norms of mutual obligation, and build trust that intervention will be supported rather than punished. All rooted in topophilia.Place attachment can bridge boundaries that would otherwise keep people separate. Work in community psychology and planning shows that place attachment and meaning can support participation and collective engagement, especially when development or coercion threatens everyday life. In other words, topophilia is not just private feeling. When it's under threat it can become public motive and an engine for coalition.The coalition in Minneapolis is being characterized by the federal government as terrorists. This borrows from a long history of resistance to violence because war capitalism has never been only domestic. The United States and its allies refined coercive governance overseas through night raids and “capture-or-kill” operations in Afghanistan, midnight house raids in Iraq, and broader militarized campaigns that treat homes as “searchable terrain” and communities as “intelligence environments.”Many of the officials, contractors, and voters who authorized or normalized these methods rarely imagined the same atmosphere of violent seizure in their neighborhood. As unimaginable as it may be watching unmarked vehicles, sudden detentions, and public uncertainty coming to American streets — used against the very citizens and taxpayers who fund such operations — it's not to those victims overseas in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, or even inner city America.That return is what the poet and politician Aimé Césaire called the “imperial boomerang” effect, the idea that techniques tolerated in peripheral countries can come home to roost. In the U.S., the boomerang has long “landed” first on people of color. It emerges through surveillance and disruption campaigns like the two decades of the covert and illegal COINTELPRO program where the FBI targeted counterculture groups of the so-called New Left.Or the “Palmer Raids” of 1919 and 1920 targeting largely Italian and Eastern European Jewish immigrants and their left-leaning politics. These led to riots in 30 US cities and culminated in the bombing of the home of A. Mitchell Palmer, the US attorney general. These programs all reflect the notion that war can come home — just look at the increased militarizing of policing complete with SWAT tactics. And the same history that produced the scaffold of war capitalism of the past also produced reservoirs of resistance we see here and now. When neighbors anywhere respond to incursions not only with fear but with organized vigilance and material support, they are adapting older strategies of care found in Indigenous, abolitionist, and other movement-based defenses of people and places against infiltration, intimidation, and attempted violent removal.We can see how war capitalism endures. Mankato's 1862 gallows aimed to clear Dakota homelands of their people for homesteading, rails, and mills. Meanwhile, today's Operation Metro Surge includes thousands of federal agents raiding Minneapolis homes and streets, attempting to sever immigrant attachments to allegedly enforce labor control and national security. These militarized spectacles of warrantless entries, tear gas, and shootings echo what Beckert has uncovered. They treat people and place as obstacles to commodification rather than roots of stewardship.Yet topophilia also persists. These cross cultural rapid-response networks are not new to these lands, even though the US government tried to erase them centuries ago. The inspiring actions we see in Minneapolis reflect the values of compassion, positiveness, and respect for all relatives with neighborly solidarity that the first occupants of that land embraced. They're now woven with their allied 21st century neighbors in common and shared resistance. As best expressed here by Indigenous studies and political ecology scholar Melanie Yazzie. (and the longer version here) Minneapolis, like those acts of resistance in the nearby Dakotas, enacts and rehearses an alternative form of civil governance that centers mutual obligation over coercion and extraction. It shows how cities can survive the strain and stay alive — not through fear and gain, but through care that grounds and sustains. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit interplace.io

Your mind races, loops, analyses, plans, replays — and somewhere in the background, the pressure in your head starts building. For many people, migraines don't begin with a food trigger or a weather shift… they begin with thoughts that won't turn off.In this episode of Migraine Heroes Podcast, host Diane Ducarme explores the link between mental noise and physical pain — and why a busy mind can be just as triggering as a stressful day or a skipped meal.We dive into neuroscience, the lived experience, and the Eastern-medicine understanding of the “wind of the mind” — the invisible force that stirs tension, drains energy, and pushes the brain toward migraine.You'll discover:

On this episode of Trending in Ed with Mike Palmer, unlock the secrets of the reading brain and the future of educational technology in this deep dive with Dr. Ola Ozernov-Palchik. A researcher at Boston University's Wheelock College of Education and Human Development and MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Dr. Ola sits at the cutting edge of cognitive neuroscience and the science of reading.

In this episode, we reflect on why experience only matters if it leads to growth rather than defeat. The conversation ranges from the bankruptcy of iRobot to security concerns surrounding laptop maker Lenovo, before turning to the main topic: free will. Matt breaks down traditional determinism, the implications of quantum uncertainty, and what fMRI research reveals about human decision-making. There is a focus on compatibilism, the view held by many modern philosophers that seeks to reconcile free will with a determined universe.

Here's a cheery one for our first episode of the year. Guess what happens when you give several sets of scientists the same dataset and ask them to answer the same question? Well, they all find the same results, right? Right!?Sadly not. This “Many Analysts” problem has been analysed and debated in multiple different scientific fields and across several papers. We cover them in this episode. What does it tell us about the objectivity of science if different teams draw different conclusions from the exact same data?The Science Fictions podcast is brought to you by Works in Progress magazine. Their excellent new article on how we're living in “the golden age of vaccine development”, as discussed on the show, can be found (along with the rest of their articles on science, history, and technology), at worksinprogress.co. We're very grateful that they support the podcast.Show notes* 2015 Nature commentary article on “crowdsourced research” (on racism in football)* And the full 2018 writeup titled “Many Analysts, One Data Set”* Gelman and Loken on the “Garden of Forking Paths”* 2020 many-analysts neuroscience (fMRI) paper* And the plan for the similar study on EEG* 2022 PNAS many-analysts paper on the “hidden universe of uncertainty”* 2026 critique on ideological bias from George Borjas* 2023 critique on effect sizes vs. statistical significance* 2025 ecology & evolution many-analysts paper on blue tits and eucalyptus* 2025 economics many-analysts paper with results on data cleaning* 2024 PNAS critique of many-analysts research* Julia Rohrer's critique of multiverse analysisCreditsThe Science Fictions podcast is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.com/subscribe

What if your workout could sharpen your mind as much as your muscles? We dive into the science and practice of Pilates as brain training—how breath-led, precision movement can upgrade focus, memory, and executive function while lowering stress and building long-term resilience. Drawing on studies that track improvements in cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control over 8 to 12 weeks, we unpack why neuroplasticity thrives when movement, breath, and alignment align with intention.We explore the mechanisms in plain language: why coordinating breath with form acts like strength training for neural pathways, how fMRI studies point to increased gray matter in regions tied to learning and emotion regulation, and why stronger white matter tracts support faster, clearer thinking. You'll hear practical examples—from dual task drills like single-leg circles with mental math to attention-rotation techniques—that translate directly to better focus at work, steadier decision making under pressure, and easier recall of complex routines.If you're new to Pilates, we lay out a simple plan: two to three sessions per week, even 15 to 20 minutes, with quality over quantity. Foundational moves paired with diaphragmatic breathing, internal narration, and visualization can yield noticeable gains in weeks. For seasoned practitioners, we share ways to keep the brain adapting with novelty, varied instructors, and progressive sequencing. We also connect stress science to the mat: parasympathetic activation, cortisol reduction, and vagus nerve stimulation produce mental clarity and a calmer baseline, creating ideal conditions for learning and creativity. Over time, consistent practice may build cognitive reserve that supports healthy aging.Ready to rewire your brain while you build strength and mobility? Press play, try the drills, and let us know which practice boosted your focus most. If the conversation resonated, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a quick review so more people can discover smart movement for a sharper mind."Transform Your Life with Kore Fitness"Kore Fitness: Your path to a healthier, stronger you. Personalized training and proven results.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showhttps://www.kore-fit.com

Mark D'Esposito is a  Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute.  Drawing on his training in Neurology, Neuroscience and Psychology, his research focuses on investigating the neural bases of high-level cognitive processes such as working memory and cognitive control, achieved through several different experimental approaches and methodologies. First, functional MRI (fMRI), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electrocorticography (ECoG) are used to identify the neural substrates and temporal dynamics of various cognitive processes, especially those supported by the prefrontal cortex, in normal human subjects. Second, the role of the dopaminergic system in working memory and cognitive control is investigated with pharmacological studies during which direct dopaminergic agonists are administered to normal human subjects, as well as patients with Parkinson's disease. Third, behavioral studies in patient populations with frontal lobe dysfunction (e.g. stroke, brain injury) are performed to further understand the mechanisms that underlie working memory and cognitive control. Fourth, based on the knowledge gained from our research on frontal lobe function, we are developing and implementing cognitive therapeutic approaches to patients with traumatic brain injury and healthy elderly with executive function deficits. Finally, our methodological research is aimed at developing improved techniques for the acquisition and the analysis of fMRI and TMS data.Center for Brain Health WebsiteSupport the show

How well do you know your future self?How much do you like yout future self?The answer to these two questions has implications for how you plan and provide for that person.Today, we cover the work of Hal Hershfield and others about how well or poorly we identify with Future Us, and what it means for how short- or far-sighted we are in our decision-making.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-being-human--5806452/support.

Judson Brewer, MD, PhD (“Dr. Jud”), is a New York Times best-selling author and a leading authority on habit change and the science of self-mastery. He serves as the Director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Center and as a professor at Brown University. An internationally recognized psychiatrist specializing in mindfulness for addiction, Dr. Jud has developed innovative mindfulness programs for smoking cessation, emotional eating, and anxiety. He has investigated the neural mechanisms of mindfulness using standard and real-time fMRI and EEG neurofeedback. He has trained U.S. Olympic athletes, coaches, and foreign government ministers. His work has been featured on “60 Minutes,” TED (one of the most-viewed talks of 2016 with over 20 million views), The New York Times, Time magazine, Forbes, BBC, NPR, and more. Today on the show we discuss: why anxiety isn't random but reinforced through habit loops and how understanding your brain changes everything, how dopamine drives both addiction and worry and why bad habits feel easier to form than good ones, the critical difference between fear worry and anxiety and how confusing them keeps people stuck, why willpower fails under stress and how curiosity becomes the fastest way to break anxiety cycles, how mindfulness works at a neuroscience level without meditation jargon or sitting on a cushion, and why anxiety has become an identity online and what actually helps people reduce it instead of managing it forever. ⚠ WELLNESS DISCLAIMER ⚠ Please be advised; the topics related to health and mental health in my content are for informational, discussion, and entertainment purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your health or mental health professional or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding your current condition. Never disregard professional advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard from your favorite creator, on social media, or shared within content you've consumed. If you are in crisis or you think you may have an emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately. If you do not have a health professional who is able to assist you, use these resources to find help: Emergency Medical Services—911 If the situation is potentially life-threatening, get immediate emergency assistance by calling 911, available 24 hours a day. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org.  SAMHSA addiction and mental health treatment Referral Helpline, 1-877-SAMHSA7 (1-877-726-4727) and https://www.samhsa.gov Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“What does it actually mean to understand the brain?”Dr. Kendrick Kay is a computational neuroscientist and neuroimaging expert at the University of Minnesota's Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, where he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology. With training spanning philosophy and neuroscience, from a bachelor's degree in philosophy at Harvard University to a PhD in neuroscience from UC Berkeley, Dr. Kay's work bridges deep theoretical questions with cutting-edge neuroimaging methods.In this conversation, Peter Bandettini and Kendrick Kay explore the evolving landscape of neuroscience at the intersection of fMRI, philosophy, and artificial intelligence. They reflect on the limits of current neuroimaging methodologies, what fMRI can and cannot tell us about brain mechanisms, and why creativity and human judgment remain central to scientific progress. The discussion also dives into Dr. Kay's landmark contributions to fMRI decoding and the Natural Scenes Dataset, a high-resolution resource that has become foundational for computational neuroscience and neuro AI research.Along the way, they examine deep sampling in neuroimaging, individual variability in brain data, and the challenges of separating neural signals from hemodynamic effects. Framed by broader questions about understanding benchmarking progress, and the growing role of LLM's in neuroscience, this wide-ranging conversation offers a thoughtful look at where the field has been and where it may be headed.We hope you enjoy this episode!Chapters:00:00 - Introduction to Kendrick Kay and His Work04:51 - Philosophy's Influence on Neuroscience17:17 - How Far Will fMRI Take Us?23:27 - Understanding Attention in Neuroscience30:00 - Science as a Process34:17 - The Role of Large Language Models (LLMs) in Scientific Progress38:29 - Why Humans Should Stay in the Equation40:30 - Creativity vs. AI in Scientific Research54:48 - Dr. Kay's Natural Scenes Dataset (NSD)01:00:27 - Deep Sampling: Considerations and Implications01:08:00 - Accounting for biological variation in Brain Scans: Differences and Similarities01:13:00 - Separating Hemodynamic Effects from Neural Effects01:16:00 - Areas of Hope and Progress in the field01:21:00 - How Should We Benchmark Progress?01:22:59 - Advice for Aspiring ScientistsWorks mentioned:54:48 -  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-021-00962-x54:50 - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166223624001838?via%3DihubEpisode producers:Xuqian Michelle Li, Naga Thovinakere

Moderator: Alfonso Magliacano (Florence, Italy) Guest: Charlène Aubinet (Liege, Belgium) In this episode, Alfonso Magliacano is joined by Charlène Aubinet to examine how language and communication impairments shape the assessment and recovery of patients emerging from coma. They discuss the clinical distinctions between unresponsive wakefulness syndrome and the minimally conscious state, highlighting how aphasia and other comorbidities can obscure signs of awareness and lead to misdiagnosis. Dr. Aubinet outlines emerging tools, from eye-tracking assessments to EEG and fMRI markers, that help detect residual language processing even without behavioral responses. The conversation also explores how early linguistic abilities can serve as prognostic indicators, the practical challenges faced by speech therapists, and the evidence that some language processing may persist even in states of severely impaired consciousness, with important clinical and ethical implications.

BONUS: When AI Knows Your Emotional Triggers Better Than You Do — Navigating Mindfulness in the AI Age In this thought-provoking conversation, former computer engineer and mindfulness leader Mo Edjlali explores how AI is reshaping human meaning, attention, and decision-making. We examine the critical question: what happens when AI knows your emotional triggers better than you know yourself? Mo shares insights on remaining sovereign over our attention, avoiding dependency in both mindfulness and technology, and preparing for a world where AI may outperform us in nearly every domain. From Technology Pioneer to Mindfulness Leader "I've been very heavily influenced by technology, computer engineering, software development. I introduced DevOps to the federal government. But I have never seen anything change the way in which human beings work together like Agile." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's journey began in the tech world — graduating in 1998, he was on the front line of the internet explosion. He remembers the days before the internet, watched online multiplayer games emerge in 1994, and worked on some of the most complicated tech projects in federal government. Technology felt almost like magic, advancing at a logarithmic rate faster than anything else. But when Mo discovered mindfulness practices 12-15 years ago, he found something equally transformative: actual exercises to develop emotional intelligence and soft skills that the tech world talked about but never taught. Mindfulness provided logical, practical methods that didn't require "woo-woo" beliefs — just practice that fundamentally changed his relationship with his mind. This dual perspective — tech innovator and mindfulness teacher — gives Mo a unique lens for understanding where we're headed. The Shift from Liberation to Dependency "I was fortunate enough, the teachers I was exposed to, the mentality was very much: you're gonna learn how to meditate on your own, in silence. There is no guru. There is no cult of personality." — Mo Edjlali   Mo identifies a dangerous drift in the mindfulness movement: from teaching independence to creating dependency. His early training, particularly a Vipassana retreat led by S.N. Goenka, modeled true liberation — you show up for 10 days, pay nothing, receive food and lodging, learn to meditate, then donate what you can at the end. Critically, you leave being able to meditate on your own without worshiping a teacher or subscribing to guided meditations. But today's commercialized mindfulness often creates the opposite: powerful figures leading fiefdoms, consumers taught to listen to guided meditations rather than meditate independently. This dependency model mirrors exactly what's happening with AI — systems designed to make us rely on them rather than empower our own capabilities. Recognizing this parallel is essential for navigating both fields wisely. AI as a New Human Age, Not Just Another Tool "With AI, this is different. This isn't like mobile computing, this isn't like the internet. We're entering a new age. We had the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Industrial Age. When you enter a new age, it's almost like knocking the chess board over, flipping the pieces upside down. We're playing a new game." — Mo Edjlali   Mo frames AI not as another technology upgrade but as the beginning of an entirely new human age. In a new age, everything shifts: currency, economies, government, technology, even religions. The documentary about the Bronze Age collapse taught him that when ages turn over, the old rules no longer apply. This perspective explains why AI feels fundamentally different from previous innovations. ChatGPT 2.0 was interesting; ChatGPT 3 blew Mo's mind and made him realize we're witnessing something unprecedented. While he's optimistic about the potential for sustainable abundance and extraordinary breakthroughs, he's also aware we're entering both the most exciting and most frightening time to be alive. Everything we learned in high school might be proven wrong as AI rewrites human knowledge, translates animal languages, extends longevity, and achieves things we can't even imagine. The Mental Health Tsunami and Loss of Purpose "If we do enter the age of abundance, where AI could do anything that human beings could do and do it better, suddenly the system we have set up — where our purpose is often tied to our income and our job — suddenly, we don't need to work. So what is our purpose?" — Mo Edjlali   Mo offers a provocative vision of the future: a world where people might pay for jobs rather than get paid to work. It sounds crazy until you realize it's already happening — people pay $100,000-$200,000 for college just to get a job, politicians spend millions to get elected. If AI handles most work and we enter an age of abundance, jobs won't be about survival or income — they'll be about meaning, identity, and social connection. This creates three major crises Mo sees accelerating: attacks on our focus and attention (technology hijacking our awareness), polarization (forcing black-and-white thinking), and isolation (pushing us toward solo experiences). The mental health tsunami is coming as people struggle to find purpose in a world where AI outperforms them in domain after domain. The jobs will change, the value systems will shift, and those without tools for navigating this transformation will suffer most. When AI Reads Your Mind "Researchers at Duke University had hooked up fMRI brain scanning technology and took that data and fed it into GPT 2. They were able to translate brain signals into written narrative. So the implications are that we could read people's minds using AI." — Mo Edjlali   The future Mo describes isn't science fiction — it's already beginning. Three years ago, researchers used early GPT to translate brain signals into written text by scanning people's minds with fMRI and training AI on the patterns. Today, AI knows a lot about heavy users like Mo through chat conversations. Tomorrow, AI will have video input of everything we see, sensory input from our biometrics (pulse, heart rate, health indicators), and potentially direct connection to our minds. This symbiotic relationship is coming whether we're ready or not. Mo demonstrates this with a personal experiment: he asked his AI to tell him about himself, describe his personality, identify his strengths, and most powerfully — reveal his blind spots. The AI's response was outstanding, better than what any human (even his therapist or himself) could have articulated. This is the reality we're moving toward: AI that knows our emotional triggers, blind spots, and patterns better than we do ourselves. Using AI as a Mirror for Self-Discovery "I asked my AI, 'What are my blind spots?' Human beings usually won't always tell you what your blind spots are, they might not see them. A therapist might not exactly see them. But the AI has... I've had the most intimate kind of conversations about everything. And the response was outstanding." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's approach to AI is both pragmatic and experimental. He uses it extensively — at the level of teenagers and early college students who are on it all the time. But rather than just using AI as a tool, he treats it as a mirror for understanding himself. Asking AI to identify your blind spots is a powerful exercise because AI has observed all your conversations, patterns, and tendencies without the human limitations of forgetfulness or social politeness. Vasco shares a similar experience using AI as a therapy companion — not replacing his human therapist, but preparing for sessions and processing afterward. This reveals an essential truth: most of us don't understand ourselves that well. We're blind navigators using an increasingly powerful tool. The question isn't whether AI will know us better than we know ourselves — that's already happening. The question is how we use that knowledge wisely. The Danger of AI Hijacking Our Agency "There's this real danger. I saw that South Park episode about ChatGPT where his wife is like, 'Come on, put the AI down, talk to me,' and he's got this crazy business idea, and the AI keeps encouraging him along. It's a point where he's relying way too heavily on the AI and making really poor decisions." — Mo Edjlali   Not all AI use is beneficial. Mo candidly admits his own mistakes — sometimes leaning into AI feedback over his actual users' feedback for his Meditate Together app because "I like what the AI is saying." This mirrors the South Park episode's warning about AI dependency, where the character's AI encourages increasingly poor decisions while his relationships suffer. Social media demonstrates this danger at scale: AI algorithms tuned to steal our attention and hijack our agency, preventing us from thinking about what truly matters — relationships and human connection. Mo shares a disturbing story about Zoom bombers disrupting Meditate Together sessions, filming it, posting it on YouTube where it got 90,000 views, with comments thanking the disruptors for "making my day better." Technology created a cannibalistic dynamic where teenagers watched videos of their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers being harassed during meditation. When Mo tried to contact Google, the company's incentive structure prioritized views and revenue over human decency. Technology combined with capitalism creates these dangerous momentum toward monetizing attention at any cost. Remaining Sovereign Over Your Attention "Traditionally, mindfulness does an extraordinary job, if you practice right, to help you regain your agency of your focus and concentration. It takes practice. But reading is now becoming a concentration practice. It's an actual practice." — Mo Edjlali   Mo identifies three major symptoms affecting us: attacks on focus/attention, polarization into black-and-white thinking, and isolation. Mindfulness practices directly counter all three — but only if practiced correctly. Training attention, focus, and concentration requires actual practice, not just listening to guided meditations. Mo offers practical strategies: reading as concentration practice (asking "does anyone read anymore?" recognizing that sustained reading now requires deliberate effort), turning off AirPods while jogging or driving to find silence, spending time alone with your thoughts, and recognizing that we were given extraordinary power (smartphones) with zero training on how to be aware of it. Older generations remember having to rewind VHS tapes — forced moments of patience and stillness that no longer exist. We need to deliberately recreate those spaces where we're not constantly consuming entertainment and input. Dialectic Thinking: Beyond Polarization "I saw someone the other day wear a shirt that said, 'I'm perfect the way I am.' That's one-dimensional thinking. Two-dimensional thinking is: you're perfect the way that you are, and you could be a little better." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's book OpenMBSR specifically addresses polarization by introducing dialectic thinking — the ability to hold paradoxes and seeming contradictions simultaneously. Social media and algorithms push us toward one-dimensional, black-and-white thinking: good/bad, right/wrong, with me/against me. But reality is far more nuanced. The ability to think "I'm perfect as I am AND I can improve" or "AI is extraordinary AND dangerous" is essential for navigating complexity. This mirrors the tech world's embrace of continuous improvement in Agile — accepting where you are while always pushing for better. Chess players learned this years ago when AI defeated humans — they didn't freak out, they accepted it and adapted. Now AI in chess doesn't just give answers; it helps humans understand how it arrived at those answers. This partnership model, where AI coaches us through complexity rather than simply replacing us, represents the healthiest path forward. Building Community, Not Dependency "When people think to meditate, unfortunately, they think, I have to do this by myself and listen to guided meditation. I'm saying no. Do it in silence. If you listen to guided meditation, listen to guided meditation that teaches you how to meditate in silence. And do it with other people, with intentional community." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's OpenMBSR initiative explicitly borrows from the Agile movement's success: grassroots, community-centric, open source, transparent. Rather than creating fiefdoms around cult personalities, he wants mindfulness to spread organically through communities helping communities. This directly counters the isolation trend that technology accelerates. Meditate Together exists specifically to create spaces where people meditate with other human beings around the world, with volunteer hosts holding sessions. The model isn't about dependency on a teacher or platform — it's about building connection and shared practice. This aligns perfectly with how the tech world revolutionized collaborative work through Agile and Scrum: transparent, iterative, valuing individuals and interactions. The question for both mindfulness and AI adoption is whether we'll create systems that empower independence and community, or ones that foster dependency and isolation. Preparing for a World Where AI Outperforms Humans "AI is going to need to kind of coach us and ease us into it, right? There's some really dark, ugly things about ourselves that could be jarring without it being properly shared, exposed, and explained." — Mo Edjlali   Looking at his children, Mo wonders what tools they'll need in a world where AI may outperform humans in nearly every domain. The answer isn't trying to compete with AI in calculation, memory, or analysis — that battle is already lost. Instead, the essential human skills become self-awareness, emotional intelligence, dialectic thinking, community building, and maintaining agency over attention and decision-making. AI will need to become a coach, helping humans understand not just answers but how it arrived at those answers. This requires AI development that prioritizes human growth over profit maximization. It also requires humans willing to do the hard work of understanding themselves — confronting blind spots, managing emotional triggers, practicing concentration, and building genuine relationships. The mental health tsunami Mo predicts isn't inevitable if we prepare now by teaching these skills widely, building community-centric systems, and designing AI that empowers rather than replaces human wisdom and connection.   About Mo Edjlali   Mo Edjlali is a former computer engineer, and also the founder and CEO of Mindful Leader, the world's largest provider of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training. Mo's new book Open MBSR: Reimagining the Future of Mindfulness explores how ancient practices can help us navigate the AI revolution with awareness and resilience.   You can learn more about Mo and his work at MindfulLeader.org, check out Meditate Together, and read his articles on AI's Mind-Reading Breakthrough and AI: Not Another Tool, but a New Human Age.

Send us a textHey there, my friends — this week I'm coming to you with something simple… and something human.No outline.No strategy.Just us.I'm sharing a couple of stories —and reflecting on what service really means during this season. Not the big, heroic kind. The small, human, everyday kind. The kind that steadies us emotionally and reminds us who we want to be.We talk about dignity, compassion, emotional grounding, and why even tiny acts of kindness shift the nervous system in powerful ways (yes, the research backs this up). And I share what I'm personally choosing to do this week — something small, but from the heart.If you've ever wondered how service connects to our wellness, our mindset, and our Project Weight Loss path… this is the episode I hope you listen to.Quote of the Week:“Wherever you turn, you can find someone who needs you.” — Albert SchweitzerCitations:Raposa, E. B., Laws, H. B., & Ansell, E. B. (2018). Prosocial behavior mitigates the negative effects of stress in everyday life. BMC Public Health, 18, 169.Kim, J. J., Cunnington, R., & Kirby, J. N. (2019). The neurophysiological basis of compassion: An fMRI study. Emotion, 19(7), 1261–1271.Let's go, let's get it done. Get more information at: http://projectweightloss.org

Listen up, polyglots and hyperpolyglots: this one is for you. And for the rest of us, ever wonder what it's like to speak multiple languages, or even more than 10? Jeff and Dave come gurgling back in with a quick take on this fascinating article by Natalia Mesa over at science.org (link). Meet Vaughn Smith who, when not cleaning carpets in Washington D.C. or preparing to turn 50, tries out one of the 24 (that's right) languages he speaks fluently. And when members of this 1% of the world's population, the super-accomplished in multiple languages, undergo an fMRI or two, it turns out there are some surprising effects as the Bible or Alice in Wonderland is read in their mother tongue. So put down Duolingo (Vigintilingo?) and tune in for a quick look at this most unusual topic. It's bite-sized fun!

Have you ever stopped and wondered how you are aware that you are aware? What if consciousness isn’t something you have, but something you are? In this mind-expanding episode, we dive deep into one of humanity’s greatest mysteries: consciousness itself. For centuries, philosophers called it the hard problem—how does a physical brain create the inner movie of life? But today, neuroscience, quantum theory, and even AI are revealing astonishing clues about what consciousness might truly be, and it’s more extraordinary than we ever imagined. This episode reveals three groundbreaking discoveries that will transform how you see yourself and your place in the universe. Mapping the Mind: The Science of Awareness For years, scientists searched for one single place in the brain that creates consciousness. But what they found instead is even more fascinating. Consciousness doesn’t live in one location—it flows through an entire network. Using cutting-edge brain imaging like fMRI and MEG, researchers have identified what they call consciousness hotspots. These are tiny hubs that light up and connect across the brain whenever we’re awake, dreaming, or self-aware. It’s not one area doing the work—it’s how they communicate. Think of it like a symphony. Each neuron is a musician, each connection is a note. And when they play together in harmony, awareness emerges. It’s the music of your mind. Even more stunning, in recent studies, coma patients once thought unconscious showed the same flickers of synchronised activity. Signs of awareness where none were expected. Science is now mapping what philosophers have only felt: the bridge between matter and mind. The Information Highway: How Consciousness Flows Consciousness isn’t static—it’s movement, energy flowing through the brain’s communication networks. When different regions of the brain start syncing, especially through gamma and alpha waves, that’s when awareness seems to bloom. It’s not about which parts are active, but how information travels between them. And then there’s something called predictive coding. That’s the idea that your brain isn’t just reacting to reality—it’s predicting it. Every second, your mind is guessing what’s about to happen, painting your world from the inside out. What you see, feel, and hear is not pure reality. It’s your brain’s best prediction of it. That means consciousness isn’t a mirror reflecting the world. It’s a creative force shaping it. Beyond the Brain: The Edge of the Mystery Here’s where the science begins to sound a lot like spirituality. Some researchers are questioning whether consciousness even starts in the brain. The theory of panpsychism suggests that consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe—that everything from atoms to galaxies holds a spark of awareness. And quantum physics is hinting at the same thing: that the act of observation itself shapes reality. Even artificial intelligence is forcing us to ask new questions. If a machine could one day become self-aware, would it feel? Would it dream? Would it matter? Maybe consciousness isn’t something we have. Maybe it’s something we are. The ultimate golden nugget is you are the universe awakening. What happens when we finally decode consciousness? We might learn to awaken people from comas, heal trauma, or even connect mind to mind through technology. But the real transformation will be in how we see ourselves. Because the moment you realize consciousness isn’t confined to your brain, but is the very fabric of life itself, everything changes. You begin to see that you are not living in the universe—you are the universe becoming aware of itself. This isn’t just an episode—it’s an invitation to awaken to the mystery that’s looking through your eyes right now. Because consciousness isn’t something to understand, it’s something to awaken to. You can watch the video of this episode on YouTube. Newsletter: https://catherineplano.com for transformation. Instagram: @catherineplano for inspiration.

Neuroscientists 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 just a few individuals can actually forecast widespread social behaviors, like which stock prices are likely to go up or down on the market, or which videos are likely to go viral. Join us as we talk with Brian Knutson, a professor of psychology in Stanford's School of Humanities and Sciences, about the frontiers of neuroeconomics, bridging psychology, economics, and neuroscience. Learn MoreSPANlab (Symbiotic Project on Affective Neuroscience)NeuroChoice: Eight years of forging connections to illuminate and empower choice (Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, 2024)Brain imaging links stimulant-use relapse to distinct nerve pathway (Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, 2022)Brain activity data may improve stock market forecasts, study shows (The Guardian, 2021)Your brain knows whether a video will go viral online (Stanford Report, 2020)Odds are good that risky gambling choices are influenced by a single brain connection, Stanford research shows (Stanford Report, 2016)Smile boosts chances of getting a microloan, say Stanford psychologists (Stanford Report, 2015)Stanford scientists see how the brain makes environmental decisions (Stanford Report, 2015)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 a wider audience. We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Su chats with Dr. Yuan Chang (YC) Leong. YC is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. He is the director of Computational Affective and Social Neuroscience Lab, which is a part of the Department of Psychology, a member of the Institute of Mind and Biology and the Neuroscience Institute, and an affiliate of the Data Science Institute. His research explores the neural and computational mechanisms underlying how goals, beliefs, and emotions influence human cognition, with a focus on why people interpret and respond to identical situations in different ways. In today's episode, we discuss what's on YC intellectual radar these days, alongside with his recent paper "Dynamic brain connectivity predicts emotional arousal during naturalistic movie-watching," in which they show that we can decode arousal with open movie fMRI datasets.YC's paper: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40215238/ YC's lab website: https://mcnlab.uchicago.edu/ YC's personal website: https://ycleong.github.io/ Su's Twitter @sudkrcSu's Bluesky @sudkrc.bsky.social Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPodPodcast Bluesky @stanfordpsypod.bsky.socialPodcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

110 Hz shuts down rational thought. Brain scans confirm it. Temples worldwide resonate at this frequency. They knew. But how?

What does it really mean to see with the mind's eye?In this conversation, neurologist and consciousness researcher Professor Adam Zeman (Cognitive & Behavioural Neurologist, University of Exeter) joins Dr Tevin Naidu on Mind-Body Solution to explore the mysterious link between imagination, memory, and perception - and what happens when the mind's eye goes dark.Zeman coined the term aphantasia, the inability to form mental images, and has spent decades studying how imagination shapes our sense of self and consciousness. Together, we discuss:- The neuroscience of mental imagery and its vividness- What aphantasia and hyperphantasia reveal about the brain-mind interface- Imagination's evolutionary and social roles- How disorders of imagery illuminate the nature of consciousness- Why defining "inner experience" remains one of science's deepest puzzlesTIMESTAMPS:(00:00) - Introduction: Why imagination matters and the four big ideas(02:14) - What do we mean by “imagination”? Everyday vs scientific senses(05:46) - How imagination is implemented in the brain: top-down vs bottom-up processes(09:08) - The phenomenology of imagery: vividness, aphantasia, hyperphantasia(12:58) - Aphantasia explained: discovery, definition, and how common it is(16:50) - Measuring imagery: questionnaires, behavioral tasks, and limitations(20:30) - Dreams vs wakeful imagery: why people without imagery often still dream(24:12) - Aphantasia and memory: effects on autobiographical recall and learning(27:54) - Hyperphantasia and creativity: strengths, tradeoffs, and examples(31:28) - Clinical cases & the TIME project: epilepsy, transient amnesia, and memory links(34:50) - Accelerated long-term forgetting: what it reveals about memory consolidation(38:12) - Disorders of visual imagery: aphantasia, prosopagnosia, and related syndromes(41:55) - Therapeutic and performance uses of imagery: sports, music, psychotherapy(45:20) - Objective neural markers: fMRI, activation of visual cortices and network differences(48:56) - Assessing imagery in the clinic: best practices and pitfalls(52:30) - Imagination and consciousness: philosophical implications for “life in the mind”(55:50) - Language, sharing imagination, and why we evolved communicative imagination(59:38) - Dementia, PRESIDE and clinical relevance: early markers and research directions(01:03:50) - Future directions: AI, computational models, and bridging phenomenology + neuroscience(01:07:30) - Closing reflections: practical takeaways for researchers, clinicians, and curious minds EPISODE LINKS:- Adam's Website:- Adam's X: https://twitter.com/zemanlab- Adam's Publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7BSh2mQAAAAJ&hl=en- Adam's Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Adam-Zeman/author/B001H6UT84?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1760539071&sr=8-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true- Science of Imagination: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkYwKjkCJgECONNECT:- Website: https://mindbodysolution.org - YouTube: https://youtube.com/@MindBodySolution- Podcast: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/mindbodysolution- Twitter: https://twitter.com/drtevinnaidu- Facebook: https://facebook.com/drtevinnaidu - Instagram: https://instagram.com/drtevinnaidu- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/drtevinnaidu- Website: https://tevinnaidu.com=============================Disclaimer: The information provided on this channel is for educational purposes only. The content is shared in the spirit of open discourse and does not constitute, nor does it substitute, professional or medical advice. We do not accept any liability for any loss or damage incurred from you acting or not acting as a result of listening/watching any of our contents. You acknowledge that you use the information provided at your own risk. Listeners/viewers are advised to conduct their own research and consult with their own experts in the respective fields.

Podcast Summary:Bethany Lewis welcomes Andy Ellison to the Concussion Coach Podcast to share his profound journey with brain injury.  A Colorado native, he has an impressive background in finance, having co-founded and served as CEO of Mountain View Bank of Commerce for 16 years before it was sold. He is now the CFO of the Boone Heart Institute.Andy begins his story by recounting how a seemingly minor concussion in April 2021, sustained by walking into a doorframe, led to debilitating symptoms like an inability to look at screens, severe fatigue, and light and noise sensitivity.A CT scan ordered by his doctor revealed an unexpected and incidental finding: a brain tumor in his left ventricle. This shocking diagnosis began a multi-year journey of monitoring the tumor. The conversation delves into the challenges Andy faced in his high-level career, including how he navigated telling his employer and colleagues, and the blessing in disguise of learning to delegate. He shares powerful insights on:Managing Identity: Using the "just behave" theory to handle frustration and the concept of separating his life into "before" and "after" to stop comparing himself to his old self.The Power of Gratitude: Actively practicing gratitude to reframe difficult situations.Advice for Caregivers: The importance of believing the person with the injury and separating frustration with the situation from feelings toward the caregiver.Using Humor: He even shares his "brain tumor card" as a lighthearted way to explain cognitive hiccups.Maintaining Hope: He references the "Stockdale Paradox"—confronting the brutal reality of your situation while maintaining unwavering faith that you will prevail in the end.Andy candidly discusses the symptoms he still manages today, including an inability to watch videos, bad days that require adjusted expectations, and ongoing fatigue. He ends with a powerful reason for sharing his story: to stop hiding his struggles and to offer himself as a resource and role model for others on a similar path.Resources & Tools Mentioned:Brainwaves App: Brainwave: 37 Binaural Series App Andy uses for relaxation and symptom management. (Note: This is a popular app; link provided for reference.)The "Gap and the Gain" Concept: From the book by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. Focus on how far you've come (the gain) rather than how far you are from your goal (the gap).The Stockdale Paradox: From Jim Collins' book "Good to Great." The concept of retaining faith that you will prevail in the end, while simultaneously confronting the most brutal facts of your current reality.Ram Dass: A spiritual teacher and author who spoke about his own transformative experience after a stroke. Andy referenced his idea of dividing life into "before and after."Cognitive FX: The clinic where Andy underwent intensive therapy and received the fMRI that showed his tumor was growing. https://www.cognitivefxusa.com/Bethany's Free Guide: "The 5 Best Ways to Support Your Loved One Dealing with a Concussion." Download at www.theconcussioncoach.com.Concussion Coaching: Bethany's program for one-on-one mentorship through concussion recovery. Sign up for a free consultation at www.theconcussioncoach.com.Connect with Andy Ellison:Andy has generously offered to be a resource and help others find role models on their recovery journey. You can reach him via email at: ellisonandy@msn.comConnect with Bethany & The Concussion Coach Podcast:Website: www.theconcussioncoach.comSign up for a Free Consultation: www.theconcussioncoach.comDownload the Free Guide for Loved Ones: www.theconcussioncoach.comThank you for listening! If this episode brought you hope or insight, please help us spread the word by rating, reviewing, and subscribing to The Concussion Coach Podcast.

¿Alguna vez te has preguntado cómo se ven tus pensamientos? ¿O dónde habita el miedo en tu cerebro? En este episodio de La Teoría de la Mente, nos embarcamos en un viaje apasionante a través del nuevo mapa del cerebro, una revolución en la neurociencia que está transformando nuestra comprensión sobre la mente humana. Gracias a las técnicas de imagen cerebral más avanzadas —como la Resonancia Magnética Funcional o la Tomografía por Emisión de Positrones— hoy podemos ver en tiempo real nuestros pensamientos, emociones y recuerdos iluminando distintas regiones del cerebro. Pero este episodio no es solo ciencia dura, es también una reflexión profunda sobre lo que realmente somos: ¿una sola mente o una federación de módulos cerebrales en constante negociación? Exploramos historias reales y asombrosas como la de la paciente que se ríe espontáneamente al estimular una región específica de su cerebro, o el joven que tiene dos sueños distintos en función del hemisferio cerebral que responde. ¿Qué nos dicen estos casos sobre la naturaleza del "yo"? ¿Somos tan coherentes como creemos? ¿O el cerebro simplemente inventa historias para explicar decisiones que ya ha tomado por otros caminos? También revisitamos momentos oscuros de la historia como la frenología o la lobotomía, y analizamos cómo hemos pasado de “leer bultos en el cráneo” a mapear con precisión quirúrgica los circuitos que controlan desde nuestras compulsiones hasta nuestro libre albedrío. Descubrirás: Cómo funciona el sistema de recompensa del cerebro y por qué puede generar adicciones. Por qué el TOC podría ser un “interruptor neuronal roto”. Cómo se forma el sentido del yo como una narrativa cerebral. Qué papel juegan los lóbulos frontales en nuestras decisiones morales y emocionales. Y por qué nuestras emociones, más que la razón, son el verdadero motor de nuestras decisiones. Este episodio es una invitación a mirar dentro de nosotros mismos desde una perspectiva más compasiva, más humana y también más científica. Comprendernos mejor es el primer paso para transformarnos. Escúchalo ahora y déjate sorprender por lo que la ciencia está revelando sobre tu propia mente. 25 Palabras clave para SEO neurociencia,cerebro,mapa mental,fMRI,TEP,lóbulos frontales,conciencia,adicciones,obsesiones,TOC,sistema dopaminérgico,hemisferios cerebrales,cerebro dividido,emociones,racionalidad,frenología,lobotomía,Phineas Gage,libre albedrío,autoconocimiento,salud mental,plasticidad cerebral,psicología cognitiva,mente humana,teoría de la mente Hashtags #Neurociencia #MapaDelCerebro #SaludMental #PsicologíaModerna #TeoríaDeLaMente #Autoconocimiento Títulos sugeridos 1. 4 descubrimientos del cerebro que cambiarán cómo te entiendes a ti mismo ⚡ 2. Llevas toda la vida entendiendo mal tu mente: esto es lo que revela la neurociencia 3. Esta manera de mirar el cerebro lo cambia todo 4. 5 mitos sobre el cerebro que nunca debiste creer 5. Por qué dejar de pensar que somos una sola mente puede liberarte Enlaces recomendados Nuestro nuevo libro: www.elmapadelaansiedad.com Nuestra escuela de ansiedad: www.escuelaansiedad.com Visita nuestra web: www.amadag.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Asociacion.Agorafobia/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amadag.psico/ Canal de YouTube AMADAG TV: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC22fPGPhEhgiXCM7PGl68rw

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom. Mind Pump Fit Tip: What are the big differences between lifting heavy vs lighter? (2:35) Training your CNS for change. (21:46) The unliftable man. (28:24) Leverage. (29:47) Kids say the darndest things. (32:42) Coaching your son. (33:52) Learning how to lose. (35:45) The science behind Brain.fm. (37:34) Subliminal messaging. (42:58) Social media platforms as weapons. (45:07) The locus of control. (47:40) Correlation of eating grass-fed meat and inflammation. (49:56) #ListenerLive question #1 – How do I maintain a healthy relationship with food and fitness while dealing with SIBO? (55:13) #ListenerLive question #2 – Do you think the root issue here is overtraining, compromising recovery, or more likely a neurological/sensory driver of these asymmetries? (1:05:11) #ListenerLive question #3 – Should I increase calories even though I've been doing this for a year now and continue to bulk, or should I concentrate on cutting still to lose fat? (1:21:16) #ListenerLive question #4 – How much of an impact could HRT (specifically estrogen and testosterone) have on my life, especially body composition and training/lifting goals? (1:30:54) Related Links/Products Mentioned Ask a question to Mind Pump, live! Email: live@mindpumpmedia.com Visit Brain.fm for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners. ** Get 30 days of free access to science-backed music. ** Visit Butcher Box for this month's exclusive Mind Pump offer!  ** Available for a limited time, a curated box pre-filled with Mind Pump's favorite cuts — no guesswork! Butcher Box members who sign up through Mind Pump will receive: $20 OFF their first box, Free chicken breast, ground beef, OR salmon in every box for a whole year! ** October Special: MAPS GLP-1 50% off! ** Code GLP50 at checkout. ** Bret Contreras Tempo Hypertrophy IG Video Sal Di Stefano's Journey in Faith & Fitness – Mind Pump TV Johnny Coulon - Wikipedia Attentional modulation of neural entrainment to sound streams in children with and without ADHD The brain in flow: A systematic review on the neural basis of the flow state Resting state fMRI-based brain information flow mapping Mind Pump #912: How to Change Your Mental State with Music Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX will be main investors in TikTok U.S., sources say Visit Seed for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code 25MINDPUMP at checkout for 25% off your first month's supply of Seed's DS-01® Daily Synbiotic** MP Holistic Health Mind Pump #2690: The NEW DIET Everyone Is Using For Fat Loss Visit Transcend for this month's exclusive Mind Pump offer! ** Telehealth Provider • Physician Directed GET YOUR PERSONALIZED TREATMENT PLAN!  Hormone Replacement Therapy, Cognitive Function, Sleep & Fatigue, Athletic Performance and MORE! ** Muscle Mommy Movement Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources   People Mentioned Bret Contreras PhD (@bretcontreras1) Instagram Denis Roberts (@denis_kokushi) Instagram Jordan Shallow D.C (@the_muscle_doc) Instagram Justin Brink DC (@dr.justinbrink) Instagram LAUREN FITZ, M.D. (@drlaurenfitz) Instagram

Today's episode is all about Autism and its associated communication disorders, as outlined in the DSM-5-TR, focusing on social communication disorder (SCD), childhood onset fluency disorder (stuttering), speech sound disorder, and developmental language disorder (DLD), which affect 50-70%, 4-22%, 20-30%, and up to 50% of Autistic individuals, respectively. We explore neural underpinnings, highlighting hypoactivation in brain regions and brain waves are discussed that are critical for social cognition, alongside disrupted connectivity in networks like the arcuate and superior longitudinal fasciculi. Two genes- FOXP2 and CNTNAP2 are also discussed.Other relevant episodes:Decoding the Brain: How Reading works in Autism and Dyslexia https://youtu.be/s1-7HZchy84?si=-r9foWP8Gmw-Wsx2Autism and Speech & Language https://youtu.be/jhAA-UWduKg?si=TfVWi9AfbFZgv8XVAutism and Sensory Processing part 2 https://youtu.be/iWy9Rligzic?si=2LATDK0bPl6jjat9Daylight Computer Companyuse "autism" for $50 off athttps://buy.daylightcomputer.com/autismChroma Light Devicesuse "autism" for 10% discount athttps://getchroma.co/?ref=autismCognity AI for Autistic Social Skillsuse "autism" for 10% discount athttps://thecognity.com00:00 - Introduction to Autism and Communication Disorders; DSM-5-TR, social communication, pragmatic deficits, stuttering, speech sound disorder, developmental language disorder04:02 - Brain Regions and Social Cognition; medial prefrontal cortex, temporal parietal junction, superior temporal sulcus, "theory of mind", hypoactivation06:01 - Autistic Phenotype and Neural Connectivity; Mirror neurons, sensory processing, under-connectivity, arcuate fasciculus, superior longitudinal fasciculus11:38 - Brainwave Patterns and Measurement Techniques; EEG, MEG, gamma band, alpha band suppression, fMRI, DTI & Factional Anisotropy16:27 - Genetic Contributions to Communication; FOXP2, CNTNAP2, neural circuits, synaptic plasticity, language processing19:56 - Social Communication Disorder (SCD); Overview pragmatic language, non-verbal cues, autism differentiation24:45 - Childhood Onset Fluency Disorder (Stuttering); basal ganglia, motor planning, rTMS, dopamine signaling, Go-Stop, Go-Stop, Go-Stop...30:05 - Speech Sound Disorder Speech; Broca's area, superior temporal gyrus, articulation errors, PROMPT therapy35:25 - Developmental Language Disorder (DLD); Broca's area, Wernicke's area, language comprehension, early intervention40:56 - Importance of Early Intervention; speech therapy, neural connectivity, personalized interventions, neurofeedback.X: https://x.com/rps47586YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGxEzLKXkjppo3nqmpXpzuAemail: info.fromthespectrum@gmail.com

Could psychedelics represent the next frontier in mental health—and even play a role in how we age well? In this episode of The Aging Well Podcast, Dr. Jeff Armstrong speaks with Nicolas Hubacz, neuroscientist, Magstim executive, and advocate for cutting-edge interventions that support brain health across the lifespan.Drawing from his recent article “Psychedelics Are the New Antidepressant,” Nicolas unpacks new fMRI research showing how psilocybin therapy reduces depressive symptoms by altering blood flow and reconfiguring brain connectivity. The result? A potential “reset” for treatment-resistant depression that works differently than traditional medication.But this conversation goes further—exploring how neuroplasticity, brain stimulation, and integrative mental health approaches may support cognitive and emotional vitality at every age.Learn more about the study cited: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-13282-7Check out Scientific Horizons: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7241955649583005698/Please, support The Aging Well Podcast by hitting the ‘like' button, subscribing/following the podcast, sharing with a friend, and….BUY the products you need to… age well from our trusted affiliates and support the mission of The Aging Well Podcast*.The Aging Well Podcast merchandise | Show how you are aging well | Use the promo code AGING WELL for free shipping on orders over $75 | https://theagingwellpodcast-shop.fourthwall.com/promo/AGINGWELLRebalance Health | products created by hormone health experts to lower cortisol, improve sleep, and minimize the impact of stress on the body and mind | https://get.aspr.app/SH1AkZ or https://rebalancehealth.com with the promo code: AGING WELLAuro Wellness | Glutaryl—Antioxidant spray that delivers high doses of glutathione (“Master Antioxidant”) | 10% off Code: AGINGWELL at https://aurowellness.com/agingwellpodcast Berkeley Life | Optimize nitric oxide levels | Purchase your starter kit at a 15% discount | Use the promo code: AGINGWELL15 | https://berkeleylife.pxf.io/c/6475525/3226696/31118Oxford Healthspan | Primeadine®, a plant-derived spermidine supplement | 10% off code: AGINGWELL | https://oxford-healthspan.myshopify.com/AgingWellJigsaw Health | Trusted supplements. “It's fun to feel good.” | Click the following link for 10% off: https://www.jigsawhealth.com/?rfsn=8710089.1dddcf3&utm_source=refersion&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=8710089.1dddcf3Prolon | The Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) is a revolutionary five-day nutrition program scientifically formulated to mimic the effects of a prolonged water fast while still allowing nourishment - supporting the benefits of fasting without the challenges and risks that come from water-only fasts. | For the best available discount always use this link: https://prolonlife.com/theagingwellpodcastL-Nutra Health | The medical division of L-Nutra, focused on helping people manage and potentially reverse chronic health conditions, like type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, insulin resistance, and obesity, using personalized, lifestyle-based programs grounded in evidence, not prescriptions. | Use this link: https://l-nutrahealth.com/theagingwellpodcastThrive25—Your personal longevity advisor | https://www.thrive25.com/early-access?via=william-jeffreyFusionary Formulas | Combining Ayurvedic wisdom with Western science for optimal health support. | 15% off Code: AGINGWELL | https://fusionaryformulas.com?sca_ref=9678325.IHg5xYhdOzzke8ZrDr Lewis Nutrition | Fight neurodegeneration and cognitive decline with Daily Brain Care by Dr Lewis Nutrition—a proven daily formula designed to protect and restore brain function. | 10% off code: AGINGWELL or use the link: https://drlewisnutrition.com/AGINGWELLTruDiagnostic—Your source for epigenetic testing | 12% off Code: AGEWELL or use the link: https://shop.trudiagnostic.com/discount/AGEWELL*We receive commission on these purchases. Thank you.

מה אנחנו באמת רואים כשאנחנו “מסתכלים לשמים”? דניאל אדר בוחן את האמונה הדתית דרך מראה חדה – תרתי משמע. החל מהאיסור ההלכתי על גבר להסתכל במַרְאָה “כדרך נשים”, דרך מחקר מוחי שמראה שהמאמינים מייחסים לאל שבו מאמינים דעות הזהות לדעותיהם, ועד ביקורת נוקבת על ההיסטוריה האלימה של המונותאיזם.  בפרק הזה תגלו:  • כיצד יהדות, נצרות ואסלאם משקפות את פני המאמינים בהן  • מה באמת מלמד מחקר ה-fMRI מאוניברסיטת שיקגו על “רצון האל”  • הקשר הישיר בין מונרכיה למונותאיזם והעתקת שלטון היחיד באדם לשמים האזינו לשיחה שמעוררת מחשבה על מראות, אמונות, ושליטה – ותבחנו מחדש את מה שחשבתם שאתם יודעים על אלוהים.

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 9-18-2025: Dr. Dawn opens by establishing her psychobiology background and introducing the neurohormonal axis connecting mind and body. She describes revolutionary research published in Nature Neuroscience showing that simply seeing sick people in virtual reality triggers actual immune responses. The study used VR avatars displaying infection symptoms approaching participants, measuring brain activity with EEG and fMRI while analyzing blood samples for immune cell changes. The research demonstrates that infectious avatars approaching in virtual reality activate the same immune pathways as actual flu vaccination. Brain areas including the salience network and peripersonal space system detect potential threats and communicate with the hypothalamus to trigger white blood cell activation. Proximity matters - threats 20 feet away don't trigger responses, but approaching threats do. Dr. Dawn explains the sophisticated methodology, including 128-channel EEG monitoring and flow cytometry analysis of immune markers. Participants showed faster reaction times when infectious avatars approached compared to neutral ones, demonstrating subconscious threat assessment. The study reveals built-in disgust responses that evolved to protect against pathogens. She comments on how her medical training rewire the protective disgust reaction through repeated exposure.. She transitions to discussing stress effects on gastrointestinal function, explaining how the gut-brain axis operates through the vagus nerve and neurohormonal pathways. The adrenal glands produce both immediate epinephrine responses and longer-term cortisol release, with chronic stress leading to digestive disruption, increased intestinal permeability, and microbiome changes that can trigger food sensitivities and autoimmune conditions. Dr. Dawn details the difference between acute and chronic stress responses in the gut. Acute stress redirects energy from digestion for fight-or-flight responses, while chronic stress causes mast cell activation, histamine release, mucus layer thinning, and bacterial overgrowth. These changes can lead to irritable bowel syndrome, increased food allergies, and even celiac disease in genetically susceptible individuals. The discussion covers various brain networks including the default mode network active during rest, the central executive network for problem-solving, and the salience network that switches between them when detecting important stimuli like threats, food, or reproductive opportunities. Functional MRI studies show these networks' activity patterns and their connections to immune system regulation through the hypothalamus. Dr. Dawn emphasizes practical implications for modern life, warning that constant screen exposure and doom-scrolling activate chronic stress responses unnecessarily. She recommends avoiding phones upon waking, spending time outdoors, wearing amber glasses for evening screen use, and practicing specific breathing techniques - inhaling for 5 counts, holding for 5, exhaling for 5, holding for 5 - to regulate nervous system activation and reduce inflammatory responses.

What if the parenting behaviors you dislike most in yourself aren't really “you”? What if they're trauma responses your brain learned long ago to survive, and what if you could change them? In this episode of Finding Brave, Dr. Robyn Koslowitz explores how trauma shapes our parenting and what we can do to change the cycle. Dr. Koslowitz is a trauma expert, child psychologist, and author of the new book Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle and Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be. She treats children, adolescents, and families at the Center for Psychological Growth of New Jersey, and hosts the Post-Traumatic Parenting YouTube channel and podcast. In this conversation, she explains how trauma responses can surface in family life through yelling, dissociating, or people-pleasing, and why social media often deepens parents' shame instead of easing it. She introduces the concept of the “trauma app,” which rewires the brain, and shows how children, unlike bosses or spouses, can reveal these hidden patterns. This episode is a powerful reminder that healing is possible and that parenting can become a path to breaking cycles and reclaiming emotional presence. Tune in to learn how Dr. Koslowitz's insights and practices can help you move beyond trauma and become the parent you always wanted to be!   Key Points From This Episode: Introduction to Dr. Robyn Koslowitz and her book Post-Traumatic Parenting. [02:19] Why parents often judge themselves harshly for yelling, dissociating, or people-pleasing. [05:01] How social media can amplify shame and harm post-traumatic parents. [07:41] Dr. Koslowitz's definition of trauma: something that is too big to metabolize, shakes your sense of self or safety, and is faced alone. [10:29] The “trauma app” metaphor and how our brains create default responses to feel safe. [15:34] Why trauma strategies may work at work or in marriage but fail with children. [21:00] Recognizing both the costs and hidden “superpowers” of trauma responses. [23:24] Parenting as a path to healing and breaking cycles for the next generation. [27:43] Three practices for parents: undoing shame, journaling new narratives, and learning parenting skills. [30:34] How to access post-traumatic parenting resources. [35:04] For More Information: Dr. Robyn Koslowitz Dr. Robyn Koslowitz on LinkedIn Dr. Robyn Koslowitz on Instagram Dr. Robyn Koslowitz on Threads Dr. Robyn Koslowitz on X Post-Traumatic Parenting Podcast Post-Traumatic Parenting on YouTube Center for Psychological Growth of New Jersey   Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: Check out Dr. Robyn Koslowitz's new book Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle and Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be   ——————— Join Kathy starting October 15, 2025 in her brand new monthly “The Most Powerful You” Group Coaching Program! Over the years, many graduates of my courses and readers of my books and articles, and other professionals have told me: “I wish there were a way to keep my momentum going — with supportive guidance, community, and accountability all year long.” This program is the answer to that wish. Beginning October 15th, 2025, you'll meet monthly online in a small, global group for 12 months of live 60-minute coaching calls where you'll: Celebrate wins and breakthroughs Bring real-life challenges for direct support and guidance Revisit and apply core success and growth principles from my courses, articles, and 500+ interviews with top experts Learn from peers, insights, and encouragement Sort through key decisions in front of you Leave with clear, actionable steps to move you forward fast in your life and career You'll also get: A private Facebook group for ongoing support Call recordings if you miss a session Exclusive perks (with upfront payment), including additional curated resources, free access to Kathy Caprino AI, LinkedIn support, and two private coaching calls with me This is a space for professionals who are ready to grow their confidence, impact, and fulfillment — with consistent and uplifting support all year long.  

Today's episode is all about visual thinking. We will explore vivid mental imagery and sensory processing. We will cover why Autistic individuals process detailed "pictures and movies" in the mind, exemplified by an anecdote of visualizing oak tree bark with tactile detail. Sensory challenges are highlighted, with a Bee Movie analogy illustrating the intense, efficient visual input. The Autistic sensory journey is described as fast but rocky, contrasting with non-autistic processing. Hyperconnectivity in visual pathways amplifies detail-oriented cognition, often leading to sensory overload.The episode explains how retinal ganglion cells and visual cortex hyperactivity enhance imagery in Autism. Kanner and Asperger's observations underscore visual memory strengths and technical interests, like pattern recognition. Increased mini-column density and reduced inhibition boost local processing but risk overload. Temple Grandin's insights show visual thinking's strengths in tasks like designing animal pathways, though social tasks challenge due to weaker prefrontal connectivity. The Autistic brain's wiring is framed as a unique strength, fostering intense, detailed cognitionTemple Grandin https://www.templegrandin.com/templegrandinbooks.htmlSensory Processing part 1 https://youtu.be/HTnFm8nY4oY?si=4Xso_tI_hMwhY_SXSensory Processing part 2 https://youtu.be/n31gyLb4ddM?si=CouaBhiVm8KixtG-Supplementing Relationships part 1 https://youtu.be/lglEGQ7pSlc?si=ncpla784LxOyUcQcSupplementing Relationships part 2 https://youtu.be/W8E2B7Qu4mg?si=UJE850SwvPmtOmEkDaylight Computer Companyuse "autism" for $50 off athttps://buy.daylightcomputer.com/autismChroma Light Devicesuse "autism" for 10% discount athttps://getchroma.co/?ref=autism00:00 Introduction to Visual Thinking02:00 Anecdote: Oak Tree Visualization; tree bark, tactile05:50 Sensory Processing Challenges; overload, information rate, avoidance09:40 Anecdote: Bee Movie Analogy; synchronized, intense, fast13:30 Autistic Sensory Rates/Speeds17:20 Eye Biology and Neural Relays; Retinal ganglion, SHANK3; Building Models details-to-general21:10 Magnocellular vs. Parvocellular Pathways; Motion, color, glutamate, GABA signaling25:00 Visual Cortex Hyperactivity; V1-V4, fMRI, synaptic pruning, details28:50 Mini-Columns and Sensory Overload; Neural units, inhibition, dense connections32:40 Kanner and Asperger Insights; Social isolation, technical interests, patterns38:39 Daylight Computer Company (and Daylight KIDS !), use "autism" for $50 discount40:54 Chroma Light Devices, use "autism" for 10% discount44:07 Reviews/Ratings & Contact InfoX: https://x.com/rps47586YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGxEzLKXkjppo3nqmpXpzuAemail: info.fromthespectrum@gmail.com

Back pain is one of the most common health problems in the world — but also one of the most mysterious. Scans don't always match symptoms, treatments don't always provide relief, and many people feel stuck with ongoing discomfort.In this episode, I explore chronic, non-specific low back pain through a biopsychosocial lens. Basically, we're looking beyond just the spine to understand how biology, psychology, and environment all shape the way pain is experienced.You'll hear about:What makes non-specific low back pain so puzzlingHow pain perception actually works (pain ≠ tissue damage)Why the biopsychosocial model is key to understanding painThe role of self-regulation in shaping pain responsesWhat research says about meditation for back painHow to reframe back pain when you feel like you're hitting a wallJournal prompts to reflect on your own experienceBy the end, you'll have a new way to think about back pain, one that expands the options for healing beyond the body alone.Engel, G. L. (1977). The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine. Science, 196(4286), 129–136. (Origin of the biopsychosocial model)Study on self-regulation and pain: Wager, T. D., et al. (2013). An fMRI-based neurologic signature of physical pain. New England Journal of Medicine, 368(15), 1388–1397. (and related follow-up studies on cognitive self-regulation impacting autonomic markers — you summarised one in your notes)Systematic review on meditation and back pain: Cramer, H., et al. (2022). Meditation for adults with non-specific low back pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis. (Included 8 RCTs, ~1,234 participants, moderate-certainty evidence of small benefits for disability and long-term pain

What would it take to actually read someone's mind? Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O'Reilly explore the science and ethics of decoding thoughts with Jean-Rémi King, a neuroscience researcher at Meta's Paris lab. NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://startalkmedia.com/show/mindreading-with-jean-remi-king/Thanks to our Patrons Eeshan Londhe, John Strack, Emmanuel Michaca, todd hauser, Justin Belcher, Gabriel Cuadros Caceres, Swaglass, Jon B, John Chase, systemcall, Jim Togyer, Darren Littlefair, Tim Rosener, Duygu Guler, shoulderutube, Kyle Telfer, Carol Cherich, Eduardo Lobato, Aladin, jlayton21, melissa prien, Ben, PuerFugax, LadyGemini, Holly Williams, Dr. Spin, Brent McAlister, Jonathan Hughes, Robert Hartman, James Tulip, Sleepy Blulys, Megan Childs, Esteban Pérez, Rodger Gamblin, Reka Royal, Nicholas Mckenzie, Damon Friedman, Joshua Hemphill, Nadia, Gregory Meyer, Jonathan Bassignani, Kellyn Gerenstein, Jahangiri, Halimah, Tomaz Lovsin, Michael Tombari, Andrei Mistretu, FelicitousFeild, ayadal, nelly, and Josh Christensen for supporting us this week. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of StarTalk Radio ad-free and a whole week early.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

Welcome back! We're discussing the psychology, neuroscience, and applications of method acting and flow state to develop behavioral and character range, aka “become the person you want.” This week's communal Schauer will be very STEAM heavy, but don't worry, next week we're bringing it all together to cultivate a performance that feels personal and true to you (and who you could be).  Make sure to “like” and subscribe on Youtube, rate my 5-stars wherever you get your podcasts, and check out my Substack where I have additional musings. Substack  https://substack.com/@sarahschauer?utm_source=user-menu Resources: The Psychological Effects of Method Acting https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-psychological-effects-of-method-acting-45035 The Neuroscience of Romeo and Juliet: an fMRI study of acting https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.181908 A Review on the Role of the Neuroscience of Flow States in the Modern World  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7551835/#B15-behavsci-10-00137 Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi  Your Conscious Mind - New Scientist  The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism - Fritjof Capra  The Meaning of Proofs: Mathematics as Storytelling - Cabriele Lolli Dark and Magical Places: The Neuroscience of Navigation - Christopher Kemp This Is What It Sounds Like - Susan Rogers and Obi Ogas Reductionism in Art & Brain Science: Bridging the Two Cultures - Eric R. Kandel  A Little Book of Language - David Crystal Submit - A Memoir by Sonnett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Around 30 minutes of imaging per person seems to be the “sweet spot” for linking functional connectivity differences to traits in an accurate and cost-effective way.

This is the podcast version of yesterday's article. Yes, I Know It Has A Different Title.Thanks for listening.And if you are looking for care for yourself or a loved one…join us at Radial—where I work—we focus on next-generation treatments.They include Spravato, Nightware, eTNS, PRISM Neurofeedback, soon, eCOT-AS by Neurolief, TMS, Accelerated TMS, and fMRI-guided SAINT TMS.Radial offers the most advanced mental health care, anywhere. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrontierpsychiatrists.substack.com/subscribe

The Science of Advanced Meditation: Transforming Mental Health and ConsciousnessIn this episode, Dr. Jud Brewer and Dr. Matthew Sacchet explore the cutting edge of meditation research, revealing how advanced meditation practices can fundamentally reshape the brain, enhance well-being, and provide deep psychological transformation. As meditation science enters a new phase, researchers are uncovering how deep states of awareness—once thought to be exclusive to monks and mystics—can be studied, measured, and even cultivated in everyday life. From advanced concentrative absorption meditation (ACAM) to EEG and fMRI studies mapping the brain during self-transcendent states, this conversation dives into the neuroscience behind enlightenment and its potential applications for mental health. Tune in to learn how meditation may one day revolutionize clinical treatments for anxiety, depression, and beyond.Full Reference:Sacchet, M. D., & Brewer, J. A. (2024). An emerging science of advanced meditation could transform mental health and our understanding of consciousness. Scientific American, July/August 2024, 70–75.Let's connect on Instagram

Why can't you quit your bad habits, no matter how hard you try? And are you ready to uncover the crucial missing link? Josh Trent welcomes Dr. Jud Brewer, Neuroscientist and Psychiatrist, to the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast, episode 758, to reveal how your survival mechanisms hijack your mind, why willpower is NOT the key to quitting bad habits, and how understanding habit formation rewires your brain for lasting change.

Ever wondered what's truly happening inside the brain of someone with dyslexia? It's not about seeing letters backward. In this episode, we journey deep into the cerebral cortex to demystify dyslexia. We explore the dominant "phonological deficit" theory, take a tour of the brain's reading circuit, and discover why reading can be an exhausting, effortful task for some. We'll look at fMRI studies showing under-activation in key areas and how the brain brilliantly compensates. Most importantly, we'll discuss the incredible hope of neuroplasticity—the brain's ability to rewire itself through targeted intervention. Plus, stick around for our "Focus on Language" segment where we break down 10 powerful vocabulary words like neuroplasticity, malleable, and heterogeneous and give you a speaking challenge to help you become a more compelling communicator. To unlock full access to all our episodes, consider becoming a premium subscriber on Apple Podcasts or Patreon. And don't forget to visit englishpluspodcast.com for even more content, including articles, in-depth studies, and our brand-new audio series and courses now available in our Patreon Shop!

******Support the channel******Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenterPayPal: paypal.me/thedissenterPayPal Subscription 1 Dollar: https://tinyurl.com/yb3acuuyPayPal Subscription 3 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9lPayPal Subscription 5 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpzPayPal Subscription 10 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9mPayPal Subscription 20 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao ******Follow me on******Website: https://www.thedissenter.net/The Dissenter Goodreads list: https://shorturl.at/7BMoBFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/Twitter: https://x.com/TheDissenterYT This show is sponsored by Enlites, Learning & Development done differently. Check the website here: http://enlites.com/ Dr. Anna Ivanova is Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at Georgia Tech. She is interested in studying the relationship between language and other aspects of human cognition. In her work, she uses tools from cognitive neuroscience (such as fMRI) and artificial intelligence (such as large language models). In this episode, we talk about language from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience. We discuss how language relates to all the rest of human cognition, the brain decoding paradigm, and whether the brain represents words. We talk about large language models (LLMs), and we discuss whether they can understand language. We talk about how we can use AI to study human language, and whether there are parallels between programming language and natural languages. Finally, we discuss mapping models in cognitive neuroscience.--A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS/SUPPORTERS: PER HELGE LARSEN, JERRY MULLER, BERNARDO SEIXAS, ADAM KESSEL, MATTHEW WHITINGBIRD, ARNAUD WOLFF, TIM HOLLOSY, HENRIK AHLENIUS, FILIP FORS CONNOLLY, ROBERT WINDHAGER, RUI INACIO, ZOOP, MARCO NEVES, COLIN HOLBROOK, PHIL KAVANAGH, SAMUEL ANDREEFF, FRANCIS FORDE, TIAGO NUNES, FERGAL CUSSEN, HAL HERZOG, NUNO MACHADO, JONATHAN LEIBRANT, JOÃO LINHARES, STANTON T, SAMUEL CORREA, ERIK HAINES, MARK SMITH, JOÃO EIRA, TOM HUMMEL, SARDUS FRANCE, DAVID SLOAN WILSON, YACILA DEZA-ARAUJO, ROMAIN ROCH, DIEGO LONDOÑO CORREA, YANICK PUNTER, CHARLOTTE BLEASE, NICOLE BARBARO, ADAM HUNT, PAWEL OSTASZEWSKI, NELLEKE BAK, GUY MADISON, GARY G HELLMANN, SAIMA AFZAL, ADRIAN JAEGGI, PAULO TOLENTINO, JOÃO BARBOSA, JULIAN PRICE, HEDIN BRØNNER, DOUGLAS FRY, FRANCA BORTOLOTTI, GABRIEL PONS CORTÈS, URSULA LITZCKE, SCOTT, ZACHARY FISH, TIM DUFFY, SUNNY SMITH, JON WISMAN, WILLIAM BUCKNER, PAUL-GEORGE ARNAUD, LUKE GLOWACKI, GEORGIOS THEOPHANOUS, CHRIS WILLIAMSON, PETER WOLOSZYN, DAVID WILLIAMS, DIOGO COSTA, ALEX CHAU, AMAURI MARTÍNEZ, CORALIE CHEVALLIER, BANGALORE ATHEISTS, LARRY D. LEE JR., OLD HERRINGBONE, MICHAEL BAILEY, DAN SPERBER, ROBERT GRESSIS, JEFF MCMAHAN, JAKE ZUEHL, BARNABAS RADICS, MARK CAMPBELL, TOMAS DAUBNER, LUKE NISSEN, KIMBERLY JOHNSON, JESSICA NOWICKI, LINDA BRANDIN, GEORGE CHORIATIS, VALENTIN STEINMANN, ALEXANDER HUBBARD, BR, JONAS HERTNER, URSULA GOODENOUGH, DAVID PINSOF, SEAN NELSON, MIKE LAVIGNE, JOS KNECHT, LUCY, MANVIR SINGH, PETRA WEIMANN, CAROLA FEEST, MAURO JÚNIOR, 航 豊川, TONY BARRETT, NIKOLAI VISHNEVSKY, STEVEN GANGESTAD, TED FARRIS, ROBINROSWELL, KEITH RICHARDSON, AND HUGO B.!A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, JIM FRANK, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, TOM VANEGDOM, BERNARD HUGUENEY, CURTIS DIXON, BENEDIKT MUELLER, THOMAS TRUMBLE, KATHRINE AND PATRICK TOBIN, JONCARLO MONTENEGRO, NICK GOLDEN, CHRISTINE GLASS, IGOR NIKIFOROVSKI, AND PER KRAULIS!AND TO MY EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS, MATTHEW LAVENDER, SERGIU CODREANU, ROSEY, AND GREGORY HASTINGS!

AI will fundamentally transform science. It will supercharge the research process, making it faster and more efficient and broader in scope. It will make scientists themselves vastly more productive, more objective, maybe more creative. It will make many human participants—and probably some human scientists—obsolete… Or at least these are some of the claims we are hearing these days. There is no question that various AI tools could radically reshape how science is done, and how much science is done. What we stand to gain in all this is pretty clear. What we stand to lose is less obvious, but no less important. My guest today is Dr. Molly Crockett. Molly is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. In a recent widely-discussed article, Molly and the anthropologist Dr. Lisa Messeri presented a framework for thinking about the different roles that are being imagined for AI in science. And they argue that, when we adopt AI in these ways, we become vulnerable to certain illusions. Here, Molly and I talk about four visions of AI in science that are currently circulating: AI as an Oracle, as a Surrogate, as a Quant, and as an Arbiter. We talk about the very real problems in the scientific process that AI promises to help us solve. We consider the ethics and challenges of using Large Language Models as experimental subjects. We talk about three illusions of understanding the crop up when we uncritically adopt AI into the research pipeline—an illusion that we understand more than we actually do; an illusion that we're covering a larger swath of a research space than we actually are; and the illusion that AI makes our work more objective. We also talk about how ideas from Science and Technology Studies (or STS) can help us make sense of this AI-driven transformation that, like it or no, is already upon us. Along the way Molly and I touch on: AI therapists and AI tutors, anthropomorphism, the culture and ideology of Silicon Valley, Amazon's Mechanical Turk, fMRI, objectivity, quantification, Molly's mid-career crisis, monocultures, and the squishy parts of human experience. Without further ado, on to my conversation with Dr. Molly Crockett. Enjoy!   A transcript of this episode will be posted soon.   Notes and links 5:00 – For more on LLMs—and the question of whether we understand how they work—see our earlier episode with Murray Shanahan. 9:00 – For the paper by Dr. Crockett and colleagues about the social/behavioral sciences and the COVID-19 pandemic, see here.  11:30 – For Dr. Crockett and colleagues' work on outrage on social media, see this recent paper.  18:00 – For a recent exchange on the prospects of using LLMs in scientific peer review, see here. 20:30 – Donna Haraway's essay, 'Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective', is here. See also Dr. Haraway's book, Primate Visions. 22:00 – For the recent essay by Henry Farrell and others on AI as a cultural technology, see here. 23:00 – For a recent report on chatbots driving people to mental health crises, see here. 25:30 – For the already-classic “stochastic parrots” article, see here. 33:00 – For the study by Ryan Carlson and Dr. Crockett on using crowd-workers to study altruism, see here. 34:00 – For more on the “illusion of explanatory depth,” see our episode with Tania Lombrozo. 53:00 – For the more about Ohio State's plans to incorporate AI in the classroom, see here. For a recent essay by Dr. Crockett on the idea of “techno-optimism,” see here.   Recommendations More Everything Forever, by Adam Becker Transformative Experience, by L. A. Paul Epistemic Injustice, by Miranda Fricker   Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, which is made possible by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation to Indiana University. The show is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with help from Assistant Producer Urte Laukaityte and with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd. Our transcripts are created by Sarah Dopierala. Subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also now subscribe to the Many Minds newsletter here! We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com.  For updates about the show, visit our website or follow us on Twitter (@ManyMindsPod) or Bluesky (@manymindspod.bsky.social).

In this episode, Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD joins to elucidate the intersection of psychedelics and neuroplasticity. Dr. Carhart-Harris is the Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professor in Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. Robin founded the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London in April 2019, was ranked among the top 31 medical scientists in 2020, and in 2021, was named in TIME magazine's ‘100 Next' – a list of 100 rising stars shaping the future. Dr. Carhart-Harris begins by discussing the impact of psychedelics on neuroplasticity and mental health. He explains neuroplasticity as the brain's ability to change, emphasizing its role in mood disorders and substance use and describes how stress atrophies the brain, leading to mental illness. Dr. Carhart-Harris differentiates between neuroplasticity and neurogenesis, noting that while neurogenesis is limited in adults, neuroplasticity can be influenced by psychedelics like ketamine, psilocybin, and MDMA. In closing, he also discusses the entropic brain hypothesis, suggesting that increased brain entropy leads to richer subjective experiences.    In this episode, you'll hear: The relationship between neuroplasticity and “canalization”  Why homeostatic neuroplasticity may promote mental wellbeing Differences between ketamine, MDMA, and serotonergic psychedelics in terms of neuroplasticity The details of the entropic brain hypothesis Psychedelics' effect on the default mode network The frontiers of research into psychedelics and neuroplasticity  Quotes: “So changeability is what plasticity is. And neuroplasticity—that's the ability of the brain to change. Okay, and how is neuroplasticity related to mood disorders like depression and anxiety or substance use disorder or something like that? Well, that's a great question cause we don't have it entirely nailed down. But one of the most reliable findings in biological psychiatry is that stress atrophies the brain.” [2:47] “The main thing with ketamine is that the window of increased plasticity is brief… That makes sense because that reflects how ketamine seems to work therapeutically—that it provides relief somewhat short-term, unless it is twinned with, say, psychotherapy or you do repeat administration and get someone out of the rut they were in.” [22:15] “We've seen in people with depression, brain networks can become quite segregated from each other—they are ordinarily, they're quite functionally separate and distinct—but that modularity might be a bit elevated in depression. But what we've seen with psilocybin therapy is that separateness between systems, that segregated quality of organization of brain networks, brain systems actually decreases after psilocybin therapy for depression. I'll put it another way: the brain looks more globally interconnected after psilocybin therapy for depression and the magnitude of that… correlates with improvements.” [39:19]   Links: Carhart-Harris Lab website Dr. Carhart-Harris on X Dr. Carhart-Harris' 2025 article: “Neuroplasticity and psychedelics: A comprehensive examination of classic and non-classic compounds in pre and clinical models” Dr. Carhart-Harris' 2012 article: “Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin” Dr. Carhart-Harris' 2010 article with Karl Friston: “The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: a neurobiological account of Freudian ideas” Psychedelic Medicine Association Porangui

How do our brains choose what's important to us? Emily Falk, neuroscientist and author of What We Value, joins us to decode what goes on behind the scenes with our decisions - everything from what to eat for breakfast to how to respond to trolls on social media - and how emotional, rational, and social information is integrated by the brain to guide our choices. ©2025 Behavioral Grooves Topics [0:00] Intro and Speed Round with Emily Falk [8:29] Understanding Value Calculations [12:58] Research Methods and fMRI [18:01] Self-Relevance and Social Relevance Systems [28:41] Defensiveness and Social Norms [40:49] The Importance of Being "In Sync" [58:17] The Role or Music in Self/Social Relevance [1:07:45] Grooving Session: Communication, Social Norms, and Behavioral Science at Work ©2025 Behavioral Grooves Links About Emily What We Value by Emily Falk Communication Neuroscience Lab Join the Behavioral Grooves community Subscribe to Behavioral Grooves on YouTube Music Links Indigo Girls - Galileo Dar Williams - As Cool As I Am  

Now that we have the ability to see inside the brain without opening anyone's skull, we'll be able to map and define brain activity and peg it to behavior and feelings. Right? Well, maybe not, or maybe not just yet. It seems the workings of our brains are rather too complex and diverse across individuals to really say for certain what a brain scan says about a person. But Nobel prize winner Eric Kandel and researcher Cynthia Fu tell us about groundbreaking work in the field of depression that just may help us toward better diagnosis and treatment.Anything that helps us treat a disease better is welcome. Doctors have been led astray before by misunderstanding a disease and what makes it better. Neurologist Robert Sapolsky tells us about the turn of the last century, when doctors discovered that babies who died inexplicably in their sleep had thymus glands that seemed far too large. Blasting them with radiation shrank them effectively, and so was administered to perfectly healthy children to prevent this sudden infant death syndrome...Leadership support for Radiolab's science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

In this episode of FYI - For Your Innovation, ARK's Chief Futurist, Brett Winton, and Research Analyst Nemo Marjanovic, sit down with Dr. Jin Hyung Lee, a leading neuroscience researcher at Stanford University. Dr. Lee and her team are pioneering breakthroughs in understanding brain function—an essential step toward diagnosing and treating neurological disorders. The conversation explores the complexities of the brain, the challenges in defining and diagnosing neurological diseases, and why current diagnostic tools are still crude. Dr. Lee discusses how her research combines optogenetics, fMRI, and AI to create functional maps of the brain, leading to potential breakthroughs in treating conditions like epilepsy and Alzheimer's. The trio also examines the broader implications of AI-powered diagnostics, how machine learning is revolutionizing precision medicine, and why we may be on the verge of a neuroscience revolution.Key Points From This Episode:Why defining brain function is crucial for diagnosing and treating disordersThe role of optogenetics and fMRI in understanding the brainHow AI and data-driven diagnostics are advancing neuroscienceThe intersection of molecular and imaging diagnostics in healthcareThe shift toward personalized and predictive medicine

Is your brain the secret key to spiritual development and happiness? In this live presentation recorded at Tony & Sage Robbins' 2024 Platinum Partners Happiness Event in Abu Dhabi, neuroscientist Andrew Newberg, M.D. explores “The Spiritual Brain: The Link Between Spirituality, Sexuality, and Happiness.” Drawing on cutting-edge fMRI and PET scans, Dr. Newberg defines exactly what a spiritual experience is and shows you where—and how—those moments light up your neural circuitry. You'll discover the core components that make these experiences so transformative and learn how repeated ritual practices reshape the brain over time. Along the way, he reveals the evolutionary roots of ritual and explains why religious and spiritual encounters have the power to change our views of reality, our relationships, our work—and even our deepest beliefs about God, science, and ourselves. Watch now to uncover the surprising ways your own brain is wired for transcendence—and how that wiring can lead you to a more fulfilled, happier life. Don't forget to subscribe for more breakthrough ideas from Tony Robbins, as well as the world's leading thinkers. Please enjoy! For more on Andrew Newberg, M.D.: www.andrewnewberg.com Instagram: @dr.andrewnewberg   *Tony Robbins is a #1 New York Times best-selling author, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and the nation's #1 Life and Business Strategist. For more than four and a half decades, more than 100 million people from 195 countries have enjoyed the warmth, humor, and transformational power of his business and personal development events. Mr. Robbins is the author of seven internationally bestselling books, including three #1 New York Times bestsellers: Money: Master the Game, Unshakeable, and Life Force. He created the #1 personal and professional development program of all time, and more than 10 million people have attended his live seminars.  Anthony Robbins is the chairman of a holding company comprising more than 110 privately held businesses with combined sales exceeding $7 billion a year. He has been named in the top 50 of Worth Magazine's 100 most powerful people in global finance for three consecutive years, honored by Accenture as one of the "Top 50 Business Intellectuals in the World''; by Harvard Business Press as one of the "Top 200 Business Gurus"; and by American Express as one of the "Top Six Business Leaders in the World" to coach its entrepreneurial clients. Fortune's recent cover article named him the “CEO Whisperer.” He is a leader called upon by leaders, and has worked with four US presidents, top entertainers -- from Aerosmith to Green Day, to Usher and Pitbull, as well as athletes like Serena Williams, Andre Agassi, and the 2022 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors. Billionaire business leaders seek his advice as well; casino magnate Steve Wynn, and Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff are among those grateful for his coaching.  As a philanthropist, through his partnership with Feeding America, Mr. Robbins has provided over 985 million meals in the last 8 years to those in need. He is two years ahead of schedule to provide 1 billion meals. Through the Tony Robbins Foundation, he has also awarded over 2,500 grants and other resources to health and human services organizations, implemented life-changing curricula in 1,700+ correctional facilities and gathered thousands of young leaders from around the world with its teen programs. In addition, he provides fresh water to 250,000 people a day in India in order to fight the number one killer of children in that country-waterborne diseases.

David Eagleman explains why counterfeiting works, how our empathy fails, why mind reading remains elusive, and if we'll ever upload our minds to computers. What We Discuss with David Eagleman: Dr. David Eagleman worked with the European Central Bank on anti-counterfeiting measures, and his research revealed that most people don't notice security features on bills. His key recommendation was to use faces rather than buildings for watermarks since our brains have specialized neural real estate for recognizing faces, making counterfeit detection easier. Research shows our brains have less empathy for people we consider part of our "outgroup." FMRI studies demonstrated that even simple one-word labels (like religious affiliations) can trigger this differential response in the brain's pain matrix when witnessing someone experiencing pain. True mind reading via brain scanning is likely impossible in our lifetime. While we can decode basic sensory input (like visual or auditory cortex activity), actual thoughts involve complex personal experiences, memories, and creative combinations that would be impossible to capture without knowing someone's entire life history. Uploading a human brain to digital form presents enormous technical challenges and philosophical questions. The computational requirements exceed our current global capacity, and questions about identity (is the upload "you" if your physical body dies?) remain unresolved. Brain plasticity would also need to be captured for the upload to remain dynamic. Understanding our brain's natural tendency toward ingroup/outgroup thinking gives us the opportunity to consciously overcome these biases. By recognizing our shared humanity and finding common interests with those different from us, we can build bridges across divides and develop greater empathy for all people. This awareness can help us make more compassionate choices in our daily interactions. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1123 And if you're still game to support us, please leave a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally! This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/deals Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Subscribe to our once-a-week Wee Bit Wiser newsletter today and start filling your Wednesdays with wisdom! Do you even Reddit, bro? Join us at r/JordanHarbinger!