Shows / Understanding the Brain
Understanding the Brain
This podcast is designed for individuals with or without a background in science to the modern field of neuroscience. Drawing on everyday experience and popular books, as well as current research to enlighten the listener. Join us in this exciting and fun journey
Episodes
- Understanding the Brain
The Neuroscience of Food Noise: How GLP-1 Drugs Change Appetite and Reward
Why do GLP-1 medications make some people think less about food? This crossover with The GLP-1 Effect explores how the hypothalamus, dopamine pathways, and…
- Understanding the Brain
Why Does the Brain React When Its Chemistry Changes? The Neuroscience of Withdrawal
xplore neuroadaptation, receptor regulation, and homeostasis to understand why the nervous system responds to sudden changes in medication exposure. Examine…
- Understanding the Brain
Can Drugs Unlock Hidden Secrets? The Neuroscience of Truth Serum
What happens inside the brain when sodium thiopental or scopolamine alters consciousness? This episode examines GABA, acetylcholine, the hippocampus, and the…
- Understanding the Brain
Same Class, Different Brain Effects: How SSRIs Actually Differ
All SSRIs work by boosting serotonin availability in the brain, but that shared mechanism doesn’t mean they behave the same way once they get there. This…
- Understanding the Brain
What Happens to Your Neurons During a Concussion? The Cellular Science of Brain Injury
A concussion can trigger a complex chain reaction involving mechanical stretching, neurotransmitter release, calcium influx, and disrupted energy metabolism…
- Understanding the Brain
The Four Dopamine Pathways: How One Neurotransmitter Controls Movement, Motivation, and Hormones
Dopamine is often described as the brain's pleasure chemical, but its functions extend far beyond feelings of reward. This episode explores the mesolimbic…
- Understanding the Brain
The Hypervigilant Brain: How Trauma Changes Threat Detection
Explore the amygdala, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and stress-response systems. Examine fear conditioning, threat generalization, and why the brain…
- Understanding the Brain
What SSRIs Actually Do to the Brain
Examine serotonergic pathways, receptor signaling, and neuroplasticity while explaining why depression cannot be reduced to a simple chemical imbalance.
- Understanding the Brain
Why Smells Trigger Memories Faster Than We Expect
Explore the olfactory bulb, piriform cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, and neural pathways connecting odor recognition with autobiographical memory. Explain the…
- Understanding the Brain
Serotonin and the Brain: Why Antidepressants Take Weeks to Work
Serotonin plays an important role in mood regulation, emotional processing, sleep, and communication between neurons, but its relationship with depression is…
- Understanding the Brain
How the Brain Adapts to Antidepressants: Receptors, Circuits, and Neuroplasticity
Antidepressants influence neurotransmission relatively quickly, yet meaningful clinical improvement often takes longer. This episode explores receptor…
- Understanding the Brain
Psychosis From the Immune System: The Strange Case of Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis
Imagine developing what appears to be schizophrenia almost overnight, only for doctors to discover that your immune system may be attacking receptors in your…
- Understanding the Brain
Four Roads for One Molecule: Mapping the Brain's Dopamine Pathways
Dopamine doesn't run on a single track — it moves through four distinct pathways in the brain, and each one produces a very different story when its activity…
- Understanding the Brain
Dopamine Isn’t Simply the Pleasure Chemical
Dopamine is routinely described as the brain’s “pleasure chemical,” but that description leaves out much of the story. Dopamine systems participate in…
- Understanding the Brain
Why You Can Feel Someone Watching You—Even When You Never Saw Them
Have you ever suddenly looked across a room and discovered that someone was staring directly at you? It can feel almost supernatural, as though your brain…
- Understanding the Brain
The Brain’s Traffic Controller: How We Turn Thought into Action and Habit
Hidden deep inside the head, a small cluster of control centers decides which of our physical movements and mental impulses actually happen. It acts like a…
- Understanding the Brain
The Brain’s Idle Engine: The Default Mode Network, Internal Narrative, and Network Switching
This episode examines the architecture and physiology of the default mode network (DMN), a large-scale neural network that activates during internally directed…
- Understanding the Brain
Where vs. What: The Parietal Lobe and the Temporal Lobe Are Not Interchangeable Real Estate
The parietal lobe maps the body and space; the temporal lobe maps sound, meaning, and memory. Confusing them is how people turn every MRI finding into a…
- Understanding the Brain
Map of the Mind: What Each Brain Lobe Is Actually Doing
understanding the brain