biotech - The Sociable

Neurofeedback: a software upgrade for the brain (podcast)

2.57K

In 2014, Marcia Moran, a business co-founder, blogger, and columnist suffered a stroke which left her with aphasia, a language disorder...

Science Technology

Biotech startup wants to make new short-acting psychedelic drugs more scalable & accessible

Tim Hinchliffe9 months ago

10.3K

As the mental health benefits of the magic mushroom-derived drug psilocybin become more mainstream, researchers and developers are looking for...

Science Technology

Defense biotech research looks to eliminate bacteria causing traveler’s diarrhea, reduce jet lag duration

Tim Hinchliffe9 months ago

3.83K

World traveler's will rejoice at the idea of a seemingly magical device that would guarantee they never suffer from the...

Technology

Hackable humans can become godlike or fall to digital dictators lording over data colonies: WEF insights

Tim Hinchliffe12 months ago

5.22K

While AI and biotech are giving humans godlike abilities to re-engineer life itself, humans are still hackable animals, and the...

Technology

Senate introduces ‘Industries of the Future’ bill to fund $10B annually for AI, biotech, quantum breakthroughs

Tim Hinchliffe1 year ago

3.9K

The Senate introduces the Industries of the Future bill, which would fund $10 billion per year to research AI, biotech,...

Technology

How to hack a human 101: ‘organisms are algorithms,’ World Economic Forum Davos

Tim Hinchliffe3 years ago

10.7K

The most profound statement in over 150 years of biological research since Charles Darwin can be summarized in just three...

Technology

Slime molds are designing airplane, subway structures that are alive

Tim Hinchliffe5 years ago

Globules of living slime molds are implemented to redesign Airbus's newest partitions for airplanes with an organic intelligence more efficient than...

Brains Byte Back

The weekly podcast looking at how our brains, psychology, and society are impacted by the ever-evolving technology that surrounds us. Every Monday we bring you the best stories and guests from around the world relating to technology, psychology, and society.

Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku once said, “The human brain has 100 billion neurons, each neuron connected to 10,000 other neurons. Sitting on your shoulders is the most complicated object in the known universe.”

Our brain is undeniably an incredibly complex and impressive object, and this is best demonstrated with brain plasticity, a term that refers to the brain’s ability to change and adapt as a result of experience.

Listen to this podcast on Spotify, Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, Listen Notes, PodBean, and Radio Public.

To better understand how the brain does this and the processes that take place when we learn new skills, we spoke with Alicia Walf, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and a senior lecturer in the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer.

Walf studies the brain mechanisms of stress and reproductive hormones as they relate to behavior and cognition, brain plasticity, and brain health over the lifespan. Her specific areas of expertise are memory, emotions, and social interactions and how these functions not only arise from the brain but change the brain itself.

In this episode, Walf explains how the job of London cab drivers impacts their hippocampus (the area of the brain responsible for memory), how capable we are to retrain in tech jobs relating to cyber and coding at a later age, and what studies on frequent video game players vs novices show us about brain plasticity. She also discusses how the olfactory sense can help us better understand dementia and memory.