psychedelics - The Sociable

Science

The New Era of Psychedelics: Learning and Integrating (Brains Byte Back Podcast)

Sam Brake Guia7 months ago

In today’s episode, fellow Brains Byte Back host Mags Tanev joins me to conclude her series The New Era of...

Web

The transformative power of psilocybin on the Brains Byte Back podcast

Sam Brake Guia7 months ago

2.01K

In this final installment of The New Era of Psychedelics, exploring scientific research, therapies, and the potential benefits of psychedelic...

Science

The therapeutic power of Ayahuasca on the Brains Byte Back podcast

Sam Brake Guia8 months ago

2.59K

Welcome to another episode of The New Era of Psychedelics series, exploring scientific research, therapies, and the potential benefits of...

Science

What is Microdosing? — clinical biologist weighs in on the Brains Byte Back podcast

Sam Brake Guia8 months ago

2.04K

Mags Tanev, our co-host here at Brains Byte Back, brings the second installment of her series The New Era of...

Science

Psychedelics reconnect the brain’s motherboard, help patients restore cognitive abilities: leading expert on mood disorders

Tim Hinchliffe8 months ago

6.1K

One of world's leading experts on mood disorders tells The Sociable how psychedelic treatments act like software that helps patients...

Science

‘The Psychedelic Renaissance’ with the former VP of content at High Times (Brains Byte Back podcast)

Mags Tanev8 months ago

3.21K

Our Brains Byte Back podcast co-host, Mags Tanev, kicks off her new series The New Era of Psychedelics, exploring scientific research, therapies,...

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...

young soldier face with jungle camouflage paint

Science

DARPA wants benefits of psychedelics but without hallucinations

Tim Hinchliffe1 year ago

7.35K

Since the Pentagon doesn't want its soldiers tripping in their tents, DARPA wants to develop a drug that has similar...

Technology

Virtual Reality Takes Consciousness Research into Mystic Realms of the Divine Play

Tim Hinchliffe4 years ago

10.9K

Virtual Reality is blazing new frontiers in the exploration of consciousness by adding whole new dimensions to the notion of...

Science

Researching ‘shrooms’: The magic tripping dose, mystical experiences and the tech community

Tim Hinchliffe5 years ago

9.1K

Johns Hopkins reveals the most beneficial dose for the active ingredient in magic mushrooms for treating depression while best-selling author Tim...

Technology

Terence Mckenna’s ‘cyberdelic’ predictions for Virtual Reality 25 years on

Tim Hinchliffe5 years ago

7.18K

Famed psychonaut Terence Mckenna envisioned a very radical approach of bridging psychedelics with virtual reality to create a supercharged version...

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.