Episodes
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WaterCooler Neuroscience is continuing our episodes talking about the most interesting papers from the recent NIH confernece which Jordana Adler attended. We are talking about which signals in specific the amygdala is firing at when PTSD patients are exposed to an array of fearful stimuli and how this kind of experiment can only be done in certain laboratories. We also discuss how our brain's connectivity changes as we get older and how that effects healthy ageing particularly for those under and over 50 years old.
If you would like to see the poster Wilf and Jordana discuss please use the links https://brainmeeting2022.ipostersessions.com/Default.aspx?s=65-A1-05-F6-3A-57-CE-FC-81-7D-BC-46-A8-64-DF-C5, and https://brainmeeting2022.ipostersessions.com/Default.aspx?s=5B-F5-BB-EB-AF-AA-0B-8F-18-2A-9C-72-70-9D-09-19 if you cannot get access please request it from an academic/research institution if possible.
This episode is sponsored by BrainFx. BrainFx Assessments have helped researchers, scientists, and healthcare professionals conduct cutting-edge research and understand the early and subtle effects of brain disorders of all types on a person's ability to function in real life. Find out more at www.BrainFx.com -
WaterCooler Neuroscience is back in 2022 with a new format bringing both Wilf Nelson and Jordana Adler. This episode will be bringing you some of the most interesting posters and papers from the NIH conference in America which Jordana attended recently. Wilf and Jordana discuss research into how much can we really assume that rodent and human brains are comparable, especially given billions of dollars of research ever year is done on rodent neuroscience assuming it helps us further our understanding of the human brain.
If you would like to see the poster Wilf and Jordana discuss please use the link https://brainmeeting2022.ipostersessions.com/Default.aspx?s=C8-F2-5A-84-54-F6-70-33-66-52-44-AB-58-13-50-CA, if you cannot get access please request it from an academic/research institution if possible.
This episode is sponsored by BrainFx. BrainFx Assessments have helped researchers, scientists, and healthcare professionals conduct cutting-edge research and understand the early and subtle effects of brain disorders of all types on a person's ability to function in real life. Find out more at www.BrainFx.com -
Missing episodes?
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This episode finishes the mini-series about Bethany Teachman's lab by interviewing Bethany Teachman herself to talk about her role in running a professional academic lab
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This episode continues the series from December 2021 by talking with Jeremy Eberle about his experience working in Bethany Teachman's lab.
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In this episode, Jordana and Wilf talk about what the research into eye movement says about how people are thinking. Why would we want to study eye movement and how does it compare to other methods?
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This episode finalises the series of episodes where Jordana Adler interviews Wilf Nelson on his PhD, the thesis that was produced and the journey he had learned to conduct, design and analyse experiments.
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Episode 4 brings you the first of Wilf's episodes that were designed from conception by himself. His work leads him to try to understand how inhibition works when we have multiple competing senses active but now we are going further. This episode explores how the brain uses inhibition when it both knows something is coming up and when it doesn't. Wilf's research lead him away from using EEG and fMRI but instead to using a machine called magnetoencephalography or MEG. Wilf talks about why he had to train with this machine and what new data this brought to his expanding collection of research.
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The next episode in the series on Wilf Nelson's PhD thesis is brought to you like season 5 of WaterCooler Neuroscience. In this episode, Wilf talks about this first experiment that just didn't work the way he wanted. Jordana and Wilf talk about their experiences running EEG experiments and tests and what experiments that don't work can tell us in science. In fact, this experiment not working the way it was supposed to be even more interesting because it is the same experiment as chapter 2 but this time is done with an EEG cap instead of an fMRI machine.
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In this episode of WaterCooler Neuroscience, we discuss Wilf's first experimental chapter of his thesis. This is when a scientist prepares an experiment and in their dissertation will write a chapter to explain and describe that experiment to other scientists. This experiment is looking at how the brain can decide to inhibit or 'turn off' regions that are competing with what we want to be doing. In reality, the brain can't turn anything off, it is more like putting a state where it is just ticking over but ready to go if it needs to. Wilf talks about his experience of designing the experiment while Jordana Adler is the host and brings her insight from the world of neurofeedback.
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This episode is a special one because it is the first part of a five-episode series of WaterCooler Neuroscience on Wilf Nelson's, the host's, PhD. In this episode, Jordana Adler from BTAB is the host and interviewing Wilf on his PhD from starting through to all of the experimental chapters of his thesis. The first episode covers a lot of the questions that scientists get asked when they start their PhD and probes what it means to be trained as a scientist. Listen now to learn about Wilf Nelson going from Wilf Nelson to Wilf Nelson, PhD.
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Think Fast is continuing its deep dive into Prof. Teachman’s lab to better understand how multiple different research projects are run at the same time and give you a better look at what a proper academic lab is like. In this episode we are talking about some of the data analysis that goes on behind the scenes looks like. For any lab, the analysis of data is just as important as acquiring it but instead of having a set pipeline up and running data analysis can take many forms. We talk with one of the lab’s researchers to see what their day-to-day looks like and how they turn anonymised data into useable findings.
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Over December Jordana and Wilf have been talking about what science fiction and more specifically last episode SOMA can show about modern psychology and neuroscience. In this episode, we wrap up this mini-series and talk about how an organic AI would work. What are the bounds of an AI and how in SOMA do begin to see what a very non-human, very hard to understand AI looks like? On top of this Wilf thinks this is one of the best representations of AI to date.
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Think Fast is doing a deep dive into the lab of Professor Bethany Teachman who has been on the show before and we are talking about how her lab studies anxiety. Normally on Think Fast, we will talk about only one research project or one show but labs regularly work on multiple projects at a time once they are established. The next four episodes are going to be an expose on what Prof. Teachman’s lab is doing and how it is really very similar to a large commercial lab in its day-to-day running.
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Mind-uploading has been one of the great visions of science ever since the boom of cyberpunk science fiction and with it has been the belief that since 'brains are like computers' (they aren't) that moving our consciousness from our brains to a computer is just a matter of moving some software around. In this episode, Wilf and Jordana continue to talk about science fiction throughout December but this time focusing on a game called SOMA. SOMA is a video game that provides an in-depth discussion into mind uploading and according to the hosts is one of the best representations of where it can go right, and very very wrong.
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Today’s episode brings you more from the world of computational neuroscience or trying to recreate parts of the brain in a computer. Brains were once thought of as just as a pile of jelly and neurons were neurons, blood was blood and support cells were called glial (for glue). Modern neuroscience has a much more advanced understanding of how the brain is composed of many different types of neurons, glial and microglial as well as complex systems to provide oxygen and nutrients and remove waste. One question however does keep popping up, why do we have so many different types of neurons? Why isn’t one all-purpose neuron the way our brains evolved? In this episode, we talk about how computer models allow us to test tests that would take millions of years through evolution in the lab but a computer can do it in a few days.
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Our two-part discussion about how psychologists view science fiction continues and this part is where it gets really weird. Wilf and Jordana talk about how to rank different kinds of AI, how well do movie AI match real-world AI and what happens to psychology when we try to apply it to totally non-human minds?
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Brains Talking About Brains is a show where two psychologists/neurosciences talk about science papers in our virtual conference. This week however we are expanding into the other great love that all scientists have, that is talking about science fiction as if it was real. In this two-part discussion, Wilf and Jordana talk about movies and games to discuss what they see as psychologists when they watch some of the most popular science fiction around and what science-based wanderings does that lead to?
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Being in the zone is called a flow state in Psychology/Neuroscience, it is the state of focusing on one task to the point that information from the outside world can not even reach our conscious awareness. Team Flow is the very specific circumstance where we are in the zone or in a state of flow but we can specifically not ignore our teammates and integrate the information from other people while keeping that high level of focus. We also learn how professional video gamers are a perfect population for testing this phenomenon which is only a new field to academic study.
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Inhibition is a fundamental function of the brain, our brain can't always be on. In this episode we talk with our guest, Dr Corette Wierenga, to better understand how our neurons can be activated in a way that starts to promote the growth of inhibitory connections. This is how our brains balance themselves, it is a method for the brain to work in real-time to alter the strength of different signals and ensure that no one signal gets too strong in the brain.
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