Author: This Is Your Brain producer
Depression, anxiety, low libido… your mood is directly related to what you eat. Nutritional psychiatrist (and chef) Uma Naidoo, MD, examines the “gut-brain romance” and explains the delicate balance between your diet and your mental health. If you haven’t given up junk food to lose weight or reduce the risk of diabetes, maybe you’ll do it to feel happier? Plus… what happens when you try too hard to eat healthy. Phil Stieg: Hello, I’d like to introduce Dr. Uma Naidoo, director of the Nutritional and Metabolic Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital. Good nutrition is about much more than weight loss,…
From the outside, a human brain appears fairly uniform – but what’s inside is very different depending on where you look. Your brain has complex maps within that allow you to see, understand, imagine, and recognize everything from faces to objects to abstract concepts like love, time, and debt. Neuroscientist Rebecca Schwarzlose of Washington University joins us this week to explain what parts of your brain are at work when you pick up an object, see someone you know, or read a book. (The writing of “Brainscapes” was supported with a grant from the Public Understanding of Science and Technology…
Can you communicate with someone who’s sound asleep, and is it possible to influence their dreams? Dr. Ken Paller, professor of psychology at Northwestern and a leading sleep researcher, talks about “lucid dreaming” – the state of dreaming while knowing you’re in a dream – as well as about how researchers can reach into the brain of a sleeping person and actually create the experience they have in their dreams. Is it ethical to influence the dream state – and what are the implications for brain health if we can never turn off? Phil Stieg: Hello and welcome to Professor Ken…
Near-death experiences may seem like the stuff of supermarket tabloids, but there are real patterns to what people report after coming close to departing this life. Dr. Bruce Greyson has been studying near-death experiences for decades and has stories to tell about out-of-body phenomena, that light at the end of the tunnel, and a near-universal finding of new meaning in life after coming close to death. Plus… a glimpse of what happens to your brain after death. Phil Stieg: Hello, I’d like to welcome Dr. Bruce Greyson, professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. Today he is…
ASMR, or the autonomous sensory meridian response, is a state of deep calm accompanied by a sense of “brain tingles.” Not everyone experiences it, but if you do, you know what triggers it: a whisper or other soft sounds, a gentle touch or movement, even watching a Bob Ross video. Physiologist Craig Richard explains the science behind ASMR, and why in some people induces a deeply relaxing response that can resolve insomnia, relaxation, and stress. Plus: Who are the top “artists” of ASMR? Phil Stieg: Hello. I’d like to welcome Professor Craig Richard, founder of ASMR University. ASMR is Autonomous…
It’s effective against depression, can help you stop smoking, even ease end-of-life distress. It’s non-addictive, naturally occurring, and has been used for thousands of years — but you can’t have it. It’s psilocybin, the compound that creates the “magic” in dozens of species of mushrooms. Johns Hopkins researcher Albert Garcia-Romeu, Ph.D. knows just how magical it is. He’s conducting research on psilocybin’s therapeutic value for everything from persistent Lyme disease to a range of mental health conditions. Find out what this psychedelic drug can do, and why it got such a bad reputation. Plus… revisiting Timothy Leary’s rise and fall as…