Author: This Is Your Brain producer

Your brain, your heart — in fact, every cell in your body — has its own clock telling you when to be alert and when to pack it in. Dr. Emily Manoogian, chronobiologist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies explains how disrupting your circadian rhythms through shift work, long flights, eating at the wrong times, and even staying up too late on weekends can affect your health, mood, and emotional regulation. Plus how circadian rhythms affect all animals, not just humans. Phil Stieg: Hello, I’d like to welcome Emily Manoogian, a clinical researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological…

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Are we all living in an illusion, and can two people see the same thing differently? How exactly do magicians trick or hack our brains? Dr. Luis M Martínez, director of the Virtual Mind Laboratory at the Spanish National Research Council, joins us to share the latest findings in neuroscience to explain how magic deceives us and amazes us. He shows us how illusionists skillfully “hack” our brains to alter our perceptions and expectations of things and, like a good joke, deliver a surprise at the end. Phil Stieg: Hello, I’d like to welcome Dr. Luis Martinez, a neuroscientist at…

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The human brain did not evolve to read — but reading makes us more fully human as it opens up new worlds of understanding and empathy. Today, as we read so much by “skimming” on phones and tablets, we’re missing out on the sophisticated thought processes that deep reading provides. Dr. Maryanne Wolf, Director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at UCLA, and the author of several books on literacy, joins us this week to discuss how reading in a digital era affects our critical thinking and leaves us vulnerable to misinformation. Plus…is dyslexia actually a…

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New parents – especially moms – experience profound changes in the brain when they are expecting and welcoming a new baby. Health journalist Chelsea Conaboy explains how the caricature of “mommy brain” and its cognitive fog has it all wrong – parenthood actually has a neuroprotective effect, as the brain adapts to meeting the needs of children. It happens to all parents, not just mothers, but it’s most dramatic in gestating parents. Plus… how it takes a troop to raise a monkey. Phil Stieg: Hello I’d like to welcome Chelsea Conaboy, a health and science journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winner. Importantly for…

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Teen brains are uniquely primed for addiction — that age is all about novelty seeking, risk-taking, and impulsivity, a developmental stage with strong drives and little inhibition — and they “learn” the pleasures of alcohol and drugs a little too well. Judith Grisel, PhD, a behavioral neuroscientist at Bucknell University who has written widely (and from personal experience) about the brain chemistry of addiction, explains why the urge to feel good “on demand” is so difficult to resist, and how the brain adapts to highs and lows. Fortunately, she also explains the path to life after addiction. Plus… why smelling…

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Bonus clip from Engaging Your Spiritual Core with Dr. Lisa Miller.Narrator: Thank you for downloading this bonus clip from This Is Your Brain. In this excerpt Dr. Lisa Miller recounts her journey to parenthood through adoption, and what she learned about the importance of being open to what life is trying to teach us.Phil Stieg: You go into great detail about the challenges you had in terms of childbearing. Did that play a role in your decision to write this book?Lisa Miller: I think 98% of suffering comes from an attachment to thinking we need to get what we want.…

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