Brain Ponderings podcast with Dr. Mark Mattson

In this episode I talk with professor Thiruma Arumugam of Latrobe University about research on the effects of intermittent fasting on brain health and vulnerability to disorders such as stroke, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. This research was prompted by evidence that daily caloric restriction with time-restricted feeding, and every other day food deprivation can extend lifespan in rats and...

Accumulation of toxic proteins in neurons that wither and die is a fundamental problem in neurodegenerative disorders - Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Frontotemporal dementia, ALS, and Huntington's disease. In this episode Professor David Rubinsztein at the University of Cambridge talks about how impaired autophagy results in the accumulation of the toxic proteins.   Aging, and genetic...

The facts that all human behaviors are controlled by the brain and that all crimes involve behaviors beg the question of if and how advances in neuroscience might improve the criminal justice system. Professor Stephen Morse at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Center for Neuroscience and Society on problems of individual responsibility and agency. He is a pioneer on research at the int...

Even as the carry out their usual functions molecular components of cells are damaged by oxygen free radicals and other processes. Cells remove such cellular trash by moving it into 'acid baths' called lysosomes in a process called autophagy. Research during the past 30 years has revealed the molecular mechanisms of autophagy and have provided evidence that impaired autophagy occurs in neurodegene...

Professor Ed Calabrese has spent much of his life pouring over tens of thousands of dose – response data from studies in fields ranging from toxicology and radiation biology to cancer, neuroscience, and aging. His work has firmly established the hormesis principle as foundational for evolution and health. In the fields of biology and medicine hormesis is defined as an adaptive response of cells an...

Inconspicuously tucked under the cerebral cortex at the back of the brain the cerebellum was long believed to only function as a controller of smooth and accurate body movements. During the past 40 years professor Rich Ivry at the University of California Berkeley has made major contributions to research that has revealed a much more complex repertoire of functions of the human cerebellum includin...

Chronic pain affects more than 20 percent of people and is the leading cause of disability and loss of productivity. Recent development in technologies and protocols for electrical non-invasive or invasive stimulation or inhibition of specific pathways in the brain or spinal cord are being developed.   At the forefront of this area of neurology is Dirk de Ridder, Professor of Neurosurgery at Otago...

The discomforting feeling of hunger evolved to motivate searching for food and is therefore critical for survival. However, for modern-day humans living in environments where food is continuously available excessive hunger can result in obesity. In this episode Yale University professor Tamas Horvath talks about 'hunger neurons' in the hypothalamus and how they are regulated by glucose, fatty acid...

In this episode of Brain Ponderings I talk with the German neuroscientist Wolf Singer about the hard problem of consciousness and how it might be solved. Wolf is a Professor at the Max Planck Institute of Brain Research and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Frankfurt Germany.   Perhaps more than anyone else in the world Wolf has elucidated how neuronal networks in the cerebral cortex process i...

The human brain is often depicted as billions of nerve cells connected to each other in circuits through which electrical impulses flow. But this vision of the brain ignores the fact that in addition to nerve cells the brain also houses as many or more other cells called glia which surround and are intimately associated with the nerve cells. There are three types of glia – astrocytes,   oligodendr...

In this episode I talk with University of California San Diego neurologist and neuroscientist Mark Tuszynski about his bench to bedside research program that is aimed at reversing the neurological deficits in patients with spinal cord injury and Alzheimer's disease. He and his co-workers have cleared major technological hurdles and have demonstrated the abilities of neurotrophic factors and stem c...

Professor Alan Evans at McGill University in Montreal is a leader in the global effort to use computing power and artificial intelligence to analyze and interpret the massive amounts of brain structural and functional imaging, clinical, behavioral, and molecular data amassed by neuroscientists, radiologists, and neurologists. The creation of international consortia, procedures for data registratio...

University of Cambridge Professor Trevor Robbins is a highly cited neuroscientist who has made major contributions to understanding how neuronal circuits and neurotransmitters control behaviors in health and brain disorders. In this episode I talk with Trevor about obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) an often debilitating mental disorder in which the affected person exhibits repetitive behaviors t...

University of Cambridge Professor Trevor Robbins is a highly cited neuroscientist who has made major contributions to understanding how neuronal circuits and neurotransmitters control behaviors in health and brain disorders. In this episode I talk with Trevor about obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) an often debilitating mental disorder in which the affected person exhibits repetitive behaviors t...

Imagine a world in which everyone got along and cared for the well-being of everyone else. In this episode I talk with Professor Rob Malenka of Stanford University about the neural circuits and neurochemicals involved in prosocial behaviors and empathy.   Malenka's laboratory has used cutting-edge technologies to identify the brain regions and specific synapses that mediate prosocial behaviors and...

Every year humans consume approximately 10 million tons of crustaceans – crabs, lobsters, shrimp, and crayfish.   In order to grow these creatures must shed their hard exoskeleton in a remarkable process called molting.   Molting is controlled by a neuropeptide which is released into the blood and acts to suppress the production of a steroid molting hormone produced in the Y organ. In this episode...

In this episode I talk with Dr. Ginger Campbell about the value for students, educators, and society of K-12 neuroscience education.   We also discuss potential approaches for and barriers to incorporating neuroscience into existing curricula.  Links: Article on neuroeducation for K-12 students: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4281050/pdf/june-13-8.pdf Article on neuroeducation for te...

Schizophrenia is an unusual brain disorder in that its dramatic symptom of psychosis (delusions and hallucinations) occurs seemingly spontaneously in young adults between the ages of 18 and 30. Alterations in dopaminergic, glutamatergic, and GABAergic neurons are implicated in schizophrenia and drugs that inhibit dopamine receptors are prescribed for patients. In this episode Professor Daniel Wein...

Most people are familiar with the ultrasound imaging used to visualize in the body such as muscles and tendons, organs, and developing fetuses in the mother's womb.   The sound/pressure waves generated by ultrasound are also used in physical therapy and the disruption of kidney stones. In this episode I talk with Professor Jurgen Götz at the University of Queensland about how ultrasound can affect...

In this episode I preview the book SCULPTOR AND DESTROYER'S coverage of the involvement of glutamate as a 'destroyer' of neuronal circuits and people's lives in epilepsy, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, schizophrenia and other neurological disorders. I also talk about the central roles of the neurotransmitter glutamate in the actions of drugs of abuse, psychedelics, a...

The long anticipated book SCULPTOR AND DESTROYER – Tales of Glutamate – the Brain's Most Important Neurotransmitter written by myself, published by the MIT Press, and distributed by Penguin Random House will soon be released (August, 2023) and available at all major book outlets.   The book can be preordered before its release. In this episode I describe the roles of   'sculptor' glutamate in evol...

Obesity and diabetes adversely affect learning and memory and increase the risk of dementia.   Professor Alexis Stranahan at the Medical College of Georgia has shown that visceral (abdominal) fat adversely affects the function and plasticity of neural circuits in the hippocampus whereas subcutaneous fat has beneficial effects on these circuits. Using mouse models of diet-induced or genetic obesity...

One of the most fascinating stories in the history of science:   Cannibals in New Guinea; Mad Cows in England; CJD in humans; dying deer and elk in Colorado; and three Nobel Prizes. Once heretical, it is now well-established that certain infectious brain diseases can be caused not by a virus or bacteria, but by a protein we all have in our brains that goes rogue. The protein – cellular prion prote...

Epilepsy affects approximately 70 million people worldwide. The performer Prince had childhood epilepsy, President Franklin Roosevelt had epilepsy which was hidden from the public, and the Olympian Florence Griffiths-Joyner died from an epileptic seizure. While drugs that inhibit sodium channels or activate GABA receptors control seizures for many patients, they are ineffective in one-third of pat...

When we eat a meal containing carbohydrates a peptide called GLP-1 is released into the blood and acts in several ways to improve glucose regulation. It stimulates insulin release from the pancreas, increases insulin sensitivity, and suppresses appetite. A peptide called exenatide originally discovered in the venom of the Gila monster activates GLP-1 receptors and is now prescribed as a treatment...