Neuroverse

In today’s episode we are joined by Élodie Chabrol, who is a prominent science communicator. We discuss the importance of communicating science, how sci comm has changed over time and it’s political impact and influence. Elodie did her PhD in Neurogenetics at Descartes, Paris followed by two postdocs at UCL (peripheral nerve system and epilepsy). Primarily Elodie is now a science communicator. She...

In today's episode we discuss the many roles that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has in cognitive function. The ACC is associated with many higher cognitive functions such as decision-making, value of choice, inference of patterns and incomplete information. The ACC also plays a role in detecting changes in the environment and generating prediction errors between what is expected and what...

In this episode, we discuss the variety of methods used to measure brain activity, and the important trade-off between spatial (where) and temporal (when) information that you can gain from these methods. For example, whereas imaging techniques tend to provide higher spatial resolution, electrophysiology used to measure electrical activity tends to provide higher temporal resolution. What is the r...

Join us in today's episode where we interviewed Meredith Gibson the CEO of the charity AWIS (Association for Women in Science). As two young female scientists we are grateful and stand on the shoulders of the previous brave female scientists that paved the way for us to be able to explore our passions in science. In light of International Women's day in Science (11th February) and Internat...

In this episode, we are joined with Dr. Àlex Gómez-Marín, a theoretical physicist turned neuroscientist. He is currently an associate professor at the Instituto de Neurociencias in Alicante, Spain, and the director of the Pari Center in Italy. You can find his work here:  https://behavior-of-organisms.org . Together we discuss the value of multidisciplinary approaches to neuroscience, the validity...

In today's episode we are joined by a special guest, Anais Kruger-Ruiz, to discuss the gap in equality in research relating to women's health. Anais discusses the historical origins of this inequality, in terms of viewing women as purely reproductive agents, and how this outlook pervades to our current day. The equality gap in healthcare and research leads to many more women suffering from...

In this episode, we are joined by special guest and neuroscientist, Dr. Dominic Burrows, to discuss brain-wide dynamics and the concept of criticality. How can the dynamic brain be viewed as a system, what properties characterise the system, and can this help us compare the brain to other biological and physical systems that exist in the world? Welcome to the field of systems neuroscience, of whic...

What is colour? In today’s episode Carolina and Clara discuss the philosophy of colour. Whether it is eliminitivist or inherently subjective (as argued for by Descartes and Locke). They tackle Wittgenstein’s question on what the essence of colour is and explore his language games arguments. Join the discussion! Are we simply a vessel for the experience of colour to manifest upon?  --- We hope you...

Join us in this more informal episode where we reminisce about how Neuroverse started, our favourite episodes and noting underlying themes across episodes. Emergence vs reductionism was a prominent topic, as well as comparing different types of intelligence, how information is translated across scales and our appreciation for multidisciplinary approaches. We would like to thank all our wonderful s...

We are back! In today’s episode Carolina and Clara are joined with Olivia Sirley who completed her bachelor’s at the University of the Arts London and wrote her thesis on “What role do dating apps play in finding intimate relationships within contemporary society”. Covering topics such as: dating app dependancy; the accessibility of dating apps; user behaviour; how it changes the nature of relatio...

In this episode, Carolina and Clara discuss whether or not memory equals consciousness. Are we, our personal identity and conscious experience, defined by the collection of memories we accumulate throughout life? Did consciousness evolve as part of a memory system, or did memory evolve to facilitate consciousness? We explore these questions and more!  "Life is all memory, except for the prese...

What is the computational unit in the brain? At what scale does the brain store, transform, and transfer information? Is it within genes, or neurons, neural circuits, cortical columns, or whole-brain dynamics? In this episode, Carolina and Clara discuss how computations are performed at multiple levels in the brain, and how different computational units contribute to brain function. --- We hope yo...

In this weeks episode Carolina and Clara discuss spatial cognition - the focus of their masters project at Professor Matt Nolan’s lab in the University of Edinburgh. Focusing on navigation, memory and grid cells’ firing rate, Carolina and Clara discuss the crucial role the Medial Entorhinal Cortex has in providing spatial perception and episodic memory formation.  --- We hope you enjoy the episode...

In this episode we are joined with another young neuroscientist, Subham Ganguly, to discuss methodological approaches to neursocience research from a philosophical perspective. How does the necessity to base research on biological hypotheses influence our findings? Are we limiting our potential for knowledge by categorising the brain into discrete brain regions? What is the value of coming up with...

Within each of us exists a gut microbiome- trillions of bacteria, virus, fungi, and other microorganisms living in our gut. Research is increasingly revealing a role for the gut microbiome in health and disease. Changes to the gut microbiome have been linked to several psychiatric, behavioural, and neurodegenerative brain disorders, from depression to autism to dementia. But how can these tiny mic...

In today's episode Carolina and Clara are joined with special guest Dr Ginger Campbell, who hosts the award-winning Brain Science podcast. They discuss the importance of communicating neuroscience and how having an understanding of how the brain works helps both individuals and societies to have more compassion towards one another, based on Dr Ginger Campbell's book "The Unconscious O...

This week we are joined by special guest and young neuroscientist, Carlotta Barelli, to discuss neurogenesis! While it was traditionally believed that the brain is a "nonrenewable organ", research is continually demonstrating that the brain actually has an incredible ability to adapt and renew in response to environmental changes. One such mechanism is known as neurogenesis, the formatio...

In today’s episode Carolina and Clara discuss free will vs determinism in a philosophical, physics and neuroscience context! Can the philosophical debate be reduced to the sciences? Does the existence of chance and randomness invalidate determinism? Does spontaneous brain activity support free will?  “Further conceive, I beg, that a stone, while continuing in motion, should be capable of thinking...

Dendrites are the tree like structures that extend out from neurons and have powerful roles in information processing. In this episode, Carolina and Clara discuss how dendrites can enable a form of predictive coding by integrating feedback and feedforward information. Is the brainwide predictive coding system comparable to the smaller-scale dendritic level? --- We hope you enjoy the episode! Pleas...

In today’s episode Carolina and Clara discuss subjectivity and emotional valence, inspired by Kay M. Tay’s review paper on emotional valence. Quantifying and measuring emotions is a feat attempted by scientists, but is it truly possible? Could we ever cross that epistemological barrier? Are emotions binary or on a spectrum?  --- We hope you enjoy the episode! Please feel free to share with your fr...

In this episode, Carolina and Clara discuss science art with the incredible Science-Art duo: Adèle Tilouine and Tyler Kaufman. Together they are TakT! They are artists that use science and philosophy as inspiration to create immersive sensorial and artistic experiences. Adèle focusing on the visual arts and Tyler on the sound composition, together achieve transcendental works of art. In this episo...

In this episode, Carolina and Clara discuss yet another type of science misinformation in part 3 of the "Science Misinformation" series. Pressure in the science community to produce research and publish interesting results is continuously increasing, and this can unfortunately drive bias and misconduct by scientists to inflate the truth or find what they are looking for. Inspired by a re...

In this episode, Carolina and Clara compare different scientific planes of understanding! Carolina coming from a biochemistry background and Clara from a neuroscience background, have over time realised these fields have distinct ways of researching science and lead to a different way of thinking about science. While with biochemistry, understanding the structure may lead to understanding the func...

In this episode, Carolina and Clara explore the hippocampus, a brain region that is critical for the formation of memories. The hippocampus is thought to carry out complex computations, which has made it a key focus for theoretical neuroscience. What are some theories for hippocampal function? And how do hippocampal computations transform information to enable memory formation?  --- We hope you en...

This episode we are joined with special guest and young neuroscientist, Johanna Jaansoo, as we discuss plasticity of sensory modalities in response to sensory deprivation. How are sensory modalities (visual, auditory, tactile, etc.) connected to each other? How is the development of the senses connected to the development of cognition and high-order functions? What capacity do sensory modalities h...