This Week in Neuroscience

TWiN 74: Plastic astrocyte networks with Melissa Cooper

Melissa Cooper joins TWiN to discuss her discovery that astrocytes connect specific brain regions through plastic networks. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Tim Cheung Gue

TWiN 73: The price of a bigger brain

TWiN unpacks a striking paradox, that the very cell divisions that built the human brain's most advanced layers also put them at greatest risk, and how a dedicated DNA re

TWiN 72: What cesarean babies miss

TWiN explains the finding that vaginal microbiota transfer ameliorates cesarean-associated neurodevelopmental deficits in mice via synthesis of a sphingosine derivative o

TWiN 71: Psychedelics rewire the brain from within

TWiN explains the finding that activation of intracellular, not plasma membrane, serotonin 2A receptors is responsible for the plasticity-promoting and antidepressant-lik

TWiN 70: Unraveling the axon wrap

TWiN explains the role of a ubiquitin ligase component in regulating the sheathing of multiple axons by Schwann cells. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and

TWiN 69: Fibromyalgia and the microbiome

TWiN explains a study which showed that transplanting gut microbiota from women with fibromyalgia into mice induces pain, as well as phenotypes commonly observed in patie

TWiN 68: Firewall for the brain

TWiN explores the use of speech brain-computer interfaces to restore communication to people with paralysis, and reveals strategies for protecting private inner speech.

TWiN 67: Interpreting situation-specific facial signals

TWiN explores how theta phase shifts mediate contextual perception of facial expressions during everyday social interactions. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morris

TWiN 66: Neuroscience of overeating

TWiN reviews the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of overeating and obesity, the role of the hypothalamus and reward systems in controlling food intake and energy ba

TWiN 65: Air pollutants promote dementia

TWiN explains epidemiological data showing that exposure to air pollution was associated with an increased risk of developing Lewy body dementia, and nasal administration

TWiN 64: How the brain decides what we see

TWiN explains how visual neurons show functional flexibility by selectively responding to subsets of inputs representing attended objects while ignoring those conveying i

TWiN 63: Microbiome-targeted neurotherapy

TWiN discusses research showing that Lactobacillus acidophilus promotes cognitive function recovery after cerebral ischemia, by regulating microglial peroxisomal function

TWiN 62: Memories of bad food

TWiN explains research which identifies the regions of the brain that register a long-lasting aversion to potentially poisonous food even with meal to illness delays of s

TWiN 61: Blood to the brain

TWiN reveals that proteins travel from the blood to the brain where they are taken up by microglia, revealing a new mode of communication between the brain and the periph

TWiN 60: You get the gist of it?

TWiN discusses experiments which show that high-fidelity memories that lose their precision with time depends on reorganization of hippocampal circuitry. Hosts: Vincent

TWiN 59: AI co-scientist

Tim explains AI co-scientist, a tool released by Google, which it hopes to help scientists generate hypotheses and research proposals, and to accelerate the speed of scie

TWiN 58: Tongue-dragging rescue behavior

TWiN explains a study showing that when a mouse is confronted with an unconscious conspecific, it engages in behavior including tongue-dragging to resuscitate the animal

TWiN 57: Repetitive injury, herpes, and Alzheimer's

TWiN discusses a study showing that repetitive injury reactivates HSV-1 in a human brain tissue model and induces phenotypes associated with Alzheimer's disease. Hosts:

TWiN 56: Astrocytes help neurons remember

TWiN explains a study showing that while groups of neurons, form the basis for memory, astrocytes are key components of the adaptive reponse to learning experiences, and

TWiN 55: A brain circuit for day/night balance

TWiN explains the identification of a brain circuit and periodic branch-specific neurotransmitter deployment that regulates organismal adaptation to photoperiod change.