Concussions on Your Mind

Concussion and mild traumatic brain injuries have been playing a huge role in the news cycle recently. From Will Smith's movie Concussion about Bennet Omalu and his work on chronic traumatic encephalopathy to the NFL's announcement that concussions are tied to brain damage, to most recently the finding that the NFL has missed 100s of concussions in their own studies, we've been seeing concussion work everywhere. Concussions are one of the most prevalent injuries and they do not discriminate by age, sex, occupation or any other demographic. Today I speak with Alissa Valentine about recent concussion research.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital

Scientific American

What Do You Really Know About Concussions?


Music is provided by http://freemusicarchive.org/ - CuzOh - "Out to Win" and offered by the Creative Commons License

Color Perception

Last year, the dress that blew up the internet was a shining moment for vision researchers and others who study color perception. Finally, the general public was asking, "Why do I see colors differently from my friends" and the scientists were more than happy to oblige them. Today, Claudia Amaral and I speak about color perception, its similarities and differences across individual people and cultures.

"The Dress" wired.com

Around the one year anniversary of the dress, a new phenomenon started to sweep the internet, with "The Jacket." We also disscuss the BBC documentary, Do you See What I See, from the BBC. You can test your color perception for color blindness here and color hue test here.

6 Things You Didn't Know About Color Perception

Music is provided by http://freemusicarchive.org/ - Trevor Flowers and Iheka Chama - Mandingo Tribe

Emotional Memories

How many of your past memories are neutral, just boring old everyday memories? Probably not that many. Researchers have found a so called emotional bump or boost to memories that help encode memories better and aid in recall as well. Today I'll speak with Caroline Bach who is studying how emotion and memory interact in the brain.

The Science Behind Emotional Memories

Background music is A New Beginning by Ben Sound and offered by the Creative Commons License

Because I'm Happy

What makes you truly happy? Are you generally a happy person? Happiness is one of the oldest emotions to be studied but was long ignored by the scientific community. Maybe it was because of its frivolousness, or maybe it was because its difficult to find happiness in animal models? Recently, happiness research has entered a renaissance as researchers turn to functional imaging and other new techniques to look inside the brain while we experience pleasantness, pleasure and everything this side of happy. I speak with Dita Cavdarbasha about happiness and the brain.

Happiness and the Brain

Music is provided by Ben Sound and called, "Country Boy" and offered through the Creative Commons License 

Bird Brains Helmet

Bird Brains! No one want to have bird brains, well, now maybe you do. Research on woodpeckers has found that slight restriction of the jugular vein keeps a little more brain in your skull so your brain doesn't slosh around so much. Without this sloshing, clinical trials has found a significant reduction in the number and severity of concussion like syndromes. With bird brains helmet, you'll be able to be like a woodpecker out on the field and hit your head against hard objects all day, everyday.

Disclaimer: This is a work of satire. In the tradition of A Prairie Home Companion, this ad, among others, will form the backbone of the underwriting and sponsorship of my podcast.

Fear, Phobias and the Amygdala

Almost everyone is afraid of something and almost everyone has had a frightening experience. Of all the emotions we experience, none feel quite as primordial as the breath catching, heart-rate rocketing, muscle tensing moment of fear. In today's show I talk to Yannick Villaneuva who is researching the brain and its role in fears and phobias.

How Phobias Hack Your Brain

Music is provided by The Amygdaloids - Brainstorm - The Amygdaloids are lead by fear researcher Joe Ledoux

Color Tinted Glasses

Are you color blind? How do you know? Well search for the Ishihara Color Test plates right now and then come back. Alright, so did you get a lot of questions wrong, then these glasses are for you. Color Tinted Glasses filter visible light to compensate for your deficient photoreceptors. It doesn't matter if your green or M-cones are shifted to the right or your red L-cones are shifted to the left, our glasses use patent pending technology to filter out light between where your L and M-cones are close to overlapping to give you more distinct green and red perception. With Color Tinted Glasses you'll be able to use more than the brightness and positioning of the lights at a stoplight. Color Tinted Glasses, see the whole spectrum.

Disclaimer: This is a work of satire. In the tradition of A Prairie Home Companion, this ad, among others, will form the backbone of the underwriting and sponsorship of my podcast.