CogNation

Episode 31: Music and the Brain: Guests David Rosen and Scott Miles

December 7th, 2020  |  Season 2  |  49 mins 55 secs

brain, cognition, david rosen, eeg, music, scott miles, secret chord laboratories, surprise

David Rosen and Scott Miles of Secret Chord Laboratories (secretchordlaboratories.com) talk to Joe and Rolf about musical preference, the role of surprise in these preferences, what's going on in the brain, and how COVID is affecting the way we listen to music.

Episode 13: Blue Light and Sleep

May 20th, 2019  |  Season 1  |  49 mins 34 secs

blue light, brain, eeg, melatonin, photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, sleep

We examine a paper that finds sleep disruption from using tablet computers (as compared to reading a book in dim light). How much should we be worried about the effects of screens on a good night's sleep?

Papers:
"Evening use of light-emitting eReaders...."
"Melanopsin: photoreceptors, physiology and potential"

There's good reason to believe that blue light is the main culprit -- recently discovered receptors in the eye that respond to blue light directly connect to brain areas implicated in sleep regulation. We lay out the case....

Episode 10: Augmenting the Brain

April 11th, 2019  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 4 mins

bci, brain, brain augmentation, brain enhancement, cognition, eeg, hippocampus, mind, perception, tdcs

Rolf and Joe discuss recent developments in brain augmentation technology, including transferring memory in rats, applying electrical stimulation, cognitive training, and others.

Episode 5: Reading the Mind with EEG: Adrian Nestor

February 22nd, 2019  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 4 mins

bci, brain, cognition, eeg, fmri, mind, perception

Dr. Adrian Nestor of the University of Toronto talks with us about the state of the art in using EEG to read our percepts and thoughts