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You hardly notice it unless something goes wrong, but your sense of balance relies on most of your other senses to work, and uses all sorts of interesting bits of your interesting brain. Along with sleeping birds, bionic men, and beer bottles, Phil and I talk about your sense of balance.
Continue reading Ep 219: Balance
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Throughout your body, you have nerves. These send signals about the world through your spinal cord, and into your brain. More than just what you feel, your sense of touch includes temperature, pressure, the position of your body, and a bit about what your internal organs are up to today. We continue our look at your senses and your brain with an episode that touches on touch.
Continue reading Ep 218: Touching on touch
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Your sense of vision is arguably the most complicated sense you have. Estimates range from one half, to as much as two thirds of your brain dedicated to using light to make sense of your world. From the way your eyes turn light into nerve impulses, to different bits of the brain that process them, we take a close look at looking.
Continue reading Ep 217: Take a look at looking
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From the shape of your ears to bits of your brain, and just a little bit about fish for some reason, have a listen to how we listen.
Continue reading Ep 216: the stuff between your ears, including the ears
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From the Latin word for tree bark, “cortex” refers to the outer most layer of an organ. In the brain, the outer most layer is made of several layers of neurons. That’s true in the cerebellum, in the cerebellar cortex; and the cerebrum, in the better known cerebral cortex. Today, we take a look at how these separate areas of cortex work together, and talk about the six layers of your neocortex.
Continue reading Ep 215: What is a cortex?
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It’s sitting underneath your cerebrum, this odd bulge behind the brainstem. Only ten percent of your brains total volume, it has more than 75 percent of the neurons. What is the cerebellum, and what does it use all those neurons for?
Continue reading ep 214: What’s this “cerebellum” thing for?
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Let’s see… How does this “brain” thing work exactly? Maybe we could build something brain-like, something that would act as though it has a mind. Hmmm… In a conversation that rambles through blind cavefish, dancing pigeons, Alaskan turtles, cribbage, and potato chips, Phil and I talk about reverse engineering the human brain. Bwa ha ha!
Continue reading Ep 213: Reverse engineering the brain… ish
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It’s an old part of your brain, but still very complicated. With far too much to cover in one episode, Phil and I hit a few highlights of your reticular formation. From our old friend the substantia nigra; to the raphe nuclei acting as a source of serotonin; to our new friend, the pedunculopontine nucleus, which I never did pronounce right; we take a closer look at the network of networks that is your reticular formation.
Continue reading Ep 212: A network of networks
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Last week, Phil had questions. This week, we try to answer them. We also take a closer look at areas of the brain that have pigment in their neurons, and try to figure out what that pigment is there for.
Continue reading Ep 211: Black and blue brain bits
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Philosophy was fun, but let’s get back to looking at the brain, and the bits there in. Today we talk about a system that helps to activate and control the way you move. It’s one part of what’s happening in your “basal ganglia,” which is just fun to say.
Continue reading Ep 210: The gas and brakes in your brain