This Week in Neuroscience

Vincent Racaniello

A podcast about the nervous system.

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20 episodes
Updated Thursday

Episodes20

Newest first

Thursday · 1 hr 6 min
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 Guest: Melissa Cooper Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Astrocytes form plastic networks (Nature) Newly found brain network (Nature) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
June 25 · 1 hr 26 min
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 repair pathway saves them. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Expansion of outer cortical CUX2 neurons requires adaptations for DNA repair (Nature) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
June 1 · 1 hr 9 min
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 on neonatal skin. .Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Vaginal microbiota transfer ameliorates cesarean-associated neurodevelopmental deficits (Cell Host Microbe) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
April 29 · 1 hr 31 min
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-like properties of psychedelic compounds. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Psychedelics rewire the brain from within (Science) Psychedelics elicit their effects by Gi signaling (Nature) History of LSD (Wikipedia) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
March 17 · 1 hr 19 min
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 Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Gut microbiome promotes pain in fibromyalgia (Neuron) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
March 5 · 1 hr 11 min
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 patients, such as immune activation, metabolomic changes, and reduced skin innervation. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Gut microbiome promotes pain in fibromyalgia (Neuron) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
January 27 · 1 hr 14 min
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. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Keeping private inner speech from brain-computer interfaces (Cell) Mind-reading brain implant with password protection (Nature) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
Dec 24, 2025 · 1 hr 30 min
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 Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Neural computations underlying contextual processing in humans (Cell Rep) Previous experience shapes perception (Front Human Neurosci) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
Nov 26, 2025 · 1 hr 24 min
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 balance, and how dysregulation in these systems leads to overeating. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Neurobiology of overeating (Neuron) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
Nov 4, 2025 · 1 hr 37 min
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 of air pollution in mice led to brain atrophy and impaired cognition and motor function. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Links between air pollution and dementias (Science) Letter from Susan Schneider Williams Widow of Robin Williams (Lewy Body Dementia UK) Awakenings (Wikipedia) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
Oct 8, 2025 · 1 hr 14 min
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 information about irrelevant objects. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Gamma-band synchronization in visual cortex (Nat Comm) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
Aug 21, 2025 · 1 hr 31 min
TWiN 63: Microbiome-targeted neurotherapy
TWiN discusses research showing that Lactobacillus acidophilus promotes cognitive function recovery after cerebral ischemia, by regulating microglial peroxisomal function. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Arc is pdb molecule of the month (PDB) Probiotics after stroke (Cell Host Microbe) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
Jul 23, 2025 · 1 hr 21 min
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 several days. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server A neural mechanism for post-ingestion feedback (Nature) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
Jun 25, 2025 · 1 hr 40 min
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 periphery. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Circulatory proteins taken up by brain microglia (bioRxiv) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
Jun 3, 2025 · 1 hr 5 min
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 Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Loss of precision memory and the hippocampus (Nature) Changes in hippocampi of cab drivers (PNAS) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
Apr 2, 2025 · 1 hr 14 min
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 scientific and biomedical discoveries. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server AI cracks superbug problem (BBC) Accelerating scientific breakthroughs (Google Research) Towards an AI co-scientist (arXiv) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
Mar 10, 2025 · 1 hr 14 min
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 via a tongue-brain connection. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Tongue-dragging in mice (Sci Adv) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
Feb 4, 2025 · 40 min
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: Vincent Racaniello and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Repetitive injury, herpes, and Alzheimers (Sci Signal) The tau of herpesvirus (TWiV 1187) Fishing for viruses in senile (TWiV 519) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
Nov 26, 2024 · 1 hr
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 regulate the flow of information during circuit plasticity and memory recall. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Write your Senator, oppose RFK Jr nomination Astrocytes and memory (Nature) Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv
Oct 28, 2024 · 1 hr 9 min
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. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Brain circuit for photoperiod adaptation (Nature) Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

This Week in Neuroscience

TWiN 74: Plastic astrocyte networks with Melissa Cooper

TWiN 73: The price of a bigger brain

TWiN 72: What cesarean babies miss

TWiN 71: Psychedelics rewire the brain from within

TWiN 70: Unraveling the axon wrap

TWiN 69: Fibromyalgia and the microbiome

TWiN 68: Firewall for the brain

TWiN 67: Interpreting situation-specific facial signals

TWiN 66: Neuroscience of overeating

TWiN 65: Air pollutants promote dementia

TWiN 64: How the brain decides what we see

TWiN 63: Microbiome-targeted neurotherapy

TWiN 62: Memories of bad food

TWiN 61: Blood to the brain

TWiN 60: You get the gist of it?

TWiN 59: AI co-scientist

TWiN 58: Tongue-dragging rescue behavior

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

TWiN 56: Astrocytes help neurons remember

TWiN 55: A brain circuit for day/night balance