From Our Neurons to Yours

• "Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection" | Ben Rein

  We are more isolated from one another than ever before — by our technology, by our political divides, and most of all, by our choices. This week on the show, we talk with neuroscientist Ben Rein about why this social isolation is terrible for our health — implicated in not only rising rates of mental illness, but also heart disease, dementia and more.We discuss Ben's new book, "Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection", published earlier this week, and try to work out a plan for an improved social diet to restore our brains — and our society — to good health.Learn More:Ben Rein's websitePublisher's websiteReferences from the bookSocial Journaling template---We are honored to have won a silver Signal Award for best science and education podcast of 2025, as well as an audience choice award — thanks so much to everyone who voted for the show!---We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at [email protected] us a text!Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience. Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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• From doodles to Descartes: sketching and the human cognitive toolkit | Judith Fan

  Before the written word — and possibly even before speech — humans have communicated through drawing. From crude scratches in the dirt or on cave walls to the arcane symbology of the laboratory whiteboard, our instinct for conveying our thoughts visually is pretty extraordinary. We see or understand something in the world, we build an idea in our mind of what we think we see, and then using our hand and the utensil we re-create it to communicate the share our perception with others. Along the way, we add in our own understanding and experience to craft that communication in ways that might not correspond with a specific object in the world at all.How we do this — and how we can learn to be better visual communicators — is at the heart of our conversation with Judy Fan, who runs the Cognitive Tools Lab in Stanford University's Department of Psychology.We've been nominated for a 2025 Signal Award for Best Science & Education Podcast! Vote for us in the "Listener's Choice" category by October 9.Learn More:Cognitive Tools Lab, Stanford Department of PsychologyFan, J., et al. (2023) "Drawing as a versatile cognitive tool." Nature Reviews Psychology. (pdf)Hawkins, R., Sano, M., Goodman, N., and Fan, J. (2023). Visual resemblance and interaction history jointly constrain pictorial meaning. Nature Communications. [pdf]Fan, J., et al. (2020). Relating visual production and recognition of objects in human visual cortex. Journal of Neuroscience. [pdf]Fan, J., Yamins, D., and Turk-Browne, N. (2018). Common object representations for visual production and recognition. Cognitive Science. [pdf]More recent papersWe want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at [email protected] us a text!Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience. Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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• What is psychosis? Navigating an altered reality | Jacob Ballon & Shannon Pagdon

  Imagine if you couldn't distinguish between dreams and reality. If you couldn't tell whether what you were seeing or hearing was really there in front of you. What if you discovered you couldn't trust your own perceptions? Psychosis is something three out of every a hundred people will experience at some point in their lifetimes. But what exactly is it, and is it something people can learn to live with?Today we're fortunate to have on the show Dr. Jacob Ballon, the founding co-director of Stanford Medicine's Inspire Clinic, and Shannon Pagdon, a doctoral student, peer counselor, and advocate for those living with psychosis.Learn More:Learn about the Inspire 360 Program at Stanford MedicineExplore Pagdon's Psychosis Outside the Box project and additional stories of the lived experience of psychosis from the Hearing Voices NetworkRead: "Psychosis 101: Unmasking one of the brain's most mysterious Malfunctions" (Stanford Medicine, 2024)Watch: "Demystifying Psychosis" (Stanford Medicine, 2024)Read: "Two key brain systems are central to psychosis, Stanford Medicine-led study finds" (Stanford Medicine, 2024)Watch: "Schizophrenia: Early signs and treatment options" (Stanford Center for Health Education, 2022)We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at [email protected] us a text!Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience. Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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• "I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine" | Daniel Levitin

  Most of us can agree: music is awesome. Regardless of which songs speak to you, music probably plays an important role in your life. The question is, what makes music so powerful? Why does a particular combination of sounds and rhythms grab us and affect us in the way that it does? And is it true that music can help heal patients with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, PTSD, chronic pain, and more? To help us understand what we're learning about the neuroscience of music and how it can heal and enrich our lives, we're speaking with Daniel Levitin. He's a musician and a producer as well as a neuroscientist and bestselling author. His newest book is "I Heard There was a Secret Chord: Music As Medicine." Learn More:"I Heard There Was a Secret Chord" playlistMenon, V., & Levitin, D. J. (2005). The rewards of music listening: Response and connectivity of the mesolimbic system. NeuroImage.Menon, V. (2023). 20 years of the default mode network: A review and synthesis. Neuron.Salimpoor, V. N., et al. (2013). Interactions between the nucleus accumbens and auditory cortices predict music’s reward value. Science.Wang, L., Peng, J.-l., et al. (2022). Effects of rhythmic auditory stimulation on gait and motor function in Parkinson’s disease: Systematic review & meta-analysis. Frontiers in Neurology.Zumbansen, A., et al. (2014). Melodic Intonation Therapy: Back to basics for future research. Frontiers in Neurology.Moreno-Morales et al. (2020). Music therapy in the treatment of dementia: Systematic review & meta-analysis. Frontiers in Medicine.Allen, E. J., et al. (2017). Representations of pitch and timbre variation in human auditory cortex. Journal of Neuroscience.Sonos/Apple “Music Makes It Home” study (2016). "This Speaker Company Says Music Makes You Happier." Time Magazine.We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at [email protected] us a text!Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience. Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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• How we learn to read (and why some struggle): what neuroscience teaches us about a transformative human technology | Bruce McCandliss

  In this episode, we explore the fascinating neuroscience behind how children learn to read with Bruce McCandliss, director of the Stanford Educational Neuroscience Initiative.Key topics include:• How our brains "recycle" visual and language circuits to create reading expertise• The crucial threshold when reading shifts from effortful to automatic• Why some children struggle more than others to develop reading fluency• How teachers can tailor instruction to help struggling readers• The profound ways literacy reshapes our brains and cognitionJoin us  for a mind-expanding look at one of humanity's most transformative technologies - written language - and how mastering it quite literally changes our brains.Learn MoreLearn about the Stanford Educational Neuroscience Initiative at Stanford's Graduate School of EducationLearn about the "brainwave learning center" at Menlo Park's Synapse School.Watch McCandliss present his work at Wu Tsai Neuro's 10th anniversary SymposiumRecent Academic Articles & News CoverageTan LH, Perfetti CA, Ziegler JC, McCandliss B. "Editorial: Neural bases of reading acquisition and reading disability." Frontiers in Neuroscience (2023).This editorial highlights advances in the neuroscience of reading, focusing on the brain mechanisms underlying reading development and disabilities. The authors summarize key themes across international research, including neuroimaging insights and educational applications.Stanford News. "Stanford-led study links school environment to brain development" (2024) Researchers found that children who attend higher-performing schools have accelerated white matter development, including in an area of the brain closely associated with reading skills.Stanford News. "Stanford study on brain waves shows how different teaching methods affect reading development" (2015)Stanford Professor Bruce McCandliss found that beginning readers who focus on letter-sound relationships, or phonics, increase activity in the area of their brains best wired for reading.We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at [email protected] us a text!Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience. Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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