This Week in Neuroscience

This Week in Neuroscience is a podcast about the nervous system.

TWiN 67: Interpreting situation-specific facial signals 12/24/2025

TWiN 67: Interpreting situation-specific facial signals TWiN explores how theta phase shifts mediate contextual perception of facial expressions during everyday social interactions. Hosts: , Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Neural computations underlying (Cell Rep) Previous experience (Front Human Neurosci) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/39521215

TWiN 66: Neuroscience of overeating 11/26/2025

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: , Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Neurobiology of (Neuron) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/39169065

TWiN 65: Air pollutants promote dementia 11/04/2025

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: , Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Links between (Science) Letter from Susan Schneider Williams (Lewy Body Dementia UK) (Wikipedia) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/38914260

TWiN 64: How the brain decides what we see 10/08/2025

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: , Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Gamma-band synchronization in (Nat Comm) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/38512050

TWiN 63: Microbiome-targeted neurotherapy 08/21/2025

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: , Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Arc is pdb (PDB) Probiotics (Cell Host Microbe) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/37903985

TWiN 62: Memories of bad food 07/23/2025

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: , and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode A neural mechanism for (Nature) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/37519975

TWiN 61: Blood to the brain 06/25/2025

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: , Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Circulatory proteins taken up by (bioRxiv) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/37150985

TWiN 60: You get the gist of it? 06/03/2025

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: , , and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode and the hippocampus (Nature) Changes in hippocampi of (PNAS) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/36837180

TWiN 59: AI co-scientist 04/02/2025

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: , Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode AI cracks (BBC) scientific breakthroughs (Google Research) Towards an (arXiv) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/35964625

TWiN 58: Tongue-dragging rescue behavior 03/10/2025

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: , Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode in mice (Sci Adv) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/35595105

TWiN 57: Repetitive injury, herpes, and Alzheimer's 02/04/2025

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: and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Repetitive injury, herpes, and (Sci Signal) The tau of herpesvirus () Fishing for viruses in senile () Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/35148410

TWiN 56: Astrocytes help neurons remember 11/26/2024

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: , , and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode , oppose RFK Jr nomination Astrocytes and (Nature) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/34165630

TWiN 55: A brain circuit for day/night balance 10/28/2024

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: , , and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Brain circuit for (Nature) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/33630382

TWiN 54: How pregnancy transforms the brain 10/01/2024

TWiN 54: How pregnancy transforms the brain TWiN explores how pregnancy leads to modifications in brain structure and function that may prepare the mother for parenting. Hosts: , , and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode transforms the brain (Nature) during pregnancy (Science) on brain activity (Nature Comm) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/33282192

TWiN 53: Slowing time by cooling the brain 07/29/2024

TWiN 53: Slowing time by cooling the brain Joseph Paton and Felipe Rodrigues join TWiN to explain how they used temperature manipulation to alter the speed of neuronal dynamics in the dorsal striatum of rats, a manipulation that selectively slowed down or sped up time perception, illuminating the mechanisms of time-based decisions. Hosts: , , , and Vivianne Morrison Guest: and Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Using temperature to analyze the (Nat Neurosci) for the dorsal striatum (Nat Neurosci) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/32324262

TWiN 52: Probiotic improves social behavior in children with ASD 06/24/2024

TWiN 52: Probiotic improves social behavior in children with ASD Mauro Costa-Mattioli returns to TWiN to discuss the results of a placebo controlled, double blind clinical trial of a probiotic which improved social behavior but not autism severity in children with ASD. Hosts: , , and Vivianne Morrison Guest: Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Probiotics for (Cell Host Microbe) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/31858027

TWiN 51: Sensory processing dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders 05/28/2024

TWiN 51: Sensory processing dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders TWiN reviews altered somatosensory reactivity, which is frequently observed among individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and in mouse models the developmental timing of aberrant touch processing can predict the manifestation of ASD-associated behaviors in mouse models. Hosts: , , , and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Mouse models of (Nature Neuroscience) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/31500017

TWiN 50: Neurological sequelae after COVID-19 04/29/2024

TWiN 50: Neurological sequelae after COVID-19 TWiN reviews experiments which show that SARS-CoV-2 triggers the up-regulation of synaptic components and perturbs local electrical field potential in cerebral organoids, organotypic culture of human brain explants and post-mortem brain samples from individuals with COVID-19. Hosts: , , , and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode SARS-CoV-2 perturbs (Nature Micro) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/31020833

TWiN 49: Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest mouse of all? 03/25/2024

TWiN 49: Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest mouse of all? TWiN welcomes mice to the elite club of ‘self-aware’ animals, with a study demonstrating a mirror-induced self-directed behavior in mice resembling visual self-recognition. Hosts: , , and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Mice are (Neuron) Mirror in mice (Neuron) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/30534378

TWiN 48: Traumatic brain injury and retroviruses 02/19/2024

TWiN 48: Traumatic brain injury and retroviruses TWiN describes a study that reveals activation of endogenous retroviruses in oligodenroglia from patients with traumatic brain injury. Hosts: , , and Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Activation of e in TBI oligodendroglia (Cell Rep) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/30009298

TWiN 47: Walking after spinal cord injury 01/29/2024

TWiN 47: Walking after spinal cord injury TWiN explains an amazing study of a man who was paralyzed after a spinal cord injury and regained the ability to walk after implantation of a brain-spinal cord interface. Hosts: , , and Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Walking naturally after spinal cord injury (Nature) The that walked (YouTube) Mike the (Wikipedia) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/29682778

TWiN 46: Neuronal activity promotes glioma progression 01/01/2024

TWiN 46: Neuronal activity promotes glioma progression TWiN explains research showing that interaction between glioma cells and neurons in the brain shares mechanistic features with synaptic plasticity that contributes to memory and learning in the healthy brain. Hosts: , , and Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode recruit mechanisms of adaptive plasticity (Nature) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/29299123

TWiN 45: Acupuncture modulates the immune system 12/13/2023

TWiN 45: Acupuncture modulates the immune system TWiN discusses research showing that sciatic nerve activation with electroacupuncture at the sciatic nerve controls systemic inflammation and rescues mice from polymicrobial peritonitis, by inducing vagal activation of aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase, leading to the production of dopamine in the adrenal medulla. Hosts: , , and Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode modulates the immune system (Nat Med) Electroacupuncture drives the (Nature) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/29060903

TWiN 44: ADHD and persistent pain 11/02/2023

TWiN 44: ADHD and persistent pain TWiN reviews a mouse model of ADHD to characterize hypersensitivity to pain, and that sensitization is further amplified in a pathological inflammatory state. Hosts: , , and Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode in ADHD model (PNAS) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/28502099

TWiN 43: Pavlovian opioid tolerance 10/04/2023

TWiN 43: Pavlovian opioid tolerance TWiN discusses a study of on the pathways that control opioid analgesic tolerance, a root cause of opioid overdose and misuse, which can develop through an associative learning. Hosts: , , and Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode opioid analgesic tolerance (Sci Adv) opioid tolerance (Sci Adv) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/28223432

TWiN 42: Therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs 07/18/2023

TWiN 42: Therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs TWiN explains how psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA, which are being explored for treating a wide range of neuropsychiatric diseases, reopen the social reward period for critical learning. Hosts: , , and Click arrow to play Download (34 MB .mp3, 57 min) Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode open critical period (Nature) Psychedelics reopen (News-Med) doesn’t work (U Chicago Med) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/27494460

TWiN 41: Alzheimer's and melanin-concentrating hormone 06/20/2023

TWiN 41: Alzheimer's and melanin-concentrating hormone Vivianne explains how early in Alzheimer’s disease, the brain attempts to counteract the increased excitatory drive caused by amyloid deposition, and that melanin-concentrating hormone, produced during sleep, is involved in this protective response. Hosts: , , , and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Melanin-concentrating hormone and (Nat Neurosci) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/27200088

TWiN 40: Dopamine organizes behavior's syllables 05/11/2023

TWiN 40: Dopamine organizes behavior's syllables Tim takes TWiN through two studies on the role of dopamine: that syllables are natural units of spontaneous behavior used by the brain to structure action, and that mesolimbic dopamine release conveys causal associations but not reward prediction errors, thereby challenging the dominant theory of reward learning. Hosts: , , , and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode without explicit reward (Nature) Dopamine release conveys (Science) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/26813601

TWiN 39: Virus-like capsids trigger paraneoplastic disease 04/28/2023

TWiN 39: Virus-like capsids trigger paraneoplastic disease Junjie from Jason’s lab joins TWiN to discuss the observation that the cell gene PNMA2 encodes non-enveloped virus-like capsids that induce autoantibodies which underlie paraneoplastic syndrome. Hosts: , , , and Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Virus-like capsids in (bioRxiv) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/26656722

TWiN 38: Bacterial immunity heals sensory neurons 03/27/2023

TWiN 38: Bacterial immunity heals sensory neurons TWiN explains the finding that immunity to commensal bacteria promotes sensory neuron regeneration via the cytokine interleukin-17A. Hosts: , , , and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): , , Links for this episode Immunity to the microbiota promotes (Cell) Timestamps by . Thanks! Music is by Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv /episode/index/show/twin1/id/26345208

This Week in Neuroscience

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