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Memory and Forgetting

According to the latest research, remembering is an unstable and profoundly unreliable process. It’s easy come, easy go as we learn how true memories can be obliterated and false ones added. And Oliver Sacks joins us to tell the story of an amnesiac whose love for his wife and music transcend his 7 second memory.

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/06/08

Filed under  //   audio   consciousness   human brain   medicine   neuroscience   npr   podcast   psychology   radio   radiolab   science   wnyc  

Placebo

Could the best medicine be no medicine at all? With new research demonstrating the startling power of the placebo effect, Radio Lab examines the chemical consequences of belief and imagination...from the symbolic power of the doctor coat to the very real stash of opium in your mind.

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/05/18

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Radiolab

Friday, May 05, 2006

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  Where Am I?

  OK. Maybe you're in your desk chair. You're in your office. You're in New York, or Detroit, or Timbuktu. You're on planet Earth.
  
  But where are you, really?
  
  This week Radio Lab tries to find out where you are. This hour: stories of people whose brains and bodies have lost each other. We ask how does your brain keep track of your body? We'll examine the bond between brain and body and look at what happens when it breaks. We begin with a century-old mystery: why do many amputees still feel their missing limbs? We speak with a neuroscientist who solved the problem with a magician’s trick: an optical illusion. We continue with the story of a butcher who suddenly lost his entire sense of touch. And we hear from pilots who lose consciousness and suffer out-of-body experiences while flying fighter jets.
  
  But first, magnets. Author and neurologist Oliver Sacks tries to find himself using magnets.
  
  » Buy Magnets

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Radiolab

Sunday, January 29, 2006

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  Emergence

  What happens when there is no leader? Starlings, bees, and ants manage just fine. In fact, they form staggeringly complicated societies, all without a Toscanini to conduct them into harmony. How? That’s our question this hour. We gaze down at the bottom-up logic of cities, Google, even our very own brains. Featured: author Steven Johnson, fire-flyologists John and Elizabeth Buck, biologist E.O. Wilson, Ant expert Debra Gordon, mathematician Steve Strogatz, economist James Surowiecki, and neurologists Oliver Sacks and Christof Koch.

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Radiolab

Sunday, January 15, 2006

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  Who Am I?

  The "mind" and "self" were formerly the domain of philosophers and priests. Today, it’s neurologists who, armed with giant magnets, are asking the big questions, like "How does the brain make me?" We stare into the mirror with Dr. Julian Keenan, reflect on the illusion of self-hood with British neurologist Paul Broks, contemplate the evolution of consciousness with Dr. V. S. Ramachandran. Also, the story of woman who one day woke up as a completely different person.

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Filed under  //   audio   consciousness   neuroscience   npr   podcast   psychology   radio   radiolab   science   wnyc