38 Sam Kean - These Brains Changed Neuroscience Forever

Inquiring Minds

Science, Society & Culture, Neuroscience, Female Host, Interview, Social Sciences, Critical Thinking

4.4 • 848 Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2014

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We've all been mesmerized by them—those beautiful brain scan images that make us feel like we're on the cutting edge of scientifically decoding how we think. But as soon as one neuroscience study purports to show which brain region lights up when we are enjoying Coca-Cola, or looking at cute puppies, or thinking we have souls, some other expert claims "it's just a correlation," and you wonder whether researchers will ever get it right.But there's another approach to understanding how our minds work. In his new book The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, Sam Kean tells the story of a handful of patients whose unique brains—rendered that way by surgical procedures and unfortunate, freak accidents—taught us much more than any set of colorful scans. Kean recounts some of their unforgettable stories on this week’s episode."As I was reading these [case studies] I said, 'That's baloney! There's no way that can possibly be true,'" Kean remembers, referring to one particularly surprising case in which a woman's brain injury left her unable to recognize and distinguish between different kinds of animals. "But then I looked into it, and I realized that, not only is it true, it actually reveals some important things about how the brain works."This episode also features an exclusive brief interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson about the meaning of the just-completed Cosmos series; a discussion of whether the famed and controversial hormone oxytocin might be capable of extending the span of human life; and a breakdown of the physics of how soccer balls travel through the air (just in time for the World Cup).iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-mindsStitcher: stitcher.com/podcast/inquiring-mindsSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Friday, June 13th, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds. I'm Chris Mooney.
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1:10.7	slash inquiring minds to find out more. Once again, that's the greatcourses.com
1:14.5	slash inquiring minds. This week, we tackle a topic that is very dear to my heart. In fact,
1:20.4	it's the very reason I went into neuroscience to begin with. I first started learning about
1:25.8	what single case studies can tell us about the brain by reading
1:29.5	Oliver Sacks in his wonderful books when I was a teenager.
1:33.4	And from then on, I've always been fascinated to delve more deeply into the case studies
1:39.5	that really have changed the way we think about the brain.
1:42.3	In fact, I'm the editor of a journal called NeuroCase whose goal is just that to publish these case studies. So I was totally delighted
1:48.8	when I found out that science writer Sam Keen put out a new book called The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons.
	...

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