A window into live brains, and what saliva tells babies about human relationships

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News, News Commentary, Science

4.3 • 842 Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this week’s show: Ethical concerns rise with an increase in open brain research, and how sharing saliva can be a proxy for the closeness of a relationship Human brains are protected by our hard skulls, but these bony shields also keep researchers out. With brain surgeries and brain implants on the rise, scientists are getting more chances to explore living brains. Staff Writer Kelly Servick joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the ethics of doing research on patients undergoing intense medical procedures, and the kinds of research being done. Also this week, Ashley Thomas, a postdoctoral researcher in the brain and cognitive science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talks about the meaning behind sharing saliva. Spend any time with a baby lately? Were you in awe—eager to cuddle, kiss, even change a diaper? Or were you slightly horrified by the drool and other fluids seeping out of this new human? Your feelings on the matter might depend on your closeness with the baby and—as Thomas and colleagues write this week in Science—the baby may notice which way you feel. According to their results, babies, like adults, seem to recognize sharing saliva—like sharing food and utensils or kissing—as a signal of close relationships. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. [Image: Onfokus/Getty/iStockphoto; Music: Jeffrey Cook] [alt: baby chewing on a cellphone] Authors: Sarah Crespi; Kelly Servick Episode page: http://www.science.org/content/podcast/window-live-brains-and-what-saliva-tells-babies-about-human-relationships About the Science Podcast: https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Introducing Peak Scientific. With over 25 years of expertise, Peak leads the industry in providing
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0:30.8	Choose the solution that is tested, validated, and approved by leading instrument manufacturers globally.
0:36.6	Visit peak scientific.com and quote science podcast to receive special offers. Morgan State University, a Baltimore, Maryland,
0:39.7	Carnegie R2 doctoral research institution, offers more than 100 academic programs and awards degrees
0:46.1	at the baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral levels, is furthering their mission of growing
0:51.0	the future leading the world. Morgan continues to address the needs and challenges
0:55.5	of the modern urban environment. With a four-year quadrupling of research, more than a dozen new
1:01.3	doctoral programs, and eight new National Centers of Excellence, Morgan is positioned to achieve
1:07.1	Carnegie R1 designation in the next five years. To learn more about Morgan and their ascension to R1, visit morgan.edu slash research.
1:22.7	This is the science podcast for January 21st, 2022.
1:26.9	I'm Sarah Crespi. Each week we talk about the most
1:29.8	interesting news and research published in science and the sister journals. First up this week,
1:35.0	we have staff writer Kelly Servic. We talk about the ethics of doing research on patients undergoing
1:41.0	invasive brain surgery or who have brain implants.
1:45.2	Next, we have researcher Ashley Thomas.
1:47.8	We talk about how the willingness to share saliva can be used as a proxy for the closeness of a relationship
1:54.0	and also can give us insights into the minds of babies.
2:02.6	Human brains are, lucky for us, protected by our very hard skulls.
	...

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