Brain Science Podcast discussion

Welcome to the Brain Science Podcast group on Goodreads.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself, how long you have been listening and whether you were part of our old Discussion Forum.

Please feel free to start a new topic, just choose the folder "Introduce Yourself" and it should show up in the right place.

Ginger,
I am happy to see that you are using Goodreads as a forum for the Brain Science Podcast.

I am a trial attorney who practices mostly traumatic brain injury litigation. I listen to the podcast while sorking out on my eliptical machine. It is interesting to me and makes the exercise pass by quickly.

Thanks for all you efforts.

Although I am not in complete agreement with you on the science versus spirituality topic (I feel science can tell us how things happen but now why). I would like to join you in reading the books you read while you are reading them.

Can I suggest that you allow listeners to read the books you feature before you interview the author? That would make the interview as interesting to me as it is to you.

Just a thought. Keep up the good work.

Tim,

Thanks for being the first join our new group. I have not sent out any announcements yet, but I will be posting BSP 72 in a few days. It is an interview with the authors of Sleights of Mind .

As soon as I know who my next guest will be I will post it here, but I have already indicated some of the candidates on the shelf entitled 2011.

Hi!
I'm Leo, from Lisbon, Portugal.
I was introduced by a friend to your podcast and spent weeks listening to the episodes on a row. I really enjoy to the interviews mainly because even if it's a very technical there's always a great care to explain to an audience who is not versed on the matter, like myself.
I understand why it's not so regular now, but nevertheless it's a podcast I always seek out updates.
Your podcast introduce me to a lot of things I wasn't familiar with and made me write down a reading list just to keep up. So I think this group on Goodreads is just a fantastic idea.

Welcome Leo.

Please join in the new discussion about BSP 72.

Hi Ginger,
I have migrated over from your other discussion forum. I am an earthquake engineer, a runner, and I enjoy psychology and neuroscience. (You might even get me out on a tennis court.)

I moved comments about BSP 72 to the correct location. I didn't mean to start the ball rolling here.

Hi I am Peter, originally from England but now living in Turkey. I started listening to the BSP about a year ago when I first moved to turkey and was looking for intelligent, interesting programmes. I found it to be one of the best science podcasts I have listened to, I have bought several books that have been covered in the program.

To get back to the discussion about doing two things at once, I remember reading in 'The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out' by Richard Feynman that he tried to learn to precisely count a minute in his head, with practice he achieved this, and he also trained himself to read something else while counting.
So finally, he figured, he could count a minute and read, but he was unable to speak. As he explained this to another scientist friend in Princeton, the friend wondered why he found it hard to speak, but could not imagine reading while counting seconds.

Feynman trained is friend to count a minute in his head and he was easily able to speak but unable to read, while counting. It turns out that Feynman spoke to himself while counting, and so had no problem using his visual brain centres to read, but his speech centre was occupied with the silent inner speech of counting. His friend however visualised the seconds and was able to speak, but not read.

It may surprise you to know that older driver's actually see more than younger drivers. And that is why they have difficulty driving. It may be that viewing the background creates more noise for the brain to process and related multi=tasking results.

Journal of Neuroscience published findings this month. It turns out that as the brain ages, the visual intake gets bigger. Older brains attempt to take in the background of all motion in their field of vision. This makes the brain's ability to focus on relevant movement, important when reacting to driving movements, more difficult.

In a healthy, young person, a brain region called the middle temporal visual area, or MT, actively suppresses often irrelevant background motion so that he or she can concentrate on the more important motions of smaller objects in the foreground.

But this above average motion perception is not something to look forward to as we age. Because the brain is spending its limited resources constantly paying attention to the unimportant motions of background objects, it has a harder time noticing the motions of smaller objects.

HI,

My name is Santhip. I am a grad student of engineering. I am interested in the convergence of neuroscience and mysticism. So any kind of input on that would be really appreciated. I am also a student of a Guru ( guru Swami G) in the path of Kundalini, as I have an awakened Kundalini. ANy kind of neuroscientific input on Kundalini would also be sincerely appreciated. My ultimate aim is to find ways in which neuroscience can explain the phenomenon of kundalini ( which is real, as I am living the experiences on a daily basis), and ultimately the phenomenon of non-duality or enlightenment , which is the end point of the path of kundalini as well. Non-duality is real, for there are people who have experienced it as well. People with awakened kundalini experience suddent consciousness shifts in the physical presence of those who have experienced non-duality. I can testify for this. If there is any neuroscientist who would like to do experiment upon me or any of my claims, I am willing to be subject to their experiments, so that they can help me in the process of understanding these ideas as well.

Any kind of books/studies/podcasts/interviews which are related to the above, please let me know.

Looking forward to this new form of brainscience podcast in goodreads.

Regards
--
Santhip

P.S. for the most authentic book on Kundalini - read Kundalini from hell to heaven by Ganga Karmokar, which is a book written by one who has completed the path of kundalini

Welcome, Santhep.

We have not talked specifically about yoga or kundalini on the Brain Science Podcast, but I did talke with Dr. Daniel Siegel author of back in Episode 44.

Note to New Group Members:

You can start a new thread introducing yourself by going to Discussions and then chooing "New Topic." Just be sure to choose the "Introduce Yourself " folder so that your thread ends up in the right place.

Thank you for your reply Ginger. If at all you end up coming across any neuroscientist who is investigating kundalini effects on consciousness, I would love to hear about it ! Thank you once again

Just moving in from the old forums. but is it just me that feels psychology is a tone -down of neuroscience?

William wrote: "Just moving in from the old forums. but is it just me that feels psychology is a tone -down of neuroscience?"

I have started a new thread to respond here:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...