Monday, 19 February 2024
Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will
This week I’d like to tell you about one of my “travelling companions” who has had a huge influence on me for as long as I’ve been writing popular science. His name is Robert Sapolsky, he’s a neurobiologist and primatologist, and I’ve posted about him before here and here. He has just published a new book, Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will , following his earlier, sensational book Behave, published in 2017. (more…)
From Thought to Language | Comments Closed
Monday, 29 January 2024
An interview that capture some of the essential aspects of my book to be published this fall
Today I’d like to tell you about an interview with a researcher whose thoughts run in exactly the same direction as those in the book that I’ve been writing since 2020. This book will be published this fall by
Écosociété. (I don’t know whether I’ve mentioned this book in the English version of this blog before, but it’s being published in French, and if you’re interested and can read French, I’ve been maintaining an “author’s log” about the process of writing it, in the French version of this blog). (more…)
From Thought to Language | Comments Closed
Tuesday, 9 January 2024
Differences between individualist and collectivist cultures
This week I am going to very briefly summarize the profound differences between the individualist cultures of North America and the collectivist cultures of East Asia, as reported by Robert Sapolsky in his book Behave: The Biology Of Humans At Our Best and Worst. (more…)
From Thought to Language, How the Mind Develops | Comments Closed
Monday, 4 December 2023
The “rich club” of networks in the human brain
What is known as the “rich club” in the human brain consists of densely interconnected regions of neurons that show little plasticity. The activity of these networks is highly stable , and the regions involved are rapidly informed of other neuronal events that occur throughout the brain . The neurons in this “rich club” may be regarded as one end of a continuum in terms of their low plasticity and the many connections that they make with other parts of the brain. The other end of the continuum consists of neurons that show a high degree of plasticity but are connected to relatively few other neurons and have a far lower level of activity. Along this continuum, just about every other possible combination of these traits can be found. It has been estimated, however, that the “rich club”, while accounting for only about 20% of the total population of neurons in the human brain , also accounts for nearly 50% of its total activity ! (more…)
From the Simple to the Complex | Comments Closed
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Memory consolidation during REM sleep
Out of all the experiments that have been done on memory consolidation and REM sleep, there is one, published in 2016, that I especially love mentioning because it was done at the Douglas Hospital research centre that enabled me to develop this website. Sylvain Williams and his research team successfully used optogenetics to silence inhibitory neurons in the medial septum of mice. Without disturbing the animals’ sleep, the researchers were able to greatly attenuate the 4 to 8 Hz theta rhythm that is associated with memory consolidation during REM sleep. Upon awakening, the mice did not remember the new location of an object. This treatment also disrupted a fear that had been conditioned in a certain context. In contrast, silencing the inhibitory neurons in the medial septum outside of episodes of REM sleep had no effect on memory. (more…)
Memory and the Brain, Sleep and Dreams | Comments Closed
