This Week in Neuroscience

TWiN 72: What cesarean babies miss 01.06.2026 1h 9min

TWiN explains the finding that vaginal microbiota transfer ameliorates cesarean-associated neurodevelopmental deficits in mice via synthesis of a sphingosine derivative on neonatal skin. .Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Vaginal microbiota transfer ameliorates cesarean-associated neurodevelopmental deficits (Cell Host Microbe) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 71: Psychedelics rewire the brain from within 29.04.2026 1h 31min

TWiN explains the finding that activation of intracellular, not plasma membrane, serotonin 2A receptors is responsible for the plasticity-promoting and antidepressant-like properties of psychedelic compounds. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Psychedelics rewire the brain from within (Science) Psychedelics elicit their effects by Gi signaling (Nature) History of LSD (Wikipedia) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 70: Unraveling the axon wrap 17.03.2026 1h 19min

TWiN explains the role of a ubiquitin ligase component in regulating the sheathing of multiple axons by Schwann cells. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Gut microbiome promotes pain in fibromyalgia (Neuron) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 69: Fibromyalgia and the microbiome 05.03.2026 1h 11min

TWiN explains a study which showed that transplanting gut microbiota from women with fibromyalgia into mice induces pain, as well as phenotypes commonly observed in patients, such as immune activation, metabolomic changes, and reduced skin innervation. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Gut microbiome promotes pain in fibromyalgia (Neuron) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 68: Firewall for the brain 27.01.2026 1h 14min

TWiN explores the use of speech brain-computer interfaces to restore communication to people with paralysis, and reveals strategies for protecting private inner speech. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Keeping private inner speech from brain-computer interfaces (Cell) Mind-reading brain implant with password protection (Nature) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 67: Interpreting situation-specific facial signals 24.12.2025 1h 30min

TWiN explores how theta phase shifts mediate contextual perception of facial expressions during everyday social interactions. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Neural computations underlying contextual processing in humans (Cell Rep) Previous experience shapes perception (Front Human Neurosci) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 66: Neuroscience of overeating 26.11.2025 1h 24min

TWiN reviews the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of overeating and obesity, the role of the hypothalamus and reward systems in controlling food intake and energy balance, and how dysregulation in these systems leads to overeating. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Neurobiology of overeating (Neuron) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 65: Air pollutants promote dementia 04.11.2025 1h 37min

TWiN explains epidemiological data showing that exposure to air pollution was associated with an increased risk of developing Lewy body dementia, and nasal administration of air pollution in mice led to brain atrophy and impaired cognition and motor function. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Links between air pollution and dementias (Science) Letter from Susan Schneider Williams Widow of Robin Williams (Lewy Body Dementia UK) Awakenings (Wikipedia) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 64: How the brain decides what we see 08.10.2025 1h 14min

TWiN explains how visual neurons show functional flexibility by selectively responding to subsets of inputs representing attended objects while ignoring those conveying information about irrelevant objects. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Gamma-band synchronization in visual cortex (Nat Comm) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 63: Microbiome-targeted neurotherapy 21.08.2025 1h 31min

TWiN discusses research showing that Lactobacillus acidophilus promotes cognitive function recovery after cerebral ischemia, by regulating microglial peroxisomal function. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Arc is pdb molecule of the month (PDB) Probiotics after stroke (Cell Host Microbe) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 62: Memories of bad food 23.07.2025 1h 21min

TWiN explains research which identifies the regions of the brain that register a long-lasting aversion to potentially poisonous food even with meal to illness delays of several days. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server A neural mechanism for post-ingestion feedback (Nature) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 61: Blood to the brain 25.06.2025 1h 40min

TWiN reveals that proteins travel from the blood to the brain where they are taken up by microglia, revealing a new mode of communication between the brain and the periphery. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Circulatory proteins taken up by brain microglia (bioRxiv) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 60: You get the gist of it? 03.06.2025 1h 5min

TWiN discusses experiments which show that high-fidelity memories that lose their precision with time depends on reorganization of hippocampal circuitry. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Loss of precision memory and the hippocampus (Nature) Changes in hippocampi of cab drivers (PNAS) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 59: AI co-scientist 02.04.2025 1h 14min

Tim explains AI co-scientist, a tool released by Google, which it hopes to help scientists generate hypotheses and research proposals, and to accelerate the speed of scientific and biomedical discoveries. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server AI cracks superbug problem (BBC) Accelerating scientific breakthroughs (Google Research) Towards an AI co-scientist (arXiv) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 58: Tongue-dragging rescue behavior 10.03.2025 1h 14min

TWiN explains a study showing that when a mouse is confronted with an unconscious conspecific, it engages in behavior including tongue-dragging to resuscitate the animal via a tongue-brain connection. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Tongue-dragging in mice (Sci Adv) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 57: Repetitive injury, herpes, and Alzheimer's 04.02.2025 40min

TWiN discusses a study showing that repetitive injury reactivates HSV-1 in a human brain tissue model and induces phenotypes associated with Alzheimer's disease. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Repetitive injury, herpes, and Alzheimers (Sci Signal) The tau of herpesvirus (TWiV 1187) Fishing for viruses in senile (TWiV 519) Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 56: Astrocytes help neurons remember 26.11.2024 1h

TWiN explains a study showing that while groups of neurons, form the basis for memory, astrocytes are key components of the adaptive reponse to learning experiences, and regulate the flow of information during circuit plasticity and memory recall. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Write your Senator, oppose RFK Jr nomination Astrocytes and memory (Nature) Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 55: A brain circuit for day/night balance 28.10.2024 1h 9min

TWiN explains the identification of a brain circuit and periodic branch-specific neurotransmitter deployment that regulates organismal adaptation to photoperiod change. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Brain circuit for photoperiod adaptation (Nature) Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 54: How pregnancy transforms the brain 01.10.2024 1h 5min

TWiN explores how pregnancy leads to modifications in brain structure and function that may prepare the mother for parenting. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Pregnancy transforms the brain (Nature) Hormone-mediated neural remodeling during pregnancy (Science) Effects of pregnancy on brain activity (Nature Comm) Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN 53: Slowing time by cooling the brain 29.07.2024 1h 10min

Joseph Paton and Felipe Rodrigues join TWiN to explain how they used temperature manipulation to alter the speed of neuronal dynamics in the dorsal striatum of rats, a manipulation that selectively slowed down or sped up time perception, illuminating the mechanisms of time-based decisions. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison Guest: Joseph J. Paton and Felipe Rodrigues Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server Using temperature to analyze the neural basis of a time-based decision (Nat Neurosci) Hot times for the dorsal striatum (Nat Neurosci) Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv