Neighborhood Neuroscience

Andrew Neff
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  • Life Sciences
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Informal adaptation of the textbook "Fundamentals of Biological Psychology", forthcoming with Cambridge University Press, maybe February 2026 or so. Want to come on-mic for the final 4 chapters? Have something to say about the neuroscience of Depression, Addiction, Autism, or mind-reading? Question for me? Rate & review for a chance to join me on mic, and begin your path to science-communication super-stardom, at least... easily... 15 people will listen. At least.

  1. Episode 1

    Preface

    In the 21st century, the technology we use to study the animal brain is extremely advanced. With just a tiny bit of historical context - from the year 1900 to the year 2000, it seems like we’ve gone from inventing the wheel to flying an airplane, and in the 21st century, we’ve built a spaceship. For example, we’ve developed calcium imaging - where we watch individual neurons fire, in real-time, in living animals, and another technology called optogenetics - where instead of watching neurons fire, we control them. We’ve had revolution after revolution in genetics, starting with sequencing the whole genome, then sequencing each and every gene that’s being actively expressed, and now conducting genetic research on individual cells - man, cool stuff. With these technologies, we’ve learned a ton, and a central theme has emerged: the brain is a very, very complicated thing. But, most of these technologies are invasive or require dissecting brain tissue, and therefore, would be unethical to use on anything but non-human animals or maybe lab-grown brain-cells. This technological explosion, therefore, has posed a major conceptual challenge for human biopsychology: if new technologies, used in animals, are revealing enormous complexity, what are the implications for human research in which scientists haven’t been able to think with the same level of detail? What can we know about the human mind?

    37 min

  2. Episode 1 Bonus

    Syllabus Week #1 - Why Version Zero?

    Wisdom is setting a low bar. In today's installment of 'Dr. Neff reveals an uncomfortable piece of personal information', learn about the dark underpinnings of an academic career that lead to the premature publication of this project.

    5 min

  3. Episode 1 Bonus

    Syllabus Week #2 - Welcome to the Neighborhood

    In this episode, you'll meet the extraordinary students supporting this podcast and listen to our discussion about the cover art that did not come to fruition. Then, in the second installment of 'Dr. Neff reveals an uncomfortable piece of personal information that you didn't need to hear', you'll learn about the marketing goals driving the title of this podcast. We are a friendly bunch, come to our block party, we're talking about fish sex.

    10 min

  4. Episode 2

    Biopsychology (Chapter 1)

    It’s easy to justify the value of research in terms of its scientific value - every study teaches us something. But when your goal is to simply ‘understand the world’, it can be hard to envision the path from that research towards something of practical value. In this chapter, we’re practical, you’ll see three general approaches for how biopsychology can help us solve psychological and behavioral problems. Approach #1 is straightforward: you can choose to take a drug or stimulate your brain, and that can make you think different. Approach #2 is harder to conceptualize: you can consciously choose to manipulate your brain activity in a way that allows you to control an external device - like a computer screen, or an artificial limb. You read that right, in modern neuroscience, you can control objects in the external world without saying a thing or moving a muscle. Approach #3 touches on ancient guidance to know thyself - recording properties of our brain could theoretically help us understand who we are, and consequently, which choices would bring us the most value. In this chapter, we’ll characterize the foundational logic underpinning a pragmatic version of biopsychology.

    1hr 2min

  5. Episode 3

    Research Methods (Chapter 2)

    Most scientists agree that we’re living through a replication crisis: two scientists, conducting the same research, often find different outcomes and come to different conclusions. This chapter discusses some timeless issues, for example, distinguishing correlation from causation, and the importance of double-blind, randomized, controlled trials. Then it gets back to reproducibility, illustrating how you can find trustworthy research despite maintaining a justified skepticism towards individual studies.

    1hr 10min

  6. Episode 4

    Genetics & Cellular Neurobiology (Chapter 3)

    What scientists choose to study is limited both by our technologies and our intelligence - we, as human brains, will never understand how each of our hundred billion neurons integrate their function, or how trillions of molecules work together. Although we can’t understand the interaction of 100 billion neurons, we can probably understand how twenty or two hundred different groups of neurons differentially influence behavior. In this chapter, we begin talking about the brain in different levels of abstraction. So, how can and should we reduce 100 billion neurons to 20ish groups? In human research, we classify neurons in a couple of main ways: where they’re located in the brain (brain regions), and which neurotransmitters they produce or respond to. In animal research, the idea of a periodic table of neuron types may take into account factors like gene expression, cell shape, and connectivity profiles - things we can’t readily observe in the living human brain. In this chapter, we think about general principles in cellular and molecular biology in an attempt to appreciate how complex the brain can be.

    1hr 40min

  7. Episode 5

    Electrophysiology & Neurotransmission (Chapter 4)

    In this chapter, we’ll continue with biology: now moving into neuronal function or physiology. What’s interesting about neuronal function is consciousness. Consciousness is a fast thing: your sensory perception is fast, movement is fast, you read fast, you think fast. Nothing you’ve heard in the last chapter is that fast - gene expression can influence the mind, but it can’t explain our momentary conscious experience. What is fast enough to explain the fastness of our conscious experience is neuronal activity or electrochemical signaling.

    1hr 47min

  8. Episode 6

    Brain Imaging and other Neurotechnology (Chapter 5)

    Enough cells and molecules, I get it. In this chapter… onto the devices! It’s not boring, I promise. In fact, in this episode, you will receive a formula for creating the perfect neurotechnology - perfect I say. You’ll also get to see the technologies that so many people are calling revolutionary - like optogenetics and calcium imaging. You’ll also hear about Elon Musk’s (and others) projects that are trying to thread tiny electrodes into your brain. And you will finally learn about the less creepy and less invasive brain imaging technologies that have been the engine of biopsychology for the past thirty years. Onto the devices.

    1hr 19min
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About

Informal adaptation of the textbook "Fundamentals of Biological Psychology", forthcoming with Cambridge University Press, maybe February 2026 or so. Want to come on-mic for the final 4 chapters? Have something to say about the neuroscience of Depression, Addiction, Autism, or mind-reading? Question for me? Rate & review for a chance to join me on mic, and begin your path to science-communication super-stardom, at least... easily... 15 people will listen. At least.

Information

  • Creator
    Andrew Neff
  • Episodes
    16
  • Seasons
    1