Free Will! at the Disco

How does a three pound ball of flesh inside your skull lead to your thoughts, your hopes, your feelings...and your sweet dance moves? There are more cells in your brain than there are people on Earth. Billions of neurons making trillions of connections. Trying to figure out how your brain works would be like trying to understand every conversation that’s going on in the world, all at one time…ten times over!

So how can we tackle this monumental task?

Most scientists simplify the problem by focusing on a single part of the brain, but what if we took a different path? What if we could understand everything that’s going on in a brain, all at the same time?

In this episode, Saul Kato explains how he’s doing just that.

Learn more about Saul Kato's work here: http://profiles.ucsf.edu/saul.kato

Follow Saul on Twitter: @neurotheory

Watch a worm brain in action!

The video shows multiple dots, which are each a 3D representation of the activity all the neurons in a single worm. Many of these "neural space" dots are present in the video, each showing the neural activity of the same worm at different times. With multiple dots shown together in this video allow you to see that the worm's "neural space" shows a similar repetitive pattern that sometimes diverges (in this video the divergence seen is when the worm took a left turn or a right turn).

Energy balance in a changing environment: Kaveh Ashrafi

The ability to maintain energy balance in a changing environment is essential for survival. The brain helps maintain this balance by sending signals that regulate food intake as well as fat storage. Abnormal metabolism has been associated with cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, and even some neurodegenerative disease. However, the biology behind this link is not completely understood.

Our guest this month, Dr. Kaveh Ashrafi, an associate professor in the department of physiology at UCSF, hopes to tackle this important question. His lab uses microscopic nematodes to understand the genes and neural circuits that control fat and feeding regulation. By taking advantage of the simplicity of the nematode nervous system, scientists in Dr. Ashrafi’s lab can determine the precise role of these genes and how they control feeding behavior. His lab also studies how different chemicals in the environment can regulate metabolism and increase fat levels.

More on the Ashrafi Lab's research

Hosted by Karuna Meda

The Social Worm: Cori Bargmann

What controls the way we behave? Our guest this week, Dr. Cornelia Bargmann, hopes to answer this complicated question. She explains how our biology, our genes, and the environment we live in can affect the way we behave. She is especially interested in understanding social behaviors, or how animals interact with each other. In her research, she uses the humble worm, known as c. elegans, to study the underlying biology that can switch an individual from being a loner to a party animal, and vice versa.

Cori is a professor at The Rockefeller University and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She has recently been featured in the Charlie Rose Brain Series and The New York Times.

For an additional teaching resource, check out the lesson plan we created to accompany this episode.

More on the Bargmann Lab's research

Hosted by Osama Ahmed