Neuroscience and Beyond

Walk into a room and you instantly know, roughly, how many people are there, without counting. So does a monkey. So does a crow. So, strangely enough, does a bee! 
In this episode, Andreas Nieder - Professor of Animal Physiology at the University of Tübingen and one of the world's leading voices in cognitive #neuroscience - takes us inside the brain circuits that let humans and animals alike sense "how many."
Nieder has spent his career recording single neurons in crows, macaques, and human patients through rare clinical collaborations to understand the brain's #NumberSense. He discovered neurons in the prefrontal and parietal cortex that respond most strongly to a preferred number, regardless of how it is presented. Studying these "number neurons" reveals how the brain supports memory, abstraction, and complex thought. 
In the episode we talked about:
Why mathematical #prodigies rely on memory rather than a different "math brain"
How the concept of zero became one of humanity's greatest intellectual discoveries
Why birds and mammals independently evolved similar number-processing #brain networks
What #dyscalculia is and why it affects approximately 5% of the population
How brain injuries can impair numerical cognition and mathematical abilities
This is a conversation for anyone curious about #cognition, #mathematics, animal intelligence, or what it really means for a network of neurons to "understand" an abstract idea.
00:00 - Meet the Scientist Decoding the Brain's Number Sense
00:21 - Do Animals Really Understand Numbers?
01:16 - Why Numbers Are Among the Brain's Most Abstract Ideas
02:08 - Symbolic vs. Non-Symbolic Number Representation
05:32 - How Scientists Test Animal Numerical Abilities
08:40 - What Happens in the Brain When We Process Numbers
13:05 - Recording Single Neurons in the Human Brain
20:19 - The Brain Regions Behind Number Sense: Prefrontal and Parietal Cortex
23:50 - When the Brain Loses Its Ability to Understand Numbers
26:38 - Math Prodigies: Genius or Exceptional Memory?
33:30 - How Animals Understand the Concept of Zero
42:36 - 300 Million Years of Evolution: The Origins of Number Sense
50:22 - Can We Read Numbers Directly From the Brain?
01:00:45 - Final Thoughts: The Brain's Ability to Understand Numbers 
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🔗Link to our social media accounts: https://linktr.ee/neurosciencebeyond
#Neuroscience #AnimalCognition #BrainScience #CognitiveScience #Mathematics
Supported by the International Max Planck Research School for Neurosciences in #Göttingen, the European Neuroscience Institute, Cluster of Excellence Multiscale Bioimaging, as well as SFB1286

Neuroscience and Beyond team:
Svilen Georgiev
Kristina Jevdokimenko
Ahsen Konaç Sayıcı
Laura van Agen

Could the nervous system be helping cancer grow? Research in #cancer #neuroscience is revealing a surprising two-way communication between neurons and cancer cells that is changing how we understand tumor growth and opening new possibilities for treatment.
In this episode of Neuroscience and Beyond, we speak with Prof. Frank Winkler about how cancer cells hijack the brain's communication networks, why #glioblastoma is one of the most challenging brain tumors to treat, and how discoveries at the intersection of neuroscience and #oncology could inspire a new generation of cancer therapies.

In this episode, we discuss:
What cancer neuroscience is and why it matters
How neurons communicate directly with cancer cells
Why glioblastoma is so aggressive and therapy-resistant
How tumors hijack neural circuits to support their growth
The role of stress, sleep, and lifestyle in cancer research
What the future of neuroscience-inspired cancer therapies could look like

About our guest:
Prof. Frank Winkler is Professor of Neuro-Oncology at Heidelberg University Faculty of Medicine and Managing Senior Physician in the Department of Neurology. His pioneering discoveries of direct communication between neurons and cancer cells helped establish the field of cancer neuroscience. In 2025, he was awarded the #BrainPrize for his groundbreaking contributions to the field.
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to Neuroscience and Beyond, leave a like, and share your thoughts in the comments.
🔗Link to our social media accounts: https://linktr.ee/neurosciencebeyond

#CancerNeuroscience #Glioblastoma #BrainCancer #Neuroscience #CancerResearch #NeuroOncology #BrainScience
Supported by the International Max Planck Research School for Neurosciences in #Göttingen, the European Neuroscience Institute, Cluster of Excellence Multiscale Bioimaging, as well as SFB1286

Neuroscience and Beyond team:
Svilen Georgiev
Kristina Jevdokimenko
Ahsen Konaç Sayıcı
Laura van Agen

What is sleep really? Why do we overthink? And why do so many people struggle to find peace in modern life?
In this episode of Neuroscience and Beyond, I speak with Dr. Tony Fernando - psychiatrist, sleep physician, and author of Life Hacks from the Buddha.
We explore the neuroscience of sleep, including REM and non-REM sleep, circadian rhythms, insomnia, sleep anxiety, shift work, jet lag, and how stress affects sleep quality.
But this conversation goes far beyond sleep science.
Drawing from psychiatry, neuroscience, and Buddhist philosophy, Dr. Fernando shares practical insights on overthinking, mindfulness, suffering, compassion, technology, human connection, and the modern search for meaning.
We also discuss:
Why thoughts are often unreliable
How Technology Hijacks Attention
Mindfulness and meditation
The difference between needs and wants
What dying patients taught him about life
This is a conversation about sleep, psychology, the mind, and what it means to live well in a chaotic world.
Guest: Dr. Tony Fernando

Subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us for exciting neuroscience content.
🔗Link to our social media accounts: https://linktr.ee/neurosciencebeyond  
🔗Link to the video: https://youtu.be/kKBGTew8JGs

#Sleep #Neuroscience #Psychology #Mindfulness #Buddhism #MentalHealth #Insomnia #Meditation #Podcast

Are we evaluating scientists in the wrong way?
In this episode of Neuroscience and Beyond, Prof. Dr. Tiago Outeiro discusses some of the biggest challenges facing science:
🔬 Too many researchers competing for too few positions
📉 Pressure to publish and overreliance on impact factors
🤝 The urgent need for more staff scientists and stable research careers
⚖️ Burnout, work-life balance, and changing academic culture
🚀 How AI and new technologies may reshape scientific research
“We need to work together from the top to the bottom, from the bottom to the top to try to change things.”
Prof. Dr. Tiago Fleming Outeiro is Professor of Aggregopathies and Director of the Department of Experimental Neurodegeneration at the University Medical Center Göttingen. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms behind neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s disease, with the goal of developing new therapeutic approaches.
To learn more about his research, watch our episode on Parkinson’s Disease: Early Diagnostics and the Future of Treatment: https://youtu.be/dFmhmOv75q0?si=GcQ1UsTGYSpcDnMV 
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for exclusive content and honest conversations about academic life.
#Academia #Science #Research #PhD #Postdoc #Neuroscience #Parkinsons #Alzheimers #AcademicLife #Scientists #STEM #ResearchCulture #AI #Podcast #NeuroscienceAndBeyond
Supported by the International Max Planck Research School for Neurosciences in #Göttingen, the European Neuroscience Institute, Cluster of Excellence Multiscale Bioimaging, as well as SFB1286

Neuroscience and Beyond team:
Svilen Georgiev
Kristina Jevdokimenko
Ahsen Konaç Sayıcı
Laura van Agen

Your eyes don't see the world; your brain constructs it. But how, and what does it miss along the way?

In this episode of Neuroscience and Beyond, we speak with Prof. Nicole Rust, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, whose research combines behavioral experiments, #neural recordings, and #computational models to understand how we see, remember, and experience the world.  Recently, she decided to embark on a new journey and apply her expertise to study the neuroscience of mood. 
We explore how the brain transforms raw light into meaningful #perception, from the #retina through a hierarchy of visual areas all the way to object recognition in the inferotemporal cortex. We discuss how #attention shapes what enters #memory, why humans can recognize thousands of images seen only once, and why mood remains one of the hardest problems in neuroscience. 
The conversation also unpacks the central argument of her book, Elusive Cures: that treating conditions like depression will require abandoning the "broken domino" model of disease and embracing the brain as a complex dynamical system.
In this episode, you'll learn:
How the #brain transforms light into perception
Why attention acts as a filter and why we miss more than we think
How the brain stores thousands of images with striking detail after just a single viewing
Why we still cannot look at a brain and determine what mood is 
What hinders us from developing more treatments for brain disorders 
Why we should see the brain as a complex dynamical system 
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us for exciting neuroscience content.
🔗Link to our social media accounts: https://linktr.ee/neurosciencebeyond
Timestamps:
00:00 How the Brain Processes Visual Information
04:03 Object & Face Recognition
07:07 How Attention Filters What We See
09:57 Visual Memory: How the Brain Stores Thousands of Images
14:38 Memory, Imagination, and Emotion
19:00 The Jennifer Aniston Neuron
25:45 How the Visual System Inspired AI
30:00 How Prof. Rust Moved from Vision to Mood Research
39:00 Measuring Mood in the Brain
43:33 How Mood Shapes Behavior and Decision-Making
49:30 Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn't Cured the Brain
52:50 The "Broken Domino" Model and Why It Has Failed Us
56:14 The Brain as a Complex Dynamical System
01:01:20 Who Should Set the Research Agenda?
01:06:04 Depression, Society, and the Limits of Biology
01:09:59 How to Study the Brain as a Complex System
01:12:20 Aging, Sleep, and Brain Balance
01:18:10 The Take-Home Message from Elusive Cures
01:19:30 Consciousness: The Hard Problem and What Neuroscience Can Offer
#Neuroscience #VisualNeuroscience #Memory #Perception #MoodNeuroscience #Depression #BrainHealth #ElusiveCures #ComplexSystems  #BrainResearch  #ScienceCommunication #BrainHealthMatters #NeuroscienceAndBeyond
Supported by the International Max Planck Research School for Neurosciences in #Göttingen, the European Neuroscience Institute, Cluster of Excellence Multiscale Bioimaging, as well as SFB1286
Neuroscience and Beyond team:
Svilen Georgiev
Kristina Jevdokimenko
Ahsen Konaç Sayıcı
Laura van Agen