The Brain Blown Podcast

When you hear "Coca-Cola" what's the first thing that comes to mind? Is it their bright red logo? Their lively commercials that appeal to the senses? The taste of their soda? Coke is one of the leading brands that successfully uses Neuromarketing to influence their audience. And they're not alone. But for this mini episode, we'll focus on just 3: Coke, Apple and Disney-Pixar; and how these iconic brands stay iconic, both in the media and in our brains. For more ways to get involved with the Brain Blown Community, head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/brainblownpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn about our offers! If you have any topic suggestions for future episodes, don't hesitate to reach out! Send us an email at info@brainblownpodcast.com. We'd love to hear from you. REFERENCES Introduction to the Journal of Marketing Research, Special Issue on Neuroscience and Marketing -- Colin Camerer and Carolyn Yoon Persuasion, Influence, and Value: Perspectives from Communication and Social Neuroscience -- Emily Falk and Christin Scholz What can neuroscience offer marketing research? -- Billy Sung and Nicholas J. Wilson Neuroscience in Marketing: Assessment of Advertisement; Memory by Means of Facial Muscles; Movement Analysis -- Calga Pinar, Sanem Alkibay

Things start becoming addictive when we start chasing the want and not the like. Yes, you want something... but are you enjoying it for the sake of enjoyment... or are you numbing something you don't want to feel instead? Following our full episode, the Neuroscience of Pleasure, this mini episode shines a giant light on our nervous system and its key role in managing pleasure and avoiding addiction. For more ways to get involved with the Brain Blown Community, head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/brainblownpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn about our offers! If you have any topic suggestions for future episodes, don't hesitate to reach out! Send us an email at info@brainblownpodcast.com. We'd love to hear from you. REFERENCES The Neuroscience of Happiness and Pleasure by Morten L Kringelbach and Kent C. Berridge Neuroscience of Affect: Brain mechanisms of pleasure and displeasure -- Kent C. Berridge and Morten L. Kringelbach The Neuroscience of Pleasure and Happiness By Luciano Marinelli A neuroscience perspective on pleasure and pain -- Dan-Mikael Ellingsen, Morten Kringlebach, and Siri Leknes

If dopamine isn't pleasure (like we all think it is)... Then what is pleasure? Following our full episode, the Neuroscience of Pleasure, this mini episode dives more into dopamine's role while also highlighting a key neurotransmitter that doesn't get enough attention and might be the key to truly enjoying life's pleasures. Lastly, we look at some common pleasures - sex, food, etc. - and discuss how to enjoy them to the fullest. __________________________________________________ For more ways to get involved with the Brain Blown Community, head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/brainblownpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn about our offers! If you have any topic suggestions for future episodes, don't hesitate to reach out! Send us an email at info@brainblownpodcast.com. We'd love to hear from you. REFERENCES The Neuroscience of Happiness and Pleasure by Morten L Kringelbach and Kent C. Berridge Neuroscience of Affect: Brain mechanisms of pleasure and displeasure -- Kent C. Berridge and Morten L. Kringelbach The Neuroscience of Pleasure and Happiness By Luciano Marinelli A neuroscience perspective on pleasure and pain -- Dan-Mikael Ellingsen, Morten Kringlebach, and Siri Leknes

In January we learned about the Neuroscience of Decision Making, and in this episode, we're taking a closer look at long-term decisions. So... how's that New Year's resolution coming along? Is it feeling like a wishful dream these days? Or maybe you've fallen off the wagon so many times, it seems easier to quit than keep at it? Your brain likes to make sticking to long-term decisions (like resolutions) feel as difficult as it seems... but what if there are ways to "cheat the system" and trick your brain to almost guarantee success in the long run? Give this mini-episode a listen to find some encouragement from your brain to keep going, along with useful suggestions to make it easier to reach your goals. _______________________________________________________ For more ways to get involved with the Brain Blown Community, head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/brainblownpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn about our offers! If you have any topic suggestions for future episodes, don't hesitate to reach out! Send us an email at info@brainblownpodcast.com. We'd love to hear from you. P.S. Like our new cover art? Just as this podcast continues to develop, so has our image. But we think this one may be the keeper! Stay tuned for the full image on our website -- update coming very soon. REFERENCES The Behavioral Neuroscience of Motivation: An Overview of Concepts, Measures, and Translational Applications -- Eleanor H. Simpson and Peter D. Balsam The Cognitive Neuroscience of Human Decision Making: A Review and Conceptual Framework -- Lesley K. Fellows Montreal Neurological Institute The Role of Emotion in Decision Making: A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective -- Nasir Naqvi, Baba Shiv and Antoine Bechara Decision Neuroscience New Directions in Studies of Judgment and Decision Making Alan G. Sanfey The Ecology of Human Fear: Survival Optimization and the Nervous System -- Dean Mobbs, Cindy C. Hagan, Tim Dalgleish , Brian Silston and Charlotte Prévost Human Orbitofrontal Cortex Signals Decision Outcomes to Sensory Cortex During Behavioral Adaptations -- Bin A. Wang, Maike Veismann, Abhishek Banerjee & Burkhard Pleger Behave by Robert M. Sapolsky

In light of our focus this season on mental health, we leave you with this tool to help ground your mind, activate your whole brain, and ease your body into a more relaxed state. Stay tuned for Season 3 of The Brain Blown Podcast coming in the new year! www.brainblownpodcast.com

Introducing our capstone episode of the season, and arguably one of the most important topics we've discussed to date. As it turns out, trauma is proven to play a much more direct role in our lives than we may have realized (as you'll hear around the 22-minute mark). In this episode, as Laine walks us through some of the science most noted from neuroscientist Bruce Perry, we discover just how impactful trauma -- both "capital T" and "little T" -- can be. In my experience while recording this episode, it took almost the entire hour+ to grasp the difference between these two traumas, and that shockingly enough, it's not the event that causes trauma. There's a lot to cover on this topic, and to do it justice, we've decided to break it up into two episodes. You'll receive one more episode + a bonus meditation in November! REFERENCES What Happened To You Bruce Perry and Oprah Windfrey Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services. Rockville (MD) PTSD History and Overview Matthew J. Friedman, MD, PhD Traumatic Stress Center of Wales How does your body remember trauma? Dr. Matthew Boland and Hilary L. Lebow Response Variation following Trauma: A Translational Neuroscience Approach to Understanding PTSD Rachel Yehuda, * and Joseph LeDoux Thirty-Year Study Links Neuroscience, Specific Trauma, PTSD, Image Conversion, and Language Translation Dee Spring PhD, ATR-BC, MFT Relational Trauma and the Developing Right Brain An Interface of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology and Neuroscience Allan N. Schore

If you've never had, or never known someone with an eating disorder, you might not feel like this episode applies to you. We promise you, it does, it applies to all of us. Because when it comes to eating disorders, it just feels so simple. Why can't this person just start (or stop) eating? But what if we told you it has very little to do with eating, and everything to do with how the brain sees the body? In this month's deep-dive episode, Laine walks us through the science behind the deadliest diagnosis in mental health. Using findings from scientists Riva, Southgate, Tchanturia, Treasure, Stanghellini, Ballerini, and Mancini we discuss things like: how the brain understands the body how this can and will rewire the brain why its so hard to stop a major takeaway to not only help stop unnecessary death but also change society and create more beauty and self-empowerment in our lives A small disclaimer: We will be connecting the research to understanding eating disorders to what we learned in both the Neuroscience of Depression and the Neuroscience of Addiction if you want to check those out ahead of time. If you want to know more ways to be part of our Brain Blown Community, head to ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/brainblownpodcast⁠⁠ to learn about our offers! If you have any topics you'd be interested in learning more about, please feel free to send us an email at info@brainblownpodcast.com! We'd love to hear from you. REFERENCES Giuseppe Riva, Ph.D. -- Out of my real body: Cognitive neuroscience meets eating disorders Laura Southgate, Kate Tchanturia, and Janet Treasure --Building a model of the aetiology of eating disorders by translating experimental neuroscience into clinical practice Giuseppe Riva, Ph.D. -- The Key to Unlocking the Virtual Body: Virtual Reality in the Treatment of Obesity and Eating Disorders Giovanni Stanghellini, Massimo Ballerini, and Milena Mancini -- The Optical-Coenaesthetic Disproportion Hypothesis of Feeding and Eating Disorders in the Light of Neuroscience

It's easy to assume that the brain functions differently for someone with schizophrenia... but you'll never guess why... And in this month's episode, Laine reports it to us short and sweet. (If you want to learn more about the extent of the science on your own time, be sure to check out the reference list below for more details.) But in addition to our usual content rundown for season two, Laine and I share space to discuss some of the uncertainty and fear around this disorder how we can approach it with a new perspective what impact that can have on developing research, supporting those affected by it, and changing how we view the disorder entirely Enjoy this shorter episode, and be on the lookout for our last two episodes (and mini-episodes) coming out in September & October! If you want to know more ways to be part of our Brain Blown Community, head to ⁠www.patreon.com/brainblownpodcast⁠ to learn about our offers! REFERENCES Charan Ranganath, Michael J. Minzenberg, and J. Daniel Ragland -- The Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory Function and Dysfunction in Schizophrenia Michael F. Green and David L. Braff -- Translating the Basic Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience of Schizophrenia to Drug Development and Clinical Trials of Anipsychotic Medications Werner Strik, Katharina Stegmayer, Sebastian Walther, Thomas Dierks -- Systems Neuroscience of Psychosis: Mapping Schizophrenia Symptoms on Brain Systems Katherine H. Karlsgodt, Daquiang Sun, Tyrone D. Cannon -- Structural and Functional Brain Abnormalities in Schizophrenia

Sometimes when we can't stop scrolling, we will joke that it's like we are addicted to our phones. Are we? Addiction is so prevalent both in numbers and in casual conversation, to the point where 'Wine Mom' and 'Beer Dad' are big box store t-shirts. But what is addiction? Is it a feeling that we crave, or is it more of an escape from something else? What keeps someone addicted, and why are addictions so hard to break? In this month's deep-dive episode, Laine walks us through some of the science behind the most prevalent and most impactful diagnosis we have had yet. Using findings from scientists Uhl, Koob, Cable, Volkow and Boyle, we discuss things like: what parts of the brain are involved in pleasure and reward how addiction can and will rewire your brain why its so hard for someone to stop a major take away to not only long term recovery possible but to help prevent addiction from occuring For more resources on addiction, head to the episode on our website www.brainblownpodcast.com. If you have any topics you'd be interested in learning more about, please feel free to send us an email at info@brainblownpodcast.com! We'd love to hear from you. REFERENCES Donald L. Hilton,Jr and Clark Watts -- Pornography addiction: A neuroscience perspective George F. Koob, Pietro Paolo Sanna and Floyd E. Bloom -- Neuroscience of Addiction Nora D. Volkow, M.D., Maureen Boyle, Ph.D. -- Neuroscience of Addiction: Relevance to Prevention and Treatment George R. Ulh, George F. Koob, and Jennifer Cable -- The Neurobiology of Addiction

Throughout history, sexuality has been important to the continuation of our species. During this month of pride, we explore when we've turned sexuality into a diagnosis and where expressions of sexuality can be harmful or feel shameful. Cultural influences such as Rihanna's song "S&M," TikTok's 'book-tok' community's love of books with dominant characters, and "50 Shades of Gray" have all continued to bring more diverse sexual practices into the mainstream. Research has shown about 20% of people have some interest in kink. So why is this a diagnosis? Should it be? In this month's episode, Laine walks us through findings from Elise, Wuyts, Manuel, Morrens, and many others to help us better understand why the appeal for kink exists, when it can be harmful, and when it can be healthy. And helps explore: What is our understanding of sexual desire? What can we learn from alternative sexual practices? What does this mean for the field of mental health and the power mental health professionals wield? **Though this episode covers an adult topic, it does not have explicit content. As mentioned at the beginning of this episode, we've also started a Patreon! We value all of our listeners and want to get continue to grow this incredible work. Thank you so much to all our supporters and if you want to know more ways to be part of our Brain Blown Community, head to ⁠www.patreon.com/brainblownpodcast⁠ to learn about our offers! RESOURCES https://www.esmeljames.com/ Elise Wuyts Manuel Morrens -- The biology of BDSM: a systematic review Kristina Gupta -- Protecting Sexual Diversity: Rethinking the Use of Neurotechnological Interventions to Alter Sexuality Siyang Luo, Xiao Zhang -- Embodiment and Humiliation Moderation of Neural Responses to Others' Suffering in Female Submissive BDSM Practitioners Umit Sayin -- DSM Controversies, Defining the Normal and the Paraphilia: Sexual Pleasure Objects, Fantasy, Variations, Soft-BDSM, ESR, Hypersexuality, Sex Addiction and Nymphomania Cara R. Dunkley, Anne Barringer, Silvain Dang, Lori A. Brotto -- Dispositional Mindfulness among BDSM Practitioners: A Preliminary Investigation Gautami Polepally Ashok -- Childhood Trauma, BDSM, and Self-Esteem: An Exploration of the Impact of Childhood Trauma on Sexual Behavior and the Effects to Self-esteem Ashley Brown -- A Systematic Scoping Review of the Prevalence, Etiological, Psychological, and Interpersonal Factors Associated with BDSM

Bipolar Disorder has been listed as one of the leading disorders of the Global Burden of Diseases... Yet the amount of research and funding put towards it is abysmal. Laine and I share that during our clinical education, we were taught almost nothing about the experience of mania, diagnosing, or treating the disorders like Bipolar. This episode share's what we know so far (from the MANY articles Laine went through to try to make sense of it) and what's happening in the brain -- referencing studies from Harrison, Gettes, Tunbridge, Clark, Sahakian, and more. It also touches on what needs to be done to not only better support those who have experienced manic episodes or have been diagnosed, but what is required for the field of mental health to improve. The takeaways of this episode are some of our favorites -- you can hear it in Laine's voice at the end. Enjoy -- and as always, if you have any questions feel free to email us at info@brainblownpodcast.com. REFERENCES Dionisio et al. - "Cognitive flexibility impairment and reduced frontal cortex BDNF expression in the ouabain model of mania" Dzirasa et al. - "Impaired Limbic Gamma Oscillatory Synchrony during Anxiety-Related Behavior in a Genetic Mouse Model of Bipolar Mania" Ferrari et al. - "Depression and Mania Induce Pro-inflammatory Activation of Macrophages Following Application of Serum from Individuals with Bipolar Disorder" Schmidta et al. - "Cerebrospinal fluid hypocretin-1 (orexin A) levels in mania compared to unipolar depression and healthy controls" de Soussa et al. - "Lithium increases plasma brain-derived neurotrophic factor in acute bipolarmania: A preliminary 4-week study" Paul J. Harrison, John R. Geddes, and Elizabeth M. Tunbridge1 - "The Emerging Neurobiology of Bipolar Disorder" Luke Clark, Barbara J. Sahakian - "Cognitive neuroscience and brain imaging in bipolar disorder" G.S. Kirshenbaum, C. R. Burgess, N. De'ry, M. Fahnestock, J. H. Peever and J C Roder - "Attenuation of mania-like behavior in na+,k+-atpase a3 mutant mice by prospective therapies for bipolar disorder: melatonin and exercise" Emre Bora - "Neurocognitive features in clinical subgroups of bipolar disorder: A meta-analysis" Ryan W. Logan, Ph.D. and Colleen A. McClung, Ph.D. - "Animal Models of Bipolar Mania: The Past, Present and Future"

Have you ever noticed how many more cases of Autism there are in the world today? In 2023, the World Health Organization predicts 1 in 100 people will be diagnosed with Autism (and USA Today predicts even more...) But if you go back a few decades, there are dramatically fewer cases reported. So what is causing the increase? Are we just more aware of the symptoms, or have our brains begun to develop differently? In this month's episode, Laine walks us through findings from Molden, Rubenstein, Hyman, Baron-Cohen, and many others to help us better understand the unique functions of the autistic brain, and how what we've learned has changed how we view or even diagnose autism. We'll look at things like: Why there are more people with autism today than 30 years ago Why autism does NOT mean a lack of empathy (even though their behaviors make it seem so) And what preemptive actions we can take to better support the development and lives of those with autism **Also enjoy a special "behind the scenes" tag at the end of this episode! REFERENCES Steven O. Moldin, John L. R. Rubenstein, and Steven E. Hyman - "Can Autism Speak to Neuroscience?" S. Baron-Cohen - "The Cognitive Neuroscience of Autism" Arianna Manzini, Emily J.H. Jones, Tony Charman, Mayada Elsabbagh, Mark H. Johnson, and Ilina Singh - "Ethical dimensions of translational developmental neuroscience research in autism" Born For Love by Bruce Perry and Maria Szalavitz P.S. So sorry for the delayed publishing! One of those months where the last Wednesday showed up out of nowhere... can't believe it's already almost May! Much Love, Cherys

ADHD is one of the most common diagnoses for kids, and many adults today claim to have it. But what if we told you we don't know enough about it to cure it... or prove it exists at all? Research shows that over 9% of children are diagnosed with ADHD, but considering how common it is you'd think we understand a lot of what's going on and why certain therapies or medications help to relieve symptoms. Yet what we know (or don't know) about it will shock you. So what DO we know about the brain and ADHD? And if it's not ADHD... then what could it be? Tune into this month's deep dive into the neuroscience of ADHD where Laine walks us through the controversial science from Slater, Tate, Rubia, and many others looking at what we know so far why do we know so little and what we can do about it We mention some studies from previous episodes as well, so if you haven't yet feel free to check them out via the links below. Mini Episode: Neuroscience of Motivation Season 1, Neuroscience of Music TIMESTAMPS 2:01 - What is ADHD? 8:06 - The Shocking Truth 11:27 - The History (Caveman Jo?) 13:34 - Why Neuroscience? 16:17 - Break 16:34 - The Brain...? 24:19 - What we (somewhat) know 25:26 - Neural Networks 36:50 - Break 37:05 - The Great Misdiagnosis? 41:40 - Takeaways RESOURCES CDC: Toward Systems Neuroscience of ADHD: A Meta-Analysis of 55 fMRI Studies Leanne M Williams, Tracey W Tsang, Simon Clarke, and Michael Kohn - An ‘integrative neuroscience’ perspective on ADHD: linking cognition, emotion, brain, and genetic measures with implications for clinical support Jessica L. Slater and Matthew C. Tate - Timing Deficits in ADHD: Insights From the Neuroscience of Musical Rhythm Carlos Acuña - The ADHD-200 Consortium: a model to advance the translational potential of neuroimaging in clinical neuroscience Katya Rubia - Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Its Clinical Translation