Season 8 Episode 9: Winged Flight, Rile up The Dog, and Melly the Science Geek!

About this episode

The episode explores a virtual reality study on whether humans could learn to fly with wings, discussing implications for neuroplasticity and body perception.

Send us Fan Mail Your brain is way more flexible than your body. We start with a wild virtual reality study that asks a simple sci-fi question: could humans learn to fly if we had wings? After a week of VR training with motion tracking, participants don’t just get better at flying through rings and hovering over cliffs, their brains begin responding to wings the way they respond to arms. We unpack what that says about neuroplasticity, body perception, and why “embodiment” is the real magic be...

People in this episode

Hosts: Jason Zackowski, Kris Zackowski

Topics covered

• neuroplasticity
• virtual reality
• body perception
• winged flight
• embodiment

Keywords

• virtual reality
• neuroplasticity
• flying
• body perception
• embodiment

More episodes of The Science Pawdcast

• Season 8 Episode 10: Screw Worms, Selfish Cats, and Dr. Laci Brock on Space Art! · June 8, 2026 · 1h 9m
• Season 8 Episode 8: Hantavirus High Seas, Pets for Stress, and Comedian Matt Koff the Catman · May 23, 2026 · 57 min
• Season 8 Episode 7: Stiff Person Syndrome, Cat's Kidneys and Dr. Vikram Baliga on the Wonder of Plants! · May 4, 2026 · 53 min
• Season 8 Episode 6: A.I. Issues, Tick Meds, and Dr. Mitchell on Volcanoes · April 19, 2026 · 1h 1m
• Season 8 Episode 5: Medical Cannabis Falls Short and Dog Diabetes · March 21, 2026 · 23 min
• Season 8 Episode 4: Teen Sleep, Mushing Dogs, and Dr. Alex Dainis on Tasting Every Single Amino Acid · March 16, 2026 · 1h 4m