From Our Neurons to Yours

This week on the show, we're have our sights set on healthy aging. What would it mean to be able to live to 80, 90 or 100 with our cognitive abilities intact and able to maintain an independent lifestyle right to the end of our days?  We're joined by Beth Mormino [/node/3382] and Anthony Wagner [/node/3537] who lead the Stanford Aging and Memory Study [https://memorylab.stanford.edu/get-involved/stanford-aging-memory-study-sams], which recruits cognitively healthy older adults to understand what makes their brains particularly resilient — and how more of us could join them in living the dream of healthy aging. Learn More * Stanford Aging and Memory Study (SAMS) [https://memorylab.stanford.edu/get-involved/stanford-aging-memory-study-sams] * Stanford Memory Lab [https://memorylab.stanford.edu/] * Mormino Lab [https://med.stanford.edu/mormino-lab.html] Further Reading * Alzheimer's 'resilience signature' predicts who will develop dementia—and how fast [https://brainresilience.stanford.edu/news/alzheimers-resilience-signature-predicts-who-will-develop-dementia-and-how-fast] (Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience, 2025) * Latest Alzheimer's lab tests focus on memory loss, not brain plaques [https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/02/g-s1-57688/alzheimers-blood-spinal-fluid-tests-memory-loss-brain-plaques] (NPR, 2025) References * Trelle, A. N., ... & Wagner, A. D. (2020). Hippocampal and cortical mechanisms at retrieval explain variability in episodic remembering in older adults. eLife, 9:e55335. doi: 10.7554/eLife.55335 PDF [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BNLcV5TXkyoPOez7r9iDQJ-Xh7q1LNfU/view?usp=sharing] | PMID:32469308 [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32469308/] * Trelle, A. N., ..., Wagner, A. D., Mormino, E. C., & Wilson, E. N. (2025). Plasma Aβ42/Aβ40 is sensitive to early cerebral amyloid accumulation and predicts risk of cognitive decline across the Alzheimer’s disease spectrum. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 21:e14442. PDF [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EfUNJQtpZiFIyMbExIkq8TMn5GIsmL5v/view?usp=sharing] | PMID:39713875 [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39713875/] * Sheng, J., ..., Mormino, E., & Wagner, A. D. (submitted). Top-down attention and Alzheimer's pathology impact cortical selectivity during learning, influencing episodic memory in older adults.  Preprint [https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.04.626911v1] Episode Credits This episode was produced by Michael Osborne at 14th Street Studios, with sound design by Morgan Honaker. Our logo is by Aimee Garza. The show is hosted by Nicholas Weiler at Stanford's Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute and supported in part by the Knight Iniative for Brain Resilience. Get in touch We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu if you'd be willing to help out with some listener r Send us a text! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2112871/open_sms] Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2112871/share]. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience. Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford [http://neuroscience.stanford.edu] and follow us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/stanfordbrain], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/WuTsaiNeurosciencesInstitute], and LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/wu-tsai-neurosciences-institute].

This week on the show: Are we ready to create digital models of the human brain?  Last month, Stanford researcher Andreas Tolias and colleagues created a "digital twin" of the mouse visual cortex. The researchers used the same foundation model approach that powers ChatGPT, but instead of training the model on text, the team trained in on brain activity recorded while mice watched action movies. The result? A digital model that can predict how neurons would respond to entirely new visual inputs.  This landmark study is a preview of the unprecedented research possibilities made possible by foundation models of the brain—models which replicate the fundamental algorithms of brain activity, but can be studied with complete control and replicated across hundreds of laboratories. But it raises a profound question: Are we ready to create digital models of the human brain?  This week we talk with Wu Tsai Neuro Faculty Scholar Dan Yamins, who has been exploring just this question with a broad range of Stanford colleagues and collaborators. We talk about what such human brain simulations might look like, how they would work, and what they might teach us about the fundamental algorithms of perception and cognition. Learn more AI models of the brain could serve as 'digital twins' in research [https://med.stanford.edu/ophthalmology/news-and-media/news-archive/2025-stories/digital-twins.html] (Stanford Medicine, 2025) An Advance in Brain Research That Was Once Considered Impossible [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/science/neuroscience-brain-mice-map.html] (New York Times, 2025) The co-evolution of neuroscience and AI [https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/co-evolution-neuroscience-and-ai] (Wu Tsai Neuro, 2024) Neuroscientists use AI to simulate how the brain makes sense of the visual world [https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/neuroscientists-use-ai-simulate-how-brain-makes-sense-visual-world] (Wu Tsai Neuro, 2024) How Artificial Neural Networks Help Us Understand Neural Networks in the Human Brain [https://hai.stanford.edu/news/how-artificial-neural-networks-help-us-understand-neural-networks-human-brain] (Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI), 2021) Related research A Task-Optimized Neural Network Replicates Human Auditory Behavior. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29681533/].. (PNAS, 2014) Vector-based navigation using grid-like representations in artificial agents [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0102-6] (Nature, 2018) The neural architecture of language: Integrative modeling converges on predictive processing [https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2105646118] (PNAS, 2021) Using deep reinforcement learning to reveal how the brain encodes abstract state-space representations... [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33326755/](Neuron, 2021)  We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu.  Send us a text! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2112871/open_sms] Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2112871/share]. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience. Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford [http://neuroscience.stanford.edu] and follow us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/stanfordbrain], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/WuTsaiNeurosciencesInstitute], and LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/wu-tsai-neurosciences-institute].

If you spend any time chatting with a modern AI chatbot, you've probably been amazed at just how human it sounds, how much it feels like you're talking to a real person. Much ink has been spilled explaining how these systems are not actually conversing, not actually understanding — they're statistical algorithms trained to predict the next likely word.  But today on the show, let's flip our perspective on this. What if instead of thinking about how these algorithms are not like the human brain, we talked about how similar they are? What if we could use these large language models to help us understand how our own brains process language to extract meaning?  There's no one better positioned to take us through this than returning guest Laura Gwilliams, a faculty scholar at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute and Stanford Data Science Institute, and a member of the department of psychology here at Stanford. Learn more: Gwilliams' Laboratory of Speech Neuroscience [https://gwilliamslab.stanford.edu/] Fireside chat on AI and Neuroscience [https://youtu.be/G7zKx51604g?si=NgN10yBXOSXQceZO] at Wu Tsai Neuro's 2024 Symposium (video) The co-evolution of neuroscience and AI [https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/co-evolution-neuroscience-and-ai] (Wu Tsai Neuro, 2024) How we understand each other [https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/how-we-understand-each-other] (From Our Neurons to Yours, 2023) Q&A: On the frontiers of speech science [https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/qa-frontiers-speech-science] (Wu Tsai Neuro, 2023) Computational Architecture of Speech Comprehension in the Human Brain [https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031120-111245;jsessionid=v-P1ZugRjmIeFHJJ1GEphz_zOLHlca7aOMIq2jcy.annurevlive-10-241-10-106?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=bookmark] (Annual Review of Linguistics, 2025) Hierarchical dynamic coding coordinates speech comprehension in the human brain [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11042271/] (PMC Preprint, 2025) Behind the Scenes segment: By re-creating neural pathway in dish, Sergiu Pasca's research may speed pain treatment [https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/04/pain-neural-pathway-dish-speed-treatment.html] (Stanford Medicine, 2025) Bridging nature and nurture: The brain's flexible foundation from birth [https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/bridging-nature-and-nurture-brains-flexible-foundation-birth] (Wu Tsai Neuro, 2025) Get in touch We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu if you'd be willing to help out with some listener research, and we'll be in touch with some follow-up questions. Episode Credits This episode was produced by Michael Osborne at 14th Street Studios, with sound design by Morgan Honaker. Our logo is by Aimee Garza. The show is hosted by Nicholas Weiler at Stanford's http://neuroscience.stanford.edu/ Send us a text! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2112871/open_sms] Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2112871/share]. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience. Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford [http://neuroscience.stanford.edu] and follow us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/stanfordbrain], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/WuTsaiNeurosciencesInstitute], and LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/wu-tsai-neurosciences-institute].

We've talked about glia and sleep. We've talked about glia and neuroinflammation. We've talked about glia in the brain fog that can accompany COVID or chemotherapy. We've talked about the brain's quiet majority of non–neuronal cells in so many different contexts that it felt like it was high time for us to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. After all, glia science was founded here at Stanford in the lab of the late, great Ben Barres. No one is better suited to take us through this history and lead us to the frontiers of the field than today's guest, Brad Zuchero.  A former Barres lab postdoc, and now an emerging leader in this field in his own right, Brad gives us an overview of our growing understanding of the various different kinds of glia and their roles in brain function, and shares the  exciting  discoveries emerging from his lab — including growing evidence of a role for myelin in Alzheimers disease. Learn More * Neuroscientist Ben Barres, who identified crucial roles of glial cells, dies at 63 [https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2017/12/neuroscientist-ben-barres-dies-at-63.html] (Stanford Medicine, 2017) * How exciting! Study reveals neurons rely on glial cells to become electrically excitable [https://med.stanford.edu/neurosurgery/news/2024/how-exciting] (Stanford Neurosurgery, 2024) * Unlocking the secrets of myelin repair [https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/unlocking-secrets-myelin-repair] (Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, 2024) * Q&A: Linking sleep, brain insulation, and neurological disease with postdoc Daniela Rojo [https://brainresilience.stanford.edu/news/qa-linking-sleep-brain-insulation-and-neurological-disease-postdoc-daniela-rojo] (Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience, 2023) * From angel to demon: Why some brain cells go ‘bad’ [https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/angel-demon-why-some-brain-cells-go-bad] (Scope Blog, 2021) Get in touch We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu if you'd be willing to help out with some listener research, and we'll be in touch with some follow-up questions. Episode Credits This episode was produced by Michael Osborne at 14th Street Studios, with production assistance by Morgan Honaker. Our logo is by Aimee Garza. The show is hosted by Nicholas Weiler at Stanford's Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute [http://neuroscience.stanford.edu/] and supported in part by the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience [http://brainresilience.stanford.edu/] at Wu Tsai Neuro. Send us a text! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2112871/open_sms] Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2112871/share]. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience. Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford [http://neuroscience.stanford.edu] and follow us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/stanfordbrain], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/WuTsaiNeurosciencesInstitute], and LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/wu-tsai-neurosciences-institute].

As we gain a better understanding of how misfiring brain circuits lead to mental health conditions, we'd like to be able to go in and nudge those circuits back into balance. But this is hard — literally — because the brain is encased in this thick bony skull. Plus, often the problem you want to target is buried deep in the middle of a maze of delicate brain tissue you need to preserve. Today we're going to be talking with neuroscientists who aim to solve this problem with sound. And not just any sound: ultrasound. Kim Butts Pauly [https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/people/kim-butts-pauly] and Raag Airan [https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/people/raag-airan] from the Stanford Department of Radiology are developing ultrasound technology in a couple of different ways to essentially reach into the brain to treat brain disorders that are otherwise hard to access. These uses of ultrasound haven't yet reached the clinic, but could be entering clinical testing in people in the next few years.  Mentioned on the Show * Meet the 2025 Neurosciences Postdoctoral Scholars [https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/meet-2025-neurosciences-postdoctoral-scholars] (Wu Tsai Neuro, 2025) * Butts Pauly Lab [https://kbplab.stanford.edu/] * Airan Lab [http://airan-lab.stanford.edu/] * Non-invasive brain stimulation opens new ways to study and treat the brain [https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/non-invasive-brain-stimulation-opens-new-ways-study-and-treat-brain] (Wu Tsai Neuro, 2025) * Advancing Brain Resilience: 2024 Catalyst and Pilot Grant Awards [https://brainresilience.stanford.edu/news/advancing-brain-resilience-2024-catalyst-and-pilot-grant-awards] (Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience, 2024) * Researchers find response to ketamine depends on opioid pathways, but varies by sex [https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2024/02/ketamine-sex-opioid.html] (Stanford Medicine) * A New Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation System for Preclinical Brain Research [https://www.fusfoundation.org/posts/a-new-focused-ultrasound-neuromodulation-system-for-preclinical-brain-research/] (Focused Ultrasound Foundation, 2024) * Translating Neuroscience Advances into Real World Uses [https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/translating-neuroscience-advances-real-world-uses] (Wu Tsai Neuro, 2023) Get in touch We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu if you'd be willing to help out with some listener research, and we'll be in touch with some follow-up questions. Episode Credits This episode was produced by Michael Osborne at 14th Street Studios, with production assistance by Morgan Honaker. Our logo is by Aimee Garza. The show is hosted by Nicholas Weiler at Stanford's Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute [http://neuroscience.stanford.edu/] and supported in part by the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience [http://brainresilience.stanford.edu] at Wu Tsai Neuro. Send us a text! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2112871/open_sms] Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2112871/share]. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience. Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford [http://neuroscience.stanford.edu] and follow us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/stanfordbrain], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/WuTsaiNeurosciencesInstitute], and LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/wu-tsai-neurosciences-institute].