This Week in Neuroscience

TWiN discusses experiments which show that high-fidelity memories that lose their precision with time depends on reorganization of hippocampal circuitry. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Racaniello], Jason Shepherd [https://www.shepherdlab.org/jason], and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-neuroscience/id1485118950], Google Podcasts [https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly90d2luMS5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw], RSS [https://twin1.libsyn.com/rss] Links for this episode * MicrobeTV Discord Server [https://discord.gg/xA4JX7AeeU] * Loss of precision memory [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08993-1] and the hippocampus (Nature) * Changes in hippocampi of cab drivers [https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.070039597] (PNAS) * Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey [https://ramseylab.vercel.app/]. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees [http://www.ronaldjenkees.com/] Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Tim explains AI co-scientist, a tool released by Google, which it hopes to help scientists generate hypotheses and research proposals, and to accelerate the speed of scientific and biomedical discoveries. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Racaniello], Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-neuroscience/id1485118950], Google Podcasts [https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly90d2luMS5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw], RSS [https://twin1.libsyn.com/rss] Links for this episode * MicrobeTV Discord Server [https://discord.gg/xA4JX7AeeU] * AI cracks superbug problem [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyz6e9edy3o] (BBC) * Accelerating [https://research.google/blog/accelerating-scientific-breakthroughs-with-an-ai-co-scientist/] scientific breakthroughs (Google Research) * Towards an AI co-scientist [https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.18864] (arXiv) * Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey [http://ramseylab.vercel.app/]. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees [http://www.ronaldjenkees.com/] Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains a study showing that when a mouse is confronted with an unconscious conspecific, it engages in behavior including tongue-dragging to resuscitate the animal via a tongue-brain connection. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Racaniello], Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-neuroscience/id1485118950], Google Podcasts [https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly90d2luMS5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw], RSS [https://twin1.libsyn.com/rss] Links for this episode * MicrobeTV Discord Server [https://discord.gg/xA4JX7AeeU] * Tongue-dragging [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11753405/] in mice (Sci Adv) * Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey [http://ramseylab.vercel.app/]. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees [http://www.ronaldjenkees.com/] Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN discusses a study showing that repetitive injury reactivates HSV-1 in a human brain tissue model and induces phenotypes associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Racaniello] and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-neuroscience/id1485118950], Google Podcasts [https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly90d2luMS5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw], RSS [https://twin1.libsyn.com/rss] Links for this episode * MicrobeTV Discord Server [https://discord.gg/xA4JX7AeeU] * Repetitive injury, herpes, and Alzheimers [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scisignal.ado6430?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ScienceAdviser&utm_content=distillation&et_rid=40166197&et_cid=5486879] (Sci Signal) * The tau of herpesvirus (TWiV 1187 [https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-1187/]) * Fishing for viruses in senile (TWiV 519 [https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-519/]) * Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey [http://ramseylab.vercel.app/]. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees [http://www.ronaldjenkees.com/] Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains a study showing that while groups of neurons, form the basis for memory, astrocytes are key components of the adaptive reponse to learning experiences, and regulate the flow of information during circuit plasticity and memory recall. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Racaniello], Jason Shepherd [https://medicine.utah.edu/faculty/jason-shepherd], and Tim Cheung Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-neuroscience/id1485118950], Google Podcasts [https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly90d2luMS5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw], RSS [https://twin1.libsyn.com/rss] Links for this episode * MicrobeTV Discord Server [https://discord.gg/xA4JX7AeeU] * Write your Senator [https://www.safecommunitiescoalition.org/rfk], oppose RFK Jr nomination * Astrocytes and memory [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39506118/] (Nature) * Timestamps by Jolene [https://ramseylab.vercel.app/]. Thanks! Music is by Ronald Jenkees [http://www.ronaldjenkees.com/] Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv