Gray Matters Brain Podcast

Seven years ago, Ian Burkhart was left paraplegic after a diving accident. But by outfitting him with a special electrical sleeve, researchers were able to bypass the damaged neural pathways and connect Ian’s brain directly to his muscles. We speak to Ian, and to his partner in research, Dr. Marcia Bockbrader, an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the Ohio State University, about what their findings mean for Ian and for others like him.

As anyone who has had a drink knows, alcohol has an immediate impact on the brain. But how much is too much? And what's the connection between alcohol consumption and traumatic brain injury? For latest findings, we talk to Dr. John Corrigan, professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Ohio State University and director of the Ohio Valley Center for Brain Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation, and Dr. Zach Weil, an assistant professor at OSU in the Department of Neuroscience.

Dr. William Kraemer is a Professor of Human Sciences at Ohio State University, and an expert on maximizing performance for athletes and the rest of us, and shows us how to take our bodies and brains to our natural limit. We also speak with Dr. Jeff Volek, a professor in the Department of Human Sciences at OSU, about a potential nutritional revolution that runs counter to everything we’ve been taught about how we should eat. Tap into the power of the human brain.

“Mindfulness” is everywhere, and is seemingly a cure all for stress, unhappiness, and whatever else ails us. But what do we really know about mindfulness, meditation and the impact it can have on the brain and in our lives? We speak with Dr. Ruchika Prakash, an associate professor of psychology at The Ohio State University and the director of Ohio State's clinical neuroscience laboratory, about how her lab is bringing methodological scientific rigor to the study of mindfulness.

Our closest relationships can ease stress – or, if they’re not functioning well, dramatically increase it. Today we’re talking how relationship stress impacts our well-being with Dr. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, one of the nation’s foremost experts in this area, Professor of Psychiatry & Psychology and Director of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at the Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center. Tune in to learn about stress symptoms and stress management.

How much should we be sleeping, and what happens to our brains and our bodies when we don’t get enough sleep? We speak to Dr. Ulysses Magalang, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the Ohio State University, and a professor of Internal Medicine and Neuroscience. And we take a tour of his sleep center with Dani Livelsberger, who’s run it for well over a decade.

In this introduction to Gray Matters: How the Latest Brain Research Can Make Us Smarter, Healthier, and Happier, we speak Dr. Per Sederberg, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, about what we do and don’t know about the brain.