The Nature & Nurture Podcast

In this episode I interview Dr. Megan Herting, neuroscientist and professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California. We discuss her early career and transition from behavioral neuroscience in rats to humans, recent studies in neuroimaging and environmental neuroscience, and the importance of science education and holism. Papers discussed: Cserbik, D., Chen, J. C., McConnell, R., Berhane, K., Sowell, E. R., Schwartz, J., ... & Herting, M. M. (2020). Fine particulate matter exposure during childhood relates to hemispheric-specific differences in brain structure. Environment International, 143, 105933. Campbell, C. E., Mezher, A. F., Eckel, S. P., Tyszka, J. M., Pauli, W. M., Nagel, B. J., & Herting, M. M. (2021). Restructuring of amygdala subregion apportion across adolescence. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 48, 100883. Timestamps:  0:00 - Introduction 0:35 - How Megan first became interested in psychology & neuroscience 3:25 - Megan's research experiences as an undergraduate 6:38 - Learning to read scientific jargon in academic journals 8:30 - How Megan decided to pursue graduate school 10:45 - Navigating graduate school as a first-generation student 12:44 - How Megan's research interests developed in graduate school 15:07 - Megan's PhD dissertation on how exercise influences brain health in adolescents 19:26 - Switching focus post-PhD and searching for faculty jobs 22:50 - Teaching in addition to doing research 26:38 - Research in the Herting Neuroimaging Laboratory from 2016-2020 28:15 - The national Adolescent Brain & Cognitive Development (ABCD) study 33:13 - How air pollution impacts the developing brain 37:30 - Environmental neuroscience as a means for public policy intervention 40:42 - Why does the brain get more attention than the body?  44:40 - Sex differences in the amygdalae of adolescents 50:05 - The role visual learning plays in understanding the brain 53:11 - Megan's ongoing and future work 55:29 - The importance of science communication

In this episode I interview Dr. Jonas Kaplan, cognitive neuroscientist and co-director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California. We discuss his early career and inspirations, his favorite studies, and the neural underpinnings of belief and consciousness. Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2cTprF6_u8  Timestamps:  0:00 - Introduction 0:40 - How Jonas first became interested in neuroscience 2:00 - Jonas describes an experience in college which changed his views on consciousness 3:40 - Jonas describes his college studies and research 5:57 - Jonas describes his graduate school experience 11:10 - Left brain/right brain hemispheric specialization 14:53 - Back to graduate school and the rise of neuroimaging technology 17:03 - The timeline of MRI technology and how it works 22:22 - Post-graduate school and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) 29:34 - Moving to USC & working with Antonio Damasio 33:38 - Predicting visual stimuli on the basis of activity in auditory cortices 38:19 - Working with Sam Harris to study the neural correlates of religious belief 39:55 - The role of belief being tied to identity 44:22 - Free will and the deterministic universe 47:05 - Challenges to belief and trait openness  49:45 - The impact of environment on belief 51:21 - Evolutionary selection for different patterns of belief 53:20 - Why we believe in free will 1:01:49 - Panpsychism and the origins of consciousness 1:07:20 - Conclusion and future work Papers discussed:  Meyer, K., Kaplan, J. T., Essex, R., Webber, C., Damasio, H., & Damasio, A. (2010). Predicting visual stimuli on the basis of activity in auditory cortices. Nature Neuroscience, 13(6), 667. Kaplan, J. T., Gimbel, S. I., & Harris, S. (2016). Neural correlates of maintaining one’s political beliefs in the face of counterevidence. Scientific Reports, 6(1), 1-11.