Sean Noah, Author at Knowing Neurons

Sean Noah March 17, 2022July 14, 2022 flashbacks, hallucinations, LSD, neuroscience myths, Psychedelics

Psychedelic Journal Club: The Risk of Flashbacks

A commentary on the article “Flashback phenomena after administration of LSD and psilocybin in controlled studies with healthy participants,” by Felix Müller et al., published in Psychopharmacology. Following psychedelics’ explosive… Read More

Big Ideas Cognition Consciousness Psychedelics

Sean Noah January 27, 2022January 27, 2022 Pharmacology, Psychedelics, Space, World View

Psychedelic Journal Club: How Do Psychedelics Work? Part 2

A commentary on the article “Models of psychedelic drug action: modulation of cortical- subcortical circuits” by Manoj Doss et al., published in Brain. Even though the “psychedelic renaissance” is underway,… Read More

Big Ideas Cognition Consciousness Psychedelics

Sean Noah January 13, 2022 Metaphysical Beliefs, Psychedelics, Space, World View

Psychedelic Journal Club: A Whole New Worldview

A commentary on the article “Psychedelics alter metaphysical beliefs,” by Christopher Timmermann et al., published in Scientific Reports.… Read More

Cognition Psychedelics Sensation and Perception

Sean Noah December 23, 2021January 13, 2022 Drug, Drug policy, Pharmacology, Psychedelics, Research

Psychedelic Journal Club: How Do Psychedelics Work?

A commentary on the article “REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelics” by Robin Carhart-Harris and Karl Friston, published in Pharmacological Reviews.… Read More

Cognition Psychedelics Sensation and Perception

Sean Noah December 16, 2021January 13, 2022 Drug policy, Drugs, medicine, Pharmacology, Psychedelics, Research

Psychedelic Journal Club: Microdosing for Mental Wellbeing

A commentary on the article “Adults who microdose psychedelics report health related motivations and lower levels of anxiety and depression compared to non-microdosers by Joseph M. Rootman et al., published… Read More

Brain Books

Sean Noah March 7, 2021October 27, 2022 Brain activity, Computational, Electricity, neural network, Retina, Spike, Synaptic function

Book Review: The Spike

Recently I asked one of my faculty advisors if he would ever write a popular science book. He’s a bestselling author in his own right, having written a textbook that… Read More

Artificial Intelligence Big Ideas Collaborations Did You Know?Interviews Neuro News Neuroscience Technologies

Sean Noah October 13, 2020February 18, 2021 Computational, Computational Biology, Education, mathematics, Neuromatch Academy, Skill learning

Neuroscience Education in the Time of COVID-19: An Interview with Dr. Megan Peters about Neuromatch Academy

In March 2020, my research stopped. The cognitive neuroscience lab where I work was shuttered because our research involves collecting behavioral and neuroimaging data from human participants – something impermissible… Read More

Illustration by Michal Roessler, next to book cover image of "Remembering" by Donald G. MacKay

Brain Books Learning and Memory

Sean Noah April 10, 2019April 9, 2019 Amnesia, Book Review, Brain Books, Donald G MacKay, Epilepsy, Frederic Bartlett, Henry Molaison, Hippocampus, Medial temporal lobe, Memory, Patient HM, Psychology, synaptic

Book Review: Remembering

In the early 20th century, Cambridge psychologist Frederic Bartlett radically reformulated the concept of memory. Until then the classical view, the earliest form of which could be traced back to… Read More

Brain Basics Consciousness Neuro Primer

Sean Noah May 31, 2018March 3, 2019 Attention, Brain, Brain Basics, Consciousness, Focus, Perception, Vision

Neuro Primer: Attention

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]magine suffering through a 2pm class on a sweltering day in early June. Summer’s almost arrived, and it’s hard not to let your mind wander away from the dull information… Read More

Artificial Intelligence Big Ideas

Sean Noah April 11, 2018March 3, 2019 Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Neural Networks, Hidden Layers, Introspection, Machine Learning, Thoughtful Machines

Machine Yearning: The Rise of Thoughtful Machines

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the mid twentieth century, artificial intelligence researchers invented a new type of computational system that could detect patterns in images – a daunting task for previous technology. Because this… Read More

Brain Basics Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders Sleep

Sean Noah October 31, 2017May 27, 2022 Brain, Cortex, Disease, Disorders, Fatal Familial Insomnia, FFI, Genetics, Insomnia, Molecular neuroscience, Neuroscience, Prions, Psychiatry, Sleep, Sleep disorders

The inescapable nightmare of fatal familial insomnia

A family curse During the early 1980’s, an Italian physician was investigating a mysterious and dreadful disease that had long plagued his family. In earlier generations, this disease had killed… Read More

Neuroscience Technologies Sensation and Perception

Sean Noah August 16, 2017August 16, 2017 Analog, Biomimicry, Brain, Chips, Circuits, Computer, Digital, Engineering, Neuromorphic, Neurons, Sensors, Silicon, Transistors

Neuromorphic Engineering: Biomimicry from the Brain

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hat is the brain? Researchers conceive of neurons as information processing units, meaning that the circuits formed by neurons support logical and mathematical operations. In this view, the brain is… Read More