Welcome to the first episode of 2025 for The Brain Podcast - the official podcast of the journals Brain and Brain Communications.

This episode features a discussion with senior author Dr Frank Porreca of the Brain article entitled: Nociceptors are functionally male or female: from mouse to monkey to man?

Dr Porreca discusses important findings into the  sexual dimorphic nature of nociception and how it could and indeed should affect clinical trial participant design, precision medicine and need for more sex specific studies to unravel the regulation of pain nociception in male and female individuals.

Check out the full article on the Brain website as part of the December 2024 issue: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae179

This episode was co-hosted by Chaitra Sathyaprakash and Andreas Thermistocleous, edited and produced by Chaitra and Xin You Tai, co-produced by Antonia Johnston, original music by Ammar Al-Chalabi.

Welcome to the 23nd episode of The Brain Podcast - the official podcast of the journals Brain and Brain Communications.

In this episode, we bring on authors Dr Helen Devine and Professor Simon Mead to discuss their opinion article entitled: Academic neurology in the UK: a plea to turn away from the precipice.

The discussions covers the growing concerns regarding the future of academic neurology in the UK and potential solutions. They discuss the parallels seen around the world as this is a growing global problem. They end with their thoughts on why academic neurology is still extremely rewarding and exactly what they would do if they started again.

Check out the full article on the Brain website as part of the July 2024 issue: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae151

This episode was co-hosted by Andreas Thermistocleous and Adam Handel, edited and produced by Andreas Thermistocleous and Xin You Tai, co-produced by Antonia Johnston, original music by Ammar Al-Chalabi.

Welcome to the 22nd episode of The Brain Podcast - the official podcast of the journals Brain and Brain Communications.

This episode features a discussion with senior author Dr Torsten Baldeweg of the Brain article entitled: Long-term neuropsychological trajectories in children with epilepsy: does surgery halt decline?

Dr Baldeweg discusses fascinating insight into the long term cognitive outcomes from an impressively large cohort of 500 children who had undergone epilepsy surgery and neuropsychological assessment at Great Ormond Street Hospital (1990–2018). Their findings suggest that there are long term cognitive benefits from epilepsy surgery by preventing firther seizures. This has important clinical implications on the importance of achieving seizure freedom for our patients and the role of surgery in this regard.

The Brain podcast team is very happy to introduce a new co-host Dr Roberto Bellanti in this episode and to the team!

Check out the full article on the Brain website as part of the August 2024 issue: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae121

This episode was co-hosted by Michael David and Roberto Bellanti, edited and produced by Chaitra and Xin You Tai, co-produced by Antonia Johnston, original music by Ammar Al-Chalabi.