Author Dr. Rebecca Schwarzlose Discusses "Brainscapes: The Warped, Wondrous, Maps Written in Your Brain"

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it’s been some time since I’ve updated this blog with all of the goings on that I’ve been involved in when it comes to broadcasting and communications.  So that I can make up for that, I’m going to take some time to go back and post all of the interviews with authors that I’ve done in about the last year and a half.

I’ve been fortunate enough to cover so many different subjects via the HEC Media Books series of interviews. I’ve spoken with award winning authors and playwrights, archeologists, activists, historians, and more.

For this particular interview from back in November of 2021, I had the chance to talk to neuroscientist Dr. Rebecca Schwarzlose. She’d just released her first general audience book, “Brainscapes: The Warped, Wondrous Maps Written In Your Brain - And How They Guide You” by HarperCollins and Mariner Books.  Dr. Schwarzlose holds a Ph.D from MIT, is a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis and is the past chief editor of the journal “Trends in Cognitive Science”.

The book explores how the neural pathways in the human brain are actually hard written maps that can be measured electrically and occupy specific physical spaces in all brains. She also explores how after about 6 months of age to one year, most of the parts of the brain map have crystallized for life for each person, and can’t be rewritten.

The subject and book might sound too dense to you, but the doctor was certainly able to break down the subject so that the reader of the book and the watcher of the interview could follow along.