Brainpod - The Neuropsychopharmacology Podcast

Adolescent consumption of caffeine, the most commonly used psychoactive stimulant in the world, has increased strikingly in recent years. Caffeine use has been associated with illicit drug use and risky behaviors, but whether consumption of caffeine during adolescence has effects on the mature brain is controversial. In this podcast, author Ryan Bachtell discusses his recent study, which found that consumption of caffeine by male adolescent rats results in enduring neurobiological effects in a key reward area in the brain and an increased sensitivity to cocaine in adulthood.
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Brainpod: Caffeine consumption in adolescents

In this issue of Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, entitled Neurodevelopment and the Origins of Brain Disorders, subject discipline experts provide both experimental highlights and perspectives on the current understanding of basic mechanisms of neurodevelopment, the influence of developmental disruptions on childhood and adult-onset brain and behavioral disorders, and the emerging promise of translation into treatments. In this podcast, the editors of this year's volume, Pat Levitt (Simms/Mann Chair in Development Neurogenetics, Children's Hospital Los Angeles) and Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele (Mortimer D Sackler Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute), discuss the recent research and its future applications.
http://www.nature.com/npp/index.html

Brainpod: Neurodevelopment and the Origins of Brain Disorders

Worry seems like something most people do from time to time, but for some people, severe worry can become an overwhelming sensation, and for older adults later in life, severe worry has been associated with an increased risk of stroke and coronary heart disease. Carmen Andreescu is a professor of psychiatry and bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She says mild worry is useful evolutionarily, to help us make plans or adapt behavior.

Read the full study here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-025-02193-1

Older and wiser? The neural correlates of worry induction and reappraisal in older adults

Marijuana use for medical purposes is becoming increasingly common in the U.S., and doctors prescribe it for ills ranging from headaches to insomnia. And yet, there is little scientific data supporting its medical use. In this podcast, Drs. Margaret Haney and Eden Evins discuss the relationship between cannabis use and two psychiatric disorders: post-traumatic stress disorder and psychotic illnesses, particularly schizophrenia.
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Brainpod: Does Cannabis Cause, Exacerbate or Ameliorate Psychiatric Disorders?

There has been a recent and notable increase in the non-medical use of new psychoactive substances (NPS), or "designer drugs." Unlike classic drugs of abuse, many NPS were initially developed for research purposes. In this podcast, Drs. Michael Baumann and Nora Volkow discuss the complexities of working with these substances and how, given their genesis, research with NPS could be considered "dual use;" or, potentially utilized for both beneficial and malicious purposes.
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Brainpod: Abuse of New Psychoactive Substances: Threats and Solutions

"Impact of Stress on the Brain: Pathology, Treatment and Prevention," the 2016 issue of Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, focuses on advances in our understanding of the impact of stress on the brain: From pathology to circuits, treatment to prevention. Emerging data from genetics, epigenetics, neural circuit and intergenerational models, animal models, and neuroimaging all suggest that stress affects the brain in a variety of dynamic and often long-lasting ways. The effects of these processes on developmental risk for pathology are particularly notable.
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Brainpod: Impact of Stress on the Brain: Pathology, Treatment and Prevention

Welcome to the Springer Nature Soundcloud page! Here you will find several podcasts from our journals across a range of scientific subjects, including Gene Pod, ModPath Chat, Pediapod, Hereditypod and Brainpod.