Imagine what it’s like to lose your ability to speak. You know what you want to say, but the connection between your brain and the muscles that form words is no longer functioning. For people with conditions like ALS, or who experience a severe stroke, this is a devastating reality.

Today's guest is Erin Kunz, a postdoctoral researcher in the Neural Prosthetics Translational Laboratory at Stanford, who is part of a global community of scientists working towards the vision of a brain–computer interface — or BCI — to bypass those broken circuits and restore the ability to speak to people with paralysis.

We discuss how these BCIs work and the inspiring progress the tech has made in recent years, as well as the troubling question of whether a technology designed to decode what people intend to say from their brain activity could one day read out thoughts they never intended to communicate?

Learn More

• Study of promising speech-enabling interface offers hope for restoring communication (Stanford Medicine, 2025)
• For Some Patients, the ‘Inner Voice’ May Soon Be Audible (The New York Times, 2025)
• These brain implants speak your mind — even when you don't want to (NPR, 2025)
• A mind-reading brain implant that comes with password protection(Nature, 2025)
• How neural prosthetics could free minds trapped by brain injury(From Our Neurons to Yours, 2024)
• Brain implants, software guide speech-disabled person’s intended words to computer screen (Stanford Medicine, 2023)
• Software turns ‘mental handwriting’ into on-screen words, sentences (Stanford Medicine, 2021)

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Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Neuroscientists have spent the past few decades tracing the network of brain systems—some deep and emotional, and others more analytical and deliberate— that work together as we make tough choices like where to invest our money as well as more everyday decisions like which videos to watch online—or, for that matter, which podcast to listen to.

You can imagine that the ability to listen in on the brain systems that guide our choices might start to let scientists predict our decisions. But today's guest has taken this a step further, showing that measuring brain activity in just a few individuals can actually forecast widespread social behaviors, like which stock prices are likely to go up or down on the market, or which videos are likely to go viral.

Join us as we talk with Brian Knutson, a professor of psychology in Stanford's School of Humanities and Sciences, about the frontiers of neuroeconomics, bridging psychology, economics, and neuroscience.

Learn More

• SPANlab (Symbiotic Project on Affective Neuroscience)
• NeuroChoice: Eight years of forging connections to illuminate and empower choice (Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, 2024)
• Brain imaging links stimulant-use relapse to distinct nerve pathway (Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, 2022)
• Brain activity data may improve stock market forecasts, study shows (The Guardian, 2021)
• Your brain knows whether a video will go viral online (Stanford Report, 2020)
• Odds are good that risky gambling choices are influenced by a single brain connection, Stanford research shows (Stanford Report, 2016)
• Smile boosts chances of getting a microloan, say Stanford psychologists (Stanford Report, 2015)
• Stanford scientists see how the brain makes environmental decisions (Stanford Report, 2015)

Send us a text!

Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

We are more isolated from one another than ever before — by our technology, by our political divides, and most of all, by our choices.

This week on the show, we talk with neuroscientist Ben Rein about why this social isolation is terrible for our health — implicated in not only rising rates of mental illness, but also heart disease, dementia and more.

We discuss Ben's new book, "Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection", published earlier this week, and try to work out a plan for an improved social diet to restore our brains — and our society — to good health.

Learn More:

• Ben Rein's website
• Publisher's website
• References from the book
• Social Journaling template

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We are honored to have won a silver Signal Award for best science and education podcast of 2025, as well as an audience choice award — thanks so much to everyone who voted for the show!

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We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Send us a text!

Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.