S2E1:Tristan Bekinschtein - The Consciousness Boundary Artwork

Sleep Science Podcast

We spend a third of our lives sleeping, and this podcast is all about understanding sleep. We know a lot about what the brain does in sleep, but we are just starting to understand why it does some of these things, and even more excitingly, how we can take full advantage of sleep and also manipulate it for our own ends. In each episode, neuroscientist Penny Lewis interviews a different sleep researcher, talking about a various aspect of sleep science. Topics will include sleep physiology and medicine, circadian rhythm, how sleep impacts on our memories and creativity, Sleep Engineering for enhanced health and cognition, and the most recent technologies to promote sleep.©SleepSciencePodcast 2021. These materials may be downloaded for personal use only. They may not be shared, distributed or reproduced in any form or for any reason without express permission

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Sleep Science Podcast

S2E1:Tristan Bekinschtein - The Consciousness Boundary

May 27, 2021 • Penny Lewis • Season 2 • Episode 1

In this episode, we talk to Dr Tristan Bekinschtein from the Cambridge Consciousness and Cognition Lab and discuss his research looking into the boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness.

We talk about his work in the loss of consciousness in vegetative state patients, sedation and sleep and his findings regarding brain markers which indicate when we change between these two states. We also discuss his research showing that people tend to neglect the left side of the world as they fall asleep and why this might be. We also talk about Tristan's other work in resilience and what makes our mind resilience to stressors such as poverty.

If you'd like to find out more about Tristan's work you can find a link to his research page here and a link to the Cambridge Consciousness and Cognition Lab page here.

Here are links to some of the studies mentioned in the podcast:

o P300 marker of consciousness
o Neglect of the left side of the world
o Animal or Object? Differentiation of semantic words whilst asleep

Glossary of terms from the podcast

P300 - Measured by electroencephalogram, this is a term for a spike response, occurring 300ms after an intended stimuli which is usually focused on by the participant.

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Episode produced by Sophie Smith

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