ABOUT THIS EPISODE
In this episode, Andras speaks with Tomás Ryan,neuroscience researcher about what neuroscience is as an integrative field and how he moved from genetics into studying memory.
They discuss cognition, thought, and consciousness, why brain-as-computer analogies can mislead, and what we actually know about how information is stored in neural circuits.
The conversation focuses on “memory engrams” - physical traces that enable recall - how optogenetics and activity-based tagging made engrams experimentally accessible, and landmark mouse studies that reactivated or even implantedmemories.
The guest explains findings that many forms of forgetting and amnesia reflect retrieval failure rather than erased memories, and explores adaptive forgetting, emotion, PTSD as a disorder of remembering, and the possibility that memory evolved to predict and regulate bodily physiology (temperature,infection, metabolism).
They close on neuroscience tools, AI limits and neuro-inspired AI, transgenerational effects, and the realities of running a lab and advocating for science.
02:45 What Neuroscience Means
04:09 From Genetics to Memory
06:12 Life as a Scientist
09:23 Defining Cognition
12:57 Brain vs Computer Analogies
18:26 Where Memory Lives
19:47 Engrams Explained
22:42 Optogenetics Breakthrough
26:10 Activating False Memories
28:41 Forgetting and Retrieval
33:45 Latent Memories Worldwide
35:02 Attention Makes Memories
36:23 Stable Yet Plastic
37:28 Adaptive Forgetting Logic
43:28 Episodic Memory Assembly
44:57 Forgetting Spectrum Extremes
46:50 Neuroscience Tech and AI
50:11 Prediction and Consciousness
52:22 Embodied Memory and Health
57:25 Epigenetic Memory Debate
01:00:24 Science Advocacy and Lab Life
