Interview with Mans Denton at The Hacked Mind

Posted byDan Pardi on

Radio Tower VectorA few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to join Mans Denton on his radio podcast, The Hacked Mind. I particularly enjoyed this show because Mans gave me the opportunity to discuss my own research in detail. We also spent time talking about cognition, memory, and hormones that regulate the body fat level. Below, you can find a timestamped list of topics covered.

Listen here:

Dan Pardi talking cognition, sleep, wellness and weight control on The Hacked Mind with Mans Denton by Dansplan on Mixcloud

Discussion Topics

[02:32] Hormones in narcolepsy patients – missing brain protein
[04:35] Reaction time, mood, impulsivity – how sleep relates to eating behavior
[05:45] Dan’s new study – Slower reaction time after sleep deprivation
[07:11] Effort discounting – less likely to work for something you would otherwise work for
[09:55] How healthfully did subjects eat? Based on the users’ belief of health (health score)
[14:07] General reaction time problems from research; not linear decline in reaction time. Possible to focus, but not sustained periods
[16:59] Information entering the brain as a diffusion process; info moves slower throughout the brain and it is harder to learn new info
[17:45] Brian Wansink – “Mindless Eating”, over 200 food decisions made per day
[19:58] How memories are formed – storage in neural networks, pruning memories no longer needed (forgetting is good!)
[22:00] Encoding, consolidation, retrieval – sleep impacts all aspects of memory
[23:28] People who are obese have poor recall of foods eaten in the day; is obesity a memory problem?
[28:44] Impaired glucose regulation; sleep loss leads to glucose of pre-diabetic
[29:25] Leptin + ghrelin – regulating fat loss/brain signalling
[32:29] Aspects of modern food environment that shut down signals and make us consume more than usual
[33:09] Better at fat gain than fat loss
[33:32] Altered 24 hour profile for leptin and ghrelin; sleep deprivation = lower leptin, higher ghrelin, which both signal to burn less and consume more
[37:42] Modern lifestyle discordance with what the body genetically wants
[39:06] Dan’s Plan – tools for healthier living/tracking

 

Of course, if you have questions feel free to ask me anything related to this discussion in the comments below.

Thanks for listening!

Dan

Published by Dan Pardi

is passionate about food, movement, and sleep. Interested in developing low-cost, high value health solutions. Also interested in anthropology, evolutionary biology, exercise and inactivity physiology, cognition, neuroeconomics, decision making, circadian biology, epistemology, gastronomy, food culture and politics, agriculture, sustainable practices, and dogs. Activities include mountain biking, CrossFit, hiking, dancing, and long walks with my headphones.

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