Packed Lunch podcast - Wellcome Collection

Podcasts from previous Packed Lunch discussions I've chaired at Wellcome are on the website. The next one is about Life on Mars and is at Wellcome Collection on Friday 11th June at 1pm.

Background references for Forum discussion

As part of The Forum on BBC WS this week http://goo.gl/rdwc (@TheForumBBC) I referred to some brain research I did a few years ago, and I thought I would put in some pointers. The work was conducted with Beatriz Calvo-Merino, Julie Grezes, Patrick Haggard and Richard Passingham at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in UCL. We collaborated with a choreographer Tom Sapsford. There is a very clear piece of video and supporting material explaining some of the background on mirror neurons at Nova ScienceNow And here are two key professional publications describing this work

• Action observation and acquired motor skills: an FMRI study with expert dancers. Calvo-Merino B, Glaser DE, Grezes J, Passingham RE, Haggard P Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) [2005, 15(8):1243-9] (Full text)
• Seeing or doing? Influence of visual and motor familiarity in action observation. Calvo-Merino B, Grèzes J, Glaser DE, Passingham RE, Haggard P Current Biology [2006, 16(19):1905-10] (Abstract)

Perfectibility of the Body | Southbank Centre.

I've put together a rather fab event Perfectibility of the Body at the Purcell Room with Alison Lapper and Michael Horovitz on 3rd July. It's curated with my friend Ken Arnold and is part of the Royal Society 350th at the South Bank. There are a couple of others that day with Mark Lythgoe and Mark Miodownik.