How does the brain build memory — and why does reward reshape what we remember?

In this episode, I sit down with Marielena Sosa to discuss her postdoctoral research at Stanford University, where she studied how the hippocampus encodes space, context, and reward to construct cognitive maps of experience.

Dr. Sosa is now a Principal Investigator at University of Colorado Boulder, leading a lab focused on the neural mechanisms of memory and prediction.

We explore:

– Why memory is not passive storage but active prediction

– How reward reorganizes neural representations

– The relationship between spatial coding and value

– What deteriorates in aging and Alzheimer’s disease

– Whether music and dance can engage compensatory circuits in Parkinson’s disease

This conversation moves from fundamental systems neuroscience to broader questions about neurodegeneration, plasticity, and how the brain continuously updates its internal model of the world.

In complex fields like biotech and health, technical brilliance isn’t enough.

Judgment, psychological flexibility, and the ability to operate under uncertainty often determine who adapts — and who collapses.

In this episode, Dr. Alexandra Ilieva, philosopher and Teaching Associate in Buddhist Studies at the University of Cambridge, joins The Vitality Lab to explore how ideas from Madhyamaka Buddhism and contemporary pragmatism can function as practical tools for thinking clearly under pressure.

We examine:

• Why attaching identity to outcomes distorts judgment
• How the “voice in your head” shapes perception and decision-making
• Why over-identifying with views makes disagreement feel existential
• The difference between discovering yourself and constructing yourself
• How loosening attachment to labels can restore agency

This conversation isn’t therapy. It’s about internal architecture.

If innovation requires navigating ambiguity, failure, and disagreement, then how we relate to identity, language, and ego becomes part of the translational process itself.

Because before ideas move from lab to world, they move through a mind.

Professor Pooja Saini is a UK-based academic and practitioner specialising in mental health, suicide prevention, and community-based support, with years of experience working at the intersection of research, healthcare, and real-world services.

In this conversation, we explore why mental health is still so hard to talk about, why people often struggle in silence, and how misunderstanding, stigma, and system design shape the way we respond to distress. Rather than slogans or motivation, this episode focuses on understanding — what actually helps people cope, recover, and feel supported before things reach crisis.

This episode is for anyone who wants to better understand mental health — whether for themselves, for someone they care about, or simply to have more compassionate and informed conversations.