Scanning the Zombie Brain” by Dr. Bradley Voytek, 1/19/11

Early this year an interesting presentation was given about a study on the zombie brain. While this is being done on a subject that not everyone would wish to consider science (who wants to think about the undead as a real possibility) Dr. Bradley Voytek is actually a scientist who focuses on neuroscience and knows what the hell he’s talking about. Thankfully an expert in the field actually wants to do some research to hopefully help prevent the end of mankind.

What makes a zombie a zombie rather than a human? What makes their brains tick and animate those rotting body parts (and lust for human flesh)? Taking a theoretical neuroscience approach, Dr. Bradley Voytek will present a hypothetical picture of the zombie brain, based on research he performed with co-conspirator Dr. Timothy Verstynen. 50% academic “what-if?” exercise and 50% tongue-in-cheek critique of the methods of modern neuroscience, this talk is 100% getting us ready for the coming undead plague.

Dr. Bradley Voytek (@bradleyvoytek & darb.ketyov.com) is one of the world’s foremost leaders in necro-neuroscience. He is an advisory board member of the Zombie Research Society, along with movie legend George Romero, and he also does some real science at UC Berkeley. He’s spoken at Google’s TechTalks and TEDxBerkeley, and was also co-named Time Magazine’s 2006 Person of the Year.