Joel Frohlich Ph.D.

About

Joel Frohlich, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral neuroscientist at the University of Tübingen in Germany. He received his Ph.D. in neuroscience in 2018 from UCLA. He is interested in understanding consciousness and other properties of the brain as self-organized, emergent phenomena. Such phenomena arise from complex interactions between simple parts (i.e., information integration between neurons). Joel's writing has also appeared in The Atlantic, Aeon, and Nautilus. Opinions expressed here are solely those of Joel and not any employer.

Recent Posts

New Study Finds Sex Differences in Fetal Brain Development

Male and female fetuses show different changes in brain activity during late pregnancy. Will this help us understand sex differences in childhood psychiatric disorders like autism?

Is Cannabis Psychedelic?

A new study compared the neural effects of oral THC, the main active compound of cannabis, with a microdose of the classic psychedelic LSD.

Do Babies Have Consciousness?

You might not remember being a baby. How do we know what an infant's experience of the world feels like?

How to Build a Consciousness Detector

Building a machine that would detect consciousness sounds like science fiction, but the growing science of consciousness is beginning to show the way.

How Neuroscientists Use Tennis to Study Consciousness in Unresponsive Patients

How can we know if an unresponsive person feels or experiences anything? Functional neuroimaging may hold the answer.

How Floating in Darkness Takes the Body off the Mind

Float tanks are becoming popular in many cities. Now, scientists are finally applying neuroimaging to discover how sensory reduction affects the brain.

The Rhythm of Detachment

Some people experience profound detachment from themselves and their environment. Will a new neuroscience finding pave the way for new therapies?

We Finally Know What the Claustrum Does

Consciousness is perhaps the most mysterious phenomenon in all of science. Could this brain area bring us closer to understanding it?

What Is Reality? An Interview with Donald Hoffman

I ask the author of The Case Against Reality about hallucinations, DMT, spirituality, quantum physics, and why we can see the Milky Way at night if it has no fitness payoff.

What Happens to Your Brain When You Sleep?

Each night when you dream, your brain hallucinates in a paralyzed body. What is this phenomenon called, and how does the brain put us through this nightly show?