How Do We Know What's Going on Out There?

Professor Karl Friston of University College London has made major technical advances and discoveries that are revealing how the brain processes information in ways that result in appropriate behaviors.  He talks about two brain imaging methods – positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging – and how they have advanced an understanding of how neuronal networks are organized in a functionally integrated manner. He has used brain imaging to elucidate what goes wrong in schizophrenia. More recently he developed a theory called active inference or ‘the free energy principle’ which provides a mathematical framework for how the brain processes information. This theory promises to be a valuable tool in the fields of neuroscience and artificial intelligence.