71. Lynn Nadel: Memory, The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map, and the importance of behaviour

Lynn Nadel is an emeritus professor at the University of Arizona, where his research focuses on the role of the hippocampus in memory. In this conversation, we talk about the early years of Lynn's career: why he chose to do chemistry, how a course with Donald Hebb made him switch to psychology, how his postdoc was disrupted by the Soviet invasion during the Prague Spring, John O'Keefe's discovery of place cells, how Lynn and O'Keefe wrote The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map, and much more.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.

Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon

Timestamps
00:00: How Lynn went from studying chemistry to doing a PhD on memory
08:35: What was it like working Donald Hebb?
15:16: The golden era of cognitive neuroscience at McGill in the 50s and 60s
23:14: Lynn's postdoc in Prague was interrupted by the Soviet invasion during Prague Spring
36:29: The discovery of place cells and the writing of The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map
50:59: A paper or book Lynn thinks more people should read
54:55: Something Lynn wishes he'd learnt sooner
57:38: Advice for early career scientists

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Lynn's links

• Website: https://geni.us/nadel-web
• Mastodon: https://geni.us/nadel-mastodon

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References and links

Episode w/ Kate Jeffery: https://geni.us/bjks-jeffery
Konorski: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Konorski
JZ Young: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Zachary_Young

Goddard (1983). The kindling model of epilepsy. Trends in Neurosciences.
Káli & Dayan (2002). Replay, repair and consolidation. Adv in Neur Info Proc Sys.
Klein, Cosmides, Tooby & Chance (2002). Decisions and the evolution of memory: multiple systems, multiple functions. Psych Rev.
Konorski (1967). Integrative activity of the brain; an interdisciplinary approach.
McClelland, McNaughton & O'Reilly (1995). Why there are complementary learning systems in the hippocampus and neocortex: insights from the successes and failures of connectionist models of learning and memory. Psych Rev.
Melzack & Wall (1965). Pain Mechanisms: A New Theory: A gate control system modulates sensory input from the skin before it evokes pain perception and response. Science.
Nadel & Buresova (1968). Monocular input and interhemispheric transfer in the reversible split-brain. Nature.
Olds & Milner (1954). Positive reinforcement produced by electrical stimulation of septal area and other regions of rat brain. J comp & phys psychol.
O'Keefe & Dostrovsky (1971). The hippocampus as a spatial map: preliminary evidence from unit activity in the freely-moving rat. Brain research.
O'Keefe & Nadel (1978) The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map. Oxford University Press.
Rao & Ballard (1999). Predictive coding in the visual cortex: a functional interpretation of some extra-classical receptive-field effects. Nat Neuro.
Ravindran (2022). Profile of Lynn Nadel. PNAS.