Brain Inspired

Xaq Pitkow, director of the Lab for the Algorithmic Brain at Carnegie Mellon University, dives into the principles of cognition and their applications. He shares insights on 'inverse rational control,' illustrating how organisms tackle tasks using strategies that often diverge from optimal solutions. The conversation covers the role of probabilistic graph networks in brain computations and introduces a new ecological neuroscience project with collaborative efforts. Xaq emphasizes the intersection of neuroscience and AI, advocating for a diverse range of models to understand cognitive processes.

Chris Rozell leads the Structured Information for Precision Neuroengineering Lab at Georgia Tech and is the inaugural director of the Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society. He discusses groundbreaking methods using deep brain stimulation and AI to treat treatment-resistant depression. Chris highlights how neural signals can predict treatment effectiveness and the importance of personalized care in mental health. Their conversation delves into the evolving techniques in neuromodulation and the necessity of interdisciplinary research to enhance future therapies.

In this engaging conversation, Jennifer Prendki, a former particle physicist and AI expert, discusses the crucial link between consciousness and artificial intelligence. She argues that to advance AI meaningfully, we must draw inspiration from biology and consciousness. The chat delves into ethical data governance, the challenges of cybersecurity, and the idea of ‘super alignment’ in AI systems. Jennifer also explores the intriguing concept of quantum consciousness and its philosophical implications, pushing the boundaries of how we think about AI and our future.

In this engaging discussion, Woodrow Shew, a professor at the University of Arkansas, and Keith Hengen, an associate professor at Washington University, dive into the fascinating world of brain criticality. They explore how criticality influences brain function, learning, and adaptability, shedding light on its potential as a homeostatic goal for neural activity. The duo also discusses their collaborative research, challenges of measuring brain activity, and intriguing connections between brain dynamics and behaviors in both humans and simple organisms like E. coli.

Xiao-Jing Wang, a Distinguished Global Professor of Neuroscience at NYU, dives into the fascinating world of theoretical neuroscience. He discusses the integration of technology and behavioral psychology in understanding cognitive functions like working memory. The conversation covers the role of the prefrontal cortex in mental health, innovative research methods for studying neural activity, and the parallels between neural networks and AI. Wang even sheds light on the significance of neuronal structures and the intricacies of cognition in decision-making and psychiatric disorders.

Nicole Rust, director of the Visual Memory laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania and author of 'Elusive Cures', shares her insights on transforming neuroscience to address brain and mental disorders. She discusses the need for a holistic approach, emphasizing how environmental factors shape moods and mental health. Rust also explores the shift in research methodologies, advocating for a view of the brain as a complex, adaptive system. Additionally, she touches upon innovative treatments, including the fascinating role of psychedelics in therapy.

Luis Favela, a philosopher and cognitive scientist, joins Edouard Machery, a philosophy expert, along with neuroscientists John Krakauer and Rosa Cao, and philosopher Frances Egan. They dive into the murky waters of the term 'representation,' revealing its varied interpretations in cognitive science. The guests debate the implications of vague terminology on our understanding of mental processes and argue for clearer definitions to enhance interdisciplinary communication. They also touch on the complexities of linking neuroscience to concepts of consciousness and intelligence.

John Beggs, director of the Beggs Lab at Indiana University and author of 'The Cortex and the Critical Point,' dives deep into the fascinating world of brain criticality. He explains how our brains thrive at the edge of chaos, balancing order and disorder for optimal processing. Beggs discusses its implications for understanding consciousness, computational capacity, and even links to neurological disorders like Alzheimer's. He reflects on the evolving nature of scientific debate around criticality, emphasizing its significance in both neuroscience and physics.

Alex Lepauvre, a researcher on consciousness theories, collaborates with Oscar Ferrante, an expert in MEG and functional connectivity, and Rony Hirschhorn, a dedicated student at Tel Aviv University. They dive into the COGITATE project, pitting Integrated Information Theory against Global Workspace Theory. This adversarial collaboration reveals the complexities of testing consciousness, including the challenges of neural data analysis and the significance of experimental design. Their discussions emphasize the iterative nature of research and the courage to question established beliefs in science.

Support the show to get full episodes, full archive, and join the Discord community. Dean Buonomano runs the Buonomano lab at UCLA. Dean was a guest on Brain Inspired way back on episode 18, where we talked about his book Your Brain is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time, which details much of his thought and research about how centrally important time is for virtually everything we do, different conceptions of time in philosophy, and how how brains might tell time. That was almost 7 years ago, and his work on time and dynamics in computational neuroscience continues. One thing we discuss today, later in the episode, is his recent work using organotypic brain slices to test the idea that cortical circuits implement timing as a computational primitive it's something they do by they're very nature. Organotypic brain slices are between what I think of as traditional brain slices and full on organoids. Brain slices are extracted from an organism, and maintained in a brain-like fluid while you perform experiments on them. Organoids start with a small amount of cells that you the culture, and let them divide and grow and specialize, until you have a mass of cells that have grown into an organ of some sort, to then perform experiments on. Organotypic brain slices are extracted from an organism, like brain slices, but then also cultured for some time to let them settle back into some sort of near-homeostatic point - to them as close as you can to what they're like in the intact brain... then perform experiments on them. Dean and his colleagues use optigenetics to train their brain slices to predict the timing of the stimuli, and they find the populations of neurons do indeed learn to predict the timing of the stimuli, and that they exhibit replaying of those sequences similar to the replay seen in brain areas like the hippocampus. But, we begin our conversation talking about Dean's recent piece in The Transmitter, that I'll point to in the show notes, called The brain holds no exclusive rights on how to create intelligence. There he argues that modern AI is likely to continue its recent successes despite the ongoing divergence between AI and neuroscience. This is in contrast to what folks in NeuroAI believe. We then talk about his recent chapter with physicist Carlo Rovelli, titled Bridging the neuroscience and physics of time, in which Dean and Carlo examine where neuroscience and physics disagree and where they agree about the nature of time. Finally, we discuss Dean's thoughts on the integrated information theory of consciousness, or IIT. IIT has see a little controversy lately. Over 100 scientists, a large part of that group calling themselves IIT-Concerned, have expressed concern that IIT is actually unscientific. This has cause backlash and anti-backlash, and all sorts of fun expression from many interested people. Dean explains his own views about why he thinks IIT is not in the purview of science - namely that it doesn't play well with the existing ontology of what physics says about science. What I just said doesn't do justice to his arguments, which he articulates much better. Buonomano lab. Twitter: @DeanBuono. Related papers The brain holds no exclusive rights on how to create intelligence. What makes a theory of consciousness unscientific? Ex vivo cortical circuits learn to predict and spontaneously replay temporal patterns. Bridging the neuroscience and physics of time. BI 204 David Robbe: Your Brain Doesn’t Measure Time Read the transcript. 0:00 - Intro 8:49 - AI doesn't need biology 17:52 - Time in physics and in neuroscience 34:04 - Integrated information theory 1:01:34 - Global neuronal workspace theory 1:07:46 - Organotypic slices and predictive processing 1:26:07 - Do brains actually measure time? David Robbe