BJKS Podcast

Cody Kommers is a PhD student in experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, focussing on social cognition. He also writes popular science and hosts two podcasts: Cognitive Revolution and Notes From The Field.In this conversation, we talk about a variety of topics, including how to start a podcast, how to run a podcast while doing a PhD, Cody's new travel-podcast, his preprint on intuitive anthropology, and the problem of finding a good problem.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New long-form conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all major podcasting platforms (e.g., Apple/Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc.) and on YouTube.Timestamps0:00:05: Inviting guests onto a podcast0:09:45-0:16:30: An interlude on Steven Pinker0:30:57: Building a podcast0:41:00: Conversation or interview?0:47:00: How to conduct a good interview1:05:00: Combining PhD work with podcasting1:17:34: A brief interlude on Cody's interview with Mark Granovetter1:23:15: Jobs after PhD1:30:54: Cody's new podcast 'Notes from the Field'1:37:37: Cody's not-so-secret obsession with anthropology1:44:19: Cody's preprint 'The intuitive anthropologist'2:10:42: Finding a problem for your PhD, and finding a path as a scientistLinksPodcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastCody's linksWebsite: www.codykommers.com/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=ImTtx_kAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=aoTwitter: https://twitter.com/codykommersPreprint: https://psyarxiv.com/3sc96/Ben's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJReferencesGeertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. Basic books.Kommers, C. (2020). The Intuitive Anthropologist: Why “Intuitive Psychology” Falls Short for Making Sense of Those Who Are Different. PsyArXiv.

Catherine Preston is a cognitive neuroscientist, studying body perception and self-awareness. Catherine and I first met in Stockholm in 2014 when I was doing an internship in Henrik Ehrsson's lab. Catherine was my day-to-day supervisor, and our project investigated full-body illusions viewed in a mirror. Catherine has since moved to York, where she works as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor).In this conversation, we talk about Catherine's recent research on bodily illusions, including applications to eating disorders and pregnancy. We also talk more broadly about her experiences of starting her own lab and work as a new faculty member. BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New long-form conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all major podcasting platforms (e.g., Apple/Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc.) and on YouTube. Timestamps0:00:05 How Catherine got into studying body perception0:03:55 Rubber hands, monkey hands, and invisible hands0:16:12 Catherine's postdoc with Henrik Ehrsson0:20:33 Eating disorders, body satisfaction, and bodily illusions0:41:09 Pregnancy and bodily illusions1:10:13 Starting a lab and teaching (at York University)1:22:57 Mentorship and learning as a faculty member1:35:12 Who Catherine would like to work with (BSc, MSc & PhD students, postdocs) Links Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastCatherine's linksYork profile: www.york.ac.uk/psychology/staff/academicstaff/cp1039/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=vwu2AvgAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/cejprestonBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ General info - Rubber hand illusion Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DphlhmtGRqI Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multisensory_integration#Rubber_hand_illusion - Full-body illusionVideo (about the body swap illusion): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rawY2VzN4-c Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_transfer_illusion ReferencesByrne, A., & Preston, C. (2019). Mr Fantastic Meets The Invisible Man: An Illusion of Invisible Finger Stretching. PerceptionKirk, E., & Preston, C. (2019). Development and validation of the Body Understanding Measure for Pregnancy Scale (BUMPS) and its role in antenatal attachment. Psychological AssessmentPreston, C., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2016). Illusory obesity triggers body dissatisfaction responses in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex.Preston, C., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2018). Implicit and explicit changes in body satisfaction evoked by body size illusions: Implications for eating disorder vulnerability in women. PloS One Preston, C., Kuper-Smith, B. J., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2015). Owning the body in the mirror: The effect of visual perspective and mirror view on the full-body illusion. Scientific Reports

Aaron is a cognitive neuroscientist, working on volition and consciousness. Aaron and I met in 2016 in Paris when I did my MSc thesis in his lab at Neurospin on decoding planned and spontaneous movements, using M/EEG. Aaron has since moved to California where he is Assistant Professor at Chapman University.In this conversation, we talk about Aaron's work in trying to understand the readiness potential. We talk about the classic interpretation, Aaron's interpretation, and how Aaron's interpretation can be applied to non-movement contexts, including the stock market and meteorology.Time stamps0:00:40 We don't really know what the readiness potential is0:01:52 The classic interpretation of the readiness potential0:16:39 Aaron's interpretation of the readiness potential0:31:04 The origin of Aaron's interpretation0:42:33 Applying Aaron's model to non-movement contexts: the stock market and meteorology0:54:40 - Aaron's plans for studying the readiness potential in the next few years: breathing, individual differences, anticipationLinksPodcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastAaron's links Chapman profile: https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/aaron-schurgerGoogle Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=lBSjfagAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sraTwitter: https://twitter.com/schurgerlabBen's links: Website: https://bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=aoPapers mentionedFried, I., Mukamel, R., & Kreiman, G. (2011). Internally generated preactivation of single neurons in human medial frontal cortex predicts volition. NeuronKagaya, K., & Takahata, M. (2010). Readiness discharge for spontaneous initiation of walking in crayfish. Journal of NeuroscienceKornhuber, H. H., & Deecke, L. (1965/2016). Hirnpotentialänderungen bei Willkürbewegungen und passiven Bewegungen des Menschen: Bereitschaftspotential und reafferente Potentiale/Brain potential changes in voluntary and passive movements in humans: readiness potential and reafferent potentials. Pflüger's ArchivLibet, B., Gleason, C. A., Wright, E. W., & Pearl, D. K. (1983). Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity. BrainSchotanus, P., & Schurger, A. (2020). Spontaneous Volatility: Fooled by Reflexive Randomness. Journal of Behavioral FinanceSchurger, A., Sitt, J. D., & Dehaene, S. (2012). An accumulator model for spontaneous neural activity prior to self-initiated movement. Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesSchurger, A., Mylopoulos, M., & Rosenthal, D. (2016). Neural antecedents of spontaneous voluntary movement: a new perspective. Trends in Cognitive SciencesSchurger, A. (2018). Specific relationship between the shape of the readiness potential, subjective decision time, and waiting time predicted by an accumulator model with temporally autocorrelated input noise. Eneuro

Matthias Nau is a cognitive neuroscientist at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Trondheim, Norway. He finished his PhD recently in Christian Doeller's group at the Kavli, where he currently works as a postdoc. Whenever the current pandemic cools down, Matthias will start a position as a postdoc at NIH with Chris Baker (this position was supposed to start in early 2020).  In this conversation, we talk about a variety of topics, from Matthias's recent research (the link between vision and high-level spatial coding principles in the brain (e.g. grid cells), the development of cognitive maps in humans, and a novel form of using fMRI for eye-tracking he co-developed with Markus Frey), to the relationship between electrophysiology studies in animals and fMRI studies in humans, education in neuroscience, and science communication.  Timestamps:  0:00:15 MR-based eye-tracking  0:22:50 Switching to Python   0:26:20 Grid Cells and vision   0:39:59 Development of the cognitive map in humans   0:45:10 Electrophysiology and fMRI   1:02:25 The interdisciplinary education of neuroscientists   1:20:17 Twitter, science communication, and this podcast   1:35:38 Matthias's plans for the future, complicated by COVID   Links:   Podcast website:  https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/   https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast   Matthias's links:  https://matthiasnau.com/   https://twitter.com/NauMatt   https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=r83cbFMAAAAJ   Ben's links:  https://bjks.blog/   https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ   Grid cells info:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_cell   http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Grid_cells   Papers mentioned:   Killian, N. J., Jutras, M. J., & Buffalo, E. A. (2012). A map of visual space in the primate entorhinal cortex. Nature.   Nau, M., Schröder, T. N., Bellmund, J. L., & Doeller, C. F. (2018). Hexadirectional coding of visual space in human entorhinal cortex. Nature neuroscience.   Nau, M., Julian, J. B., & Doeller, C. F. (2018). How the brain’s navigation system shapes our visual experience. Trends in cognitive sciences.   Wills, T. J., Cacucci, F., Burgess, N., & O'Keefe, J. (2010). Development of the hippocampal cognitive map in preweanling rats. Science.