BJKS Podcast

Nikolai Axmacher is professor at the Institue for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Ruhr University Bochum where his research focuses on memory, spatial navigation, and neurodegenerative diseases. In this conversation, we talk about how he and his colleagues found that people with a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's showed reduced grid-cell like activity and path integration ability, despite having no symptoms and still being in their 20s.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps0:00:05: The history of Nikolai's 2015 Science paper "Reduced grid-cell-like representations in adults at genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease"0:15:57: Discussing the paper's main findings0:38:35: Discussing Bierbauer...Axmacher (2020), Science Advances0:49:03: Applying (abstract) cognitive spaces to Nikolai's studies0:59:10: Could we use grid cells as an early biomarker for Alzheimer's?Podcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtNikolai's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/axmacher-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/axmacher-scholarBen's linksWebsite:  https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter:  https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferencesBierbrauer, Kunz, Gomes, Luhmann, Deuker, Getzmann, ... & Axmacher (2020). Unmasking selective path integration deficits in Alzheimer’s disease risk carriers. Science advances.Constantinescu, O’Reilly, & Behrens (2016). Organizing conceptual knowledge in humans with a gridlike code. Science.Coutrot, Silva, Manley, de Cothi, Sami, Bohbot, ... & Spiers (2018). Global determinants of navigation ability. Current Biology.Doeller, Barry, & Burgess (2010). Evidence for grid cells in a human memory network. Nature.Ghebremedhin, Schultz, Braak, & Braak (1998). High frequency of apolipoprotein E ϵ4 allele in young individuals with very mild Alzheimer's disease-related neurofibrillary changes. Experimental neurology.Hafting, Fyhn, Molden, Moser, & Moser (2005). Microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex. Nature.Hardcastle, Ganguli, & Giocomo (2015). Environmental boundaries as an error correction mechanism for grid cells. Neuron. Huxley (1959). Brave New World Revisited.  Chatto & Windus. Kunz, Schröder, Lee, Montag, Lachmann, Sariyska, ... & Axmacher (2015). Reduced grid-cell–like representations in adults at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Science.Quiroga, Reddy, Kreiman, Koch, & Fried. (2005). Invariant visual representation by single neurons in the human brain. Nature.Saint-Aubert, Lemoine, Chiotis, Leuzy, Rodriguez-Vieitez, & Nordberg. (2017). Tau PET imaging: present and future directions. Molecular neurodegeneration.Wills, Cacucci, Burgess, & O'Keefe (2010). Development of the hippocampal cognitive map in preweanling rats. Science.Wills, Muessig, & Cacucci (2014). The development of spatial behaviour and the hippocampal neural representation of space. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Keno Juechems is a Junior Research Fellow at St John's College in Oxford. He studies how humans make decisions, using computational modelling, behavioural tasks, and fMRI. In this conversation, we talk about his papers  "Optimal utility and probability functions for agents with finite computational precision" and  "Where does value come from?", and various related topics.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New episodes every Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps0:00:05: Where does the name "Keno" come from?0:01:47: How Keno got into his current research area0:14:09: Start discussing Keno's paper "Optimal utility and probability functions for agents with finite computational precision"0:26:46: Rationality and optimality0:38:58: Losses, gains, and how much does a paper need to include?0:51:04: Start discussing Keno's paper "Where does value come from?"1:10:28: How does a PhD student learn all this stuff?1:19:56: Resources for learning behavioural economics and reinforcement learning1:25:42: What's next for Keno Juechems?Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastKeno's linksWebsite: https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/discover/people/keno-juchems/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=tereY1oAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/kjuechemsBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJTwitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweetsReferencesJuechems, K., & Summerfield, C. (2019). Where does value come from?. Trends in cognitive sciences.Juechems, K., Balaguer, J., Spitzer, B., & Summerfield, C. (2021). Optimal utility and probability functions for agents with finite computational precision. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica.Keramati, M., & Gutkin, B. (2014). Homeostatic reinforcement learning for integrating reward collection and physiological stability. Elife.Lewis, M. (2016). The undoing project: A friendship that changed the world. Penguin UK.Sutton, R. S., & Barto, A. G. (2018). Reinforcement learning: An introduction. MIT press.Thaler, R. H. (2015). Misbehaving: The making of behavioral economics.Trepte, S., Reinecke, L., & Juechems, K. (2012). The social side of gaming: How playing online computer games creates online and offline social support. Computers in Human behavior.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indifference_curveDavid Silver's reinforcement learning course on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pWv7GOvuf0&list=PLqYmG7hTraZDM-OYHWgPebj2MfCFzFObQChris Summerfield's course How to Build a Brain: https://humaninformationprocessing.com/teaching/

Jacob Bellmund is a postdoc at the Max Planck in Leipzig, studying spatial navigation, cognitive maps, and episodic memory. In this conversation, we talk about his research on deforming cognitive maps, abstract cognitive maps, and the translation of the spatial navigation literature to abstract spaces.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New episodes every Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps00:05: How Jacob started working on cognitive maps02:05: What are place cells, grid cells, and cognitive maps?08:49: Discussing Jacob's paper "Deforming the metric of cognitive maps distorts memory"28:34: Abstract cognitive spaces41:57: How far do findings from spatial navigation translate to cognitive spaces?50:40: How many dimensions can grid cells encode?58:01: What is Jacob going to work on next?Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastJacob's linksWebsite: https://www.jacobbellmund.com/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=_DRs4ukAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/jacobbellmundBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJTwitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweetsReferencesAuger, ..., & Maguire (2017). Efficacy of navigation may be influenced by retrosplenial cortex-mediated learning of landmark stability. Neuropsychologia.Bellmund, ..., & Doeller (2016). Grid-cell representations in mental simulation. Elife.Bellmund, ..., & Doeller (2018). Navigating cognition: Spatial codes for human thinking. Science.Bellmund,  ... , & Doeller (2020). Deforming the metric of cognitive maps distorts memory. Nat Hum Behav. Jacob wrote a Blog Post about his Nature Human Behaviour article: https://socialsciences.nature.com/posts/55610-distorting-human-memory?channel_id=1745-behind-the-paperButler, ..., & Giocomo (2019). Remembered reward locations restructure entorhinal spatial maps. Science.Constantinescu, ..., & Behrens (2016). Organizing conceptual knowledge in humans with a gridlike code. Science.Doeller, ..., & Burgess (2010). Evidence for grid cells in a human memory network. Nature.Hafting,  ... , & Moser (2005). Microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex. Nature.Gärdenfors (2004). Conceptual spaces: The geometry of thought. MIT press.Ginosar,  ... , & Ulanovsky (2021). Locally ordered representation of 3D space in the entorhinal cortex. Nature.Grieves,  ... , & Jeffery (2021). Irregular distribution of grid cell firing fields in rats exploring a 3D volumetric space. Nature Neuro. Kim & Doeller (2021). Adaptive cognitive maps for curved surfaces in the 3D world. bioRxiv. pKrupic,  ... , & O’Keefe (2015). Grid cell symmetry is shaped by environmental geometry. Nature.

This is the third and final episode of our discussion of  Andrea Wulf's biography of Alexander von Humboldt, The Invention of Nature. In this episode, we will discuss part 5 and have a general discussion about the entire book. As always with the book club, in each episode we will talk about whatever happened, so there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have. For this series, I'm joined by Cody Kommers, former guest of the podcast (episode 4), fellow podcaster, and fellow PhD student in cognitive neuroscience. Cody has a particular interest in travel and psychology.Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastCody's linksWebsite: https://www.codykommers.com/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=ImTtx_kAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/codykommersNewsletter: https://codykommers.substack.com/Ben's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJTwitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweetsReferencesHumboldt (1807). Personal narrative of travels to the equinoctial regions of the new continent during the years 1799-1804. G. Bell.Humboldt (1845-62). Cosmos: a sketch of a physical description of the universe. Harper. Isaacson (2011). Steve Jobs. Simon & SchusterMenand (2002). The metaphysical club: A story of ideas in America. Macmillan.Menand (2021). The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War. Farrar, Strauss & Giroux.Pausas & Bond (2019). Humboldt and the reinvention of nature. Journal of Ecology.Poe (1848). Eureka: a prose poem.(An essay on the material and spiritual universe.). GP Putnam.Rillig, Kiessling, Borsch, Gessler, Greenwood, Hofer ... & Jeltsch (2015). Biodiversity research: data without theory—theory without data. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.Wulf (2015). The invention of nature: Alexander von Humboldt's new world. Knopf.

This is the second episode of our discussion of  Andrea Wulf's biography of Alexander von Humboldt, The Invention of Nature. In this episode, we will discuss parts 3 and 4. As always with the book club, in each episode we will talk about whatever happened, so there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have. For this series, I'm joined by Cody Kommers, former guest of the podcast (episode 4), fellow podcaster, and fellow PhD student in cognitive neuroscience. Cody has a particular interest in travel and psychology.Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastCody's linksWebsite: https://www.codykommers.com/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=ImTtx_kAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/codykommersNewsletter: https://codykommers.substack.com/Ben's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJTwitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweetsReferencesBryson (2004). A short history of nearly everything. Broadway.Foer (2012). Moonwalking with Einstein: The art and science of remembering everything. Freud (1905). The interpretation of dreams.Geertz (1973). The interpretation of cultures. Humboldt & Bonpland (1807). Essay on the Geography of Plants. University of Chicago Press. Humboldt (1807). Views of nature. University of Chicago Press.Humboldt (1807). Personal narrative of travels to the equinoctial regions of the new continent during the years 1799-1804. G. Bell.Humboldt (1845-62). Cosmos: a sketch of a physical description of the universe. Harper. Luria (1968). The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book about a Vast Memory.Sacks (1985). The man who mistook his wife for a hat. Duckworth.Wulf (2015). The invention of nature: Alexander von Humboldt's new world. Knopf.

This is the first episode of the third edition of the book club. This time, we're reading Andrea Wulf's biography of Alexander von Humboldt, The Invention of Nature. In this episode, we will discuss parts 1 and 2. As always with the book club, in each episode we will talk about whatever happened, so there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have. For this series, I'm joined by Cody Kommers, former guest of the podcast (episode 4), fellow podcaster, and fellow PhD student in cognitive neuroscience. Cody has a particular interest in travel and psychology.Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastCody's linksWebsite: https://www.codykommers.com/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=ImTtx_kAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/codykommersNewsletter: https://codykommers.substack.com/Ben's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJTwitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweetsReferencesBerlin, I. (2013). The roots of romanticism. Princeton University Press.Fatland, E. (2020). Sovietistan. Simon and Schuster.Lévi-Strauss, C. (1955). Tristes Tropiques. Librairie Plon.Wulf, A. (2015). The invention of nature: Alexander von Humboldt's new world. Knopf.

Bryan Bruns is an independent consultant sociologist, working mainly on water irrigation systems in southeast Asia. He also publishes academic papers about game theory. In this conversation, we talk about how he became a consultant sociologist, what that even means, how to learn foreign languages, his work on 2x2 games, how to transform a social dilemma into a win-win situation, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New episodes every Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps0:00:05: How Bryan became a consultant sociologist, working in southeast Asia on water management0:21:31: How to learn foreign languages0:31:35: But what does a consultant sociologist actually do? And what makes you good at it?0:49:36: Why not be a "regular" academic (instead of doing applied work)?0:54:32: Elinor Ostrom and the commons1:09:09: 2x2 games and the Prisoner's Dilemma1:16:34: Names for games1:38:30: From tragedy to win-win1:50:10: Asymmetric games1:58:06: Implementing game theoretic ideas in the real world with real people2:02:20: Reading recommendations for game theoryPodcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastBryan's linksWebsite: https://bryanbruns.com/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=lGVqCboAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/bryanbrunsBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   ReferencesBalliet, Parks & Joireman (2009). Social value orientation and cooperation in social dilemmas: A meta-analysis. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations.Binmore (2007). Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press.Bruns (2015). Names for games: locating 2×2 games. Games.Bruns (2018). From Tragedy to Win-Win Transforming Social Dilemmas in Commons. Georgetown Law Center, Washington DC, USA.Bruns & Meinzen-Dick (2000). Negotiating water rights.Hardin (1958). The tragedy of the commons. Science.Hare (2017). Survival of the friendliest: Homo sapiens evolved via selection for prosociality. Annual review of psychology.Munroe (2015). Thing explainer: complicated stuff in simple words. Hachette UK.Murphy, Ackermann & Handgraaf (2011). Measuring social value orientation. Judgment and Decision making.Nowak & Highfield (2011). Supercooperators: Altruism, evolution, and why we need each other to succeed. Simon and Schuster.Ostrom (1990). Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge University Press.Ostrom, Gardner & Walker (1994). Rules, games, and common-pool resources. University of Michigan Press.Rapoport, Guyer & Gordon (1976). The 2x2 game. University of Michigan Press.Robinson & Goforth (2005). The topology of the 2x2 games: a new periodic table (Vol. 3). Psychology Press.Tufte, E. (2001). The visual display of quantitative information."Mr condom": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechai_Viravaidya

In this episode, we discuss Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. Unlike the book club episodes (in which we read around 100 pages per week of the book), the book discussions will be one-off discussions of books that for one reason or another affected me.For this book discussion, I'm again joined by Antonia, who works in academic publishing and with whom I did a series on Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment on this podcast.Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   References for books mentioned in the episode:Huxley, A. (1932). Brave New World. Chatto & Windus.Huxley, A. (1959). Brave New World Revisited.  Chatto & Windus. Huxley, A., The Gioconda Smile; in: 50 Great Short Stories. Bantham Classics.Murray, N. (2009). Aldous Huxley: An English Intellectual. Hachette UK.Wells, H.G. (1895). The Time Machine. Heinemann UK. Wells, H.G. (1923). Men Like Gods. Cassell UK. 

Stuart Ritchie is Lecturer at King's College London, where he studies behavioural genetics in relation to personality and cognitive ability. In this conversation, we don't talk about any of that though but instead focus on his book Science Fictions, a book about how science goes wrong, and the topics covered therein.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).Timestamps0:00:41: Trying to replicate Bem (2011) Feeling the future0:09:58: Wy write Science Fictions?0:17:24: How to (get people to) adopt open science practices?0:36:31: Stuart will pay you if you find errors in Science Fictions0:46:44: Should scientific journals have an automatic way for reporting errors?0:56:52: Gorecki, Boulez, and cultural references1:01:45: Scientific fraud: Stapel, Macchiarini, and Hwang1:31:05: Will many small steps improve science sufficiently or do we need a revolution?Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastGuest's linksWebsite: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/stuart-ritchieBook website: https://www.sciencefictions.org/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=9TsCy3IAAAAJTwitter: https://twitter.com/stuartjritchieBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   References and further linksBem, D. J. (2011). Feeling the future: experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.Leung, A. K. Y., Kim, S., Polman, E., Ong, L. S., Qiu, L., Goncalo, J. A., & Sanchez-Burks, J. (2012). Embodied metaphors and creative “acts”. Psychological Science.Nosek, B. A., Beck, E. D., Campbell, L., Flake, J. K., Hardwicke, T. E., Mellor, D. T., ... & Vazire, S. (2019). Preregistration is hard, and worthwhile. Trends in cognitive sciences.Quintana, D. S. (2020). A synthetic dataset primer for the biobehavioural sciences to promote reproducibility and hypothesis generation. Elife.Ritchie, S. J., Wiseman, R., & French, C. C. (2012). Failing the future: Three unsuccessful attempts to replicate Bem's ‘Retroactive Facilitation of Recall’ Effect. PloS One.Ritchie, S. (2020). Science fictions: How fraud, bias, negligence, and hype undermine the search for truth. Metropolitan Books.The Halloween challenge at Goldsmiths I helped out with: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/oct/31/halloween-challenge-psychics-scientific-trialStuart will pay you if you find errors in Science Fictions:  https://www.sciencefictions.org/corrections Pierre Boulez's notation for piano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD2SwVZBI80

This is the third and final episode of our book club on Lee Child's first novel Killing Floor, the novel that introduced Jack Reacher. As always with the book club, there will be spoilers and it probably makes most sense if you have read as far as we have. I will also be reading some quotes I highlighted from Reacher Said Nothing by Andy Martin, a book I'm reading in parallel in which Andy Martin watches Lee Child write a Jack Reacher novel.For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichs, fellow PhD student in the same lab that I'm in.Podcast linksWebsite: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcastKoen's linksGoogle Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=E65Fv74J0ywCTwitter: https://twitter.com/koenfusedBen's linksWebsite: www.bjks.blog/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ  Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   ReferencesJocko Willink's video 'GOOD': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTMDpizis8The Guardian article on not dating people who like Reacher: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/06/i-couldnt-be-with-someone-who-liked-jack-reacher-can-our-taste-in-books-help-us-find-love