Miscellaneous
David and John discuss some of the concepts from their recent paper Two Views on the Cognitive Brain, in which they argue the recent population-based dynamical systems approach is a promising route to understanding brain activity underpinning higher cognition. We discuss mental representations, the kinds of dynamical objects being used for explanation, and much more, including David's perspectives as a practicing neuroscientist and philosopher. David's webpage.John's Lab.Twitter: David: @DLBarackJohn: @blamlabPaper: Two Views on the Cognitive Brain.John's previous episodes:BI 025 John Krakauer: Understanding CognitionBI 077 David and John Krakauer: Part 1BI 078 David and John Krakauer: Part 2 Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 3:13 - David's philosophy and neuroscience experience 20:01 - Renaissance person 24:36 - John's medical training 31:58 - Two Views on the Cognitive Brain 44:18 - Representation 49:37 - Studying populations of neurons 1:05:17 - What counts as representation 1:18:49 - Does this approach matter for AI?