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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?