Log in

goodpods headphones icon

To access all our features

Open the Goodpods app
Close icon
headphones
Brain Inspired

Brain Inspired

Paul Middlebrooks

Neuroscience and artificial intelligence work better together. Brain inspired is a celebration and exploration of the ideas driving our progress to understand intelligence. I interview experts about their work at the interface of neuroscience, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, and more: the symbiosis of these overlapping fields, how they inform each other, where they differ, what the past brought us, and what the future brings. Topics include computational neuroscience, supervised machine learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, deep learning, convolutional and recurrent neural networks, decision-making science, AI agents, backpropagation, credit assignment, neuroengineering, neuromorphics, emergence, philosophy of mind, consciousness, general AI, spiking neural networks, data science, and a lot more. The podcast is not produced for a general audience. Instead, it aims to educate, challenge, inspire, and hopefully entertain those interested in learning more about neuroscience and AI.
profile image

2 Listeners

bookmark
Share icon

All episodes

Best episodes

Top 10 Brain Inspired Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Brain Inspired episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Brain Inspired for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Brain Inspired episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Brain Inspired - BI 171 Mike Frank: Early Language and Cognition
play

07/22/23 • 84 min

Support the show to get full episodes and join the Discord community.

Check out my free video series about what's missing in AI and Neuroscience

My guest is Michael C. Frank, better known as Mike Frank, who runs the Language and Cognition lab at Stanford. Mike's main interests center on how children learn language - in particular he focuses a lot on early word learning, and what that tells us about our other cognitive functions, like concept formation and social cognition.

We discuss that, his love for developing open data sets that anyone can use,

The dance he dances between bottom-up data-driven approaches in this big data era, traditional experimental approaches, and top-down theory-driven approaches

How early language learning in children differs from LLM learning

Mike's rational speech act model of language use, which considers the intentions or pragmatics of speakers and listeners in dialogue.

profile image

1 Listener

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Brain Inspired - BI 076 Olaf Sporns: Network Neuroscience
play

07/04/20 • 105 min

Olaf and I discuss the explosion of network neuroscience, which uses network science tools to map the structure (connectome) and activity of the brain at various spatial and temporal scales. We talk about the possibility of bridging physical and functional connectivity via communication dynamics, and about the relation between network science and artificial neural networks and plenty more.

Notes:

1 Listener

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Brain Inspired - BI 074 Ginger Campbell: Are You Sure?
play

06/16/20 • 82 min

Ginger and I discuss her book Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty, which summarizes Richard Burton's work exploring the experience and phenomenal origin of feeling confident, and how the vast majority of our brain processing occurs outside our conscious awareness.

1 Listener

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

Megan and I discuss her work using metacognition as a way to study subjective awareness, or confidence. We talk about using computational and neural network models to probe how decisions are related to our confidence, the current state of the science of consciousness, and her newest project using fMRI decoded neurofeedback to induce particular brain states in subjects so we can learn about conscious and unconscious brain processing.

Notes:

1 Listener

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Brain Inspired - BI 079 Romain Brette: The Coding Brain Metaphor
play

07/27/20 • 79 min

Romain and I discuss his theoretical/philosophical work examining how neuroscientists rampantly misuse the word "code" when making claims about information processing in brains. We talk about the coding metaphor, various notions of information, the different roles and facets of mental representation, perceptual invariance, subjective physics, process versus substance metaphysics, and the experience of writing a Behavior and Brain Sciences article (spoiler: it's a demanding yet rewarding experience).

1 Listener

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Brain Inspired - BI 078 David and John Krakauer: Part 2
play

07/17/20 • 74 min

In this second part of our conversation David, John, and I continue to discuss the role of complexity science in the study of intelligence, brains, and minds. We also get into functionalism and multiple realizability, dynamical systems explanations, the role of time in thinking, and more. Be sure to listen to the first part, which lays the foundation for what we discuss in this episode.

Notes:

1 Listener

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Brain Inspired - BI 077 David and John Krakauer: Part 1
play

07/14/20 • 93 min

David, John, and I discuss the role of complexity science in the study of intelligence. In this first part, we talk about complexity itself, its role in neuroscience, emergence and levels of explanation, understanding, epistemology and ontology, and really quite a bit more.

Notes:

1 Listener

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Brain Inspired - BI 070 Bradley Love: How We Learn Concepts
play

05/15/20 • 107 min

Brad and I discuss his battle-tested, age-defying cognitive model for how we learn and store concepts by forming and rearranging clusters, how the model maps onto brain areas, and how he's using deep learning models to explore how attention and sensory information interact with concept formation. We also discuss the cognitive modeling approach, Marr's levels of analysis, the term "biological plausibility", emergence and reduction, and plenty more.

Notes:

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Brain Inspired - BI 071 J. Patrick Mayo: The Path To Faculty
play

05/25/20 • 70 min

Patrick and I mostly discuss his path from a technician in the then nascent Jim DiCarlo lab, through his graduate school and two postdoc experiences, and finally landing a faculty position, plus the culture and issues in academia in general. We also cover plenty of science, like the role of eye movements in the study of vision, the neuroscience (and concept) of attention, what Patrick thinks of the deep learning hype, and more.

But, this is a special episode, less about the science and more about the experience of an academic neuroscience trajectory/life. Episodes like this will appear in Patreon supporters' private feeds from now on.

Show notes:

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

Mazviita and I discuss the growing divide between prediction and understanding as neuroscience models and deep learning networks become bigger and more complex. She describes her non-factive account of understanding, which among other things suggests that the best predictive models may deliver less understanding. We also discuss the brain as a computer metaphor, and whether it's really possible to ignore all the traditionally "non-computational" parts of the brain like metabolism and other life processes.

Show notes:

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

Show more best episodes

Toggle view more icon

FAQ

How many episodes does Brain Inspired have?

Brain Inspired currently has 210 episodes available.

What topics does Brain Inspired cover?

The podcast is about Natural Sciences, Podcasts, Technology and Science.

What is the most popular episode on Brain Inspired?

The episode title 'BI 073 Megan Peters: Consciousness and Metacognition' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Brain Inspired?

The average episode length on Brain Inspired is 83 minutes.

How often are episodes of Brain Inspired released?

Episodes of Brain Inspired are typically released every 10 days, 2 hours.

When was the first episode of Brain Inspired?

The first episode of Brain Inspired was released on Aug 2, 2018.

Show more FAQ

Toggle view more icon

Comments