Related papers: Enlarging the scope: grasping brain complexity
This is a follow-up tutorial article of [17] and [16], in this paper, we will introduce several important cognitive functions of the brain. Brain cognitive functions are the mental processes that allow us to receive, select, store,…
The underlying physiological mechanisms of generating conscious states are still unknown. To make progress on the problem of consciousness, we will need to experimentally design a system that evolves in a similar way our brains do. Recent…
Neuroscientists today can measure activity from more neurons than ever before, and are facing the challenge of connecting these brain-wide neural recordings to computation and behavior. Here, we first describe emerging tools and…
Learning and interpreting the structure of the environment is an innate feature of biological systems, and is integral to guiding flexible behaviours for evolutionary viability. The concept of a cognitive map has emerged as one of the…
In this essay, we explore a point of intersection between deep learning and neuroscience, through the lens of large language models, transfer learning and network compression. Just like perceptual and cognitive neurophysiology has inspired…
The network architecture of the human brain has become a feature of increasing interest to the neuroscientific community, largely because of its potential to illuminate human cognition, its variation over development and aging, and its…
Our current understanding of brain rhythms is based on quantifying their instantaneous or time-averaged characteristics. What remains unexplored, is the actual structure of the waves -- their shapes and patterns over finite timescales. To…
We report measurements of the brain activity of subjects engaged in behavioral exchanges with their environments. We observe brain states which are characterized by coordinated oscillation of populations of neurons that are changing rapidly…
The question What is Complexity? has occupied a great deal of time and paper over the last 20 or so years. There are a myriad different perspectives and definitions but still no consensus. In this paper I take a phenomenological approach,…
One of the current AI issues depicted in popular culture is the fear of conscious super AIs that try to take control over humanity. And as computational power goes upwards and that turns more and more into a reality, understanding…
I discuss several aspects of information theory and its relationship to physics and neuroscience. The unifying thread of this somewhat chaotic essay is the concept of Kolmogorov or algorithmic complexity (Kolmogorov Complexity, for short).…
Imaging neuroscience links brain activation maps to behavior and cognition via correlational studies. Due to the nature of the individual experiments, based on eliciting neural response from a small number of stimuli, this link is…
Introduction: In contrast to current AI technology, natural intelligence -- the kind of autonomous intelligence that is realized in the brains of animals and humans to attain in their natural environment goals defined by a repertoire of…
Metastable brain dynamics are characterized by abrupt, jump-like modulations so that the neural activity in single trials appears to unfold as a sequence of discrete, quasi-stationary states. Evidence that cortical neural activity unfolds…
Theory of Mind is an essential ability of humans to infer the mental states of others. Here we provide a coherent summary of the potential, current progress, and problems of deep learning approaches to Theory of Mind. We highlight that many…
A qualitatively new, much more liberal and efficient organisation of science is proposed and justified, in connection with growing debate about further role and development of fundamental science. Although the key ideas can be explained…
The application of graph theory to model the complex structure and function of the brain has shed new light on its organization and function, prompting the emergence of network neuroscience. Despite the tremendous progress that has been…
Humans and animals exhibit a range of interesting behaviors in dynamic environments, and it is unclear how our brains actively reformat this dense sensory information to enable these behaviors. Experimental neuroscience is undergoing a…
With the completion of human genome mapping, the focus of scientists seeking to explain the biological complexity of living systems is shifting from analyzing the individual components (such as a particular gene or biochemical reaction) to…
Endowing brain anatomy, dynamics, and function with a network structure is becoming standard in neuroscience. In its simplest form, a network is a collection of units and relationships between them. The pattern of relations among the units…