Pieter and I discuss his ongoing quest to figure out how the brain implements learning that solves the credit assignment problem, like backpropagation does for neural networks. We also talk about his work to understand how we perceive individual objects in a crowded scene, his neurophysiological recordings in support of the global neuronal workspace hypothesis of consciousness, and the visual prosthetic device he’s developing to cure blindness by directly stimulating early visual cortex. 

Related:

• Pieter's lab website.
• Twitter: @Pieters_Tweet.
• His startup to cure blindness: Phosphoenix.
• Talk:
  • Seeing and thinking with your visual brain
• The papers we discuss or mention:
  • Control of synaptic plasticity in deep cortical networks.
  • A Biologically Plausible Learning Rule for Deep Learning in the Brain.
  • Conscious Processing and the Global Neuronal Workspace Hypothesis.
• Pieter's neuro-origin book inspiration (like so many others): Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter.