BJKS Podcast

This is the fourth and final episode of a book club series on Peter Gärdenfors's book Conceptual Spaces. In this episode, we will discuss chapters 7 and 8, in which Gärdenfors discusses computational aspects his theory of conceptual spaces, and provides a general discussion of the topics covered in the book.

For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichcs, who was already my cohost for the books club series on Lee Child's Killing Floor. Koen and I are PhD students in the same lab.

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Koen's links

• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/frolichs-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/frolichs-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter:  https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References
First AI conference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_workshop

Bauby, J. D. (2008). The diving bell and the butterfly. Vintage.
Bellmund, J. L., Gärdenfors, P., Moser, E. I., & Doeller, C. F. (2018). Navigating cognition: Spatial codes for human thinking. Science, 362(6415).
Churchland, P. S., & Sejnowski, T. J. (1994). The computational brain. MIT press.
Gärdenfors, P. (2004). Conceptual spaces: The geometry of thought. MIT press.
Hafting, T., Fyhn, M., Molden, S., Moser, M. B., & Moser, E. I. (2005). Microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex. Nature, 436(7052), 801-806.
Kriegeskorte, N., & Kievit, R. A. (2013). Representational geometry: integrating cognition, computation, and the brain. Trends in cognitive sciences, 17(8), 401-412.
Kriegeskorte, N., Mur, M., & Bandettini, P. A. (2008). Representational similarity analysis-connecting the branches of systems neuroscience. Frontiers in systems neuroscience, 2, 4.
LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y., & Hinton, G. (2015). Deep learning. Nature, 521(7553), 436-444.
O'Keefe, J., & Dostrovsky, J. (1971). The hippocampus as a spatial map: preliminary evidence from unit activity in the freely-moving rat. Brain research.
Quiroga, R. Q. (2012). Concept cells: the building blocks of declarative memory functions. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(8), 587-597.
Rumelhart, D. E., Hinton, G. E., & Williams, R. J. (1986). Learning representations by back-propagating errors. Nature, 323(6088), 533-536.
Silver, D., Schrittwieser, J., Simonyan, K., Antonoglou, I., Huang, A., Guez, A., ... & Hassabis, D.
(2017). Mastering the game of go without human knowledge. Nature, 550(7676), 354-359.

This is the third episode of a book club series on Peter Gärdenfors's book Conceptual Spaces. In this episode, we will discuss chapters 5 and 6, in which Gärdenfors explains how semantics and induction fit into his theory of conceptual spaces.

For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichcs, who was already my cohost for the books club series on Lee Child's Killing Floor. Koen and I are PhD students in the same lab.

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Koen's links

• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/frolichs-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/frolichs-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter:  https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References
Gärdenfors, P. (2004). Conceptual spaces: The geometry of thought. MIT press.
Hohwy, J. (2013). The predictive mind. Oxford University Press.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_economicus

This is the second episode of a book club series on Peter Gärdenfors's book Conceptual Spaces. In this episode, we will discuss chapters 3 and 4, in which Gärdenfors explains how properties and concepts fit into his theory of conceptual spaces.

For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichcs, who was already my cohost for the books club series on Lee Child's Killing Floor. Koen and I are PhD students in the same lab.

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Koen's links

• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/frolichs-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/frolichs-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter:  https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References
Gärdenfors, P. (2004). Conceptual spaces: The geometry of thought. MIT press.
Kahneman, D, & Tversky, A (1979). Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk. Econometrica. 47 (2): 263–291.
Kriegeskorte, N., Mur, M., & Bandettini, P. A. (2008). Representational similarity analysis-connecting the branches of systems neuroscience. Frontiers in systems neuroscience, 2, 4.
Montague, P. R., Dayan, P., Person, C., & Sejnowski, T. J. (1995). Bee foraging in uncertain environments using predictive hebbian learning. Nature, 377(6551), 725-728.
Murphy, R. O., & Ackermann, K. A. (2014). Social value orientation: Theoretical and measurement issues in the study of social preferences. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18(1), 13-41.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotonic_function

This is the first episode of a book club series on Peter Gärdenfors's book Conceptual Spaces. In this episode, we will discuss chapters 1 and 2, which provide an overview over the book, and a discussion of the three kinds of representation: subconceptual, conceptual, and symbolic.

For this series, I'm joined by Koen Frolichcs, who was already my cohost for the books club series on Lee Child's Killing Floor. Koen and I are PhD students in the same lab.

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Koen's links

• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/frolichs-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/frolichs-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter:  https://geni.us/bjks-twt

My interview with Jacob Bellmund: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/1390924/9275803-37-jacob-bellmund-deformed-cognitive-maps-abstract-cognitive-spaces-and-how-many-dimensions-can-grid-cells-encode

Bringing up Marr on a first date: https://twitter.com/wavyphd/status/1456038544250638341/photo/1

References
Banino, A., Barry, C., Uria, B., Blundell, C., Lillicrap, T., Mirowski, P., ... & Kumaran, D. (2018). Vector-based navigation using grid-like representations in artificial agents. Nature, 557(7705), 429-433.
Bellmund, J. L., Gärdenfors, P., Moser, E. I., & Doeller, C. F. (2018). Navigating cognition: Spatial codes for human thinking. Science, 362(6415).
Gärdenfors, P. (2004). Conceptual spaces: The geometry of thought. MIT press.
Hafting, T., Fyhn, M., Molden, S., Moser, M. B., & Moser, E. I. (2005). Microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex. Nature, 436(7052), 801-806.
Kriegeskorte, N., Mur, M., & Bandettini, P. A. (2008). Representational similarity analysis-connecting the branches of systems neuroscience. Frontiers in systems neuroscience, 2, 4.
Kuper-Smith, B. J., & Korn, C. (2021, October 28). Decomposed 2*2 games - a conceptual review. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5jxrf
O'Keefe, J., & Dostrovsky, J. (1971). The hippocampus as a spatial map: preliminary evidence from unit activity in the freely-moving rat. Brain research.
Poldrack, R. A. (2020). The physics of representation. Synthese, 1-19.

Michael Hornberger is a professor of applied dementia research at the University of East Anglia who developed Sea Hero Quest, a mobile game for studying spatial navigation that was downloaded more than 4 million times. In this conversation, we talk about Sea Hero Quest, how Michael (together with Hugo Spiers) developed it, the first findings, and dementia in general.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).

Timestamps
00:04: How Michael started doing research on dementia
02:32: What is Sea Hero Quest?
05:18: How Sea Hero Quest got started and developed
31:45: Start discussing some results from Sea Hero Quest
38:16: How does Sea Hero Quest relate to Michael's work on dementia?
43:16: How far are we from using (something like) Sea Hero Quest as an early biomarker for Alzheimer's?
45:36: What is dementia and how can we prevent it? Discussing Michael's new book about Alzheimer's 'Tangled Up'

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Michael's links

• Website: https://geni.us/hornberger-web
• Google Scholar:  https://geni.us/hornberger-scholar
• Twitter:  https://geni.us/hornberger-twt
• Book: https://geni.us/hornberger-book

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter:  https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References
Alzheimer (1906). Uber einen eigenartigen, schweren Erkrankungsprozess der Hirnrinde. Neurol. Cbl..
Alzheimer, Förstl, & Levy (1991). On certain peculiar diseases of old age. History of psychiatry.
Anguera, Boccanfuso, Rintoul, Al-Hashimi, Faraji, Janowich, ... & Gazzaley (2013). Video game training enhances cognitive control in older adults. Nature.
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeuroRacer
Coughlan, Coutrot, Khondoker, Minihane, Spiers & Hornberger (2019). Toward personalized cognitive diagnostics of at-genetic-risk Alzheimer’s disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Coughlan, Laczó, Hort, Minihane, & Hornberger (2018). Spatial navigation deficits—overlooked cognitive marker for preclinical Alzheimer disease?. Nature Reviews Neurology.
Coughlan, Puthusseryppady, Lowry, Gillings, Spiers, Minihane, & Hornberger (2020). Test-retest reliability of spatial navigation in adults at-risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Plos one.
Coutrot, Schmidt, Coutrot, Pittman, Hong, Wiener, ... Hornberger, & Spiers (2019). Virtual navigation tested on a mobile app is predictive of real-world wayfinding navigation performance. PloS one.
Coutrot, Silva, Manley, de Cothi, Sami, Bohbot, ... Hornberger, & Spiers (2018). Global determinants of navigation ability. Current Biology.
Fold.it game: https://fold.it/
Hornberger (2021). Tangled up. The science and history of Alzheimer's disease.
Kunz, Schröder, Lee, Montag, Lachmann, Sariyska, ... & Axmacher (2015). Reduced grid-cell–like representations in adults at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Science.

Dan Quintana is a senior researcher at the University of Olso, where his research focuses on oxytocin, autism,  and meta-analyses. In this conversation, we talk about Dan's primer on synthetic datasets, science comunication, Everything Hertz, and podcasting in general.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday, available on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).

Timestamps
0:00:04: From Australia to Norway
0:09:37: Synthetic datasets
0:41:15: Software tools in science (for writing and analysing data)
0:58:41: Dan's multifaceted online presence / science communication on social media
1:06:32: How to grow on Twitter with no followers
1:15:45: The sound of your own voice
1:22:30: Some of Dan's favourite podcasts
1:25:53: How Everything Hertz grew over time
1:33:04: Finances of podcasts
1:41:45: Podcast editing

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Dan's links

• Website: https://geni.us/quintana-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/quintana-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/quintana-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter:  https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References
Brown, N. J., & Heathers, J. A. (2017). The GRIM test: A simple technique detects numerous anomalies in the reporting of results in psychology. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Heathers, J. A., Anaya, J., van der Zee, T., & Brown, N. J. (2018). Recovering data from summary statistics: Sample parameter reconstruction via iterative techniques (SPRITE). PeerJ Preprints.
Kuper-Smith, B. J., & Korn, C. (2021, Oct). Decomposed 2*2 games - a conceptual review. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5jxrf
Quintana, D. S. (2020). A synthetic dataset primer for the biobehavioural sciences to promote reproducibility and hypothesis generation. Elife, 9.

Links
The psychpathy measure used in my study with prison inmates: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_Checklist
Most standard statistical tests are linear models blog post: https://lindeloev.github.io/tests-as-linear/
Dan's presentation on synthetic datasets for RIOT Science Club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fAR_oro1NY
Simul for writing collaborations: https://www.simuldocs.com/
Melon for live streaming: https://melonapp.com/features

Some podcasts Dan listens to:
Quantitude: https://quantitudepod.org/
Very bad wizards: https://www.verybadwizards.com/
Ologies: https://www.alieward.com/ologies
Ezra Klein: https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein-podcast
Harcore History: https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/

In episode 42 I interviewed Matthias Stangl about his work on spatial navigation. I wanted to ask him a few questions about postdoc applications, but we ran out of time. Matthias kindly agreed to meet again for a few questions that I would add to the end of our conversation. We ended up speaking for almost an hour, so instead of adding this to an episode that was already more than an hour long, we decided to release this part of our conversation as a separate episode for people who might also be applying for postdocs.

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Matthias's links

• Google Scholar:  https://geni.us/stangl-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/stangl-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter:  https://geni.us/bjks-twt

Matthias Stangl is a postdoc at UCLA, where he studies the neural representations of spatial navigation in social situations. In this conversation, we talk about his PhD work about aging, grid cells, and path integration, about his recent Nature paper, about the difference between movement in VR and actual physical movement, and much more.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New episodes every Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).

Timestamps
0:00:04: Stangl.Stangl.eu
0:02:13: Start discussing Matthias's Current Biology paper on aging, grid cells, and spatial navigation
0:07:10: The temporal stability of grid cells
0:16:10: Start discussing Matthias's Nature Communications paper on path integration errors in aging
0:26:07: Sensory effects on path integration in humans and other animals
0:37:45: Does actual movement lead to stronger grid cells firing (compared to imagined/VR)?
0:41:52: Start discussing Matthias's Nature paper on neural representations for self and other in real spatial navigation
1:00:03: Matthias's future

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Matthias's links

• Google Scholar:  https://geni.us/stangl-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/stangl-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter:  https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References
Aghajan, Z. M., Schuette, P., Fields, T. A., Tran, M. E., Siddiqui, S. M., Hasulak, N. R., ... & Suthana, N. (2017). Theta oscillations in the human medial temporal lobe during real-world ambulatory movement. Current Biology.
Barnes, C. A., Suster, M. S., Shen, J., & McNaughton, B. L. (1997). Multistability of cognitive maps in the hippocampus of old rats. Nature.
Chen, G., Manson, D., Cacucci, F., & Wills, T. J. (2016). Absence of visual input results in the disruption of grid cell firing in the mouse. Current Biology.
Kunz, L., Schröder, T. N., Lee, H., Montag, C., Lachmann, B., Sariyska, R., ... & Axmacher, N. (2015). Reduced grid-cell–like representations in adults at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Science.
Stangl, M., Achtzehn, J., Huber, K., Dietrich, C., Tempelmann, C., & Wolbers, T. (2018). Compromised grid-cell-like representations in old age as a key mechanism to explain age-related navigational deficits. Current Biology.
Stangl, M., Kanitscheider, I., Riemer, M., Fiete, I., & Wolbers, T. (2020). Sources of path integration error in young and aging humans. Nature communications.
Stangl, M., Topalovic, U., Inman, C. S., Hiller, S., Villaroman, D., Aghajan, Z. M., ... & Suthana, N. (2021). Boundary-anchored neural mechanisms of location-encoding for self and others. Nature.
Topalovic, U., Aghajan, Z. M., Villaroman, D., Hiller, S., Christov-Moore, L., Wishard, T. J., ... & Suthana, N. (2020). Wireless programmable recording and stimulation of deep brain activity in freely moving humans. Neuron.
Yoder, R. M., & Taube, J. S. (2014). The vestibular contribution to the head direction signal and navigation. Frontiers in integrative neuroscience.

This is the second episode of an experiment: I'll be reviewing all books called "Prisoner's Dilemma". Today I'm reviewing The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart and Prisoner's Dilemma by Ilexa Yardley.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).

Timestamps
00:00: Intro
01:07: Reviewing Trenton Lee Stewart's The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma
18:04: Reviewing Ilexa Yardley's Prisoner's Dilemma: Conservation of the Circle

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter:  https://geni.us/bjks-twt

This episode is the start of an experiment: I'll be reviewing all books called "Prisoner's Dilemma", and today I'm starting with the first two books. Basically, I use the Prisoner's Dilemma in my own work and realised that there are 26 books with that title (or minor variant thereof). So, as a very silly idea, I decided to review them all and see whether there is anything I can learn from them about the Prisoner's Dilemma. This episode will be the first, and I'm reviewing A Prisoner's Dilemma by Matthew Karabache and Prisoner's Dilemma by Damien Mitchell Feiklowicz. Over the course of the next two years or so, I'll occasionally review the other books.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).

Timestamps
00:00: Why will I be reviewing all books called "Prisoner's Dilemma"??
05:20: Matthew Karabache: A Prisoner's Dilemma
12:47: Damien Mitchell Feiklowicz: Prisoner's Dilemma, or In a Nutshell
28:32: End summary

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter:  https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References
 Amazon link for A Prisoner's Dilemma by Matthew Karabache: https://geni.us/bjks-PD-Karabache
Amazon link for Prisoner's Dilemma by Damien Mitchel Feiklowicz: https://geni.us/bjks-PD-Feiklowicz
My episode about Huxley's Brave New World: https://geni.us/bjks-huxley-bnw