Convergent Science Network Podcast

Tim Pierce (University of Leicester), discusses with Paul Verschure the topic of animal olfaction and the its neural substrate in order to develop computational approaches able to validate empirical findings and to lead to a tangible technological outcome

Cyriel Pennartz (University of Amsterdam), interviewed by Paul Verschure, focuses on the role of pre-frontal cortex in associative learning and reward prediction coding and its possible interactions with other brain areas like hippocampus and striatum.

Paul Verschure (Pompeu Fabra University), interviewed by Tony Prescott and Tim Pierce, presents his theory of consciousness and its evolution, suggesting how it could be computationally explained within a biologically grounded cognitive architecture.

Alex Kacelnik (Oxford University) together with Paul Verschure and Tony Prescott elaborates on animal cognition addressing tool use habits of birds from an evolutionary perspective and discussing topics like learning and problem solving.

Marc Toussaint (University of Stuttgart), interviewed by Paul Verschure, presents his computational approach to planning and optimal control introducing an hypothesis on how neural systems might solve stochastic optimal control and RL problems.

Sten Grillner (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm), interviewed by Paul Verschure and Tony Prescott, discusses the adaptable networks that generate different motor patterns in animals, both from a neuro-scientific and a computational point of view.

Aldo Genovesio (Università Sapienza di Roma), discusses with Paul Verschure, the role of primates pre-frontal cortex in decision making and action planning, encoding error, past-action outcome and goal directed behavior.

Friedemann Pulvermuller (Free University of Berlin) is With Paul Verschure he discusses language, semantics and the building of meaning through action, and a grounding of this in the brain science.

Peter Gärdenfors (Lund University) discusses with Paul Verschure how the mind can represent knowledge. He introduces a cognitive theory of conceptual spaces, built from dimensions derived from perception, action, and social grounding in society.

Peter Mombaerts (Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, Frankfurt) discusses with Paul Verschure the genetics underlying the mammalian olfactory system as a model system for studying the formation of neural circuits during development.