Epistimones

Shelley Adamo is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Dalhousie University and is an expert in Ecoimmunology and Comparative Psychoneuroimmunology. Her research uses invertebrate model systems to explore the mechanistic relationship between behavior and physiology, one fascinating example being how and why some parasites are able to control the host’s behavior for its own ends.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:36) – Parasites

(06:46) – Parasitic mind control

(27:40) – Pest control

(29:36) – Can parasites control human behavior

(40:20) – What parasites can teach us about behavior

(44:46) – Experimentally studying parasites

(54:00) – How Shelley got interested in parasites

(57:47) – Mathematical modelling

(1:00:20) – Immune system and behavior

(1:07:16) – Control of behavior

(1:09:16) – Advice for young scientists

Ege Kavalali is a Professor of Pharmacology and Acting Chair of the Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University, and is also the William Stokes Chair in Experimental Therapeutics. His research focuses on understanding the fundamentals of how synaptic communication occurs between neurons under healthy circumstances and understanding how abnormalities in this process leads to psychiatric, neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:39) – Most beautiful aspect of the brain

(01:50) – Reductionism

(03:25) – History of understanding how neurons communicate

(05:40) – Principles of neurotransmission

(09:16) – Forms of neurotransmitter release

(16:27) – Function of spontaneous release

(25:59) – How is spontaneous release regulated

(36:05) – Discovering mechanisms of spontaneous release

(39:47) – Studying neurotransmission experimentally

(44:44) – Biggest experimental challenges

(48:06) – Neurotransmission in disease

(52:42) – Progress in neuroscience

(54:10) – Advice for young scientists

Chris Eliasmith is the current Director of the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience at the University of Waterloo, and is a Professor of Philosophy and Systems Design Engineering. Chris works on understanding how the brain processes information through reverse engineering and simulating the human brain using his large scale brain model called SPAUN, which is now able to perform many impressive perceptual, motor and cognitive tasks at human-level performance. He has also written a book ‘How to Build a Brain’, in which he writes about his approach to understanding the brain and explores all of the concepts and details in SPAUN.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:49) – Most beautiful aspect of the brain

(03:50) – Reverse engineering the brain

(08:43) – SPAUN

(22:56) – Building SPAUN

(38:14) – Thoughts and consciousness

(42:49) – Artificial intelligence

(47:36) – Other large scale brain models

(51:57) – What attracted Chris to theoretical neuroscience

(56:22) – How to get involved in building a brain

(1:01:02) – Neuromorphic computing

(1:08:51) – Grand unified theories of the brain

(1:16:17) – Neuralink

(1:20:09) – Is Chris just another SPAUN?

(1:21:44) – Advice for young scientists

Nick Yeung is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, studying the metacognitive and neural mechanisms of human thinking and reasoning. In particular, his research examines how people evaluate their decisions, why our minds wander, and how different cognitive functions are coordinated through attentional mechanisms.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:26) – Nature of thoughts

(08:40) – Thoughts and the self

(20:12) – Dreaming, mindwandering, and creativity

(23:04) – Metacognition

(31:23) – Neural basis of metacognition

(35:40) – Metacognition and learning

(37:50) – Experimental approaches

(41:10) – Do animals have thoughts

(43:47) – Computational models

(51:16) – Psychology vs neuroscience

(54:24) – Consciousness

(58:02) – Free will

(1:01:26) – Advice for young scientists

Kerry Walker is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, studying the neural mechanisms of auditory perception. Her research focuses on understanding how the coordinated activity of neural populations in human and animal brains lead to representations of pitch, rhythm, location, and other features of sound.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:30) – Why we perceive sound

(02:43) – Subjective perception of sound

(07:43) – How sound is processed

(11:17) – Sound localisation

(13:34) – Shape of animal ears

(15:04) – Hearing range

(16:39) – Hearing and speaking

(17:31) – Pitch perception

(22:20) – Studying auditory perception in the lab

(32:52) – Kerry’s scientific journey

(38:05) – Music

(44:46) – Cochlear implant

(49:13) – Neuralink

(53:47) – Common mechanism underlying all senses

(57:01) – Advice for young scientists

Russell Foster is a world leading Professor of Circadian Neuroscience and is the Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophtalmology and Director of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford. His research addresses the neuroscience of vision and circadian rhythms, as well as the health consequences of sleep disruption. His work on the discovery of photosensitive retinal ganglion cells in the mammalian retina has revolutionized our understanding of how light entrains our circadian rhythms. Russell is also a Fellow of the Royal Society and Academy of Medical Sciences and has co-written four popular science books on circadian rhythms.

(00:50) – Importance of biological clocks

(5:36) – Sleep is a temporal compartmentalization

(9:28) – Why light is important

(17:04) – How the body represents time

(22:57) – Chronotypes

(25:50) – Effect of sunrise and sunset on circadian rhythms

(29:28) – Light and circadian rhythms

(33:02) – The master clock of the body

(36:06) – Discovering photoreceptors of the circadian system

(47:40) – Open questions

(51:07) – Hacking your circadian rhythm

(55:41) – Night shift workers

(1:04:04) – Sleep/productivity tradeoff

(1:08:06) – Advice for young scientists

Simon Butt is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford working on the developing brain. His research focuses on using developmental genetics to investigate cortical interneuron diversity, and how the genetics and physiology involved determines the emergent circuitry of the cerebral cortex.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:26) – Magic of neurodevelopment

(09:41) – Principles of neurodevelopment

(12:46) – How cell fate is specified

(20:13) – How neurons know where to send projections

(26:49) – Individual differences in brain wiring

(29:18) – Nature vs nurture

(32:00) – Interneurons

(47:28) – How to study neurodevelopment in the lab

(53:49) – What mice models tell us about humans

(59:37) – Role of mentorship in academia

(1:03:32) – Starting a lab

(1:08:37) – Life as a PI

(1:11:11) – What does it take to be an academic

(1:12:49) – Improving academia

(1:14:27) – Teaching

(1:17:51) – Free will and consciousness

(1:22:29) – Progress in neuroscience

(1:25:13) – Grand unified theories of the brain

(1:27:10) – Advice for young scientists

Andrew Saxe is a theoretical neuroscientist and is a Sir Henry Dale Fellow and Joint Group Leader at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit and Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL. His research focuses on developing a mathematical toolkit for analysing and describing phenomena in neuroscience. Currently, he is working on the theory of deep learning, which uses artificial neural network models, and aims to apply this to explain how learning is instantiated in neural networks in the brain.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:38) – Nature of intelligence

(10:23) – Theoretical neuroscience

(11:31) – What attracted Andrew to theoretical neuroscience

(12:16) – Best route to get into theoretical neuroscience

(16:55) – Collaborating with experimental neuroscientists

(25:34) – Artificial vs biological neural networks

(34:06) – What deep learning has taught us about the brain

(37:32) – Linear neural networks

(43:34) – Grand unified theory of neural networks

(45:35) – Incorporating biological aspects into neural networks

(48:53) – Artificial general intelligence

(51:13) – Is maths invented or discovered?

(52:29) – Advice for young scientists

Vladyslav Vyazovskiy is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and a leading researcher in the field of sleep, studying the dynamics of brain activity and neurophysiological substrates during sleep, in order to answer the question of what is sleep and why is it necessary. He also works on hibernation and torpor, and is part of a project with the European space agency on hibernation and the benefits that this can provide for astronauts and space travel.

TIMESTAMPS

(0:00) – Introduction

(0:40) – Mysteries of sleep

(1:29) – What attracted Vlad to sleep and hibernation research

(4:02) – Defining sleep

(6:09) – Sleep as the default state

(13:00) – Why we sleep

(22:16) – Sleep is fundamental

(24:21) – Sleep homeostasis

(26:27) – How the brain represents time

(28:52) – Sleep debt

(39:56) – Why sleep is good for the body

(41:37) – Can humans hibernate

(49:39) – Hibernation during space travel

(51:48) – Relationship between sleep and hibernation

(53:48) – Biggest challenges in studying sleep

(57:03) – Advice for young scientists

Philip Maini is a Professor of Mathematical Biology at the University of Oxford and is the head of the Centre for Mathematical Biology in the Mathematical Institute. His research includes mathematical modelling of tumours, wound healing and embryonic pattern formation, and the theoretical analysis of these models.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) – Introduction

(00:30) – The intersection of maths and biology

(06:45) – Mathematical insights from biology

(08:02) – The elegance of mathematical biology

(10:31) – What attracted Philip to mathematical biology

(12:19) – Day to day life in mathematical research

(14:35) – Best route to get into mathematical biology

(17:42) – The importance of wider mathematical knowledge to make breakthroughs

(22:24) – The translation of biological phenomena into a mathematical model

(27:09) – Distinguishing between models

(29:40) – Turing systems

(38:00) – Evolution and pattern formation

(41:24) – Shortcomings of the Turing model

(43:15) – End goal of mathematical biology

(46:01) – The origin of human beauty

(50:31) – Alan Turing

(51:21) – Progression of science

(54:02) – Is maths invented or discovered?