Mike Livermore speaks with ICA4 Fellow Alex Cayco-Gajic, a Junior Professor at the Group for Neural Theory at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Her work centers on neuroscience and brain function

Cayco-Gajic begins by describing how, despite having a background in mathematics, “academic peer pressure” convinced her to shift her focus away from math and toward neuroscience, and goes on to explain that she continues to incorporate certain aspects of her math background into her current research. She also explains how technological advances expanded the technical to neurological researchers, to the extent that the utilization of mathematical concepts is now vitally important to the field (:40 – 10:38). Cayco-Gajic then discusses her research on the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls coordination and movement, and the overall state of neuroscience at the moment (10:48 – 18:35). The conversation then examines various tools and techniques that neuroscientists use when studying the brain, ranging from functional magnetic resonant imaging (fMRI) to more invasive procedures, with Cayco-Gajic explaining that the field is currently in an exciting moment of continual innovation (18:50 – 24:00). Returning to questions regarding her research, Cayco-Gajic provides an in-depth explanation of the kind of work that she and her colleagues do, discussing the basics of neural networking, and Livermore raises the topic of lossiness in the context of neural networks with Cayco-Gajic responding to those concerns. This leads to a comparison of the efficiency of biological and artificial neural networks, and a more general discussion of how and why brains retain and discard information (24:10 – 43:10). The conversation then shifts to an analysis of embodied cognition, and the ways in which the interconnected nature of neural networks contribute to overall cognition (43:20 – 50:05). The conversation concludes with Cayco-Gajic summarizing recent research into the brain’s decision-making and behavioral and sensory information encoding processes (50:10 – 59:55).

The Intercontinental Academia (ICA) is a global network of future research leaders sponsored by the University-Based Institutes of Advanced Studies. The ICA4 explores the complementarities between artificial intelligence and neuro/cognitive-science.