Blog

To perceive discrete segments, such as syllables, words and sentences, we must parse continuous sensory input into meaningful units. But how does the brain do this? Recent SWC seminar speaker, Dr Lucia Melloni, explains her research understanding how events structure cognition and memory allowing us to go from continuous streams to segmented units.

How do we measure a thought? In cognitive neuroscience, researchers aim to relate neural activity to thoughts, which are notoriously difficult to measure. In his recent SWC Seminar, Dr Pitkow outlined how he uses a new scientific tool to learn an agent’s internal model and reward function by maximising the likelihood of its measured sensory observations and actions. In the following Q&A, Dr Pitkow explains how this tool extracts rational and interpretable thoughts of the agent from its behaviour.

How does the brain achieve the combination of past experience and sensory information? And what can we learn about the changes to this process in people with Parkinson’s? Dr Michele Basso recently gave a SWC Virtual Seminar where she outlined her research on these areas, and in the following Q&A she explains more.

In a recent SWC Virtual Seminar, Dr Anne Churchland shared her work exploring excitatory cell class during decision-making in mice. In this Q&A she highlights how insights from developmental biology led her to appreciate the significance of diversity in excitatory neurons.

Dr Ann Kennedy recently gave a SWC Virtual Seminar on her postdoctoral work on a part of the brain thought to be involved in the flexibility of naturalistic survival behaviours: the interconnected nuclei of the extended amygdala and hypothalamus. In the following Q&A, she shares her research on hypothalamic representations of internal state and behaviour.

Every day we think, apply rules and plan ahead, but how does the brain perceive time to allow us to perform these cognitive functions? SWC Seminar Speaker, Dr Joe Paton, explains how his research may help us understand the way basal ganglia circuits contribute to aspects of decision-making, action selection and motor control.