Memory: Challenging Current Theories with Randy Gallistel, PhD (BSP 66)
/Episode 66 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Randy Gallistel, PhD, Co-Director of the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science and co-author (with Adam Philip King) of Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cognitive Science Will Transform Neuroscience.
We discuss why read/write memory is an essential element of computation, with an emphasis on the animal experiments that support the claim that brains must possess read/write memory. This is significant because current models, such as neural nets, DO NOT incorporate read/write memory in their assumptions about how brains work. It is not necessary to have any background in information theory or computation to appreciate the experiments that are discussed in this episode.
Episode 3 and Episode 12 of the Brain Science Podcast providebackground information for this episode.
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References and Links:
Spikes: Exploring the Neural Code, by Fred Rieke, David Warland, Rob de Ruyter van Steveninck, William Bialek.
Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cognitive Science Will Transform Neuroscience, by C. R. Gallistel, Adam Philip King.
Claude E. Shannon: His paper (A Mathematical Theory of Communication, Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 27, pp. 379–423, 623–656, 1948) is a cornerstone of information theory.
Rüdiger Wehner: Swiss researcher who has studied dead reckoning in insects.
Nicky Clayton and Tony Dickinson: these researchers have performed elegant experiments that study scrub jay caching.
Christof Koch: was interviewed in Episode 22 of the Brain Science Podcast.
Announcements:
This was Dr. Campbell's 100th podcast (BSP 66 plus Books and Ideas 34)! How long have you been listening?
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