Conference on the connection of brain and mind
Abstract
Partial support is requested for a symposium: a Sackler Colloquium sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences to be held May 1, 2, and 3, 2019 at the Beckman Center in Irvine CA. The title is ÒThe Brain Produces Mind by ModelingÓ. The chief organizer is Richard Shiffrin (Indiana University). The co-organizers are Josh Tenenbaum (MIT), Niko Kriegeskorte (Columbia), Danielle Bassett (Penn), and Sophie Deneve (Ecole des Neurosciences, Paris). There will be 18 speakers, including the organizers, (An associated public lecture by Rebecca Saxe, MIT, is funded separately). The additional speakers are Dora Angelaki, Baylor School of Medicine; Marlene Cohen, Pittsburgh; Anne Collins, UC Berkeley; Stanislaus Dehaene, College de France; Wilson Geisler, Texas; Ann Hermundstad, Janelia Research Campus; Talia Konkle, Harvard; Jeff Zacks, Washington U.; Mathilee Kunda, Vanderbilt; Xaq Pitkow, Rice; Brandon Turner, Ohio State; David Poeppel, NYU; Angela Yu, UCSD. (The organizers arranged a prominent role for women-- 10 of the 19 speakers). An exciting and important new development in our fields involves ways to use computational and behavioral modeling to connect neuroscience with cognition and behavior, essentially connecting brain and mind. The speakers will present state-of-the-art approaches to the possibility is that the brain produces the mind by forming a model of the entire environment Ð including the body, the physical environment, other agents, the social environment, and their interactionÑand that it uses this model to learn, predict, decide, attend, remember, perceive, and produce action. The model develops as the brain matures, rapidly during infancy and more slowly later. It has structural components that remain stable over long times. It has labile elements that change at multiple time scales, adapting to the current environment and goals. The mindÕs formation through modeling of the world might be likened to the way scientists build models: through a combination of experiment (interaction with the world) and theory (thought). In this theme the brain models the self, possibly instantiated as consciousness, and other agents, as postulated in the Ôtheory of mindÕ. The theme is a core of what has been called the Ôcomputational theory of mindÕ. It underlies models of learning and behavior based on prediction error and surprise. It is represented in neural net modeling in cognitive science, and in artificial intelligence and machine learning. It can be seen as the core of error driven learning, and reinforcement learning. The theme of brain as model builder is also central to the Bayesian approach in cognitive science, where judgments and decisions are explained by probabilistic inference, combining prior knowledge and current evidence. Thus this Sackler Colloquium will bring together these various threads and approaches in neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychological science by focusing on computational modeling that attempts to bridge the gaps between these fields, to present a coherent view of the brain as a model builder, and to provide insights about the way the brain forms mind.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 29, 2019
- Source ID
- W911NF1910285
Entities
People
- Richard Shiffrin
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Indiana University
- United States Army