Convergent Science Network Podcast

This post-lecture interview was conducted during the BCBT Summerschool held at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, september 2010. 

To study the modeling of action and behavior of organisms like humans, and of their brains, it is important to include the question why certain actions are undertaken. Some of what we do is driven by habits, other actions are driven by goals. Matthew Botvinick (University of Princeton, USA) discusses his view on the relations between causation, enabling action elements, rewards, danger, optimal policies, and the evolutionary notion of 'good enough'. An important recurrent issue, is that of implementation. What brain architectures facilitate state representations, functional relationships, and predictions about the world around an organism?

About the lecturer
He is leading Professor at the Botvinick Lab, Princeton Neuroscience Institute and Departement of Psychology. His research interest focuses on the cognitive neuroscience of higher-level visual functions, perceptual learning, and recovery of visual function following focal brain lesions or after treatment of ophthalmologic disease.