𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗲 𝗱𝗼?
Understanding the integration of cognition and emotion.
Classic Nauta (1971) paper that deserves to be better known.
link.springer.com/chapter/10.100…
The reciprocal link of the frontal cortex with the hypothalamus still poorly appreciated at present:

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆-𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗺𝗮, brain and AI
How can brains retain previously learned information (stability) while being capable of incorporating new knowledge (plasticity)?
Notion has long history in neuroscience but Steve Grossberg deserves credit. The notion is not widely discussed but Steve is not acknowledged. That happens in science, true. But now that AI and neurorscience want to understand "autonomous/adaptive systems", credit is due I believe.

Daniel Margulies starts the day at the Neuro Summer School at Lipari, Italy
@Dr_Alex_Crimi Where are we today:

𝗥𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲? In the brain...
I've discussed different kinds of emergence in the brain, and that already got a lot of people frazzled (angry?). This very informal blog discusses a more radical conception that most people won't like!
🧵
dialecticalsystems.eu/contributions/… 2) "Not only are they emergent, but they are radically emergent. The way functional circuits assemble is not repeated from time to time, they follow future evolutions that are matched to the specifics of the moment-in-time in question.

𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀?
Excellent discussion by @awaisaftab about @AnneliJefferson 's book.
Short thread.
awaisaftab.substack.com/p/when-are-we-… 2) Awais rightly mentions that
"Philosophical technicalities of “realization” aside, my other worry is that it is very difficult to demonstrate that a brain difference Y is sufficient for – is always accompanied by – a psychological difference X."

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻?
Laurent Perrinet asked about the timing but processing it not sequential in the brain. His figure is below:
neuromatch.social/@laurentperrin…
I'll follow up in a thread. 2) A much better way of thinking about it is in terms of "mutliple waves" of activity flowing in parallel with lots of shortcuts such that latencies in frontal cortex can be shorter than in other parts actually.

My book **The Entangled Brain** by MIT Press is out and provides an introduction to the brain to non-specialists while embracing the complexity of how brains help bring about behaviors. I'll be posting 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 in the coming 1-2 weeks 2) Chapter 1: From One Area at a Time to Networks Systems

A fish inside the brain??
"The optic tectum can be imagined as a 'model fish' inside the brain, which *integrates* sensory information, calculates motor *decisions* to approach or avoid modulated by *motivational state*".
Barbara Finlay on vertebrate evolution
@TheBrainingClub Now Bruno Averbeck talks about PFC connectivity and beyond:

Beginning of day 2! Michael Goldberg:

Bob Desimone getting the conference in honor of Leslie Ungerleider started. The context of the discovery of What & Where pathways. Marlene Berhmann

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼, say, 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? Among the big mysteries in biology in general.
"When the end modifies its means: the origins of novelty and the evolution of innovation" by A Moczek
academic.oup.com/biolinnean/adv… 2) "across phyla, diverse organisms emerged as modified re-assemblages instructed by the same and seemingly very limited pool of genes, cellular transduction pathways, cell types and morphogenetic processes...

Is your paper well written? The "reverse itemized" method of 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗽𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿. Check if what you wrote is what you wanted to write!
Simple: After you write it, summarize each paragraph and create an itemized version of your ideas. Does it do what you wanted it to?? 2) Some people start writing by creating an itemized list, and then expanding. That's fine too, and it's actually complementary to the reverse itemized idea. (In fact, "reverse" alludes to the fact that it's done "after").

𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀:
"Complex dynamical systems invalidate, or at least challenge, our usual procedures for inferring causes from effects."
D.M. Walsh, in Organisms, Agency, and Evolution "The reason is that compositionality -- the ‘canon’ of our usual causal reasoning -- breaks down so comprehensively in these systems."

Want to know everything about 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲? What does it mean anyway? All those terms: ontological, epistemic, weak, strong. So confusing!
Check this book by Paul Humphreys. In-depth treatment, so not light reading. Chapter 1 by itself provides an excellent overview. 2) Emergence in the brain? Are mobs an emergent property of collections of individuals? Is there emergence in the game of Checkers? Traffic jams??
A property belongs to a "whole and not its parts" (say, "liquidity" given H and O atoms) is as old as Aristotle in the West, but...

All those classes in logic, theoretical CS (formal grammars), etc are paying off well to read philosophy texts. :-) Example: what is novelty?
Definition An entity E is novel with respect to a domain D just in case E is not included in the closure of D under the closure criteria C that are appropriate for D.
(credit: Paul Humphreys)

Concept of 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 is central to studying the brain but hard to pin down because it's so "semantically flexible". Can be conceptualized in multiple ways:
M1: Two parts A and B of a system are defined as modules, if and only if they are separately modifiable.
1/ M2: The process carried out in the subsystem, so modifiable, computes a particular type of input-output mapping.
2/

1) 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 paper is out! @LoretaMedinaH and @EDesfilis and I make the argument that the architecture of the vertebrate brain doesn't support mental categories as traditionally conceived (attention, emotion, cognition).
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs… 2) We propose that mental terms (etc "memory") are 𝚎𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚎. We support our thesis based on extensive comparative neuroanatomy knowledge of the organization of the vertebrate brain.

𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀. But can we learn about the brain? Combined effort from multiple people in the lab:
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/a… 2. A 𝐝𝐲𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 was used to predict inputs based on fMRI data. An additional 𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫 component was used to investigate the (low) dimensionality of "latent spaces".

𝗡𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀 “𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀” (e.g. “attention”) but we've argued that those are "epistemically sterile". Substantially revised manuscript with my colleagues @LoretaMedinaH @EDesfilis
osf.io/8cmhg/ 2. We suggest that the vertebrate neuroarchitecture does not respect the boundaries of standard mental terms, and propose that neuroscience should aim to unravel the dynamic coupling between large-scale brain circuits and complex, naturalistic behaviors.

𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 as viewed through the lens of 𝗱𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀. Work by Sugihara and colleagues offers many interesting and important insights.
🧵 Good place to start. Interestingly the second author here is Robert May for those familiar with his contributions to dynamical systems and ecology.
science.sciencemag.org/content/338/61…

Tenure and promotion letters. My take is that one doesn't have to follow the instructions about the letter if you don't think they make sense. Some depts do ask for *explicit* comparison with peers and even ask you to mention who they are. I never thought that makes sense as...

https://twitter.com/mariam_s_aly/status/1408168343027294213

every person's situation is unique. So I discuss what makes that person so great (hopefully that's the case!). I also don't discuss h-index, impact factor, and the like.