Key Points At first glance, the emergence of “new” cognitive abilities following an insult to the brain seems paradoxical. The explanation that resolves this apparent paradox is that the emergent capability was present all along, but being suppressed by the
Model #9: Plasticity
Key Points For much of the 20th Century, the prevailing dogma in the neurosciences was that, after childhood cognitive development, the brain remained fixed and unchanging. This view of the adult brain as static was arguably the greatest constraint on
Model #8: Game Level VS. Source Code
Key Points It is no secret that progress in medical therapeutics in recent decades has been terribly disappointing. In spite of massive investment of resources, there have been on major therapeutic advances in the major categories of human illness, including
Episode 9: Mismatch
“I don’t think it is possible to overemphasize just how important mismatch diseases are” Dan Lieberman, The Story of the Human Body Key Points Collectively, compromises in the biological foundation of the brain is the single largest constraint on human
Model #5 – Modular AND Distributed (MAD)
Key Points Is the brain a general purpose machine, or a collection of specialized modules? This is a fundamental question in the field of neuroscience, and has been the subject of intense back-and-forth debate for centuries. Improvements in technology, statistical
Episode 5 – Automaticity
Key Points Automaticity refers to our ability to engage in a behavior while our conscious mind is directed elsewhere. The creation of neural circuitry that supports it is the biological mechanism that allows us to compound knowledge throughout our lives,
Episode 4: Confabulation
Key Points From studies of patients with split brains, anosognosia, and Korsakoff’s syndrome comes the the concept of the interpreter, an area in the dominant hemisphere that’s in charge of explaining our own behavior. As discussed in the prior episode
Episode 3: Subterranean
Key Points In recent years, neuroscience research has revealed that the majority (up to 95%, by some estimates) of the neural networks that support cognitive function are housed in circuity that is largely segregated, or walled off, from the networks
Episode 2: Hardware & Software
Key Points Mental Models are cognitive filters for extracting different kinds of information from phenomena in our world. In Charlie Munger’s words, they form a “latticework of theory” upon which we can hang facts about the world. The more models