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Xaq Pitkow runs the <a href="https://xaqlab.com/">Lab for the Algorithmic Brain</a> at Carnegie Mellon University. The main theme of our discussion is how Xaq approaches his research into cognition by way of principles, from which his questions and models and methods spring forth. We discuss those principles, and In that light, we discuss some of his specific lines of work and ideas on the theoretical side of trying understand and explain a slew of cognitive processes. A few of the specifics we discuss are:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>How when we present tasks for organisms to solve, they use strategies that are suboptimal relative to the task, but nearly optimal relative to their beliefs about what they need to do - something Xaq calls inverse rational control.</li>



<li>Probabilistic graph networks.</li>



<li>How brains use probabilities to compute.</li>



<li>A new ecological neuroscience project Xaq has started with multiple collaborators.</li>
</ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://xaqlab.com/">LAB: Lab for the Algorithmic Brain</a>.</li>



<li>Related papers
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.02709">How does the brain compute with probabilities?</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1912336117">Rational thoughts in neural codes.</a></li>



<li><a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11581108/">Control when confidence is costly</a></li>



<li><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41468-023-00147-4">Generalization of graph network inferences in higher-order graphical models</a>.</li>



<li><a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.07440">Attention when you need</a>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>



0:00 - Intro
3:57 - Xaq's approach
8:28 - Inverse rational control
19:19 - Space of input-output functions
24:48 - Cognition for cognition
27:35 - Theory vs. experiment
40:32 - How does the brain compute with probabilities?
1:03:57 - Normative vs kludge
1:07:44 - Ecological neuroscience
1:20:47 - Representations
1:29:34 - Current projects
1:36:04 - Need a synaptome
1:42:20 - Across scales

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