Uploaded April 2022 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago
Patreon support: patreon.com/braininspired
Free Video Series: Open Questions in AI and Neuroscience:
braininspired.co/open
Show notes: braininspired.co/podcast/132
Apple podcasts: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-inspired/id1428880766?mt=2
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2UZj8c8Ap5oc2gh2rJxLLe
Ila discusses her theoretical neuroscience work suggesting how our memories are formed within the cognitive maps we use to navigate the world and navigate our thoughts. The main idea is that grid cell networks in the entorhinal cortex internally generate a structured scaffold, which gets sent to the hippocampus. Neurons in the hippocampus, like the well-known place cells, receive that scaffolding and also receive external signals from the neocortex- signals about what's happening in the world and in our thoughts. Thus, the place cells act to "pin" what's happening in our neocortex to the scaffold, forming a memory. We also discuss her background as a physicist and her approach as a "neurophysicist", and a review she's publishing all about the many brain areas and cognitive functions being explained as attractor landscapes within a dynamical systems framework.
0:00 - Intro
3:36 - "Neurophysicist"
9:30 - Bottom-up vs. top-down
15:57 - Tool scavenging
18:21 - Cognitive maps and hippocampus
22:40 - Hopfield networks
27:56 - Internal scaffold
38:42 - Place cells
43:44 - Grid cells
54:22 - Grid cells encoding place cells
59:39 - Scaffold model: stacked hopfield networks
1:05:39 - Attractor landscapes
1:09:22 - Landscapes across scales
1:12:27 - Dimensionality of landscapes
Patreon support: patreon.com/braininspired
Free Video Series: Open Questions in AI and Neuroscience:
braininspired.co/open
Show notes: braininspired.co/podcast/132
Apple podcasts: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-inspired/id1428880766?mt=2
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2UZj8c8Ap5oc2gh2rJxLLe
Ila discusses her theoretical neuroscience work suggesting how our memories are formed within the cognitive maps we use to navigate the world and navigate our thoughts. The main idea is that grid cell networks in the entorhinal cortex internally generate a structured scaffold, which gets sent to the hippocampus. Neurons in the hippocampus, like the well-known place cells, receive that scaffolding and also receive external signals from the neocortex- signals about what's happening in the world and in our thoughts. Thus, the place cells act to "pin" what's happening in our neocortex to the scaffold, forming a memory. We also discuss her background as a physicist and her approach as a "neurophysicist", and a review she's publishing all about the many brain areas and cognitive functions being explained as attractor landscapes within a dynamical systems framework.
0:00 - Intro
3:36 - "Neurophysicist"
9:30 - Bottom-up vs. top-down
15:57 - Tool scavenging
18:21 - Cognitive maps and hippocampus
22:40 - Hopfield networks
27:56 - Internal scaffold
38:42 - Place cells
43:44 - Grid cells
54:22 - Grid cells encoding place cells
59:39 - Scaffold model: stacked hopfield networks
1:05:39 - Attractor landscapes
1:09:22 - Landscapes across scales
1:12:27 - Dimensionality of landscapes
