Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Xaq Pitkow shares his principles to study cognition in our imperfect brains and bodies, and how AI and machine learning are contributing to our efforts to understand brains and minds.
Show notes: braininspired.co/podcast/219
Patreon (full episodes, archive, Discord, more): patreon.com/braininspired
Apple podcasts: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-inspired/id1428880766?mt=2
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2UZj8c8Ap5oc2gh2rJxLLe
Music by @dunovank
The Transmitter is an online publication that aims to deliver useful information, insights and tools to build bridges across neuroscience and advance research. Visit thetransmitter.org to explore the latest neuroscience news and perspectives, written by journalists and scientists.
Read more about our partnership: thetransmitter.org/partners
Sign up for the “Brain Inspired” email alerts to be notified every time a new “Brain Inspired” episode is released: thetransmitter.org/newsletters
To explore more neuroscience news and perspectives, visit thetransmitter.org.
Xaq Pitkow runs the Lab for the Algorithmic Brain 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
○ 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.
○ Probabilistic graph networks
○ How brains use probabilities to compute.
○ A new ecological neuroscience project Xaq has started with multiple collaborators.
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
Xaq Pitkow shares his principles to study cognition in our imperfect brains and bodies, and how AI and machine learning are contributing to our efforts to understand brains and minds.
Show notes: braininspired.co/podcast/219
Patreon (full episodes, archive, Discord, more): patreon.com/braininspired
Apple podcasts: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-inspired/id1428880766?mt=2
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2UZj8c8Ap5oc2gh2rJxLLe
Music by @dunovank
The Transmitter is an online publication that aims to deliver useful information, insights and tools to build bridges across neuroscience and advance research. Visit thetransmitter.org to explore the latest neuroscience news and perspectives, written by journalists and scientists.
Read more about our partnership: thetransmitter.org/partners
Sign up for the “Brain Inspired” email alerts to be notified every time a new “Brain Inspired” episode is released: thetransmitter.org/newsletters
To explore more neuroscience news and perspectives, visit thetransmitter.org.
Xaq Pitkow runs the Lab for the Algorithmic Brain 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
○ 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.
○ Probabilistic graph networks
○ How brains use probabilities to compute.
○ A new ecological neuroscience project Xaq has started with multiple collaborators.
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
