The Convergent Science Podcasts on Mind, Brain and Technology

What if the visual brain does not process information through a single hierarchy but runs multiple parallel systems that complete their tasks at different times? Neuroscientist Semir Zeki challenges the textbook model of visual processing, arguing that asynchronous operations across parallel pathways, not sequential stages through V1, are the fundamental organizing principle of visual perception....

Can a rat perform the same perceptual decision-making tasks that were once thought to require a primate brain? Neuroscientist Matthew Diamond explains how rats trained on complex vibrotactile comparisons reveal fundamental principles of evidence accumulation, working memory, and sensory coding , and why individual differences between rats rival those between humans. Subscribe for more from the Con...

How does the brain build itself from a handful of precursor cells into billions of neurons organized in precise layers? Developmental neurobiologist Stephen Noctor explains the remarkable choreography of cell division, migration, and differentiation in the ventricular zone , where future neurons bounce up and down like yo-yos before embarking on journeys equivalent to climbing four Empire State Bu...

How does the brain transform a fleeting touch on the fingertip into a deliberate decision seconds later? Neurophysiologist Ranulfo Romo explains how sensory representations are maintained, transformed, and compared across cortical areas , revealing the slow, parametric neural code that bridges perception and decision-making. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Ra...

What if the cerebellum is not just a motor structure but a universal learning machine wired to the entire frontal lobe? Neuroscientist Narender Ramnani explains how the anatomy of cortico-cerebellar loops forces us to rethink the cerebellum's role , from fine-tuning movements to supporting rule learning, cognitive error processing, and the transition from deliberate to habitual behavior. Subscribe...

What if the twitches you see in a sleeping infant are not remnants of dreams but a systematic self-calibration process for the developing motor system? Developmental neuroscientist Mark Blumberg explains how REM sleep twitching may serve as the brain's sonar , pinging muscles one at a time and listening for the sensory feedback that bootstraps the body map. Subscribe for more from the Convergent S...

How does the brain build a map of three-dimensional space when a full volumetric representation would be prohibitively expensive? Neuroscientist Kate Jeffery explains why the rat navigation system appears to favor flat maps stitched together into a mosaic , and what this reveals about the evolutionary trade-offs shaping spatial cognition. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podc...

What if the brain organizes thought not as a continuous stream but as a series of discrete packets, timed by nested brain oscillations? Neuroscientist John Lisman explains how theta and gamma rhythms work together to chunk information into ordered sequences , a coding scheme he proposed 20 years ago that recent experimental breakthroughs have finally confirmed. Subscribe for more from the Converge...

If the adult brain cannot change, how did you learn anything after childhood? Neuroscientist Gregg Recanzone revisits the revolution in adult cortical plasticity , from the landmark digit amputation experiments to his own work showing that perceptual training reshapes somatosensory maps through mechanisms fundamentally different from developmental critical periods. Subscribe for more from the Conv...

How does the brain build an internal map of space , and what happens when that map is slightly wrong? Nobel laureate Edvard Moser describes the discovery of grid cells, their modular organization, and the surprising geometric distortions that reveal how the brain calibrates its spatial metric against the physical world. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Edvard...

Can stress experienced by a mother rat change the brains of her great-grandchildren , and what does that tell us about how early experience shapes human development? Neuroscientist Brian Kolb presents evidence that epigenetic effects of stress, tactile stimulation, and drugs of abuse persist across at least four generations, with profound implications for understanding literacy, cognitive developm...

How does an animal with no skeleton, no somatotopic brain map, and eight arms containing more neurons than its central brain manage to produce precise, goal-directed movements? Neuroscientist Benny Hochner reveals how the octopus solves the seemingly impossible problem of controlling a soft body with infinite degrees of freedom. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series...

Why has the basic architecture of the vertebrate brain remained essentially unchanged for 450 million years , and is that a constraint or an optimal design? Evolutionary neuroscientist Barbara Finlay presents evidence that mammalian brain development follows a remarkably conserved nonlinear timetable, transformable across species with 99 percent accuracy by turning a single dial. Subscribe for mor...

Is the brain a dynamical system, an information processor, or a prediction machine , and does it even matter which label we choose? Computational scientist Randall Beer argues that these are not competing theories but complementary mathematical lenses, and that real progress requires building theory around carefully analyzed toy models rather than debating metaphors. Subscribe for more from the Co...

Did birds and mammals independently evolve the same brain circuit , and what does that mean for how we define homology? Developmental neurobiologist Zoltan Molnar presents evidence that avian and mammalian forebrains share strikingly similar gene expression patterns and functional properties despite arising from different parts of the embryonic brain. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science...

Can you grow an organ inside a computer , and would it teach you something biology alone cannot? Computational biologist Yaki Setty describes how agent-based models of stem cell development can reconstruct the pancreas, the C. elegans gonad, and even parts of the brain from first principles, revealing emergent properties that no single experiment could predict. Subscribe for more from the Converge...

Can monkeys reason logically , and if so, what does that look like at the level of single neurons? Neurophysiologist Stefano Ferraina presents evidence that prefrontal cortex neurons encode both symbolic distance and serial position during transitive inference, suggesting a neural substrate for logical reasoning in non-human primates. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast...

What happens in the brain between perfect synchrony and total disorder , and why might that intermediate zone be where cognition lives? Computer scientist Murray Shanahan explains how metastable chimera states in coupled oscillator networks may capture the dynamic coalitions that govern brain function. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Murray Shanahan joins Pau...

What if the motor cortex does not just encode movements but organizes entire behavioral repertoires, reaching, grasping, defending, across three interconnected cortical stages? Neuroanatomist Jon Kaas describes how long-duration electrical stimulation reveals a modular architecture for goal-directed action in primates that challenges standard views of motor control. Subscribe for more from the Con...

What if the most widely used model of brain connectivity is too crude to capture what actually makes the cortex work? Neuroanatomist Henry Kennedy presents evidence that connection strength, not mere presence or absence of links, is where the real specificity of cortical architecture lies , spanning five orders of magnitude. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. He...

What if the search for a single canonical cortical microcircuit is leading neuroscience in the wrong direction? Cognitive scientist Gary Marcus argues that the brain's apparent uniformity masks functionally critical variations , and that understanding higher cognition requires computational primitives we have barely begun to identify. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast...

What can a small monkey cracking nuts with a stone tell us about the origins of tool use , and why is there still no theory to explain it? Primatologist Dorothy Fragaszy describes how wild capuchin monkeys develop remarkably skilled percussive tool use through years of socially supported exploration, challenging assumptions about what cognition tool use requires. Subscribe for more from the Conver...

Can rats imagine the future? Neuroscientist David Redish presents evidence that rodents engage in mental time travel , constructing representations of places they have not yet visited , and argues this forces us to rethink the boundaries of animal cognition. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. David Redish joins Paul Verschure and Tony Prescott at the BCBT summer...

How does becoming a mother permanently rewire the brain , and could the answer lie not in the genes themselves, but in how experience reshapes their expression? Neuroscientist Danielle Stolzenberg explains how epigenetic mechanisms transform the maternal brain, revealing a molecular bridge between hormones, experience, and lasting behavioral change. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science N...

How does a single Purkinje cell receiving half a million inputs learn to produce a precisely timed eye blink, and why has the cerebellum been so difficult to understand despite its crystalline simplicity? Germund Hesslow reveals what decades of painstaking physiology have uncovered. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Germund Hesslow describes his journey from Fr...