Machine Learning Contest Aims to Improve Speech BCIs

For the next five months, machine learning gurus can try to best predict the speech of a brain-computer interface (BCI) user who lost the ability to speak due to a neurodegenerative disease. The best brain-computer interface algorithms, Konrad Kording said, are “driving from a deep understanding of how machine learning works."

Bioengineering
Neuroscience

Evolution, Emergence and the Brain

Here Is the Science of Why You Doomscroll

How (and why) do we decide between long-term planning and instant gratification? "Understanding how our brains weigh these decisions can help us bridge what feels good now with what truly matters," writes Emily Falk in her recent New York Times guest essay.

Communication
Marketing
Psychology

Evolution, Emergence and the Brain

To Make Better Choices, Understand How Your Brain Processes Values

Much has been made of the power of habit. But what about our more intentional, conscious day-to-day choices? Emily Falk spoke with Scientific American about how the brain sifts through options and how reflecting on our priorities can help align our behaviors with long-term aims.

Communication
Marketing
Operations Information and Decisions
Psychology

Evolution, Emergence and the Brain

Unlocking the Mechanics of Protein Misfolding

An interdisciplinary team led by Lee C. Bassett and Dani Bassett has studied the mechanical properties of prions, the mysterious shape-shifting proteins that are infamous for mad cow disease yet essential for yeast survival.

Bioengineering
Electrical and Systems Engineering
Physics and Astronomy
Psychiatry

Evolution, Emergence and the Brain

Measuring Chaos: Using Machine Learning to Satisfy Our Need to Know

How do we measure chaos and why would we want to? Dani Bassett leverages the power of machine learning to better understand chaotic systems, opening doors for new information analyses in both theoretical modeling and real-world scenarios.

Bioengineering
Electrical and Systems Engineering

Evolution, Emergence and the Brain

Why our brains are so good at seeing causality (and what AI requires to catch up)

Why is the human brain so good at interpreting causation? What can neuroscience teach us about causality that can help AI and vice versa? What’s at stake? To answer these pressing questions, CIFAR asked Konrad Kording for his thoughts.

Bioengineering
Neuroscience

Evolution, Emergence and the Brain

What Makes News Get Shared Widely? The Answer Is in Your Head.

Why do some social media posts get shared widely, while others go unnoticed? A new study from Emily Falk's Communication Neuroscience Lab suggests that targeting self-and-social areas of the brain encourages information sharing online.

Communication
Marketing
Psychology

Evolution, Emergence and the Brain

Dani Bassett Receives 2022-23 Heilmeier Award

Dani Bassett has been named the recipient of the 2022-23 George H. Heilmeier Faculty Award for Excellence in Research for “groundbreaking contributions to modeling and control of brain networks in the contexts of learning, disease and aging.”

Bioengineering
Electrical and Systems Engineering
Physics and Astronomy
Psychiatry

Evolution, Emergence and the Brain

Defining neural ‘representation’

Neuroscientists frequently say that neural activity ‘represents’ certain phenomena. PIK Professor Konrad Kording and postdoc Ben Baker led a study that took a philosophical approach to tease out what the term means.

Bioengineering
Neuroscience

Evolution, Emergence and the Brain

Exploring what it means to be curious

In a new book ‘Curious Minds: The Power of Connection,’ Dani Bassett and twin sibling Perry Zurn weave together history, linguistics, network science, neuroscience, and philosophy to unpack the concept of curiosity.

Bioengineering
Electrical and Systems Engineering
Neuroscience
Physics and Astronomy
Psychiatry

Evolution, Emergence and the Brain