Big Theory, Big Data, and Big Worries in Cognitive Neuroscience

Big Theory vs. Big Data Debate at CNS2018Eve Marder, Alona Fyshe, Jack Gallant, David Poeppel, Gary Marcusimage by@jonasobleserUPDATE April 9 2018: Video of the entire debate is now available at theCNS blog, YouTube, and the end of this post.What Will Solve the Big Problems in Cognitive Neuroscience?That was the question posed in theSpecial Symposium moderated by David Poeppel at the Boston Sheraton (co-sponsored by the Cognitive Neuroscience Society and the Max-Planck-Society). The format was four talks by prominent experts in (1) the complexity ofneural circuits and neuromodulation in invertebrates; (2)computational linguistics and machine learning; (3) human neuroimaging/the next wave in cognitive and computational neuroscience; and (4) language learning/AI contrarianism. These were followed by a lively panel discussion and a Q&A session with the audience.What a great format!We already knew the general answer before anyone started speaking..@gallantlab" This debate is silly "#CNS2018pic.twitter.com/cpT7tKI0xa— CNS News (@CogNeuroNews)March 24, 2018But I believe thatDr. Eve Marder, the first speaker, posed the greatest challenges to the field of cognitive neuroscience, objections that went mostly unaddressed by the other speakers. Her talk was a treasure trove of quotable witticisms (paraphrased):How much ambiguity can you live with in your attempt to understand the brain? For me I get uncomfortable with anything more than 100 neuronsIf you ' re looking for optim...
Source: The Neurocritic - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Source Type: blogs