Conversations with experts about their work in neuroscience, synthetic biology, mathematics, and various other academic fields to make science accessible to everyone.
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#30 – Armin Lak: Dopaminergic circuits in decision making
Armin Lak is a neuroscientist and is a Sir Henry Dale Fellow at the University of Oxford, studying the neuronal circuits that govern learning and decision making. In particular, his research focuses on the role of dopaminergic neurons in different types of decision making through a combination of state-of-the-art neuronal circuit tools with novel behavioural methods and computational models.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:35) – Most beautiful aspect about biology
(09:32) – Dopamine
(11:34) – Reward prediction error hypothesis
(22:41) – Decision making
(33:41) – Incentive salience theory
(39:04) – Computing value in the brain
(44:10) – Experimental and computational techniques
(50:42) – What is the right level of explanation
(53:18) – Favourite part about doing science
(55:04) – Wolfram Schultz
(57:49) – Advice for young scientists
Chaitanya Gokhale is a research group leader in theoretical eco-evolutionary dynamics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology. His lab uses theoretical biology to elucidate the associations and interactions that power emergent complexity at multiple scales.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:35) – Natural and synthetic gene drives
(08:54) – Population dynamics of gene drives
(14:50) – Mating complexity on gene drive dynamics
(28:00) Evolutionary game theory
(41:38) Single games vs multiple games
(56:44) – Mutualism
(1:07:00) – Origin of his interest in theoretical biology
(1:16:13) – Advice for aspiring scientists
14 Sept 2022
#28 – Oriel FeldmanHall: Studying morality in the brain
Oriel FeldmanHall is the Alfred Manning Associate Professor of Cognitive, Linguistics and Psychological Sciences at Brown University. Her research focuses on studying the neural basis of moral decision making, altruism, and socio-emotional decision making. Specifically, she uses techniques from different fields like behavioural economics, social psychology, imaging and psychophysiology to disentangle the cognitive and neural processes behind the complex choices that shape human social behaviour.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:45) – What is morality
(03:21) – Why do humans have morality
(08:40) – Neurobiology of moral decision making
(19:53) – Studying moral decision making
(32:36) – What is the right level of explanation
(33:58) – Engineering morality
(35:54) – Oriel’s journey in science
(41:08) – Advice for young scientists
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