Neuroscientists Katie McAllister and Patrick Watson discuss the nervous system, scrutinize pop neuroscience, and attempt to understand why—despite millions of published articles and advances in artificial intelligence—everyone still seems to think the brain is a mysterious organ.
This week on Unpopular Neuroscience, Katie and Patrick welcome special guest Matt Baumann with a deep question from his son, Calvin. When a slug remembers something, is it reliving the experience, or just firing a reflex? And what about remembering for humans? Or for robots?
29 Sept 2025
I, Robot.
Large attentional transformers like ChatGPT generate text that seems surprisingly human-like. On this episode Katie and Patrick ask which bits of the brain work like large language models, which bits AI still hasn't figured out, and whether the difference can explain why robots can't count the vowels in a strawberry.
25 Aug 2025
Lots of People in Your Head
Neuroscientists don't believe in Artificial General Intelligence because they don't believe in General Intelligence. Instead they think the brain has multiple, specialized systems that work together to solve complex problems–more like a swarm of bees than a philosopher king. On this episode Katie and Patrick talk about the hive of brain systems living in your head and why this makes biological intelligence so robust and effective.
23 Jun 2025
Consciousness, Man.
Hosts Katie and Patrick explore the contrasting views of consciousness between the general public and the specialized perspectives of neuroscientists and philosophers.
20 Apr 2025
Cognitive Biases: Why Everyone Is Stupid Except Me!
On this episode Katie & Patrick discuss why cognitive biases are so popular—at least when applied to other people—even though these reasoning foibles are not exclusive to humans, probably not caused by the brain, and unlikely to explain much about behavior.
28 Mar 2025
Learning Science, Learning Magic
Everyone knows that learning takes hard work, deep reading, study, and repeated practice. But wouldn't it be rad if it didn't? On this episode Katie and Patrick talk about the science of learning and the often more appealing—but less real—magic of learning.
20 Jan 2025
AI Winter is Coming
AI oscillates between impressive breakthroughs and laughable failures. In this episode Katie & Patrick discuss AI booms and winters and what makes the technology so brittle. What can AI learn from neuroscience?
18 Nov 2024
Hat Trick
What's so great about having a "normal" brain? Katie & Patrick discuss a trio of patients from Oliver Sacks' iconic book The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat who have adapted to unusual configurations of their neural hardware. Listen to explore the diverse neuropsychology of the human species.
27 Sept 2024
All the brains I've loved before.
We sometimes talk about "the brain" as if there's only one of them, but there's tremendous diversity in nervous systems between species, and even between individuals. On this episode of Unpopular Neuroscience Katie and Patrick discuss some of the most interesting brains they've encountered in the neuroscience literature and their own research careers. Learn more about the radically different brains, and surprisingly consistent behavior of jumping spiders, orcas, and french white-collar workers.
24 Aug 2024
Weird Little Guys: Vehicles by Valentino Braitenberg
How hard is it to build a working, thinking brain from simple parts like wires, sensors, and motors? According to Valentino Braitenberg, author of this week's Book Vehicles, it's actually easier to build a brain than to figure out how one works. This week Katie & Patrick discuss what the weird little robots Braitenberg describes can do and how it can help us think more clearly about real brains.
12 Jul 2024
Why Study Unpopular Neuroscience?
Everyone is curious about the brain, but what would understanding the brain even look like? On the first episode of Unpopular Neuroscience, neuroscientists Katie and Patrick discuss what it would mean to “understand” the brain, how they think about the brain, and why these questions will probably always be around.
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