BI 235 Romain Brette: The Brain, in Theory
From Brain Inspired by Paul Middlebrooks
April 8, 2026 · 2h 11m
About this episode
Romain Brette discusses his book 'The Brain, in Theory' and challenges common misconceptions in neuroscience.
Support the show to get full episodes, full archive, and join the Discord community. The Transmitter is an online publication that aims to deliver useful information, insights and tools to build bridges across neuroscience and advance research. Visit thetransmitter.org to explore the latest neuroscience news and perspectives, written by journalists and scientists. Read more about our partnership. Sign up for Brain Inspired email alerts to be notified every time a new Brain Inspired episode is released. To explore more neuroscience news and perspectives, visit thetransmitter.org. Brains encode information in representations that perform computations to make predictions, right? No, no, no, and no. That's Romain Brette's response to those ill-conceived notions that neuroscience relies on to try to explain how cognition works. He uses more words to do that in his new book, The Brain, in Theory, which we discuss today. In the book Romain breaks down how many of the common metaphors we use don’t withstand scrutiny, and he offers alternative approaches more in line with what we know about how biological entities work. Along those lines, we discuss his ongoing work understanding the…
People in this episode
Host: Paul Middlebrooks
Guest: Romain Brette
Topics covered
- neuroscience
- cognition
- theoretical frameworks
- artificial intelligence
- single-celled organisms
Keywords
- neuroscience
- cognition
- Romain Brette
- The Brain in Theory
- artificial intelligence
- paramecium
- theoretical frameworks
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: The Transmitter
Books & works: The Brain, in Theory
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