CogNation

On this episode, Rolf and Joe talk to Dr. Valerie Bonnelle, a cognitive neuroscientist interested in the relation of processes in the body to peak experiences. We discuss her paper showing how heart rate variability and the interplay between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems closely tracks phenomenological experience during the use of the psychedelic DMT. Bonnelle, V., Feilding, A., Rosas, F. E., Nutt, D. J., Carhart-Harris, R. L., & Timmermann, C. (2024). Autonomic nervous system activity correlates with peak experiences induced by DMT and predicts increases in well-being. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 38(10), 887-896.

Fresh from Psychedelic Science 2025, Dr. Steve Levine, the chief patient officer at Compass Pathways, talks to us about new Phase 3 results for psilocybin in treating depression.

Joe and Rolf talk to blind activist and friend of the show Josh Miele. Josh, a MacArthur Genuis Award winner and prodigious sushi eater, has just come out with a new autobiographical book called "Connecting Dots: A Blind Life". We talk about his life growing up in Park Slope, his freewheeling youth, the dog vs. cane debate, and his career as a blind accessibility scientist and inventor.

Rolf and Joe wrap up their 3-part series on dreaming with Finnish neuroscientist and philosopher Antti Revonsuo. Dr. Revonsuo is the originator of the Threat Simulation theory of dreams, which suggests that dreams are simulated worlds in which we may practice threatening situations. Topics include the history and methodology in dream research, how our brains create simulated worlds, the particular nature of the simulated dream world, and how this applies to waking consciousness. We base our discussion on three forthcoming papers: Revonsuo, A. (in press) Toward a Metaphysics of Consciousness: Science and the Fundamental Nature of Subjective Experience. To appear in The Scientific Study of Consciousness: Experimental and Theoretical Approaches. (Springer Nature). Revonsuo, A. & Tuominen, J. (in press) The Concept of Dreaming as a World. To appear in Threshold Worlds (Oxford University Press). Revonsuo, A., Valli, K., & Tuominen, J. (in preparation) Evolutionary Simulation Theories of Dreaming.

Why do we dream, and what is the meaning of our dreams? Rolf and Joe talk about several ideas about dreaming, including a new theory by David Eagleman called the "defensive activation theory", which proposes that dreams are like a screen saver to keep the visual parts of the brain from being overtaken by other senses. Eagleman, D. M., & Vaughn, D. A. (2020). The Defensive Activation theory: dreaming as a mechanism to prevent takeover of the visual cortex. bioRxiv, 2020-07.

What can neuroscience teach us about AI, and vice versa, what can AI teach us about our own intelligence? Joe and Rolf talk to returning guest Daniel Sternberg about advances in AI over the past year. Topics include using the methods of cognitive psychology to understand AI; representation in artificial intelligence; what current large language models (LLMs) are good at and not good at; sentience in AI; the future of humanity; and other important stuff. Natural and Artificial Intelligence: A brief introduction to the interplay between AI and neuroscience research [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0893608021003683] (Macpherson, et al., 2021) Can AI language models replace human participants? [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e57f82eb306fc38c7637f33/t/6490afc6074d6e3982f6d049/1687203782514/can-AI-language-models-replace-human-participants.pdf] (Dillion, et al., 2023) Language models show human-like content effects on reasoning [https://stanford.edu/~jlmcc/papers/DasguptaLampinenEtAl22LMsShowHumanLikeContentEffectsInReasoning.pdf] (Dasgupta et al., 2022)

Joe and Rolf discuss the ideas of perceptual psychologist Donald Hoffman, who has argued that our perceptual systems have no access to reality, since evolution is driven by fitness functions, not objective truth. He has also argued that our perception is a user interface (like a desktop on a computer, or a VR headset), and that objects such as the moon don't exist when we are not apprehending them. Hoffman, Donald. The case against reality: Why evolution hid the truth from our eyes. WW Norton & Company, 2019. Bagwell, J. N. (2023). Debunking interface theory: why Hoffman's skepticism (really) is self-defeating. Synthese, 201(1), 25.

We discuss the recent controversy about Integrated Information Theory (IIT), a theory about the neural correlates of consciousness, with Felipe De Brigard, a philosophy and psychology professor at Duke University who signed a letter describing the theory as pseudoscience. The letter: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/zsr78/ The adversarial collaboration: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268577 Description of IIT: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011465

Joe and Rolf discuss new work in neural interfaces that is helping paralyzed individuals communicate. Based on the recent Nature article: Metzger, S. L., Littlejohn, K. T., Silva, A. B., Moses, D. A., Seaton, M. P., Wang, R., ... & Chang, E. F. (2023). A high-performance neuroprosthesis for speech decoding and avatar control. Nature, 1-10.

In this episode, CogNation goes to the Psychedelic Science conference in Denver to get in on all the excitement. We present four interviews from the conference that represent a range of ideas about the resurgent interest in psychedelics as therapeutics. Bekely Waves [https://www.beckleywaves.com/] The East Institute [https://www.theeastinstitute.com/] Balasz Szigeti [https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Balazs-Szigeti-2142276444] Manoj Doss [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Manoj-Doss]

Manesh Girn talks to us about the effects of psychedelics on the brain, based on his recent paper, "A complex systems perspective on psychedelic brain action [https://neuroscape.ucsf.edu/wp-content/uploads/publication/1-s2.0-S1364661323000219-main.pdf]". We discuss the current state of psychedelics as therapeutics, and how information theory can model changes in brain states that result from taking psychedelics. Special Guest: Manesh Girn.

We talk to Dr. Daniel Sternberg, head of data at Notion Labs, about how to understand new developments in AI (artificial intelligence) like DALL-E-2 and chatgpt. Topics include the possibility for general intelligence in AI, similarities between human cognition and generative AI models, and the potential for sentient AI.