Mindscape 284 | Doris Tsao on How the Brain Turns Vision Into the World

The human brain does a pretty amazing job of taking in a huge amount of data from multiple sensory modalities -- vision, hearing, smell, etc. -- and constructing a coherent picture of the world, constantly being updated in real time. (Although perhaps in discrete moments, rather than continuously, as we learn in this podcast...) We're a long way from completely understanding how that works, but amazing progress has been made in identifying specific parts of the brain with specific functions in this process. Today we talk to leading neuroscientist Doris Tsao about the specific workings of vision, from how we recognize faces to how we construct a model of the world around us.

Doris Tsao received her Ph.D. in neurobiology from Harvard University. She is currently a professor of molecular and cell biology, and a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, at the University of California, Berkeley. Among her awards are a MacArthur Fellowship, membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the Eppendorf and Science International Prize in Neurobiology, the National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award, the Golden Brain Award from the Minerva Foundation, the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize, and the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience.

#podcast #ideas #science #philosophy #culture

[davegrundgeiger]

This was wonderful! I especially like how they were both geeking out at the end and so obviously happy to have access to each other's expertise to come at the same topic from different directions. What a great model of intellectual discourse!

[dangeroustoothpaste]

Great episode as always! The conversation flowed very well. Dr. Tsao has worked and is working on some fascinating research. Thanks Sean for doing this show, you're a very good conversationalist and I appreciate that you clearly do your homework before each episode in order to be able to competently interview the guest.

[dazecm]

It was great Doris started to quiz Sean for his views on things near the end of the podcast where she mentions Sean's paper titled 'Why is there Something Rather than Nothing' and that there's the concept of something not necessarily having an answer. When friends ask me similar questions about why the Universe or life exists instead of nothing, I tell them the correct question is HOW is there something rather than nothing. Who knows, if there is an answer to the why question, it may very well be the case that asking the HOW question first is the right order in which to get to any answers if they exist.

[rumidude]

Could have listen to another hour of this.

[AugustReversal]

This is absolutely the best episode I've heard yet. This was so beyond fascinating and went into territory I was not expecting it to expand into. From visual to consciousness. Amazing episode! Thank you Sean and Doris!

[steliosp]

oh this is gonna be an excellent episode. i love this topic. saving it for tomorrow at work, thanks Sean, all the best!

[reecemarkowsky]

this was just fantastic. especially love how we learned about the fragmented consciousness at the same time as Sean Carroll.

[whitb]

I love how she seemed to agree with the rejection of the hard problem of consciousness to then use it at the end to show the irreducibility of consciousness.

[PedroTricking]

Easily one of the best episodes until now! Definitely top5 best!

[alfriedrich]

This was the best Mindscape episode I've listened to. So much fun, so many ideas coming together to complement each other. Great!

[lesliespeaker]

I was once so high on LSD, my vision glitched out and froze, it looked like a video stream suddenly cutting out, it all became blocky and parts of my FOV not just stopped moving overwriting other parts, until it all stopped, my vision froze in my mind. And the coolest part about it was, as soon as my vision froze, it felt like time stopped. My sense of before and after stopped existing. Even though I was able to think consecutive thoughts, and of that contradiction I was even aware of while this happened.

[davidhyduke]

Wow. Best discussion of concepts of vision and it's connection with consciousness I've ever heard. Thank you.

[TheGnocid]

thank you Sean, keep up your on the path !

[ThePrimaFacie]

There is a lot of really cool stuff in this. Thanks to both of you

[DirtmopAZ]

Loved this one. Really…opened my eyes to some things 😂. I also thought temporal lobe had to do with time processing or something.

[chrisnewell]

I like that. I was kind of yearning for Jocha Bach to be part of the conversation as he goes to the trouble to define these terms, much better, consciousness, sentience, intelligence, etc.

[aosidh]

It seems like the most common example of qualia is "seeing the color red". I wonder if this is significant 🙀

[neilbeni]

I have Left Hamonymous Hemianopia and when I bump into things that I don't perceive on my blind side, my body reacts to the object and reduces the impact like it knows the object it's about to collide with without my knowing and takes control of my body to soften or avoid the object..
I walk out of hospital after seizures and walk home whilst doing in and out of consciousness at particular points on the way home then wake up in my room.. I think it's my fight or flight taking over due to dissociation ..
My right optic nerve is disconnected..
And yes i see pictures not a smooth movie.

[bryandraughn]

While I'm fascinated by the idea that the brain creates a world for us to experience, based on models and sensory input, I'm astounded that the brain locates a "self" within that world.
"No matter where you go, there you are!"--George Carlin

[johnthehillboy]

Hello anyone,
For 300ms of unconsciousness to be considered a long time we would need to know how long moments of conscious perception are.
Do we? I didn’t catch that.
I also wonder if in the non-linear presentation of these packaged inferential steps; do any ever get lost, or unused, or recycled?
Thanks,
John