Our Quest to Understand the Brain – with Matthew Cobb

The brain might be the most complicated object in the universe. Matthew Cobb explains how we know what we know.

Today we tend to picture the brain as a computer. Earlier scientists thought about it in their own technological terms: as a telephone switchboard, or a clock, or all manner of fantastic mechanical or hydraulic devices. Could the right metaphor unlock the brain's deepest secrets once and for all?

Galloping through centuries of wild speculation and ingenious, sometimes macabre anatomical investigations, scientist and historian Matthew Cobb reveals how we came to our present state of knowledge. Our latest theories allow us to create artificial memories in the brain of a mouse, and to build AI programmes capable of extraordinary cognitive feats. A complete understanding seems within our grasp.

Matthew Cobb is professor of zoology at the University of Manchester, where his research focuses on the sense of smell, insect behaviour and the history of science.

This lecture was filmed in the Ri on 12 March 2020.

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[TheRoyalInstitution]

Blast from the past! We were briefly allowed into the building the other day and we grabbed some of the videos we had shot before lockdown. We do love our livestreams but it's lovely to see the theatre again, even if just briefly.

[goonhoongtatt]

The electricity demonstration was done in the very same room where this lecture was held. Amazing.

[Banzybanz]

21:15 I get really impressed by some of this toy robots that can seem to find their way around a table without falling off. It's incredible that a simple machine from the 1930s can also do the same.

[SamuelDrives]

Sir interesting lecture, but Czechoslovakia doesn't exist nearly for 30 years, best wishes from Slovakia 🇸🇰 😄

[erichodge]

I want to watch every one of these RI presentations. They are so very good.

[Fists]

From that Grey Walter clip: "an electronic brain that functions like a human mind" ... "moves at random until the obstacle is cleared" Classic human behavior.

[benjamino]

Brilliant lecture especially if you've read the book. It really is a magnum opus and hearing Matthew pick his way through the key ideas helps bring it all together.

[berndeckenfels]

When I ponder, I am in my head, rub the forehead or even feel in headspace. Is this only because I am told that the bran is the significant organ or is there a real awareness?

[nycbearff]

Eventually we will manage to model how the brain works in its entirety, but that will take decades of work by many teams of scientists, using tools we don't have yet (tools we haven't imagined yet, in fact), and more computing power than currently exists on the planet. So, not next year, possibly next century. Its nice to see an actual scientist talking about this. He's clear about how little we know, how many mistaken ideas have been current in the past, and how difficult the task is - scientific thinking at its best.

[vasdgod]

Thank you royal instituition for this wonderful lecture

[eggsandwine]

Thanks for another fascinating video. Two small historical corrections. Galen was Greek, neither Roman nor Turkish. He lived during the Roman empire era and the fact that Pergamon, his city, is in present day Turkey has nothing to do with the ancient civilization that flourished there. And the Xmas lecture of Keith in 1916 wasn't during the second world war, but the first. Nevertheless these are minor mistakes irrelevant to the essence of this great lecture.

[davidnelsonblair]

It is your mention of Kenneth Craik in this lecture that inspired me to get your book. (I am now though Part 1, which is a terrific example of history of science, and I look forward to pressing on.) Craik's idea is that the mind models the surroundings and acts upon the model. If you want a materialist definition of the soul, there it is. It is astonishing to me that this idea emerged so recently--but, of course, you might correctly point out that I have been exposed to the computer modeling analogy for decades. I am so glad you chose to include this detailed history. History always illuminates science.

[PaaAL]

Greetings from "Czechoslovakia" !! :-D

[horrified]

From heart to passive reactive machine with localization to active system to complex networked system along with electricity and computer system. It is interesting to see how the interpretation of the brain gets sophisticated along with technological advancement and accumulation of knowledge.

[godwinaikins]

Please run me through the full course. I have the desire to learn and observe you teach me. Don't worry I am a good student.

[Form_Evolve_Invent_India]

The picture at 12:25min of the video may be suggesting Nural Network

[falstmusic]

Wow, I wonder how that could relate to recent advancements in longevity!

[falstmusic]

How about emergent properties of complex systems?

[railgap]

If the brain cannot comprehend, model, and full understand itself, then information theory declares we are in a simulation. ;D

[richardofoz]

I was expecting this to be an exposition on our current understanding of how the brain works, but unfortunately it's just a series of historical ideas which have now been disproved. A much more interesting and thought-provoking video would have presented the fascinating suggestions proposed by Jeff Hawkins in his book "On Intelligence". If you haven't read it, do yourself a favour and read it.