BI 249 Michael Cole: Brain Flows are the Units of Cognition

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Michael Cole is a professor at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers University. After 10 years running The Cole Neurocognition Lab, and reflecting on the work they've done and the field more broadly, he decided to write a book: Brain Flows: How Network Dynamics Compose the Human Mind. In the book, Michael argues that brain flows are the fundamental units of brain function and therefore cognition. We discuss what a brain flow is and is not, and how viewing cognition through the brain flow lens differs from other approaches, like viewing populations of neuron activity as fundamental units of cognition. In fact, Michael has found that most of the signal processing going on is between areas of networks, not within the areas of the networks. The first part of the discussion covers those kinds of basics, then we move on to discuss how different organizational features of brain flows, like compositional hierarchies, might explain "higher" cognitive functions like value-based goals, emotion, creativity, consciousness, intelligence, and mental disorders.

• The Cole Neurocognition Lab
• Twitter: @mwcole.bsky.social; @TheColeLab
• Book:
  • Brain Flows: How Network Dynamics Compose the Human Mind

0:00 - Intro 4:43 - Brain Flows 15:09 - Flow as a fundamental unit 16:45 - Functional connectivity 20:24 - Backstory 24:31 - Activity flow modeling 37:30 - Generative understanding 44:12 - Hierarchical compositionality 48:09 - Novelty 50:50 - Cognitive control 56:38 - Creativity 1:14:06 - Mental health and flows 1:21:51 - Consciousness and flow fields 1:31:12 - AI and brain flows