Matthias Nau (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), “Revealing General Principles Underlying Active Vision and Memory”

Abstract:
Cognitive neuroscience seeks theories that jointly explain behavioral, neural, and mental states. The dominant approach is to use specialized tasks designed to optimally probe a concept of interest (e.g., episodic memory), and to disentangle behavioral, sensory, and mnemonic factors through design (e.g., by constraining gaze during image recognition). I will present an alternative framework that instead recognizes that concepts such as perception, memory, and action are often inextricable, both theoretically and empirically, which I demonstrate for example by showing that brain activity during movie viewing and recall is linked through eye movements. I will argue that new generalizable concepts are needed to explain phenomena across domains, and outline how such concepts may be empirically derived through multi-task studies: by testing generalization of results across tasks and data modalities, we reveal the mutual constraints task demands impose on behavioral, neural, and mental states. In this context, I will also highlight the importance of ‘naturalistic’ tasks and behavioral tracking for cognitive neuroscience, and briefly introduce open-source tools for camera-free MR-based eye tracking.

Image created by Maria Ott with DALL-E.