The Genius of Dogs

"Brian Hare’s research on dogs, wolves, and great apes has been a game changer. No one is better placed to authoritatively translate the meaning of this research for a better understanding of the minds of dogs and our own species.”
— Richard Wrangham, author of Catching Fire and Demonic Males

The Friendliest Human

Until ~25,000 years ago we shared the planet with other human species.  These humans were large brained, cultural and perhaps even linguistic.  I will argue that our species survived because we experienced natural selection for friendliness toward intragroup strangers.

[NAB Seminiar] How does the brain detect mistakes and correct them? Cellular mechanisms of brain resilience.

Brain function is remarkably reliable despite the imprecise performance of neurons, and the continuous perturbations caused by aging, disease or injury. How does the brain  succeed in producing stereotypic behaviors over long periods of time despite these disruptions? We are studying the cellular mechanisms by which neuronal circuits are able to self-tune and adapt to perturbations.