CogNation

Fresh from Psychedelic Science 2025, Dr. Steve Levine, the chief patient officer at Compass Pathways, talks to us about new Phase 3 results for psilocybin in treating depression.

Rolf and Joe wrap up their 3-part series on dreaming with Finnish neuroscientist and philosopher Antti Revonsuo. Dr. Revonsuo is the originator of the Threat Simulation theory of dreams, which suggests that dreams are simulated worlds in which we may practice threatening situations. Topics include the history and methodology in dream research, how our brains create simulated worlds, the particular nature of the simulated dream world, and how this applies to waking consciousness. We base our discussion on three forthcoming papers: Revonsuo, A. (in press) Toward a Metaphysics of Consciousness: Science and the Fundamental Nature of Subjective Experience. To appear in The Scientific Study of Consciousness: Experimental and Theoretical Approaches. (Springer Nature). Revonsuo, A. & Tuominen, J. (in press) The Concept of Dreaming as a World. To appear in Threshold Worlds (Oxford University Press). Revonsuo, A., Valli, K., & Tuominen, J. (in preparation) Evolutionary Simulation Theories of Dreaming.

In their second episode in a series on dreaming, Joe and Rolf are joined by Dr. Pilleriin Sikka, a Stanford neuroscientist who is currently studying the therapeutic value of dreams under anesthesia.  Hack, L. M., Sikka, P., Zhou, K., Kawai, M., Chow, H. S., & Heifets, B. (2024). Reduction in Trauma-Related Symptoms After Anesthetic-Induced Intra-Operative Dreaming. American Journal of Psychiatry, 181(6), 563-564. https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.20230698

This episode is dedicated to the memory of colleague and friend Grace Baron [https://wheatoncollege.edu/news/no-time-like-now/]. Joe and Rolf talk to Dr. Matthew Goodwin, a professor at Northeastern University whose research focus is on autism. His most recent paper [https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2813185] used biosensing (heart rate, skin conductance, etc.) to predict aggressive behavior in profound autistic individuals up to three minutes before the event.

Joe and Rolf discuss the ideas of perceptual psychologist Donald Hoffman, who has argued that our perceptual systems have no access to reality, since evolution is driven by fitness functions, not objective truth. He has also argued that our perception is a user interface (like a desktop on a computer, or a VR headset), and that objects such as the moon don't exist when we are not apprehending them.   Hoffman, Donald. The case against reality: Why evolution hid the truth from our eyes. WW Norton & Company, 2019. Bagwell, J. N. (2023). Debunking interface theory: why Hoffman's skepticism (really) is self-defeating. Synthese, 201(1), 25.

Why do we dream, and what is the meaning of our dreams? Rolf and Joe talk about several ideas about dreaming, including a new theory by David Eagleman called the "defensive activation theory", which proposes that dreams are like a screen saver to keep the visual parts of the brain from being overtaken by other senses. Eagleman, D. M., & Vaughn, D. A. (2020). The Defensive Activation theory: dreaming as a mechanism to prevent takeover of the visual cortex. bioRxiv, 2020-07.

What can neuroscience teach us about AI, and vice versa, what can AI teach us about our own intelligence? Joe and Rolf talk to returning guest Daniel Sternberg about advances in AI over the past year. Topics include using the methods of cognitive psychology to understand AI; representation in artificial intelligence; what current large language models  (LLMs) are good at and not good at; sentience in AI; the future of humanity; and other important stuff. Natural and Artificial Intelligence: A brief introduction to the interplay between AI and neuroscience research [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0893608021003683] (Macpherson, et al., 2021) Can AI language models replace human participants? [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e57f82eb306fc38c7637f33/t/6490afc6074d6e3982f6d049/1687203782514/can-AI-language-models-replace-human-participants.pdf] (Dillion, et al., 2023) Language models show human-like content effects on reasoning [https://stanford.edu/~jlmcc/papers/DasguptaLampinenEtAl22LMsShowHumanLikeContentEffectsInReasoning.pdf] (Dasgupta et al., 2022)

Neil Markey, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, used meditation for years to deal with depression and PTSD. He is currently CEO of Beckley Retreats, a group that runs retreats to Jamaica and the Netherlands for guided psychedelic experiences. He talks about his path from the military to consulting to his work with Beckley, how guided psychedelic retreats are run (including work to prepare in advance, as well as to integrate after), and how he envisions the future of psychedelics for both treatment of disorders and for enhancing quality of life for those without disorders. Special Guest: Neil Markey.

We discuss the recent controversy about Integrated Information Theory (IIT), a theory about the neural correlates of consciousness, with Felipe De Brigard, a philosophy and psychology professor at Duke University who signed a letter describing the theory as pseudoscience. The letter: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/zsr78/ The adversarial collaboration: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268577 Description of IIT: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011465

Joe and Rolf talk to psychedelic researcher Robin Carhart-Harris. Robin is at the cutting edge of research on the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics such as psilocybin (magic mushrooms), LSD, and DMT. He discusses psychotherapy and the unconscious mind, models of what psychedelics are doing in the brain, and many other topics. A really fascinating and in-depth conversation. You can find links to his published research as well as a series of videos on harm reduction at the following link: https://www.carhartharrislab.com/ Special Guest: Robin Carhart-Harris.

Joe and Rolf discuss new work in neural interfaces that is helping paralyzed individuals communicate. Based on the recent Nature article: Metzger, S. L., Littlejohn, K. T., Silva, A. B., Moses, D. A., Seaton, M. P., Wang, R., ... & Chang, E. F. (2023). A high-performance neuroprosthesis for speech decoding and avatar control. Nature, 1-10.

Rolf and Joe discuss two philosophical theories of the self, Bundle Theory and Ego Theory, based on a paper by Derek Parfit. They return to the topic of the teletransporter, and although Joe is happy to go through the teletransporter, Rolf is convinced it means certain death. Parfit, D. (2016). Divided minds and the nature of persons. Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence, 91-98.

In this episode, CogNation goes to the Psychedelic Science conference in Denver to get in on all the excitement. We present four interviews from the conference that represent a range of ideas about the resurgent interest in psychedelics as therapeutics. Bekely Waves [https://www.beckleywaves.com/] The East Institute [https://www.theeastinstitute.com/] Balasz Szigeti [https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Balazs-Szigeti-2142276444] Manoj Doss [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Manoj-Doss]

Everyone has a set of beliefs. Increasingly, it seems like we wonder how so many people can hold opposite or contradictory beliefs -- puzzling if we think there's an objective reality. We have a great conversation with Mark Solomon, a clinical psychologist and the host of the Being Reasonable podcast, about Street Epistemology, a conversational method of probing why we believe what we believe. https://www.beingreasonableshow.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@BeingReasonable Special Guest: Mark Solomon.

Manesh Girn talks to us about the effects of psychedelics on the brain, based on his recent paper, "A complex systems perspective on psychedelic brain action [https://neuroscape.ucsf.edu/wp-content/uploads/publication/1-s2.0-S1364661323000219-main.pdf]". We discuss the current state of psychedelics as therapeutics, and how information theory can model changes in brain states that result from taking psychedelics. Special Guest: Manesh Girn.

We talk with Professor Gail Sahar about her new book, entitled "Blame and Political Attitudes: The Psychology of America's Culture War", where she applies social psychology to understand where and why we assign blame in the political sphere. https://www.amazon.com/Blame-Political-Attitudes-Psychology-Americas/dp/303120235X

We talk to Dr. Daniel Sternberg, head of data at Notion Labs, about how to understand new developments in AI (artificial intelligence) like DALL-E-2 and chatgpt. Topics include the possibility for general intelligence in AI, similarities between human cognition and generative AI models, and the potential for sentient AI.

Stephanie Preston (University of Michigan) returns to the show to talk about her latest research. Why do we hoard stuff? And how can we get people to care about the consequences of all that stuff on the environment? Her research has taken her from the strategies that some rats use to hide seeds (some hide in lots of small caches, while others hoard in a single location), to the cognitive/neural/emotional mechanisms of human beings with hoarding disorder. People tend to have emotional attachments to the stuff they own, and although most of us have more stuff than we need, for those with hoarding disorder it can be overwhelming. In other recent research, Stephanie and her colleagues found individual differences in how connected people felt to the environment -- impassive people were less likely to be concerned about the destructive effects on the environment, and that politically conservative people tended to be more impassive. Paper discussed: Bickel, L. A., & Preston, S. D. (2022). Environmental impassivity: Blunted emotionality undermines concern for the environment. Emotion. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001072 Special Guest: Stephanie Preston.

Joe and Rolf talk to Dr. Aric Prather, a clinical psychiatrist at UCSF and author of the new book "The Sleep Prescription: Seven Days to Unlocking Your Best Rest" about why sleep is important, the relationship of stress to sleep, and how to tune your body and environment to get a great night's sleep. Special Guest: Aric Prather.

Is self-control at age 4 a predictor of lifelong success? Rolf & Joe look at new studies that replicate and extend Mischel's marshmallow experiments, discussing why some kids can wait longer for a bigger treat and what the test itself means. Links: Watts, T. W., Duncan, G. J., & Quan, H. (2018). Revisiting the Marshmallow Test: A Conceptual Replication Investigating Links Between Early Delay of Gratification and Later Outcomes. Psychological Science, 29(7), 1159–1177. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618761661 The Atlantic: Why Rich Kids are so Good at the Marshmallow Test [https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/marshmallow-test/561779/]