How brains see, move, and navigate the world

Visual illusions are striking because our eyes tell us something we know is incorrect. This talk will discuss some visual illusions that we humans see, some that insects see, and what we can learn about how the brain works by comparing the two.

In the context of large-scale changes in cannabis legislation, use of cannabis has increased dramatically in recent years, which is linked to notable risks for some individuals. I will present some recent work in which we identified brain features predictive of problem level cannabis use, which were found to generalize across four heterogeneous datasets, and discuss a bit about what these features can tell us about the brain basis of risk for problem cannabis use.

We usually think of the cerebellum, the “little brain” at the back of our heads, as mainly helping us move our bodies smoothly and accurately. But what if it also plays a role in how we think? In our study, we explored the idea that the cerebellum might help the brain perform mental movements, like rotating images in your mind or scrolling along an imagined number line while you do arithmetic. To test this, we studied how people with a type of brain degeneration that affects the cerebellum perform on different types of cognitive tasks. Our findings suggest that the cerebellum may be especially important for dynamic, movement-like processes in our thoughts, just like it is in physical motor control.