Episode 12: Cognitive Capacity, Multitasking, and Wisdom
In this episode I go back to my neuroscience roots with Earl K. Miller, Picower Professor of Neuroscience in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Earl studies the neural basis of executive brain functions, the ability to carry out goal-directed behavior using complex mental processes. We talk about learning, memory, and cognitive capacity. How wisdom is our brain encoding our experiences into principles, categories, and concepts using data compression. How sleep and anesthesia are similar and so very different, both invoking full-brain oscillations but one producing memories and the other amnesia. We dig into executive function, multitasking, switching costs, and sensory overload, and how these are manifested in autism, attention deficit disorder, and depression. What is interruption in this milieu? Listen in to find out!
Links
You can learn more about Earl and the work of his lab at https://ekmillerlab.mit.edu/earl-miller/
A fun video about multitasking featuring Earl: WBUR (2013) Digital Lives: The Science Behind Multitasking https://youtu.be/d4wvF3xAgLI
Papers we get into in the podcast:
Pinotsis, D.A., Fridman, G., and Miller, E.K. (2023) Cytoelectric Coupling: Electric fields sculpt neural activity and “tune” the brain’s infrastructure. Progress in Neurobiology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2023.102465. PDF
Lundqvist, M. Brincat, S.L., Rose, J. Warden, M.R., Buschman, T.J., Miller, E.K., and Herman, P. (2023) Working memory control dynamics follow principles of spatial computing. Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36555-4 PDF
Loonis, R.F, Brincat, S.L., Antzoulatos, E.G., and Miller, E.K. (2017) A meta-analysis suggests different neural correlates for implicit and explicit learning. Neuron. 96:521-534 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.09.032 View PDF
Read a Preview by Chafee and Crowe here
Pinotsis, D. A., Brincat, S. L., & Miller, E. K. (2017). On memories, neural ensembles and mental flexibility. NeuroImage, 157, 297-313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.05.068
Kornblith, S., Buschman, T.J., and Miller, E.K. (2015) Stimulus load and oscillatory activity in higher cortex. Cerebral Cortex. Published online August 18, 2015 https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhv182 View PDF »
Miller, E.K. and Buschman, T.J. (2015) Working memory capacity: Limits on the bandwidth of cognition. Daedalus, Vol. 144, No. 1, Pages 112-122. View PDF »
Miller, E.K. (2013) The ‘working’ of working memory’ Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 15:411-418. View PDF »
Miller, E.K. and Cohen, J.D. (2001) An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24:167-202. Designated a Current Classic by Thomson Scientific as among the most cited papers in Neuroscience and Behavior. View PDF »
Credits
Thank you to Emma Levinson for her artwork featured on our website. Segue music is Library (Ambient Version) by MagnusMoone licensed from Tribe of Noise BV (Certificate number 956ec9d5-c99f-48c5-b231-205e3a8a5546/38219), and intro/extro music is Bartok’s "Melody with Interruptions", played by Alan Huckleberry for The University of Iowa Piano Pedagogy Video Recording Project. The podcast image is a public domain lifestyle CC0 photo from Rawpixel, Free city at night.
