AI as a Model for the Brain

Cognitive Computational Neuroscience combines Artificial Intelligence, particularly Deep Learning, with Neuro- and Cognitive Sciences. It uses computer models to understand the complexity of the brain and how it functions. These models allow for precise reading out of internal parameters and variables and for manipulations that are not possible on the living brain for ethical or technical reasons. They can also help generate new hypotheses about how the brain works. Artificial neural networks, for example, have been successfully used to model visual processing, spatial navigation, and language processing. This has led, among other things, to the realization that prediction appears to be a crucial mechanism of perception. Although this research is still in its early stages, the potential for future breakthroughs in understanding how the brain works is significant.