Jaan Aru
@jaanaru.bsky.social
Raising two kids, co-PI-lot of the Natural and Artificial Intelligence Lab & trying to do some funky research on the intersection of neuroscience, psychology and AI. Estonian nail.cs.ut.ee https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=FvFOzS8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=a
Another nail in the coffin of computational functionalism. Excellent paper by @neuromorphicboki.bsky.social and @jaanaru.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
On biological and artificial consciousness: A case for biological computationalism
The rapid advances in the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) have galvanised public and scientific debates over whether artificial systems m…
sciencedirect.com
New open-access paper out in Trends in Cognitive Sciences: Explanation, scope, and perspective: sources of schismogenesis in consciousness science Francesco Ellia & Naotsugu Tsuchiya A thread 1/n🧵 www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
Explanation, scope, and perspective: sources of schismogenesis in consciousness science
Contemporary consciousness science faces an impasse: competing theoretical frameworks—structuralist versus functionalist, universal versus local, intrinsic versus extrinsic—appear to be inducing philo...
cell.com
Wholehearted recommendation to listen to @jaanaru.bsky.social on @braininspired.bsky.social ! So much in there about neurobiological theories of consciousness but also about academic freedom and diversity! 🧠🌍🌎🌏🧠
The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 6mo agoIn the latest @braininspired.bsky.social, @jaanaru.bsky.social argues that our brain’s computations are of a different nature than any AI; brains compute across spatial and temporal scales, and the computations are entwined with the biological materials. www.thetransmitter.org/brain-inspir...
Did someone want systematic reviews of the effects of psychedelics? We have two: A review of electrophysiology, out now in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral reviews www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... And a review of cognitive effects in J of Psychopharmacology journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Electrophysiological Mechanisms of Psychedelic Drugs: A Systematic Review
Serotonergic psychedelics are known for their profound effects on consciousness and are gaining renewed interest as potential psychiatric treatments. …
sciencedirect.com
In the latest @braininspired.bsky.social, @jaanaru.bsky.social argues that our brain’s computations are of a different nature than any AI; brains compute across spatial and temporal scales, and the computations are entwined with the biological materials. www.thetransmitter.org/brain-inspir...
Modern AI is simply no match for the complexity likely required for harboring consciousness, says Jaan Aru
He argues that our brain’s computations are of a completely different nature than any artificial intelligence because they take place across many spatial and temporal scales and are inextricably…
thetransmitter.org
"The Self-Evidencing Agent" - my new book - is out now with @mitpress.bsky.social Can be purchased, or just download the whole thing for free, via the 'Open Access' option. I'm grateful to @anilseth.bsky.social and Karl Friston for the generous endorsements. mitpress.mit.edu/978026255389...
The Self-Evidencing Agent
What is it to be a human individual, an agent? According to Jakob Hohwy, it is to “self-evidence,” to actively seek out sensory evidence for one&...
mitpress.mit.edu
A third way between computational functionalism and biological naturalism? @neuromorphicboki.bsky.social & @jaanaru.bsky.social think so 👇
Borjan (Boki) Milinković@neuromorphicboki.bsky.social · 8mo ago🎊📜 NEW PAPER 📜🎊 Can we seriously build synthetic consciousness? And if so, where do we start? I’m super excited to present recent publication in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews where @jaanaru.bsky.social and I confront this challenge head on. 1/n
The prospect of artificial consciousness might be both over- and underrated 🤔
Borjan (Boki) Milinković@neuromorphicboki.bsky.social · 8mo ago🎊📜 NEW PAPER 📜🎊 Can we seriously build synthetic consciousness? And if so, where do we start? I’m super excited to present recent publication in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews where @jaanaru.bsky.social and I confront this challenge head on. 1/n
Under challenging conditions, human vision turns into iterative problem solving. Typical deep learning algorithms don't do this. Our paper out now in Plos Computational Biology journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol... work led by @tarunkhajuria.bsky.social #visionscience #neuroAI
Comparing a computational model of visual problem solving with human vision on a difficult vision task
Author summary Human vision is not just about passively receiving information from the environment. Rather, it also involves actively making sense of what we see. When faced with unclear or incomplete...
journals.plos.org
There is a lot of talk about LLMs revolutionizing education. But once you get into it, things are not that trivial. Here, we summarize the questions that emerge when trying to implement AI Tutors nationwide. Out now in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social #edusky authors.elsevier.com/a/1ltdo4sIRv...
Our open-access article - Testing circuit-level theories of consciousness in humans - together with Yunkai Zhu, Carolina Fernandez Pujol, @dvwz.bsky.social, @jonescompneurolab.bsky.social, @tmarvan.bsky.social, and @danclab.bsky.social, was just published @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social · 11mo agoOnline Now: Testing circuit-level theories of consciousness in humans
Could we understand vision as a type of problem-solving? In this new paper, we develop a computational model that iteratively refines the hypothesis about the visual input with evolutionary search. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... work led by @tarunkhajuria.bsky.social #visionscience #neuroAI
We systematically reviewed 23 in vitro and 26 in vivo electrophysiological studies on psychedelic compounds, with an emphasis on layer 5 pyramidal neurons. Our results challenge the simplified view that psychedelics uniformly increase cortical excitability www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
If you're interested in consciousness, please check this accepted chapter where I try to confront two major assumptions 1) the NCC is probably some type of pattern of spiking 2) we're close to figuring out the computations underlying consciousness arxiv.org/abs/2506.21485 #consci #assc28 🧵👇
The assumptions that restrain us from understanding consciousness
The science of consciousness has been successful over the last decades. Yet, it seems that some of the key questions remain unanswered. Perhaps, as a science of consciousness, we cannot move forward u...
arxiv.org
Researchers in Estonia created a logic game that requires creating a mental model of a haunted house. It's not easy! Only 31% of humans can solve it. But that's way better than generative AI models. The game is fun, try it via the link below. Whatever we mean by reasoning, this is reasoning.
Jaan Aru@jaanaru.bsky.social · last yr.We created the simplest possible scenario for testing the flexibility of world models in LLMs and humans🌍 Your favorite model cannot really solve the game (also tested DeepSeek and O3 mini). If you try hard, you can💪 paper osf.io/preprints/os... game paul-henryp.github.io/hauntedhouse
A great thread by Matthew Larkum on our recent paper🧵 He clarifies how we model the experiment with the Turing machine and ends his thread with the hard choice the computational functionalist must face😢
Matthew Larkum@mattlark.bsky.social · last yr.Does neural computation feel like something? In our new paper, we explore a paradox: if you replay all the neural activity of a brain—every spike, every synapse—does it recreate conscious experience? 🧠 doi.org/10.3389/fnin...
The belief that artificial consciousness is coming crucially depends on the assumption that consciousness is a computation. In this new paper, we'll try to convince you that consciousness cannot be a computation w Albert Gidon and M.Larkum www.frontiersin.org/journals/neu... #neuroAI #consci
'The illusion of Conscious AI' - new short piece of @bigthink.com bigthink.com/neuropsych/t... (for the longer version, see my Behavioural and Brain Sciences target article, which is now accepting commentary proposals): www.cambridge.org/core/journal... 🧠
The illusion of conscious AI
Neuroscientist Anil Seth explains why people often overestimate how likely it is that AI will become conscious.
bigthink.com
𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸? Don't expect simple mappings between mind and brain. Check out this piece I wrote for Aeon. aeon.co/essays/how-t...
How the human brain is like a murmuration of starlings | Aeon Essays
The brain is much less like a machine than it is like the murmurations of a flock of starlings or an orchestral symphony
aeon.co
With immense pleasure, here is our #TICS opinion paper on "mind blanking"! @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social **Where is my mind?** A neurocognitive investigation of mind blanking www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... With Jenny Windt, @antoinelutz.bsky.social and @ademertzi.bsky.social
ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.
authors.elsevier.com
Proud to announce our primer on "Ten principles for reliable, efficient, and adaptable coding in psychology and cognitive neuroscience" www.nature.com/articles/s44... This primer is for beginners to get started, advanced programmers to improve, and PIs. #psychology #psychsci #cogsci #neuroskyence
Ten principles for reliable, efficient, and adaptable coding in psychology and cognitive neuroscience - Communications Psychology
Programming is essential for modern research in neuroscience and psychology, but it can quickly become a source of frustration and error. This Primer introduces ten practical principles guiding resear...
nature.com
𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀: 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆 How can network science tackle complex biological systems? Substantially reworked version Largely conceptual, would be happy to see others fill in details or collaborate if people find it of value osf.io/preprints/os... #complexity
I am so happy—this is the first 1st author paper I have written, since the cancer diagnosis of my late wife seven years ago. 📑 PAPER ALERT: "Beyond binding: from modular to natural vision" in Trends in Cognitive Sciences (2025) sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
New paper from the Neurosurgery Research Team at BCM! "Learning and language in the unconscious human hippocampus" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Learning and language in the unconscious human hippocampus
Consciousness is a fundamental component of cognition, but the degree to which higher-order perception relies on it remains disputed. Here we demonstrate the persistence of learning, semantic processi...
biorxiv.org
We created the simplest possible scenario for testing the flexibility of world models in LLMs and humans🌍 Your favorite model cannot really solve the game (also tested DeepSeek and O3 mini). If you try hard, you can💪 paper osf.io/preprints/os... game paul-henryp.github.io/hauntedhouse
OSF
osf.io
2.5 years after ‘the great debate’ at ASSC Amsterdam, we revisit it: Lamme, @standehaene.bsky.social , @smfleming.bsky.social , Boly and @anilseth.bsky.social present their theories, and Melloni and myself try to extract some insights and criticisms. >>> www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Unpacking the complexities of consciousness: Theories and reflections
As the field of consciousness science matures, the research agenda has expanded from an initial focus on the neural correlates of consciousness, to de…
sciencedirect.com
From tiny aha's to big realizations: The bigger the conflict, the deeper the insight💡 🌩️ We propose a new theory of mental breakthroughs bridging insights from problem-solving, psychotherapy, psychedelics, and meditation. out now in Cognition Free access: authors.elsevier.com/a/1ka-O2Hx2-...
What's the difference between artificial and human creativity? In this new paper, I also discuss how AI may negatively affect the internal processes of human creativity, such as the development of skills, creative authenticity, and the diversity of ideas onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Artificial Intelligence and the Internal Processes of Creativity
Artificial intelligence (AI) systems capable of generating creative outputs are reshaping our understanding of creativity. This shift presents an opportunity for creativity researchers to reevaluate ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The issue is perhaps this: biological neurons are cells, artificial neurons are just a piece of code. H1: this difference doesn't matter as all computation is done by weights & spiking patterns H2: this difference matters, as weights & spiking are just one aspect To me, this is far from settled.
Blake Richards@tyrellturing.bsky.social · 2y agoWhy does anyone have any issue with this? I've seen people suggesting it's problematic, that neuroscientists won't like it, and so on. But, I literally don't see why this is problematic...