{"id":884,"date":"2017-11-27T11:00:14","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/?p=884"},"modified":"2025-05-27T13:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T13:01:12","slug":"what-can-machine-learning-teach-us-about-the-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/what-can-machine-learning-teach-us-about-the-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"What can machine learning teach us about the brain?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The underpinnings of human cognition remain mostly a mystery. Despite the advancement of tools and technology in neuroscience, our understanding of the brain and its functions is pretty superficial. Part of the problem lies in how we describe neuroscientific phenomena. The metaphors neuroscientists commonly use are taken from communications fields; they borrow terms such as \u201cprocessing stage\u201d and \u201cinformation transfer\u201d. However, these analogies only take us so far, and they aren\u2019t close enough to real biology. Daniel Bear argues<\/a><\/strong> that we need to start describing neuroscience in the language of a field inspired by evolution: machine learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brains are not designed exactly in the way that information theory demonstrates them to be. It\u2019s not all wrong, as the brain does follow computational principles in its transformations from stimuli to behaviour. However, the principles we use right now don\u2019t fit perfectly. We haven\u2019t improved on many of the early models. Through a machine learning process, an algorithm is learned automatically using a given rule to which the machine can adjust its internal parameters. Then slowly, through trial and error and internal adjustments, the machine learns all on its own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo by Robina Weermeijer<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through a similar process to natural selection, our brains may have learned how to use stimuli and produce behaviour by taking small steps in the right direction until perfecting the process. The defined areas of the brain and specific neurons serving different functions are there because they work. The brain adapted to function the way it does. Therefore, it follows that the best way to understand the functions of the human brain is through the lens of the simultaneously computational and evolutionary field of machine learning. This new perspective does not mean that we will finally understand everything about the brain, but just like evolution, it will point us in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The underpinnings of human cognition remain mostly a mystery. Despite the advancement of tools and technology in neuroscience, our understanding of the brain and its functions is pretty superficial. Part of the problem lies in how we describe neuroscientific phenomena. The metaphors neuroscientists commonly use are taken from communications fields; they borrow terms such as… View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":1821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[67,70,75,20],"class_list":["post-884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brain","tag-learning","tag-machine-learning","tag-science"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat can machine learning teach us about the brain? - Syngli - Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We haven't gotten far in explaining the mystery of the brain. This problem may be fixed if neuroscientists start using the language of machine learning.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/what-can-machine-learning-teach-us-about-the-brain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What can machine learning teach us about the brain? - Syngli - Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We haven't gotten far in explaining the mystery of the brain. 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