What Gives Brain Activity Meaning?

Is Seeing Really Believing?

We move through the world assuming our senses are in sync. Sight, sound, touch—they usually agree. But flip just one of them, and the whole system starts to wobble. That’s exactly what happens with prism goggles. This week, I revisit some classic experiments with inverting goggles. How does the brain adapt to conflicting signals? Does it rebuild an internal representation—or just adjust its predictions? What are we really doing when we say we’re seeing? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com [https://suzitravis.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Looking for Meaning

We talk about meaning all the time — what things mean, what people mean, what life means. It feels obvious that meaning is something we have. Probably in the brain. Somewhere. Neuroscientists even talk that way. They say things like, “This part of the brain represents faces,” or “That spike means the person saw a dog.” But it’s not clear what “means” really means in this context. What is meaning? And where does it really come from? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com [https://suzitravis.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Does the Mind Need a Body?

Most of us take it for granted that our thoughts have meaning. You can think about a dog, a holiday, or the square root of 144 — and somehow, your brain just gets it. Cognitive science has long explained this by saying the brain uses internal representations: mental models that stand in for things in the world. But not everyone agrees. Some researchers say we’ve got it backwards — that meaning doesn’t come from internal models, but from how we move through and interact with the world. So which is it? Are our minds built on internal maps — or is meaning something we do, not something we store? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com [https://suzitravis.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

What Gives Brain Activity Meaning?

We might mistake a garden hose for a snake. There’s no snake — just a brain responding to the wrong thing in the wrong way. But somehow, we still say the our brain represents a snake. Even though there is no snake. That sounds straightforward, until you ask what “represent” really means — and how a lump of neurons can be about anything. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com [https://suzitravis.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Does your Brain Represent the Outside World?

When you see a dog, something happens in your brain. A pattern of activity fires, and somehow, that pattern feels like it means something. Cognitive scientists often say that your brain “represents” things — objects, ideas, emotions, and dogs. Representations is how we explain perception, memory, language, and thought. But not everyone agrees that this idea holds up. Some say the notion of representation is more metaphor than mechanism. So what does it really mean to say your brain represents something? And is it the right way to think about what the brain does? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com [https://suzitravis.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]