Perceiving Reality: From Statistics to Addiction

What can the work of Thomas Bayes, a 18th-century Presbyterian minister, teach us about brain function? In this talk, I'll explore the fascinating link between statistics and human cognition. We'll delve into the world of probabilistic inference and its vital role in decision-making, examine how we can conceptualise the brain as a probabilistic, Bayesian machine, and discuss the evidence supporting this view of cognition.

Have you ever done an immersive user experience, like virtual reality (VR)? If so, you may have noticed that after a few minutes your brain just ‘forgot’ about the real world around you, and you felt like you were ‘there’, inside the story. That feeling is called ‘a sense of presence’, and I research how it can be created… It’s not easy! It needs a lot of factors to come together, as I will explain with a real-life example from my PhD research.

Drug addiction does not happen suddenly; sometimes it can take many years to develop. Many people begin using drugs for fun, and at first, it might not seem harmful because they are only using them casually. For some, this casual use can gradually turn into addiction over time, however others may not go down that path. In this talk, I'll explore two psychological theories that aim to explain how casual drug use can eventually lead to addiction.

Do you feel telepathically connected to someone? Have you ever thought to have heightened senses? Then, you, like others, had unusual experiences of the world. Contrary to common belief, these experiences shouldn't be automatically labelled as maladaptive. Instead, we will explore the perspective that they might serve as adaptive representations of reality.