In this episode, I interview Leslee Lazar, a cognitive neuroscientist and visual artist. He is a professor at IIT Gandhinagar, at the Centre for Cognitive and Brain Science, working on processing of tactile perception in the somatosensory cortex of the brain. He is passionate about art and design, and uses illustrations, graphic design, infographics, collages and photography to convey complex stories. Neuroscientist by day, visual artist by evening, his research interests include understanding creativity and perception of art from a Neuroscience point of view. He has some amazing artworks, illustrations and posters that I'd recommend you to check out on his Instagram and Tumblr accounts, links to which can be found below.
In this episode, we talk about his journey - from Zoology to Neuroscience, his work on touch perception, about creativity, and about how we as humans share an innate appreciation for art and beauty. On the intersection of Computer Science and Neuroscience, I asked him about brain computer interfaces, like the ones being developed at Neuralink, and his thoughts on possibility of being able to model a digital brain one day. In the end, he shares some advice for people taking interest in Neuroscience and a list of books people can refer to, to get started.
This video was recorded before the lockdown in India.
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List of Top Neuroscience books for people starting out:
Links:
Leslee Lazar -
Website: https://lesleelazar.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/leslee_lazar
Instagram: https://instagram.com/dull_eye_llama
Tumblr: https://lesleelazar.tumblr.com
Centre for Cognitive and Brain Science: https://cogs.iitgn.ac.in
Nature article on COVID-19: https://nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9?fbclid=IwAR2xZouI4JVsZdFbIqLixXC-XC8mxMCQ_Inw2znKGcgrdeUW6kVzZQB_VVs
Podcast links -
Youtube: https://youtu.be/X2V5z6J6J1o
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2V22kZO
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3aItP1o
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4TuU8kZBCM2KWevHBAbpNj
Anchor: https://anchor.fm/deep-neural-notebooks/episodes/DNN-5-Neuroscience--Art-and-Creativity--Leslee-Lazar-ecaqoc
Connect:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mkulkhanna
Website: https://mukulkhanna.co
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mukulkhanna/
