Unsupervised Thinking

For most people, the desire to study neuroscience comes from a desire to understand how, in some form, the brain leads to behavior. Generally, neuroscientists focus on the brain side of that relationship, but what obligation do they have to study behavior? Is it even possible to do proper neuroscience without a clear documenting of the behavior we seek to understand? We use a recent opinion article ("Neuroscience Needs Behavior: Correcting a Reductionist Bias") as a jumping off point to discuss these issues. In the paper, the authors argue that behavior is being neglected amongst neuroscientists and it must return to its status as "epistemologically prior." In particular, there are arguments for studying more natural behavior and quantifying behavior more precisely. In this episode we explain our general sympathies with this argument, but question the extent to which change is required. Should all neuroscientists stop what they're doing and study behavior? Are modern technologies drawing scientists away fr