Predict, then simplify.
Journal:
NeuroImage
Published Date:
Dec 6, 2017
Abstract
The desire to understand a given phenomenon is at the core of a scientist's mission. Yet what is meant by "understanding"? As soon as we try to operationalize this concept, I argue that understanding amounts to building models of a set of related empirical phenomena. In this commentary, I discuss three such criteria, namely, predictability, simplicity, and computability, that I find useful in guiding the quest for better models and what they imply for the use of deep nets in brain research.