Abstract

As part of his The Function Room podcast, Colm O’Regan (author, broadcaster and comedian) recently spoke to John Butler, a lecturer in the School of Mathematics & Statistics. John is an active researcher in mathematical neuroscience and is very involved in outreach and events to promote public understanding and engagement with science and mathematics. The podcast conversation started with a chat about John’s work investigating how our brains combine sensory signals called multisensory integration. They spoke about John’s collaboration with Jennifer Campos (Toronto Rehab) looking at how humans combine visual and body cues for walking and self-motion. The discussion led on to talking about John’s work with Sophie Molholm (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) and John Foxe (Rochester University) which studies audio-visual development in children with Autism: specifically, a study investigating the similarities in sensory processing between people with and without Autism. They then talked about how John had been at the right place and the right time to be part of the development of Mobile Brain Imaging (MoBI) and his work with Conor Fearon (Mater) using MoBI to investigate motor processing in People with Parkinson’s Disease. John spoke about having the privilege of being part of Neuromatch (featured in previous news articles) and being part of developing the teaching materials for thousands of students from over 100 countries to learn comp-neuro and Machine Learning, including making virtual escape rooms to explain comp-neuro concepts to kids. Lastly, they spoke about some of John’s ongoing and planned work using mathematical models to simulate multisensory integration which will provide even more insight into previous studies as well as develop predictions for future studies.