Thinking About Thinking Seminar: Prof. Karl Friston (and Dr. James Whittington) Weds 22nd July, 6pm BST
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Ruairidh Battleday
Jul 22, 2026, 2:59:06 PM (7 days ago) Jul 22
to Clare Maguire
Dear all,
A pleasure to invite you to our Summer Keynote Seminar, as part of the Thinking About Thinking Seminar series. After Prof. Friston's talk, he will have a fireside with Dr. James Whittington!
Details below:
✦ Thinking About Thinking: Fellowship Seminars: Professor Karl Friston FRS
𝑺𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒍𝒆: I am therefore I think
𝑫𝒂𝒕𝒆: Wednesday, 22 July 2026
𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆: 6:00pm BST
𝑳𝒐𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: https://lnkd.in/eqYEhYQc
This overview of the free energy principle offers an account of embodied exchange with the world that associates neuronal operations with actively inferring the causes of our sensations. The seminar links formal mathematical descriptions of dynamical systems with perception in terms of beliefs and goals.
Professor Friston will discuss how the lawful dynamics of living systems—from a single cell organism to the human brain—suggest that internal states can be interpreted as modelling or predicting the external causes of sensory fluctuations. In other words, if a system exists, its internal states must encode probabilistic beliefs about external states.
The seminar will also explore how this perspective informs functional anatomy through predictive coding and hierarchical architectures, before concluding with simulations demonstrating the epistemic behaviour that emerges through active inference.
𝑨𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒓:
Karl Friston is a theoretical neuroscientist and authority on brain imaging. He invented Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM), Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM), and Dynamic Causal Modelling (DCM). These contributions were motivated by schizophrenia research and theoretical studies of value-learning, formulated as the dysconnection hypothesis of schizophrenia.
His mathematical contributions include Variational Laplace and generalized filtering for hierarchical Bayesian model inversion. Friston currently works on models of functional integration in the human brain and the principles underlying neuronal interactions. His principal contribution to theoretical neurobiology is the free energy principle for action and perception (active inference).
He is Professor at the Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, and Honorary Consultant at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚: Dr. James Whittington (Oxford), Co-Founder and CSO, Thinking About Thinking
We look forward to welcoming you to the discussion.
Ruairidh and the team
𝑺𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒍𝒆: I am therefore I think
𝑫𝒂𝒕𝒆: Wednesday, 22 July 2026
𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆: 6:00pm BST
𝑳𝒐𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: https://lnkd.in/eqYEhYQc
This overview of the free energy principle offers an account of embodied exchange with the world that associates neuronal operations with actively inferring the causes of our sensations. The seminar links formal mathematical descriptions of dynamical systems with perception in terms of beliefs and goals.
Professor Friston will discuss how the lawful dynamics of living systems—from a single cell organism to the human brain—suggest that internal states can be interpreted as modelling or predicting the external causes of sensory fluctuations. In other words, if a system exists, its internal states must encode probabilistic beliefs about external states.
The seminar will also explore how this perspective informs functional anatomy through predictive coding and hierarchical architectures, before concluding with simulations demonstrating the epistemic behaviour that emerges through active inference.
𝑨𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒓:
Karl Friston is a theoretical neuroscientist and authority on brain imaging. He invented Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM), Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM), and Dynamic Causal Modelling (DCM). These contributions were motivated by schizophrenia research and theoretical studies of value-learning, formulated as the dysconnection hypothesis of schizophrenia.
His mathematical contributions include Variational Laplace and generalized filtering for hierarchical Bayesian model inversion. Friston currently works on models of functional integration in the human brain and the principles underlying neuronal interactions. His principal contribution to theoretical neurobiology is the free energy principle for action and perception (active inference).
He is Professor at the Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, and Honorary Consultant at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚: Dr. James Whittington (Oxford), Co-Founder and CSO, Thinking About Thinking
We look forward to welcoming you to the discussion.
Ruairidh and the team
 | Dr Ruairidh McLennan Battleday Chief Executive Officer Thinking About Thinking |
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