I am interested in how the brain works. How do you learn to solve a problem, and are there any limitations on learning? Looking into these limits and how they may be overcome suggests that a large part of the brain’s circuitry is involved in proofreading. Learning is thought to involve updates to the connections between neurons and the idea is that, since these updates are not perfectly accurate, a complete breakdown in learning can occur. A solution to this puzzle (humans are able to solve problems) is that the brain makes sure that the learning update goes to the right synapse by proofreading the signals generated by the neurons on either side of the synapse, similar to the way DNA polymerases proofread the duplicate string of DNA they are making to ensure there are no errors.
A related area I am interested in is how civilisation becomes intelligent, i.e. cultural evolution. Individual learning, even with proofreading, is still hard, yet humans have managed to accumulate a vast array of knowledge and especially concepts. This has been put down to transmission of ideas through language. However, language alone is not enough because incorrect solutions can be learned by people and so on average the population learns just as many bad solutions as good ones. A possible way out of this is endow individuals who have found a good solution with a sign that their solution is good.
My contributions regarding the above can be found here