On the philosophy of simplification in computational neuroscience - with Mazviita Chirimuuta and Terrence Sejnowski - #29
Computational neuroscientists rely on simplification when they make their models. But what is the right level of simplification? When should we, for example, use a biophysically detailed model and whe...
21 Jun 20251h 24min
On whole-cell modeling of bacteria - with Markus Covert - #28
A future computational neuroscience project could be to model not only the signal processing properties of neurons, but also all processes that keep a neuron alive for, say, a 100-year life span. In 2...
24 Mai 20252h 4min
On construction and clinical use of multipurpose neuron models - with Etay Hay - #27
Numerous neuron models have been made, but most of them are "single-purpose" in that they are made to address a single scientific question. In contrast, multipurpose neuron models are made to be used ...
26 Apr 20251h 13min
On the population code in visual cortex - with Kenneth Harris - #26
With modern electrical and optical measurement techniques, we can now measure neural activity in hundreds or thousands of neurons simultaneously. This allows for the investigation of population codes,...
29 Mar 20251h 24min
On growing synthetic dendrites – with Hermann Cuntz - #25
The observed variety of dendritic structures in the brains is striking. Why are they so different, and what determine the branching patterns? Following the dictum "if you understand it, you can build ...
1 Mar 20251h 34min
On neuroscience foundation models - with Andreas Tolias - #24
The term "foundation model" refers to machine learning models that are trained on vast datasets and can be applied to a wide range of situations. The large language model GPT-4 is an example. The grou...
1 Feb 20251h 31min
On human whole-brain models - with Viktor Jirsa - #23
A holy grail of the multiscale approach for physical brain modelling is to link the different scales from molecules, via cells and local neural networks, up to whole-brain models. The goal of the Virt...
4 Jan 20251h 55min
On 40 years with the Hopfield network model - with Wulfram Gerstner - #22
In 1982 John Hopfield published the paper "Neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities" describing a simple network model functioning as an associative and co...
7 Des 20241h 27min
