A focused look at how network models try to track changing burst timing in brain organoids.
Gaute Einervold centers the discussion on models that can be used either for qualitative insight or for a quantitative fit to experimental data.
Theoretical Neuroscience Podcast
Gaute Einevoll
39 episodes listed below
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In their own words
The podcast focuses on topics in theoretical/computational neuroscience and is primarily aimed at students and researchers in the field.
As heard by us
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Technical interviews reveal how computational neuroscientists turn neural measurements into models, test their assumptions, and confront the limits of simplification.
Gaute Einvold starts with a precise problem, builds the conceptual footing, then brings a guest into the machinery of the research. Theoretical Neuroscience Podcast treats models as scientific arguments: ways to explain neural activity, test assumptions against experiments, and…
Why you'd press play
The brain presses gas and brake together; Gaute Einvold makes you ask why.
Press play if you want
- to understand how balanced excitation and inhibition can still produce a spike
- to follow researchers turning organoid firing patterns into a spiking network model
Talks about
Best episodes of Theoretical Neuroscience Podcast
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear look at how neuroscience models stay trustworthy over time.
This episode takes a clear-eyed look at what lets a neuroscience model outlive the project that built it. The Potjans-Diesmann network anchors a practical discussion of reproducibility, code sharing, documentation, robustness against user error, flexibility, and the…
A clear, grounded tour of how balanced networks became a core idea in computational neuroscience.
Balanced neural networks are one of the central ideas in computational neuroscience, and the episode gives them both their history and their mechanics.
Models, stimulation, and clinic-ready neurotechnology, handled with real technical seriousness.
This conversation frames computational neuroscience as a path toward clinical neurotechnology, moving from brain recordings and stimulation to tools meant to help people with brain disorders and disabilities.
A technical but grounded look at plasticity, with scientific self-correction folded into the theory.
Plasticity arrives here with more friction than the familiar "neurons that fire together wire together" line allows. Gauta Einvold and Tim Vogels move from spike timing at excitatory synapses to the harder question of what inhibitory synapses are doing, keeping the discussion…
A philosophy of simplification becomes tangible through mosquito repellent, vision, and an underfunded ping-pong robot.
Computational neuroscience gets a philosophical frame through a simple question with real weight: what does it mean to simplify a brain? Gautam Einvall opens with mosquito repellent, moving between molecules acting on receptors and the harder question of what a mosquito might…
A focused look at how a richly detailed neuron model becomes a reusable tool for computational neuroscience.
Multipurpose neuron models sit at the center of a thoughtful discussion about when biological detail becomes useful rather than simply impressive.
A focused look at how visual neuroscience expanded from single neurons to population codes.
The episode follows Ken through a central shift in visual neuroscience: from asking what one neuron says about an image to asking how a population of neurons carries that information together.
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Episodes
- 1
On modeling metabolic networks in the brain – with Polina Shichkova - #35
·1h 32m·5 clips - 2
On modeling neural population activity with mean-field models - with Tilo Schwalger - #39
Mar 28, 2026·2h 19m - 3
On extracting spiking network models from experiments - with Richard Gao - #38
Hidden gemRichard Gao says spiking networks are hard to fit because random parameter sets usually produce silence or runaway synchrony instead of usable activity.
Feb 28, 2026·1h 36m·5 clips - 4
On reproducibility of modeling and 10 years with the Potjans-Diesmann network model - with Hans Ekkehard Plesser - #37
Hidden gemGaute Einvold's Theoretical Neuroscience Podcast episode #37 puts Hans-Eckhard Plesser on reproducibility in computational neuroscience and the 10-year anniversary of the Potjans-Diesmann model.
Jan 31, 2026·1h 29m·5 clips - 5
On low-dimensional manifolds in motor cortex - with Sara Solla - #36
Jan 3, 2026·2h 5m - 6
On balanced neural networks - with Nicolas Brunel - #34
Hidden gemTheoretical Neuroscience Podcast #34 with Nicolas Brunel focuses on balanced neural networks, where recurrent cortical neurons receive large excitatory and inhibitory currents that nearly cancel.
Nov 8, 2025·1h 39m·5 clips - 7
On computational neurotechnology for the clinic - with Anthony Burkitt, Nada Yousif & Esra Neufeld - #33
Hidden gemGautam Einhul hosts a live CNS25 panel in Florence, Italy, with Anthony Burkitt, Nada Yousif, and Esra Neufeld on computational neurotechnology for the clinic.
Oct 11, 2025·1h 1m·4 clips - 8
On IIT and adversarial testing of consciousness theories - with Christof Koch - #32
Sep 13, 2025·2h 18m - 9
On how to cure brain diseases - with Nicole Rust - #31
Aug 16, 2025·2h 13m - 10
On co-dependent excitatory and inhibitory plasticity - with Tim Vogels - #30
Hidden gemGauta Einvold interviews Tim Vogels about synaptic plasticity, from Hebb's rule and 1990s spike-timing experiments to co-dependent excitatory and inhibitory learning rules.
Jul 19, 2025·1h 31m·5 clips - 11
On the philosophy of simplification in computational neuroscience - with Mazviita Chirimuuta and Terrence Sejnowski - #29
Gautam Einvall, Masvita Chirimuta, and Terry Sejnowski examine how computational neuroscience chooses what to omit when modeling neural systems.
Jun 21, 2025·1h 24m·5 clips - 12
On whole-cell modeling of bacteria - with Markus Covert - #28
May 24, 2025·2h 4m - 13
On construction and clinical use of multipurpose neuron models - with Etay Hay - #27
Hidden gemGautam Einvall interviews Etay Hay about the 2011 multipurpose model of a rat layer 5B pyramidal neuron, built from reconstructed morphology, electrophysiological data, and 22 fitted parameters.
Apr 26, 2025·1h 13m·5 clips - 14
On the population code in visual cortex - with Kenneth Harris - #26
Ken Harris explains how population codes represent visual stimuli across thousands of neurons rather than through single-neuron receptive fields.
Mar 29, 2025·1h 25m·5 clips - 15
On growing synthetic dendrites – with Hermann Cuntz - #25
Mar 1, 2025·1h 35m - 16
On neuroscience foundation models - with Andreas Tolias - #24
Feb 1, 2025·1h 32m - 17
On human whole-brain models - with Viktor Jirsa - #23
Hidden gemViktor Jirsa tells host Gaute Einevoll that a virtual brain twin combines three ingredients: neural-mass network nodes, connectivity and space from MRI/CT/DTI, and a source-to-sensor mapping to EEG/MEG signals.
Jan 4, 2025·1h 55m·2 clips - 18
On 40 years with the Hopfield network model - with Wulfram Gerstner - #22
Dec 7, 2024·1h 28m - 19
On models for short-term memory - with Pawel Herman - #21
Nov 9, 2024·1h 48m - 20
On neuro-AI on the boat - part 2 of 2 - with Cristina Savin, Tim Vogels, Mikkel Lepperød, Paul Middlebrooks - #20
Oct 11, 2024·1h 21m - 21
On neuro-AI on the boat - part 1 of 2 - with Ken Harris, Andreas Tolias, Mikkel Lepperød, Paul Middlebrooks - #19
Oct 8, 2024·1h 19m - 22
On electric brain signals - solo episode - #18
Sep 15, 2024·1h 48m - 23
On dendritic function - with Yiota Poirazi - #17
Aug 17, 2024·1h 28m - 24
On consciousness - with Christof Koch - #16
Aug 3, 2024·2h 5m - 25
On the simulation tool NEURON - with Michael Hines - #15
Jul 20, 2024·1h 27m - 26
On the molecular memory code - with Sam Gershman - #14
Jun 22, 2024·1h 21m - 27
On quantum biology - with Johnjoe McFadden - #13
This episode explores the role of quantum physics in the brain and biology, featuring a discussion with John Joe McFadden about quantum biology.
Jun 8, 2024·1h 17m - 28
On modeling of signaling pathways inside the neuron - with Avrama Blackwell - #12
May 25, 2024·1h 32m - 29
On synaptic learning rules for spiking neurons - with Friedemann Zenke - #11
Apr 27, 2024·1h 31m - 30
On large-scale modeling of mouse primary visual cortex - with Anton Arkhipov - #10
Mar 30, 2024·2h 2m - 31
On origins of computational neuroscience and AI as scientific fields - with Terrence Sejnowski (vintage) - #9
Hidden gemTerry Sejnowski recounts how the 1956 Dartmouth meeting launched AI on logic and rules, and how Marvin Minsky confirmed that a vision project at MIT was handed to undergraduates, not a graduate student.
Mar 16, 2024·1h 55m·2 clips - 32
On reverse engineering of the roundworm C.elegans - with Konrad Kording - #8
Mar 2, 2024·1h 34m - 33
On topological data analysis and Hopfield-like network models - with Carina Curto - #7
Feb 3, 2024·2h 15m - 34
On central pattern generators in the spinal cord - with Henrik Lindén - #6
An interview with Henrik Lindén about a network model explaining rhythmic activity in the turtle spinal cord.
Jan 6, 2024·1h 27m - 35
On how vision works - with Li Zhaoping - #5
This episode discusses a theory that V1 acts as a saliency detector guiding eye movements, challenging traditional feature detection views.
Dec 9, 2023·1h 22m - 36
On multi-area cortex models - with Sacha van Albada - #4
Nov 18, 2023·1h 33m - 37
On the neural code - with Arvind Kumar - #3
An interview discussing the concept of the neural code and neural representations in theoretical neuroscience.
Nov 4, 2023·1h 26m - 38
On biophysics of computation – with Christof Koch - #2
Host Gautam Einvold introduces computational neuroscience and interviews Christoph Koch about his book on biophysics of computation and consciousness.
Oct 28, 2023·1h 20m - 39
On models of the mind - with Grace Lindsay - #1
Hidden gemHost Gert Einwall launches the Theoretical Neuroscience Podcast with Grace Lindsay, author of the Bloomsbury Sigma book Models of the Mind, to cover the field's history from Galvani to deep networks for vision.
Oct 13, 2023·1h 52m·2 clips