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Conceptual and technical advances define a key moment for theoretical neuroscience

Nature Neuroscience volume 19, pages 348–349 (2016)Cite this article

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Theoretical approaches have long shaped neuroscience, but current needs for theory are elevated and prospects for advancement are bright. Advances in measuring and manipulating neurons demand new models and analyses to guide interpretation. Advances in theoretical neuroscience offer new insights into how signals evolve across areas and new approaches for connecting population activity with behavior. These advances point to a global understanding of brain function based on a hybrid of diverse approaches.

Theoretical approaches have a long history of contributing to neuroscience research, but never before has the need for them been so high nor the prospects for advancement so great. The explosion in technologies available for measuring and manipulating neurons has created a call for analysis techniques that are scalable to extremely large data sets, that take into account the heterogeneity of neurons, and that can predict and interpret the effects of complex manipulations of activity. The growing importance of theory is also driven by developments in theoretical neuroscience itself, advances that expand the reach of theoretical approaches and extend their ability to offer insight into long-standing puzzles. In the coming years, we will obtain enormous quantities of behavioral, recording (both electrical and optical), connectomic, gene expression and other forms of data. Obtaining deep understanding from this onslaught will require, in addition to the skillful and creative application of experimental technologies, substantial advances in data analysis methods and intense application of theoretic concepts and models.

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Figure 1: Multiple stages of analysis needed for neural data to inform our understanding of neural mechanism.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anne K. Churchland is at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA.,

    Anne K Churchland

  2. L.F. Abbott is at the Department of Neuroscience, and Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York, USA.,

    L F Abbott

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  1. Anne K Churchland
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  2. L F Abbott
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Correspondence to Anne K Churchland.

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Churchland, A., Abbott, L. Conceptual and technical advances define a key moment for theoretical neuroscience. Nat Neurosci 19, 348–349 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4255

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