Check out my free video series about what's missing in AI and Neuroscience






Support the show to get full episodes and join the Discord community.








Rodolphe Sepulchre is a control engineer and theorist at Cambridge University. He focuses on applying feedback control engineering principles to build circuits that model neurons and neuronal circuits. We discuss his work on mixed feedback control - positive and negative - as an underlying principle of the mixed digital and analog brain signals,, the role of neuromodulation as a controller, applying these principles to Eve Marder's lobster/crab neural circuits, building mixed-feedback neuromorphics, some feedback control history, and how "If you wish to contribute original work, be prepared to face loneliness," among other topics.



Rodolphe's website.Related papersSpiking Control Systems.Control Across Scales by Positive and Negative Feedback.Neuromorphic control. (arXiv version)Related episodes:BI 130 Eve Marder: Modulation of NetworksBI 119 Henry Yin: The Crisis in Neuroscience



0:00 - Intro
4:38 - Control engineer
9:52 - Control vs. dynamical systems
13:34 - Building vs. understanding
17:38 - Mixed feedback signals
26:00 - Robustness
28:28 - Eve Marder
32:00 - Loneliness
37:35 - Across levels
44:04 - Neuromorphics and neuromodulation
52:15 - Barrier to adopting neuromorphics
54:40 - Deep learning influence
58:04 - Beyond energy efficiency
1:02:02 - Deep learning for neuro
1:14:15 - Role of philosophy
1:16:43 - Doing it right