Is a neuron a biological computer? Can a model be a neuron? Every time I make a recording from neural tissue, I ask myself these questions.
The retina is where I look for answers. Stimulus goes in, spike comes out. The circuitry between them is compact, accessible, and exquisitely mappable. If you can build a model that actually behaves like a retina, you've proven something real about how neural systems compute.
My current goal is to constrain biophysical models with multi-omics and spatial transcriptomics so the simulation and the tissue become harder to tell apart.