Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 11 hours ago
Tatiana Engel on learning how low-dimensional function is embedded in high-dimensional networks, and timescales across the brain.
Show notes: braininspired.co/podcast/226
Patreon (full episodes, archive, Discord, more): patreon.com/braininspired
Apple podcasts: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-inspired/id1428880766?mt=2
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2UZj8c8Ap5oc2gh2rJxLLe
Music by @dunovank
The Transmitter is an online publication that aims to deliver useful information, insights and tools to build bridges across neuroscience and advance research. Visit thetransmitter.org to explore the latest neuroscience news and perspectives, written by journalists and scientists.
Read more about our partnership: thetransmitter.org/partners
Sign up for the “Brain Inspired” email alerts to be notified every time a new “Brain Inspired” episode is released: thetransmitter.org/newsletters
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Tatiana Engel runs the Engel lab at Princeton University in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. She's also part of the International Brain Laboratory, a massive across-lab, across-world, collaboration which you'll hear more about. My main impetus for inviting Tatiana was to talk about two projects she's been working on. One of those is connecting the functional dynamics of cognition with the connectivity of the underlying neural networks on which those dynamics unfold. We know the brain is high-dimensional - it has lots of interacting connections, we know the activity of those networks can often be described by lower-dimensional entities called manifolds, and Tatiana and her lab work to connect those two processes with something they call latent circuits. So you'll hear about that, you'll also hear about how the timescales of neurons across the brain are different but the same, why this is cool and surprising, and we discuss many topics around those main topics.
0:00 - Intro
3:03 - No central executive
5:01 - International brain lab
15:57 - Tatiana's background
24:49 - Dynamical systems
17:48 - Manifolds
33:10 - Latent task circuits
47:01 - Mixed selectivity
1:00:21 - Internal and external dynamics
1:03:47 - Modern vs classical modeling
1:14:30 - Intrinsic timescales
1:26:05 - Single trial dynamics
1:29:59 - Future of manifolds
Tatiana Engel on learning how low-dimensional function is embedded in high-dimensional networks, and timescales across the brain.
Show notes: braininspired.co/podcast/226
Patreon (full episodes, archive, Discord, more): patreon.com/braininspired
Apple podcasts: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-inspired/id1428880766?mt=2
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2UZj8c8Ap5oc2gh2rJxLLe
Music by @dunovank
The Transmitter is an online publication that aims to deliver useful information, insights and tools to build bridges across neuroscience and advance research. Visit thetransmitter.org to explore the latest neuroscience news and perspectives, written by journalists and scientists.
Read more about our partnership: thetransmitter.org/partners
Sign up for the “Brain Inspired” email alerts to be notified every time a new “Brain Inspired” episode is released: thetransmitter.org/newsletters
To explore more neuroscience news and perspectives, visit thetransmitter.org.
Tatiana Engel runs the Engel lab at Princeton University in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. She's also part of the International Brain Laboratory, a massive across-lab, across-world, collaboration which you'll hear more about. My main impetus for inviting Tatiana was to talk about two projects she's been working on. One of those is connecting the functional dynamics of cognition with the connectivity of the underlying neural networks on which those dynamics unfold. We know the brain is high-dimensional - it has lots of interacting connections, we know the activity of those networks can often be described by lower-dimensional entities called manifolds, and Tatiana and her lab work to connect those two processes with something they call latent circuits. So you'll hear about that, you'll also hear about how the timescales of neurons across the brain are different but the same, why this is cool and surprising, and we discuss many topics around those main topics.
0:00 - Intro
3:03 - No central executive
5:01 - International brain lab
15:57 - Tatiana's background
24:49 - Dynamical systems
17:48 - Manifolds
33:10 - Latent task circuits
47:01 - Mixed selectivity
1:00:21 - Internal and external dynamics
1:03:47 - Modern vs classical modeling
1:14:30 - Intrinsic timescales
1:26:05 - Single trial dynamics
1:29:59 - Future of manifolds
