Why virtual animals trained with deep RL could transform neuroscience research
neuroecology · x · 2026-11-05
The author argues for going all-in on virtual animals for neuroscience: deep RL agents living in controlled, complex ecosystems offer emergent behaviors and circuitry while staying analytically tractable. They enable circuit dissection to uncover non-obvious computations, serve as testbeds for methods and theories, and may yield mechanistic explanations for neuromodulation that resist other analyses.
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