Broadly I am most interested in how neural systems can self-organise to produce robust, adaptive and intelligent behaviour, which I study from both a biological and a computational perspective through modelling. I seek to enhance artificial neural networks by drawing inspiration from their biological counterparts and reverse-engineering the solutions discovered through evolution. In particular, I am interested in how the unusual properties of information processing with spikes (action potentials) may be crucial to achieving such impressive perceptual and cognitive abilities from varied, noisy and unreliable neurons.