Xaq Pitkow
Carnegie Mellon University
Biography
Xaq Pitkow is a theoretical neuroscientist at Carnegie Mellon University whose research aims to understand the principles that account for what the brain computes and why. His group uses tools from mathematics, physics, statistics and computer science to make testable predictions about complex neural circuitry, with a particular focus on sensory systems and especially vision. The lab works on how the brain extracts actionable information from a dynamic, ambiguous world — themes Pitkow summarises as the brain looking for change, weighing the uncertain, and being deeply nonlinear. He completed his Ph.D. in biophysics at Harvard before postdoctoral training at Columbia University and the University of Rochester.
Research Interests
- Bayesian brain
- information theory
- neural network models
- representation learning
- graphical models
SCENE Teams
Featured Publications
The Simons Collaboration on Ecological Neuroscience: Studying how the brain interacts with the world
Angelaki DE, Batista A, Fitzgerald T, Kominsky JF, Lengyel M, Mathis A, Mathis MW, Moss CF, Niell CM, Noel JP, Pitkow X, Rothkopf CA, Savin C, Stachenfeld K, Suthana N, Tolias A, Ulanovsky N, Wolpert DM, Wong A, Zimmermann J
Neuron, 2026 · DOI (opens in new tab) · Preprint (PDF) (opens in new tab)
Neural and computational correlates of strategic aborting and long-run policy optimization in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Noel JP, Zhang R, Pitkow X, Angelaki DE
Nature Communications, 2026 · DOI (opens in new tab) · Preprint (PDF) (opens in new tab)