In essence, these are the questions that the field of computational neuroscience sets out to answer. Behrens is professor of computational neuroscience at the University of Oxford and a group leader at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at University College London. Behrens has been a leader in the field for many years and has a particular interest in cognitive maps. Behrens’ work explores how hippocampal maps work and interact with the cortex. In closing, we discuss some of the exciting technological developments that are powering advances in computational neuroscience today.