I lead the Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience at the Institute of Physiology, Prague, Czech Republic. I was trained as a physicist, and my Ph.D. thesis – “Principles of Information Processing in Neuronal Models” – focused on the applications of statistics and information theory to computational neuroscience. After a postdoc stay in France (INRAe, Versailles), I applied for the leadership of the Lab in 2014. See my CV for details.
Academic CV Corporate CVInterests
- Bio-inspired signal processing and NeuroAI
- Mathematical models of neural systems
- Information theory
- Estimation theory
- Stochastic point processes
Education
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PhD in Physics, 2007
Charles University and Institute of Physiology
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MSc in Physics, 2003
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University Prague
News
See all items.
- Oct 3, 2024: Our new paper describing the response dynamics of moth olfactory receptory neurons is published in Communications Biology.
- Jun 9, 2024: A novel method for firing rate estimation from multiple recordings is introduced in our paper accepted for publication in Neuroscience Research.
- Feb 7, 2024: Our new paper on the impact of shared input and inhibitory feedback on the information transmission in recurrent neural networks has been accepted for publication in PLoS Computational Biology.
Showcase
Selected publications.
T. Barta, C. Monsempès, E. Demondion, A. Chatterjee, L. Kostal, P. Lucas Commun. Biol. (2024)
T. Barta, L. Kostal, PLoS Comput. Biol. (2024)
K. Rajdl, L. Kostal, Chaos Solit. Fractals (2023)
T. Barta, L. Kostal, PLoS Comput. Biol. (2019)
L. Kostal, R. Kobayashi, Phys. Rev. E Rapid Commun. (2019)
L. Kostal, J. Math. Psychol. (2016)
L. Kostal, P. Lansky, S. Pilarski, J. Neural Eng. (2015)
L. Kostal, P. Lansky, O. Pokora, Inform. Sciences (2013)
L. Kostal, Phys. Rev. E (2010)
Awards
- 2017: Prize for the best paper (IPHYS): Rajdl K, Lansky P, Kostal L (2017) Neural Netw., 95, 57–65.
- 2012: Otto Wichterle Award: by the Czech Academy of Sciences: “To stimulate and encourage selected, exceptionally outstanding, promising young scientists for their remarkable contributions to the advancement of scientific knowledge in a given area of science.”
- 2011: Prize for the best paper (IPHYS): Kostal L, Lansky P Pokora O (2011) PLoS ONE, 6, e21998.
- 2010: Best poster presentation award (Kostal L: “Information capacity in the weak-signal approximation”), Neural Coding 2010, Limassol, Cyprus.
- 1997: Students’ Professional Activities (SPA): Winner of the nation-wide high-school student competition in Physics with the thesis: “Numerical solution of the geodesic equation in general relativity for the extreme Schwarzschild-de Sitter metric” (in Czech, supervisor: prof. J. Podolsky, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University Prague).
Publications
(2024).
Stimulus duration encoding occurs early in the moth olfactory pathway.
Commun. Biol..
(2024).
Estimation of firing rate from instantaneous interspike intervals.
Neurosci. Res..
(2024).
Shared input and recurrency in neural networks for metabolically efficient information transmission.
PLoS Comput. Biol..
(2023).
Estimation of the instantaneous spike train variability.
Chaos Solit. Fractals.
Invited Talks
See my CV for the complete list.
Involvement
See my CV for teaching duties and other professional service.
Editorial duties:
- Neural Processing Letters: member of the Editorial Board.
- BioSystems: Associate editor of the Neural Coding 2016 and Neural Coding 2018 Special Issues.
- Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering: Associate editor of the Neural Coding 2018 Special Issue.
Organization of international meetings (selected):
- CNS 2019 Workshop on Methods of Information Theory in Computational Neuroscience (Barcelona, Spain, July 16-17, 2019), chair of the organising committee.
- Neural Coding 2018 (Torino, Italy, September 9-14, 2018), member of the scientific committee.
- CNS 2015: Workshop on Methods of Information Theory in Computational Neuroscience (Prague, July 22-23, 2015), main organizer (jointly with A. Dimitrov, M. Gastpar, T. Sharpee, S. Schultz).
- Information Beyond Shannon 2013 (Prague, July 3-4, 2013), main organizer.
- Neural Coding 2012 (Prague, September 2-7, 2012), main organizer (jointly with P. Lansky).
Funding
Selected grants and fellowships. See my CV for the complete list.
- 2020-2022: Optimality of neuronal communication: an information-theoretic perspective, The Czech Science Foundation (GACR), $\approx$ 261.000,EUR
- 2017-2019: Neural coding precision and its adaptation to the stimulus statistics, The Czech Science Foundation (GACR), $\approx$ 217.000,EUR
- 2015-2017: Efficiency of information transfer and the role of energetic constraints in neuronal systems, The Czech Science Foundation (GACR), $\approx$ 259.000,EUR
- 2012-2014: Information-theoretic analysis of stimulus coding in sensory neurons, The Czech Science Foundation (GACR), $\approx$ 56.000,EUR
- 2011-2013: Neural Coding and Information beyond Shannon, European Office of Aerospace Research and Development, Office of Naval Research Global, support for the respective workshops in 2012 and 2013, $\approx$ 20.000,EUR
Paintings and Sketches
Contact
- kostal@biomed.cas.cz
- +420 2 4106 2276
- Videnska 1083, Prague, 14200
- City bus 138, 193, 203 (stop “Ústavy Akademie věd”),