Reading the Cell article on this [0] I couldn't help to see the similarities with OpenFace [1].
[0] http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)30538-X [1] https://cmusatyalab.github.io/openface/#overview
Advances in machine learning have been made by training a computerized mimic of a neural network on a given task. Though the networks are successful, they are also a black box because it is hard to reconstruct how they achieve their result.
“This has given neuroscience a sense of pessimism that the brain is similarly a black box,” she said. “Our paper provides a counterexample. We’re recording from neurons at the highest stage of the visual system and can see that there’s no black box. My bet is that that will be true throughout the brain.”