How do we address the challenge of bringing about a cellular-based understanding of our brain workings? From a neurological disease perspective, this needs to be addressed as pathologies involve cellular specifics. The ‘brain hub’ hippocampus, an essential brain structure for learning and memory, generates robust rhythmic activities. However, figuring out how the multitude of cell types in the hippocampus contribute to these states is an immense challenge. In this talk, I will describe the modeling approaches we are taking to obtain a cellular-based understanding of theta (3-12 Hz) rhythms in the hippocampus, an essential element of the ‘phase-coding functional unit’ in the hippocampus.