This is so, so well-articulated.
Posts by Samuel Eckmann
This paper looks interesting, I look forward to reading it:
www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
But, my guess is that there's an interpretation based on *prediction*, rather than "context modulation", that would be more theoretically relevant.
#neuroscience 🧪
Image of News in focus article from Nature entitled "How bioRxiv changed the way biologists share ideas - in numbers"
The impact of bioRxiv in numbers
@richardsever.bsky.social
I am looking for a theory/computational POSTDOC position in EU or east coast US. I am interested in how learning and plasticity shape population dynamics & representational geometries & how these changes are reflected in behavior.
If you are at #COSYNE2026 & interested, hit me up in Whova, not here
1/7 🧠 My journey into development begins with this work and question: how does the brain's spatial navigation system develop? We found that the neural networks for spatial navigation (tori and rings) are preconfigured and only later anchor gradually to the world with experience! 🧵
I am excited to share my first paper, showing that episodic memory formation is theta rhythmic, is now published in Nature Human Behavior! Check it out here: rdcu.be/e6pzS. Thanks to my PI, Katherine Duncan, and to my collaborators for their support on this journey! Stay tuned for iEEG follow up 🧠
Dendritic arbors provide neuroscience with an ideal opportunity to study how individual neurons interact with their broader circuitry and are the field’s best bet to bridge cellular and systems neuroscience, writes @justinkohare.bsky.social.
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/dendrites/de...
DNN models of the brain are getting bigger. Are we replacing one complicated system in vivo with another in silico?
In new work, we seek the *smallest* DNN models of visual cortex, balancing prediction with parsimony.
It turns out these compact models are surprisingly small!
rdcu.be/e5H8G
1/6
Do neighboring #PlaceCells in #Hippocampus CA1 map neighboring locations in space? 🧠🗺️
Is there micro-scale spatial topography in the hippocampus?
See our latest paper from @kavlintnu now out in @pnas.org www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Temporal Coding rather than Circuit Wiring allows Hippocampal CA3 Neurons to Dynamically Distinguish Different Cortical Inputs www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02...
A half-century old question may have its final answer. Using high-resolution #Mini2P microscopes, we find no evidence of local topography in #PlaceCells. Place fields of neighbouring cells are no more similar than those of randomly selected cells. 🧠🗺️ Out now in @pnas.org www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
New preprint from the lab! Stefan Sun and @q-perrenoud.bsky.social collaborated to look at how sensory experience affects the adult cortex. Using ephys and 2-photon imaging, they found that varied visual experience reorganizes dendrite-targeting inhibitory circuits in V1.
Pavlov would have been shocked and stoked by this study!
It meticulously shows that what matters most for cue-reward learning is the duration between rewards: the longer this duration, the fewer the number of trials needed for behavioral and DA learning
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Motor sequence generation _without_ cortico-thalamic loops!
Our latest paper, “Visual language models show widespread visual deficits on neuropsychological tests”, is now out in Nature Machine Intelligence: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Non-paywalled version:
arxiv.org/abs/2504.10786
Tweet thread below from first author @genetang.bsky.social...
I'm very excited to finally see this one out in @natneuro.nature.com ! It has been an incredible journey alongside extremely talented people! Thanks to everyone involved and enjoy the reading! 1/n
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We had a lot of fun doing these experiments! Theta sweeps in MEC and internal direction signals in parasubiculum track moving objects during pursuit and reverse during backward movement. Simultaneously recorded HD cells in other areas remain locked to head direction across behaviors:
I agree so long as the computational models make predictions that other models do not, and those predictions are then tested.
"How much of the brain's learned algorithms depend on the fact it is a brain?" arxiv.org/abs/2601.02063 The brain is a neural network, but also a biological organ (unlike artificial neural networks). How much does this matter to cognition?
What's the relation between voltage and calcium in dendrites? Xiang Wu studied this in CA2 hippocampal pyramidal cells in behaving mice. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
New Journal Club explores TARPs as multi-domain regulators that couple synaptic strength to intrinsic excitability—providing a molecular substrate for coordinated adaptation across timescales.
open.substack.com/pub/grounded...
"motor cortical engagement is sustained under conditions of sensorimotor uncertainty and dissipates rapidly when sensorimotor contingencies are resolved"
when doing neuroscience projects I often advocate for computational modelling, followed by data analysis to test model's predictions.
however a few times now I have had pushback from collaborators/reivewers suggesting it would be better to do the data analysis first, then the modelling.
thoughts?
I guess both is true. For me, 'add-on' models usually make the gap between a conceptual idea and the actual understanding very obvious – and, depending on the extent of the gap, are oftentimes unsatisfactory.
"In contrast to reactivation of rodent place cells, reactivation of human concept cells does not reflect sequences of events in human experience."
"It is essential for the field to systematically explore objectives and data curricula that might cause DNNs to learn more human-like visual representations"
hammer -> nail
New preprint from the lab! 🚀
We find that hippocampal OLM interneurons provide a circuit-level inhibitory feedback signal that dynamically controls when and where behavioral timescale synaptic plasticity can occur.
Feedback welcome!
Published @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social with @drewlinsley.bsky.social & @tonyfeng.bsky.social: As vision models scale to human/superhuman accuracy, they’re becoming worse models of primate vision—benchmark engineering isn’t neuroscience. @carneyinstitute.bsky.social @browncopsy.bsky.social
What is the computational role of dendritic excitations? Byung Hun Lee and team mapped voltage dynamics throughout the dendritic trees of CA1 pyramidal neurons in mice navigating in virtual reality. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...