‘Digital sphinx’ raises questions about connectome models The sphinx, with a worm’s brain and a fly’s body, illustrates the potential pitfalls of using deep-learning techniques to model biological processes.

A new preprint shows that deep learning can make a fly walk realistically using a worm’s brain — exposing a fundamental problem with how connectome models are being built and sold to investors.

By @natmesanash.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...

‘Digital sphinx’ raises questions about connectome models The sphinx, with a worm’s brain and a fly’s body, illustrates the potential pitfalls of using deep-learning techniques to model biological processes.

A measured story about our new pet, the digital sphinx, in @thetransmitter.bsky.social.

www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...

that is quite a compliment, thank you 😅 we were definitely inspired by the dead salmon paper

Computational framework to predict and shape human–machine interactions in closed-loop, co-adaptive neural interfaces - Nature Machine Intelligence Madduri et al. introduce a computational framework grounded in control and game theory to model co-adaptation between users and decoders in neural interfaces. This framework enables a principled desig...

If you're interested in emerging ideas in neural interfaces, I humbly suggest my lab's latest: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Neural interfaces create dynamic interactions between the brain & devices. This means mean we need new engineering approaches beyond typical ML to "decode" a static brain

Congratulations, Beth!!!

We thought about adding it, but it seemed like beating a dead worm

🤓

Yes, this is exactly our interpretation also :-) At the same time, there is structure in the connectome that is remarkably understandable, sans machine learning. E.g., our preprint showed how we simulated the connectome to identify a putative CPG circuit for walking www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We started training these models a few months ago :-) But writing the preprint came together in the past few weeks, because it felt timely.

We also have results that suggest the fly connectome architecture is indeed remarkably understandable, sans machine learning :-)

Some of you saw a preview of this result at my Cosyne talk last week. We may have had too much fun working on this worm-fly model 🤣🤓🤣

(The digital sphinx may be imagery, but the lessons are real.)

🧵 New preprint led by @bingbrunton.bsky.social, @elliottabe.bsky.social, @lawrencehu.bsky.social

We gave a worm brain control of a fly body and it walked

What did we learn? Nothing, other than deep reinforcement learning is effective

We call it the digital sphinx

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🤓 Really excited to host this panel at COSYNE!

Our incredible speakers Bing, Kenji, Kim & Saskia are sure to share insightful advice on making an impact in their career and community at every stage of their careers 🧑‍🔬 🧠

fly circuit diagram

When a fly lands on your arm, how does your nervous system decide where to swat?

By reconstructing tactile axons in a Drosophila connectome, we found a leg somatotopic map and downstream circuits that sample the map to initiate targeted grooming

Led by Leila Elabbady, PhD

doi.org/10.64898/202...

Who in their right mind would do such a silly thing, it does tax the imagination.

Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review The process of peer review is vital to contemporary science, but is also under enormous strain. This study uses mathematical models to dissect the threats to the long-term viability of peer review, su...

1. Kevin Gross and I have a new paper out today PLOS Biology.

We used economic models based around screening games and the market for unpaid labor to highlight a meltdown cycle threatening peer review.

A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions Flexible behaviour requires transforming abstract cognitive representations, such as value preferences, into concrete motor actions. During economic decision-making, individuals evaluate options to gu...

New preprint from the lab!
A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We use a novel task in mice, cortex-wide imaging and optogenetics, NPX recording and modelling to reveal a circuit mechanism that transforms abstract decisions to spatial actions.

How do neural circuits generate the walking rhythm?

Using connectome simulations, @sarahpugly.bsky.social found a minimal central pattern generator (CPG) that produces oscillations in leg motor neurons. Same circuit motif for each 🪰 leg.

w @bingbrunton.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

thanks for speaking out @markhisted.org

Now out in @nature.com: Our study discovering a neural circuit in Drosophila that predictively inhibits proprioceptor axons during voluntary leg movements, such as walking and grooming. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bing Brunton looking at a dragonfly pinned to white foam board as she places an entomology pin

@bingbrunton.bsky.social and I trying our hand at pinning a blue-eyed darner dragonfly, Rhionaeschna multicolor

Breaking the jar: Why NeuroAI needs embodiment Brain function is inexorably shaped by the body. Embracing this will benefit computational models of real brain function and the design of ANNs.

Embodiment is the concept that the function of the brain is inexorably shaped by the body, a lens that is often neglected when neuroscientists study specific brain subsystems, write @bingbrunton.bsky.social and @tuthill.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence #neuroai

www.thetransmitter.org/neuroai/brea...

my lab (www.tuthill.casa) at UW is hiring a research assistant/tech. basic scope is to apply machine learning/computer vision tools to measure and model 3D animal behavior and mechanics. we are a diverse, collaborative, curiosity-driven group.

Apply: uwhires.admin.washington.edu/ENG/Candidat...

#Cosyne is now on Bluesky y'all!

bsky.app/profile/cosy...

#neuroscience #NeuroAI

We are cooking up something about koopman interpretation of neural substrates of learning representations, no preprint yet 😁

Koopman Invariant Subspaces and Finite Linear Representations of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems for Control In this work, we explore finite-dimensional linear representations of nonlinear dynamical systems by restricting the Koopman operator to an invariant subspace spanned by specially chosen observable fu...

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... and www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A little wattlebird, a brown bird with spiky white feather highlights, sits on a spiky neon-orange banksia.

This shot of a little wattlebird might be the best single frame I shot in Australia. Can anyone help me with the banksia ID? 🪶

(You may need to click to view, given the aspect ratio.)

A cup of red liquid next to a note that reads “Do not touch if you value your lives”

Epsilon 1 takes their reproducible experimental protocol very seriously 🤣

Active compound is Hydroxy-alpha-sanshool, which causes the tingly sensation when you eat it 😋

Ken Norman's post on another site:
Princeton Psychology is hiring this year (Assistant Professor level, open area, see job ad for details). Please apply! puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/apply/applicati...