New work w/ Zach Kelso and @madeleinecsnyder.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Our negative results on classical conditioning in planarian flatworms. This was surprising, given the long history of work (including sensational findings of memory transfer and retention through decapitation).
Can we really measure replay in humans using MEG with current methods? In our most recent paper we simulated replay under realistic conditions via a novel hybrid approach with astonishing results.
we're delighted that it has now been published @elife.bsky.social!
elifesciences.org/articles/108...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
"mental imagery reactivates the same sensory codes used during visual stimuli, suggesting the existence of a generative model capable of synthesizing detailed sensory contents from an abstract, semantic representation."
Interview with @braininspired.bsky.social for my book "The Brain, In Theory":
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3zE...
"The Brain, In Theory" is out today!
A short excerpt in The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/theoretical-...
Thrilled to share our new paper, which shows that the relative timing of cholinergic and dopamine release dynamically gates whether dopamine acts as an RPE for in vivo plasticity and reinforcement learning. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
What does it take to show the brain represents something? We offer a framework that brings conceptual clarity to representation, systematizing how decoding, encoding, RSA, etc. bear on that question. This makes explicit what findings establish and where interpretations go too far.
Thanks Caswell! Happy to see this out.
Recent interesting work from Vollan et al @azvollan.bsky.social showed that the decoded locations from grid cell activity sweep out in a left-right alternative way across successive theta cycles, steered by an “internal direction” signal in parasubiculum.
Multipanel figure illustrating the key components of the paper: 1) biophysical reservoir computing where a network of biophysically detailed excitatory and inhibitory neurons are randomly connected, receive a brief input, and produce a sustained spiking pattern in response, 2) an illustration of the task the biophysical reservoir computer is trained on: a simplified working memory task where the network must produce distinct fixed point attractors in response to different inputs.
Happy to share a new preprint from my PhD thesis! “A novel framework for expanding RNNs with biophysical detail to solve cognitive tasks” 🧠💻
📝 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
@jonescompneurolab.bsky.social
Skills in Claude Code are versions of Marvin Mnisky's frames that actually work
what a time to be alive
Neural networks ended up making Mnisky's dreams come true
I wonder if he's rolling over in his grave
To my colleagues: as you review the next round of applications, please take into account the unique challenges these candidates have faced.
I’m personally witnessing how hard they strive to stay connected despite the brutality of the regime and a devastating war.
I have just arrived at @cosynemeeting.bsky.social ! During my flight, as I thought about opening remarks (and had a glass of wine), I got to reflect on why I love neuroscience. Maybe other folks are doing the same and would like to read or add, so I thought I'd do something unusual and share!
Our preprint of my PhD’s work in @gisellavetere.bsky.social lab is finally out on BiorXiv: doi.org/10.1101/2024..., and I’m so excited to share it! If you’ve ever wondered about reconciling engram manipulation experiments and neuronal activity during encoding, you’re on the right thread! 1/14
philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...
Enjoyed writing this with the wonderful philosopher Bill Ramsey
Huge congrats!! Excited to read it!
Been waiting for this since I heard you mentioned these experiments on podcasts
🚨🚨New Preprint Alert!🚨🚨
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Animal learning is painfully slow (at least initially). Yet, well trained animals can learn very fast, sometimes displaying few-shot inference. How does this transition occur?
I just learned that Mattick & Amaral's book about RNA is availabe in an online version:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK595...
Highly recommended! Not just for the science but also for the history of science aspect.
Imagination in bonobos!
I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org
We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative
youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko
"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?
🧠 How do transformers learn relational reasoning? We trained small transformers on transitive inference (if A>B and B>C, then A>C) and discovered striking differences between learning paradigms. Our latest work reveals when and why AI systems generalize beyond training data 🤖
This Gershman and Ullman paper is just so cool in showing that humans really can't not view correlation without assuming causality. Summary of my quixotic life in neuroscience: gershmanlab.com/pubs/Gershma...
How do we achieve few-shot generalization? New work led by @fabianrenz.bsky.social dives into the role of replay in learning and using structure to generalize reward. Dream team effort with Shany Grossman @nathanieldaw.bsky.social Peter Dayan & @doellerlab.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Really thrilled that this paper led by @neurozz.bsky.social is now published in its final version in @elife.bsky.social!!
This is a memory-focused (as opposed to RL-focused) account of the detailed characteristics of forward and backward awake and sleep replay!
elifesciences.org/articles/99931
Super cooool!
To sum:
A child waves a stick, yelling:“behold my wand!”. A teacher holds up an apple and says “this is the sun”. A parent points out two small carrots next to a big carrot and nudges his kids: “that’s us”.
Such acts are common, intuitive, and useful.
𝖡𝗋𝗂𝖾𝖿 𝗋𝖾𝗏𝗂𝖾𝗐 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝖣𝖺𝗇 𝖡𝗎𝗌𝗁, 𝗈𝖿 𝗇𝖾𝗎𝗋𝖺𝗅 𝗌𝖾𝗊𝗎𝖾𝗇𝖼𝖾𝗌 𝗂𝗇 𝖿𝗅𝗒𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖻𝖺𝗍𝗌 (𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐚 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐬!) 𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗐𝗈 𝗋𝖾𝖼𝖾𝗇𝗍 𝗉𝖺𝗉𝖾𝗋𝗌 𝖻𝗒 𝖠𝗇𝗀𝖾𝗅𝗈 𝖥𝗈𝗋𝗅𝗂, 𝖶𝗎𝖽𝗂 𝖥𝖺𝗇, 𝖪𝖾𝗏𝗂𝗇 𝖰𝗂 & 𝖬𝗂𝖼𝗁𝖺𝖾𝗅 𝖸𝖺𝗋𝗍𝗌𝖾𝗏, 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖻𝗒 𝖳𝖺𝗆𝗂𝗋 𝖤𝗅𝗂𝖺𝗏, 𝖲𝗁𝗂𝗋 𝖬𝖺𝗂𝗆𝗈𝗇, 𝖠𝗒𝖾𝗅𝖾𝗍 𝖲𝖺𝗋𝖾𝗅, 𝖲𝗁𝖺𝗄𝖾𝖽 𝖯𝖺𝗅𝗀𝗂, 𝖫𝗂𝗈𝗋𝖺 𝖫𝖺𝗌 & 𝖭𝖺𝖼𝗁𝗎𝗆 𝖴𝗅𝖺𝗇𝗈𝗏𝗌𝗄𝗒: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lpaB3QW8S...
Merry Christmas guys!
I ll recommend this paper. Read it once, like it a lot. Not fully grasp all details yet, I ll probably present it at Allen. Really like their previous Trial-Matching one arxiv.org/abs/2306.03603 . We are using/extending some of these OT ideas at Allen for fitting neural data. Inspiring work.
Ohh I see.. ty!
