By designing decision-making tasks that vary along multiple dimensions and truly challenge our animals, we might finally understand how multiple brain areas coordinate to drive decisions, writes @chandlab.bsky.social.
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/decision-mak...
New @currentbiology.bsky.social paper from Dr. Leila Elabbady on neural circuits that transform a touch stimulus into spatially targeted grooming.
Leila discovered a leg somatotopic map and used it to infer tactile receptive fields in the fly VNC connectome.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1mvu83QW8S...
Oh oops i think you have your DMs off!
Oh okay thanks yes will do!
Oh wow okay thanks I will let them know and message back if they’re interested! Thanks so much!
Does anyone in the Boston area have Emx1-Cre mice?? Jax stopped selling them! Asking for a friend.
The US/Iran war and escalating rhetoric are already disrupting civilian life and academic infrastructure across the region. We drafted a letter in defense of academic life, and to mobilize concrete support for affected students, scholars, and collaborations. Please check Sepi’s message and sign.
I’m excited to share that I’ll be starting my computational neurosci & machine learning lab at UCLA this July! ☀️
We’ll be working on computational methods for high-throughput neural data analysis, optical interrogation of neural circuits, & mechanistic models of artificial+bio neural systems. ⤵️
Another great opportunity for trainees in theoretical/computational neuroscience!
Applications are open for the Junior Theoretical Neuroscientists Workshop which will take place July 21-24, 2026 at the Center for Computational Neuroscience, @flatironinstitute.org
Travel, lodging, and meals will be covered for accepted participants.
Application deadline: April 15, 2026
alk Title: Subjective Feelings to Brain Mechanisms: Advancing the Science of Mood through Epistemic Iteration Abstract: What happens in our brains to generate our moods? We don't yet know. Unlike functions such as memory, which can be measured objectively, mood is typically assessed with subjective ratings, such as “On a scale of 1 to 5, how excited (or upset) are you?” At the same time, our most precise neural measurements come from nonhuman animals, who cannot report how they feel. Mood is an extreme example of a central problem in neuroscience: we need measurements to create understanding, but we need understanding to design good measurements. Once we fully understand mood, we'll know exactly how to measure it (for instance, in an animal). But how do we get there? In this talk, I will draw on the notion of “epistemic iteration,” proposed by the philosopher Hasok Chang, to describe how scientists tackled the conceptually analogous problem of understanding temperature in the 17th century. Building on this idea, we have developed a new approach to bridge the gap between behavioral and neural measures of mood. I will describe how we have used this strategy to identify a strong neural correlate of mood, reflected in the heterogeneous, persistent responses of individual neurons in monkey anterior insular cortex — a brain area implicated in human mood via lesions, fMRI, and microstimulation. Finally, I will describe how these insights are leading us to detailed accounts of how the brain converts experiences into mood and the mechanisms that keep mood within a healthy range, rather than spiraling out of control.
Photo of me, Details of talk time/location
Friends in Boston! I'm excited to visit you on Thursday at MIT, where I'll be presenting new work on mood via an intermingling of science and the philosophy of, arguing that the neuroscience of mood requires a different approach.
bcs.mit.edu/events/collo...
🧵 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...
Applications are open for our Next Generation Leaders program!
Our NGL program recognizes emerging scientific leaders and invites them into a supportive network.
🔗 Apply by March 31: alleninstitute.org/about/people/next-genera...
🤓 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 🧑🔬 🧠
Mon. Mar. 16th, We've got an exciting line-up of scientists in cell type identification (@maxime-beau.bsky.social, Eva Dyer, Anna Lakunina), cell type-informed theory (@aditijh.bsky.social, @mehdiazabou.bsky.social), and cell type-dependent manifolds (@lmprida.bsky.social, Manu Valero)! #Cosyne2026
Josh Siegle and I are thrilled to be chairing the first workshop on "Bridging the gap between cell types and spike trains"! We see this as the key link between population-level descriptions of dynamics and real mechanistic understanding from cell types.
celltypestospikesworkshop.github.io/2026/
Psyched to announce our COSYNE workshop on social behaviors (Mar 17th, Cascais). We have a stellar lineup of speakers on topics from animal cooperation and aggression to the social dynamics of LLM agents.
Co-organized with Libby Zhang (Allen Institute + UW).
cosyne-social-behavior.github.io
When I was choosing between PhD programs, I had a hard time gauging what mattered most. Everyone I asked valued something different, which made it even harder to figure out what I should be weighing.
Wrote up the framework I wish I'd had: www.yaelcourtney.com/resources-an...
If you’re a rock climber, Vetbond is clutch for closing skin splits. Fast, doesn’t get hot, and non-toxic! Other hacks include the dremel sanding bit for finger calluses and presentation laser pointer for pointing out holds on a route. I of course would never use lab supplies for such things!
📣 Excited to announce the 2nd edition of our workshop
“Agent-Based Models in Neuroscience: Theory, Autonomy, Embodiment & Environment”
at @cosynemeeting.bsky.social #CoSyNe2026!!
🧠🤖🌍🪰🐟🐭💪🧘🏃
🗓️ March 17, 2026
📍 Cascais, Portugal
🔗 Speaker lineup and schedule: neuro-agent-models.github.io
Your figure quality is 🤯. Can't wait to read!
I am totally pumped about this new work . "Task-trained RNNs" are a powerful and influential framework in neuroscience, but have lacked a firm theoretical footing. This work provides one, and makes direct contact with the classical theory of random RNNs:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Going to #COSYNE2026? Don't miss our tutorial on our open neural dynamics data resources.
🗓️ March 12, 9:15-10:15am
🧑🏫 Presented by @sejdevries.bsky.social
🔗 More info: https://www.cosyne.org/tutorials
@cosynemeeting.bsky.social
“I want to study how the brain takes knowledge about some topic then applies it to solve a totally new problem...”
tinyurl.com/ynvyv685
Monitoring gene expression in the brain with a simple blood test?
In collaboration with @jerzyszablowski.bsky.social & his lab we figured out how to do it nonhuman primates using noninvasive neuroengineering of synthetic serum markers.
nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
I whipped up another learning related Skill! Smaller than Learning Opportunities, but very complementary: interactive guidance through a quick research-backed psychological intervention that helps improve learning plans, motivation and commitment
github.com/DrCatHicks/l...
NYU's Center for Neural Science is seeking a faculty candidate that would be jointly appointed with our Tandon School of Engineering. We are looking for post-doc applicants with neuroengineering or computational backgrounds.
apply.interfolio.com/182074
Another work “of potential interest” from the Chand lab! Nicole’s work on identifying cell types is now in press! With careful dissection, high-density probes can tell you quite a lot about underlying physiology!
Most of the quotes are similarly strongly worded. They don’t imply much or any openness to how AI can be useful at all much less how it can be used judiciously. And if they never use it, how will they ever be convinced otherwise?
