When it comes to sensory processing, cortex should not get all the credit... In olfaction, a key challenge is identifying odors regardless of concentration. Our new paper in @natneuro.nature.com shows how the olfactory bulb performs this crucial computation before signals even reach the cortex.
Delighted to share our discoveries about one of the brain's neurotransmitter systems:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Together with colleagues at the @alleninstitute.org, we have learned a lot about a tiny cluster of neurons in the brainstem locus coeruleus (LC) that releases norepinephrine (NE). 1
🌐 IVADO’s largest research mission to the US: a delegation of around 30 AI researchers strengthened collaborations with @princeton.edu, @columbiauniversity.bsky.social , @newyorkuniversity.bsky.social, and @cornelltech.bsky.social.
#Research #Innovation #Collaboration #R3AI
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...
Cosyne invited me to give a long tutorial (4 hours!) on methods to quantify differences high-d neural recordings across animals, brain regions, deep neural nets, etc.
The recording is up on youtube. I hope it inspires more research on this fundamental topic!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n44x...
2-164 Population structure of reward-induced remapping in the hippocampal CA1
@chenjiang01.bsky.social with @ahalawa.bsky.social @mattyizhenghe.bsky.social @marisosa.bsky.social
1-188 The basal ganglia as a distributed reinforcement learning system computing general values
@zijingwu.bsky.social with Romane Charpentier Manoosh Samiei Doina Precup @itsnva7.bsky.social
The lab will be presenting two posters at #cosyne2026 #cosyne26 on dopamine-based distributed RL and hippocampal coding from a population-geometry perspective!
@zijingwu.bsky.social @chenjiang01.bsky.social
#compneurosky #neuroskyence
New paper hot off the (pre-)press! We dig into the evolutionary origins of neural computations for behavioral control across mice, monkeys, and humans: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6....
As our lab's first foray into comparative analysis of neural dynamics, I’m super excited about this work! 1/18
Read CAN President Douglas Zochodne's letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney highlighting the importance of Neuroscience research and the CIHR Project Grant shortfalls.
can-acn.org/read-our-let...
Join us at TENSS 2026 to open black boxes, explain how things/brains work and debate the impact (or lack or it) of various new technologies on understanding of the brain and on society. tenss.ro Apply by: March 15th!
We're thrilled to share that the Call for Workshops for this year's @rl-conference.bsky.social is now live!
As Workshop co-chair (alongside the wonderful Raksha Kumaraswamy and @claireve.bsky.social) we are looking forward to seeing the proposals for workshops that we receive.
LINK IN NEXT POST
New paper alert! 🚨
We found that the brain's compass is remarkably stable at two scales
1️⃣ the system maintains its internal organization for weeks
2️⃣ It "remembers" its orientation for weeks, even after a single visit
This may be key to how the brain aligns its other maps.
Paper: rdcu.be/e3waP
Our paper is out in @natneuro.nature.com!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We develop a geometric theory of how neural populations support generalization across many tasks.
@zuckermanbrain.bsky.social
@flatironinstitute.org
@kempnerinstitute.bsky.social
1/14
Postdoc position in Paris: come help develop new generation human brain computer interfaces ⚡🧠💻
Interested? Contact me if you have experience with machine learning (e.g. simulation-based inference, RL, generative/diffusion models) or dynamical systems.
See below for + details and retweet 🙏
1/
📢 Come study cognitive science in Paris!
The Master’s program in Cognitive Science at @ENS_ULM, @psl_univ, and @EHESS_fr is now accepting applications for the next academic year.
🗓 Deadline: February 24, 2026
💻 Apply here: master-cognitive-science.ens.psl.eu/en/applicati...
Preprints of pandemic potential - new historical piece from me on the history of bioRxiv/medRxiv, their role in the pandemic, and the way forward. 1/n journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
12 out of 10 stars. would recommend
I’m very happy to share the latest from my lab published in @Nature
Hippocampal neurons that initially encode reward shift their tuning over the course of days to precede or predict reward.
Full text here:
rdcu.be/eY5nh
With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world:
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.
My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
When we learn complex tasks, we chunk them into sub-tasks that our brains orchestrate into action sequences. How we do this is not entirely understood. This work explores how to learn and internally control temporally abstracted sub-tasks in RL/AI with sequence models. arxiv.org/abs/2512.20605
🧠 New year, new preprint!
Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
At the Bernstein Conference 2024, Jeremie Lefebvre and I organized a workshop on the computational consequences of neural heterogeneity. Now, slightly more than a year later, we funneled the emerging discussions into a perspective piece: www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
The RLC call for papers is out! A last minute bit of excitement before the holidays. Come join us at the conference every RL researcher complains about missing
McGill’s Arts Building on campus, featuring its stone façade and green dome, with the McGill flag raised and autumn foliage surrounding the building.
McGill is recruiting top-tier researchers working abroad through the federally funded Canada Impact+ Research Chairs program, addressing global and national challenges. The first round is due in early 2026.
Learn more and submit your candidacy: https://mcgill.ca/x/5Zh
If you're (1) into nhp neurophysiology and/or biological motor control, (2) a foreign big shot and (3) interested in moving here, please reach out -- this new program looks extremely attractive (min. $8M over 8y)! www.uwo.ca/research/can...
Montreal AI & Neuroscience 2025 started this morning! 🧠X🤖
www.main2025.org
#MAIN2025
#NeuroAI
#Neuroscience
#AI
📣We have 2 open faculty positions for senior researchers in Neuroscience at Queen's University!
healthsci.queensu.ca/administrati...
1. a new Director for our Centre for Neuroscience Studies
2. a non-human primate NeuroAI researcher
Please share widely and reach out for questions!
Another new paper from the lab: Predictive theories like the SR imply that navigators who navigate differently should have cognitive maps which differ in predictable ways. Here we show that this holds in mouse hippocampal CA1.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Image of robots struggling with a social dilemma.
1/ Why does RL struggle with social dilemmas? How can we ensure that AI learns to cooperate rather than compete?
Introducing our new framework: MUPI (Embedded Universal Predictive Intelligence) which provides a theoretical basis for new cooperative solutions in RL.
Preprint🧵👇
(Paper link below.)
