Happy to have this finally out! TL;DR: The evolution of beliefs over time can be formulated as a dynamical system, and OFC neural activity appears to implement this system with its own dynamics. These emerge without explicit supervision—when animals learn to predict value in simple Pavlovian tasks

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 3w ago

Dynamic belief representation and updating through learned attractor-like dynamics in the frontal cortex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.17.752495v1

The next great American novel will be written in PowerPoint

Sorry but imo “is the brain Bayesian?” is a bad question and a type error to boot. A useful framework to be sure, just not a falsifiable theory.

Wait so is the Navier-stokes thing real or is it just corporate propaganda?

I’m on the faculty job market this fall! 🐦🧠 I’m an NIH K99/R00 awardee studying how the brain learns complex skills, using birdsong to connect molecules, synapses, circuits, behavior & computation. Know of a search where I might fit? Please send it my way & share!

Drew Schreiner, Ph.D. | Neuroscience of Learning

I use birdsong to understand how the brain learns complex skills across molecules, synapses, circuits, behavior, and computation. On the 2026–27 faculty job market.

drewschreiner.github.io

How fast can mice learn complex mazes? With @mameister4.bsky.social we reveal memory, generalization, latent learning, and remote credit assignment of mice in the Manhattan Maze. Do mice born without a cortex or hippocampus have them too? Check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Rapid spatial cognition in mice, with and without neocortex and hippocampus

Rapid learning, memory, and generalization are often attributed to circuits of the neocortex and hippocampus, but their specific role remains unclear. To examine these cognitive abilities together in ...

biorxiv.org

Its so weird how I am the only one in the world with the correct opinion about AI. What are the chances

How to pour a cup of coffee https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.26.746627v1

We're excited to present EASI-PASS! We can record the activity of many neurons, and separately, the expression of many genes. A natural next step for the field is to link these two types of information. 🧵👇 1/n

Spooky plasticity at a distance

Ken Miller@kenmiller.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This is wild. >1/2 of HC synapses disappear in artificial hibernation, come back in same/similar locations & memories intact. ~1/2 of engram synapses-between two memory-tagged cells-are clustered on dendrites, those preferentially spared. Not biggest synapses. 1/ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Mr Wittgenstein, tear down this wall!

Sorry but if a lion could speak, I think I would be able to understand him actually

Patrick Winston used to give a yearly talk at MIT called “how to speak” which began with: “success in science depends on your ability to speak, your ability to write, and the quality of your ideas, in that order” This is my mantra today as I try to turn my genius ideas into passable sentences

There is something to be said for giving out free mugs. I received one from Janelia years ago and I think have drank roughly ~5000 cups of coffee from it.

In music school there was a drinking game known as “phil up your glass” in which everyone gathered in a room and played “music in parallel motion” over and over, drinking each time they missed a note

Glen Weldon@ghweldon.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Optimist: The glass is half full. Pessimist: The glass is half empty. Philip Glass: half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half

The Brain Conference on Neural Foundations of Communication: Integrative Approaches Across Species www.fens.org/news-activit... Don't forget to register. Deadline Sept5. Tell your friends. Great topic, great speakers, great place-lots of time for discussion. Not to be missed, I think? #neuroskyence

The Brain Conference on Neural Foundations of Communication: Integrative Approaches Across Species - Federation of European Neuroscience Societies

Location: Heraklion, Crete, Greece Final call for registration deadline (abstracts will only be considered for posters): 16 June – 5 September 2026 This conference is locally organised by the Hellenic...

fens.org

Now in Science: How does the brain’s navigation system allocate its limited representational resources during behavior? We found that grid cells sweep toward locations of interest, providing a potential mechanism for allocating spatial attention in the cognitive map.🧵 science.org/doi/10.1126/...

My Vision for The University is Boldly having No Effect on Society

“The missing shade of blue” has been located and returned to lost and found

Helen Barron@helencbarron.bsky.social · 3mo ago

***New preprint from the lab*** showing “Generative replay across hippocampal-neocortical circuits”. In sleep we show spiking sequences in V1 (sensory neocortex!) that represent information that has not been directly experienced www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @bndu.ox.ac.uk @ndcnoxford.bsky.social

New paper out today led by @gallinaciega.bsky.social We show that seed-eating songbirds have enlarged a somatosensory nucleus, especially the part associated with the tongue, suggesting that seed-cracking is dependent on a fine sense of touch. #ornithology #neuroethology doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

At the suggestion of Richard Hamming i have decided that on Fridays I will only think “great thoughts” I will thus be forced to get all my bad scientific ideas out during the rest of the work week

Two brain circuits. Same learning problem. Shared learning outcomes. Different dynamical implementations. Our work shows that learning is not a single canonical solution but can emerge through distinct population dynamics shaped by circuit architecture. Excited to share our latest preprint! 🧵1/12

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Equivalent volitional learning emerges through circuit-specific population dynamics in motor cortex and hippocampus https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.04.730137v1

This Friday at McGill University, @loganjames.bsky.social and Maddie Cusimano will join researchers exploring computational approaches to animal communication at the symposium “Computational and Mechanistic Analyses of Communicative Interactions.” Register at: logansjames.github.io/events.html

Where, exactly, does learning happen in the brain? Out today in @nature.com, we identify a synaptic locus of birdsong learning and show that the circuit can be tuned to make birds learn faster - but at a cost. Read on👇 #neuroskyence 🧪 #prattle 💬 #bioacoustics Shareable link: rdcu.be/fiyrS

A synaptic locus of song learning - Nature

Combining a computational framework and optogenetic and chemogenetic manipulations within and downstream of the cortico-basal ganglia circuit identifies the specific cortico-basal ganglia synapse...

nature.com

Really excited to see this in print!

Cedric Boeckx@cedricboeckx.bsky.social · 5mo ago

“Specific expansion of motor cortical projections in a singing mouse” Great new work by @arkarupbanerjee.bsky.social E. Isco @cliffscience.bsky.social @xmikezheng20.bsky.social @tonyzador.bsky.social & colleagues on the neural basis of vocal dexterity, now out in @nature.com 🧪🧠

Our piece on language-like properties in animal vocal behavior is available today. Check it out! This is an incredibly difficult and thorny topic which is nonetheless of supreme importance and interest imco (in my current opinion)

Truly impossible to say enough good things about Carol!

Stories of WiN@storiesofwin.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Our latest profile is here! Dr. Carol Mason (@carolannmason.bsky.social) studies the development of connectivity between the eyes and the brain. Click the link below to listen and learn more! www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202... #StoriesOfWiN #WomenInNeuroscience

I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Carol over the last few years through the Simons SoF, so it was a particular joy to interview and write about her for Stories of WiN! I deeply admire her scientific contributions as well as her mentorship and leadership - we talked about all that and more!

Stories of WiN@storiesofwin.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Our latest profile is here! Dr. Carol Mason (@carolannmason.bsky.social) studies the development of connectivity between the eyes and the brain. Click the link below to listen and learn more! www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202... #StoriesOfWiN #WomenInNeuroscience

Awesome

Earth Species Project (ESP)@earthspecies.bsky.social · 6mo ago

📄 New preprint: carrion crow communication For the first time, along with the University of León, we charted the vocal repertoire of a crow population and mapped it to social functions and behavioral context. 📄: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🔊: projects.earthspecies.org/cooperative-...

I heard in mythos anthropic finally provided the model with a “strong beak”

False Knees@falseknees.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Intelligent