Tim Behrens
@behrenstimb.bsky.social
Slowly becoming a neuroscientist. EiC @elife.bsky.social
An absolutely beautiful thing.
Helen Barron@helencbarron.bsky.social · last wk.***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
Have @ukri.org published the reasoning behind this decision? It seems like such an extraordinary decision on the surface that surely it should be defended in public. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands
Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.
bbc.co.uk
New perspective paper from our lab: “The hippocampus as a generative model” out now !! royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article... The traditional view of the hippocampus is that it creates a cognitive map. Here we extend this view to conceptualise the hippocampus as a “generative model”.
The hippocampus as a generative model
Abstract. A generative model can be defined as a model of the latent causes of sensory input that can be used to generate new data samples. By examining em
royalsocietypublishing.org
This is one of my favourite things. Direct replication of MEG and fMRI findings in intracranial recordings and a demonstration that cortical representations update in the right direction around hippocampal ripples.
Blake Richards@tyrellturing.bsky.social · 4w agoFor a long time I felt like there was a hesitation in neuroscience to ascribe anything like a planning function to the various "replay" events we see in the hippocampus, but I think this is rapidly changing. Here's another new entry in human epilepsy patients: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧠📈 🧪
For a long time I felt like there was a hesitation in neuroscience to ascribe anything like a planning function to the various "replay" events we see in the hippocampus, but I think this is rapidly changing. Here's another new entry in human epilepsy patients: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧠📈 🧪
Human hippocampal ripples coordinate planning sequences and compositional representations in neocortex - Nature Neuroscience
Human hippocampal ripples and replay interact with the prefrontal cortex to update mental representations online, letting the brain compositionally combine familiar elements in new ways for flexible p...
nature.com
It wouldn’t be FENS if there wasn’t some sort of clash - definitely check out awesome work by @aryabhomick.bsky.social in Friday morning’s poster session tracking learning dynamics of abstract task structure in the PFC as well as evidence for complex hierarchical learning in rodents!
Mohamady El-Gaby@melgaby.bsky.social · last mo.If you’re still around on Friday morning I’ll be giving a talk about the latest work and ideas from our lab - alongside lots of great theory and experimental talks in the “Latent representations for smart decisions” symposium. 5/5
Same session contains this exciting new work from friends: Athena Apostolelli @sandra-neuro.bsky.social @mathiassablemeyer.bsky.social and @behrenstimb.bsky.social showing PFC learning dynamics in a spontaneously emerging type of abstraction behaviour in mice
#FENS2026 poster alert: "Combining flexible electrode recordings with two-photon imaging to investigate brain-wide network coupling" Come to our poster PS01-07AM-375 on Tuesday morning to chat with Linus Meienberg and me, how we use ultra-flexible electrodes together with optical recordings.
Is spatial navigation innate 🧠? Using #NeuroPixels we show that the #torus 🍩 underlying the #GridCell map exists already on day 10 in rats — before pups open eyes and ears and before they start upright walking. 🧵1:4 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Ever wondered how the hippocampal cognitive map is read-out? @changmin-yu.bsky.social @zilong-ji.bsky.social with Jake & John, show that, during navigation, theta sweeps indicate remembered goal-directions (cf. current/next movements or perceptual targets) 1/2 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
PSA for trainees cold emailing with interest in joining a lab: Be careful about your use of LLMs in writing these emails!! It is now *extremely* common to get emails with a bizarrely-detailed, clearly-LLM take on a paper finding or with specific phrases pulled from the lab website. Don’t do this!
How does the human brain extract abstract structure from experience? We show that sensory-independent relational representations emerge in mPFC over several days. Work with @mgarvert.bsky.social and @behrenstimb.bsky.social now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social: www.cell.com/current-biol...
Slightly surprised that @kordinglab.bsky.social are still printing their simulations out on paper to be honest.
Protocol Labs@protocollabs.bsky.social · last mo.“Our simulations are barely worth the papers we print them on.” @kordinglab.bsky.social on the tiny worm with just 300 neurons that scientists still can't simulate — even with every connection mapped. Full conversation on the @juanbenet.bsky.social Podcast >>> youtu.be/FHQfmJEpRmU
This paper is an absolutely beautiful combination of a deep set of cognitive ideas, a super creative task, a surprisingly impressive behaviour, and an elegant modelling framework. One of my favourite things in the last year.
Neuron@cp-neuron.bsky.social · last mo.
Great to see Mark Stokes getting acknowledged , and also the author senior authors who stepped in, but I’d like to highlight 1st author Michał Wojcik who completed this excellent work from his PhD under such difficult circumstances. He‘s got more good stuff in the pipeline - one to watch
Earl K. Miller@earlkmiller.bsky.social · last mo.Dimensionality reduction is how the brain acquires knowledge. Cool new paper from the late, great, Mark Stokes. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroscience
I’m grateful that we at least had 2 years of a government trying to fix things apart from their own image, but I wish they had got to universities before the “let’s actually govern” strategy imploded.
One more week to apply for OxCIN Global Scholars! 🎯For early-career MRI researchers in the Global South 💻Remote 1-year affiliation with OxCIN 🧠Training in MRI physics & FSL 🌎Build global connections 🗓️Deadline 28 June 2026 🔗https://www.oxcin.ox.ac.uk/about/training/global-scholars Please repost!
This is such a great opportunity for early career neuroimaging researchers in the Global South and for our centre. Come join our @oxcin.bsky.social community!
Oxford University Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (OxCIN)@oxcin.bsky.social · 2mo agoOne more week to apply for OxCIN Global Scholars! 🎯For early-career MRI researchers in the Global South 💻Remote 1-year affiliation with OxCIN 🧠Training in MRI physics & FSL 🌎Build global connections 🗓️Deadline 28 June 2026 🔗https://www.oxcin.ox.ac.uk/about/training/global-scholars Please repost!
The extent of the IF obsession is evident from any and every Google search for a journal - even venues that don't warrant one. This literally makes or breaks journals - non-profits are hit particularly hard - and it stifles innovation and distorts science. 2/2
This is the most British use of the word "Allegedly" imaginable. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Arrest over push of woman into bus's path in Putney in 2017
A 44-year-old man is in custody over the incident where a woman appeared to be shoved into the path of a bus.
bbc.co.uk
New analysis from @rjpartington.bsky.social highlights how BREXIT has left the UK economy smaller and weaker than it would otherwise have been. Worse off outside the EU. Clear charts, clear story. Worth a read. 🔗 theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/14/how-uk-economy-changed-since-brexit-vote-charts
How Brexit has made Britain poorer – in charts
Forecasters were wrong about an immediate recession but right that we would be worse off outside the EU
theguardian.com
Many of the scientific questions we're interested in tackling require studying learning over long periods of time across the brain. This is challenging – which is why we're excited to say we've been developing a system for chronic wireless recording using long Neuropixels probes in macaque monkeys.
All data, analysis code & relevant docs are publicly available. Ready for anyone to start making their own discoveries 💡 See code & data availability section of manuscript :) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Structured and flexible representations in medial-frontal cortex support goal-directed navigation
Humans and animals plan actions to achieve goals in worlds that are complex and continually changing. While planning is critically dependent on the prefrontal cortex in humans, little is known about i...
biorxiv.org
This project builds on work establishing the behaviour done at Champalimaud in Lisbon with @michaelfsp.bsky.social, Beatriz Godinho, Christian Machens, and @ruimcosta.bsky.social : www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Flexible route planning and rapid structure learning by mice in complex environments
Action selection using predictive models of the environment plays a fundamental role in human and animal behaviour, yet is poorly understood at circuit and algorithmic levels. Spatial navigation is an...
biorxiv.org
This paper is so cool that it’s finally convinced @thomasakam.bsky.social to join Bluesky
@peterdoohan.bsky.social · 2mo agoHow do brains plan actions towards goals? To get at this question we studied mice navigating complex mazes as goals changed on every trial 🧵 Work with @thomasakam.bsky.social @behrenstimb.bsky.social @kristorpjensen.bsky.social now on BioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
