Interesting in how animals learn a sensory decision-making task from scratch? Come check out Helena Liu's (@helenaliu24.bsky.social) poster in the Saturday poster session at #cosyne2026 !

Helena (Yuhan) Liu@helenaliu24.bsky.social · 8mo ago

(1/n) Presenting our NeurIPS’25 work at #cosyne2026 poster 3-109 We introduce a flexible framework to infer how animals learn new decision-making tasks from scratch without assuming REINFORCE/Q-learning. Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2509.04661 Joint w/ @vgeadah.bsky.social and @jpillowtime.bsky.social

Proud to be a collaborator on this paper on compact deep neural network models of V4, with Ben Cowley (@benjocowley.bsky.social), Pati Stan, & Matt Smith, now finally out in print (by which I mean online).

Benjamin Cowley@benjocowley.bsky.social · 8mo ago

DNN models of the brain are getting bigger. Are we replacing one complicated system in vivo with another in silico? In new work, we seek the *smallest* DNN models of visual cortex, balancing prediction with parsimony. It turns out these compact models are surprisingly small! rdcu.be/e5H8G

Excited to be co-organising a #cosyne2026 workshop with Alison Comrie on 'algorithms for learning from scratch'! With a great line-up of speakers, we'll be tackling the question of what processes enable naive biological & artificial agents to adapt to new situations. Info here: tinyurl.com/4u8enf7k

learningfromscratch

march 16th, workshop day 1 @ cosyne 2026

sites.google.com

New paper with @deanpospisil.bsky.social , in which we introduce a new estimator for the "signal eigenspectrum" (i.e., the eigenvalues of the noiseless population responses). We re-analyze data from Stringer et al 2019 and show eigenvalues of mouse V1 are well explained by a broken power.

@deanpospisil.bsky.social · 9mo ago

New paper out at PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Revisiting the high-dimensional geometry of population responses in the visual cortex with @jpillowtime.bsky.social. The review took forever because a reviewer was doubtful our new estimator can infer eigenvalues beyond the rank of the data! (1/6)

Bichan Wu (@bichanw.bsky.social) & I wrote a tutorial paper on Reduced Rank Regression (RRR) — the statistical method underlying "communication subspaces" from Semedo et al 2019 — aimed at neuroscientists. arxiv.org/abs/2512.12467

Reduced rank regression for neural communication: a tutorial for neuroscientists

Reduced rank regression (RRR) is a statistical method for finding a low-dimensional linear mapping between a set of high-dimensional inputs and outputs. In recent years, RRR has found numerous applica...

arxiv.org

Great opportunity to learn to use fancy neural data analysis tools developed at the @flatironinstitute.org. Sign up for this workshop at SFN 2025!

Pynapple @pynapple.bsky.social · last yr.

🎉 Deadline is *tomorrow*! Join the @flatironinstitute.org workshop on pynapple & NeMos @sfn.org this November to analyze and model neural data pynapple: analyze neural time series NeMoS: model neural population dynamics Meals + accommodation included 👉 neurorse.flatironinstitute.org/events/2025/...

Now out in @natcomms.nature.com‬: Mice and monkeys spontaneously shift through comparable cognitive states - and it's written all over their faces! (1/7) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Inferring internal states across mice and monkeys using facial features - Nature Communications

Here, the authors created a virtual reality task for monkeys and mice to explore if internal states like attention are similar across species. Their facial expressions during the task were similar, su...

nature.com

Diffusion modeling folks: many sources (including Wikipedia) cite Robbins 1956 as the original source for Tweedie's formula (E[z | x] = x + sig^2 \grad log p(x)). But as far as I can tell — the formula appears nowhere in that paper. Did I miss it? Can anyone explain what's going on here?

"to run a contest that you end up not funding as a private organization at this time is… both extremely wasteful of these people’s time, and just devastating in terms of morale." I spoke with @aniloza.bsky.social at STAT today about HHMI's decision not to fund this round of Hanna Gray applicants.

Private funder HHMI pauses postdoc fellowship

As HHMI pauses Hanna Gray fellowship applications, opportunities for young scientists shrink further, making them look overseas.

statnews.com

We are writing a tutorial paper on reduced rank regression (RRR), aimed primarily at neuroscientists. Q: Does anyone have suggestions for where to publish such a paper?

"We are passionate about science and its benefits to society, but we fear more what will happen if we do not help defend everyone’s fundamental rights." Op-ed I co-wrote w/ @samwang.bsky.social @jpillowtime.bsky.social @ilanawitten.bsky.social & David Tank www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2025...

To stop intimidation, Eisgruber needs your help

When targeting one institution is a bald attempt to divide and conquer, as is the case with Columbia, it is essential for a coalition or group of institutions and individuals to stand up together.&nbs...

dailyprincetonian.com

Pynapple is a Python-based neural analysis package designed to streamline your research. It integrates seamlessly with your projects, offering tools for processing, analyzing, and visualizing neural data. Follow us for updates, tutorials, and community insights! #Pynapple #NeuralAnalysis #OpenSource

This drone situation in NJ is bonkers! Patch has had the best coverage so far. patch.com/new-jersey/p...

Enhanced Drone Detection Equipment To Take Flight Wednesday: NJ Mayor

Thousands of tips have come in to the FBI about the drone sightings, which have been reported in at least 13 New Jersey counties.

patch.com

(recycled form X @ 2021) Are you interested in the dimensionality of neural data, but missed our #BernsteinConference workshop? Worry not! Instead, join me in this long thread (1/37) attempting to summarise it and (my view of) the field more broadly.

an aerial view of a large body of water surrounded by rocky shoreline

ALT: an aerial view of a large body of water surrounded by rocky shoreline

media.tenor.com

Princeton folks — check out this story from Carolyn Jones about safety on our local roads! Interesting stats even if you're not a safety geek... 🧐

Carolyn Jones@carolyn-jones.bsky.social · 2y ago

How much do we know about the safety of our local roads? At TAPinto Princeton, we summarized all 61 vehicle crashes that happened in Princeton, NJ (pop: 30,000) in November. This new 'traffic blotter' tells a story about what goes wrong when drivers, cyclists and pedestrians share the road.

V. proud of this paper on "cell type dynamical systems", to appear at NeurIPS 2024 — led by the fearless @aditijh.bsky.social !!

Aditi Jha@aditijh.bsky.social · 2y ago

Excited to share our NeurIPS spotlight paper that develops cell-type dynamical systems to understand the effects of neural perturbations, and roles of distinct cell classes in a neural circuit! Joint work w/ @dikshagup.bsky.social , Carlos Brody, @jpillowtime.bsky.social . (Details below)

If you've used @intlbrainlab.bsky.social data or tools in some way, could you spare 1 minute to tell us how? short survey: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Thanks in advance! 🙏

IBL data and tools feedback

If you have used (or tried to use) IBL data or tools, we want to hear about it!

docs.google.com

😂

Anti-Connectionist Connectionist Club@accclub.bsky.social · 2y ago

#NeuroAI #neuroskyence