***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

Generative replay across hippocampal-neocortical circuits

To make flexible decisions, the brain needs to make inferences between events that were not directly experienced together. In sharp-wave ripple (SWR) events, during periods of rest and sleep, spiking ...

biorxiv.org

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

It was a pleasure to be able to contribute to this exciting special issue with @sumedhanalluru.bsky.social @glitzleonie.bsky.social @xenianeuro.bsky.social and Valentina Mancini. Thanks to @peterkok.bsky.social @mariamaly.bsky.social @barense.bsky.social for putting it together!

Peter Kok@peterkok.bsky.social · last mo.

The hippocampus sits at the interface of perception & memory, allowing us to link past, present, & future through its role in generating predictions. Excited to share this theme issue in @royalsociety.org's Philosophical Transactions B, co-edited with @barense.bsky.social & @mariamaly.bsky.social

Congratulations to Adrien for this tour de force that redefines the relevant oscillations for memory processing in humans! It was great to be a part of it. @bndu.ox.ac.uk @ndcnoxford.bsky.social

@acausse.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🧵 How does the human brain turn experiences into memories? During my four years of PhD at Oxford, I investigated this question through a collaboration between Oxford, Toulouse, and Paris, recording directly from the human brain during a relational memory task.

And here it is again!

Brain Network Dynamics Unit@bndu.ox.ac.uk · 5mo ago

New unit paper on “Noradrenaline causes a spread of association in the hippocampal cognitive map”, published in @natcomms.nature.com. www.mrcbndu.ox.ac.uk/papers/norad... @ndcnoxford.bsky.social @medsci.ox.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk

*** New paper from the lab in Nature Comms !! *** “Noradrenaline causes a spread of association in the hippocampal cognitive map” by the amazing @reneecabbage.bsky.social in collab. w labs of Jill O’Reilly, Will Clarke, and modeling from Prakriti Parthasarathy and @tpvogels.bsky.social, see below!

Renée Koolschijn@reneecabbage.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Very pleased to share that our study “Noradrenaline causes a spread of association in the hippocampal cognitive map” is out in @natcomms.nature.com (my final PhD paper, only 3.5 years post PhD! 🙃) Find the paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Today! 13:15–16:15 poster session #cosyne26 @sumedhanalluru.bsky.social

Helen Barron@helencbarron.bsky.social · 5mo ago

At #cosyne2026? Check out Sumedha Nalluru’s poster from our lab! Showing that reduced cortical inhibition causes false associations. Friday 13th March from 1:15 - 4:15pm.

At #cosyne2026? Check out Sumedha Nalluru’s poster from our lab! Showing that reduced cortical inhibition causes false associations. Friday 13th March from 1:15 - 4:15pm.

Exciting preprint from @glitzleonie.bsky.social on curriculum learning and cognitive maps !

Leonie Glitz@glitzleonie.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Interested in cognitive maps? Wondering how you should best train your participants? Luckily for you, we have investigated just that! Very excited to share a preprint from my PhD in which we show how initial training curriculum affects the cognitive maps we form osf.io/preprints/ps... [1/6]

Reminder to get in touch if you want to apply to the below PhD positions!

Helen Barron@helencbarron.bsky.social · 10mo ago

** We have up to TWO funded PhD positions available in our lab!! Apply below to find new ways to enhance memory👇 Pls retweet ** Deadline: 2nd December 1. Cross-species closed-loopTMR: tinyurl.com/bddu4tp6 2. TUS and TMR in humans: tinyurl.com/jjws5ctj Happy to chat to interested applicants.

🎓NEW PhD Studentship-Project FIVE 🧠Enhancing memory using cross-species closed-loop Targeted Memory Reactivation ⏳Deadline: Tue 2nd Dec 2025, 12:00 midday (BST). www.mrcbndu.ox.ac.uk/project/enha... @ndcnoxford.bsky.social @medsci.ox.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk

🎓NEW PhD Studentship-Project SIX 🧠Enhancing memory using Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation and Targeted Memory Reactivation ⏳Deadline: Tue 2nd Dec 2025, 12:00 midday (BST). www.mrcbndu.ox.ac.uk/project/enha... @ndcnoxford.bsky.social @medsci.ox.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk

** We have up to TWO funded PhD positions available in our lab!! Apply below to find new ways to enhance memory👇 Pls retweet ** Deadline: 2nd December 1. Cross-species closed-loopTMR: tinyurl.com/bddu4tp6 2. TUS and TMR in humans: tinyurl.com/jjws5ctj Happy to chat to interested applicants.

🔊NDCN researchers to co-lead new £50m MRC Centre. The new Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence (MRC CoRE) aims to develop brain stimulation devices to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s, dementia, stroke and childhood epilepsy. Read more: tinyurl.com/mr359x2d

NDCN researchers to co-lead new £50m MRC Centre to develop medical device-based therapies for brain conditions

A new Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence (MRC CoRE) aims to develop brain stimulation devices to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s, dementia, stroke and childhood epilepsy.

tinyurl.com

@ukri.org announces new MRC Centre of Research Excellence in Restorative Neural Dynamics. 🎉🏆🚀 National flagship aiming to transform medical device-based treatments for brain conditions. #neurotech @ox.ac.uk ‪‪@greatormondst.bsky.social‬ @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social @newcastleuni.bsky.social

I'm pleased to share our new work, “Spatio-temporal organization of network activity patterns in the hippocampus”, out in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social ! With Demi Brizee & David Dupret, we track how oscillations and spiking behaviour map onto hippocampal layers using an LFP-based embedding. (1/13)

We just pushed “Memory by a 1000 rules” onto bioRxiv, where we use clever #ML to find #plasticity quadruplets (EE, EI, IE, II) that learn basic stability in spiking nets. Why is it cool? We find 1000s!! of solutions, and they don’t just stabilise. They #memorise! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Memory by a thousand rules: Automated discovery of functional multi-type plasticity rules reveals variety & degeneracy at the heart of learning

Synaptic plasticity is the basis of learning and memory, but the link between synaptic changes and neural function remains elusive. Here, we used automated search algorithms to obtain thousands of str...

biorxiv.org

*** ! Closing soon ! Postdoc position available in the lab ***

Helen Barron@helencbarron.bsky.social · last yr.

!! 1 WEEK to go !! postdoc position available in our lab with deadline 3rd June. Do get in touch if you'd like to chat. Details below.

!! 1 WEEK to go !! postdoc position available in our lab with deadline 3rd June. Do get in touch if you'd like to chat. Details below.

Helen Barron@helencbarron.bsky.social · last yr.

*** Come join us !! We are recruiting !! *** How does the brain generate beliefs that go beyond direct experience? How do these mechanisms go awry in psychosis? The Barron lab tinyurl.com/bdf4drjf @MRCBNDU @NDCNOxford are recruiting a new postdoc tinyurl.com/ut4vbwt4 to work in mouse models

*** Come join us !! We are recruiting !! *** How does the brain generate beliefs that go beyond direct experience? How do these mechanisms go awry in psychosis? The Barron lab tinyurl.com/bdf4drjf @MRCBNDU @NDCNOxford are recruiting a new postdoc tinyurl.com/ut4vbwt4 to work in mouse models

Huge congratulations to Dr Mufeng Tang!! www.mrcbndu.ox.ac.uk/news/mufeng-...

And looking forward to this symposium on Sunday!

Anna Schapiro@annaschapiro.bsky.social · last yr.

Check out the amazing lineup we have for the Sunday 10am Symposium at CNS on the Cognitive Functions of Replay: Matthijs van der Meer, Nathaniel Daw, and Helen Barron 🤩@mvandermeer.bsky.social @nathanieldaw.bsky.social @helencbarron.bsky.social

Excited to be speaking at ‘Reasoning Algorithms Across Species, Diagnoses and Development’, upcoming online conference April 23rd 11:00am-5pm ET. obssr.od.nih.gov/news-and-eve...

Reasoning Algorithms Across Species, Diagnoses, and Development: Theoretical Frameworks Informing Causal Manipulations

DescriptionThe goal of this workshop is to advance our understanding of the brain's reasoning algorithms, explore effects of brain disorders on these algorithms, and discuss whether computational mode...

obssr.od.nih.gov