While I am sad to miss #CCN2026 our group will showing the cool stuff that we have been doing in the model-brain alignment space, including a selected talk by Angeliki! See list, including our fun gaming collaboration with the groups of @marcelomattar.bsky.social and @momchiltomov.bsky.social
Very excited to attend #CCN2026 this week and to present various projects from my lab! Here's a list of our posters and talks in case you'd like to see what we've been up to.
So thrilled to be joining the Psychology Department at @columbiauniversity.bsky.social as an assistant prof next summer! I'll be recruiting for PhD/postdoc to start in Autumn 2027, so if you're interested in using computational approaches to studying human cognition please get in touch!
Replay of procedural #memory is independent of the #hippocampus doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Replay of procedural memory is independent of the hippocampus - Nature Neuroscience
Thompson, Rollik and colleagues show that, during sleep, the brain replays procedural memories in the striatum independently of the hippocampus. Replay content was shaped by prior reward and error out...
doi.org
Our paper is out in @natmachintell.nature.com! We trained multiple RNNs to perform free recall. The best-performing ones learned a strategy akin to the memory palace technique. See thread below for more info. www.nature.com/articles/s42...
A neural network model of free recall learns multiple memory strategies - Nature Machine Intelligence
Li et al. show that recurrent neural networks optimized for free recall discover diverse, human-like memory strategies beyond classical temporal context models, with top models using an index-based me...
nature.com
Looking to work with a postdoc. Prior experience with fMRI and computational modeling required, interest in psychiatry desired. Fellowship provides three years salary plus independent travel/equipment funds. Send CV and 2-3 manuscripts (preprints OK).
Made this overview of the intellectual history leading up to today's LLMs for my course. Any "must-have" stepping stones I missed? #NeuroAI #compneurosky #neuroskyence
From a great collaboration with @lorenzoposani.com, @shuqiw.bsky.social, Samuel Muscinelli, Liam Paninski, now in Nature: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Rarely categorical, highly separable representations along the cortical hierarchy - Nature
Cortical circuits prioritize diversity over categorical structure, supporting a computational regime geared towards high-dimensional, highly separable neural representations.
nature.com
The 2026 volume of the Annual Review of Neuroscience is now online 🧠 The most read article is "Planning in the Brain: It's Not What You Think It Is" by @marcelomattar.bsky.social and @nathanieldaw.bsky.social
During sleep, neurons in the hippocampus 'replay' past activity patterns. This is thought to underlie memory consolidation 🧠 After a busy day, how does the brain sort out what is worth replaying? 🤔 Check out this preprint 📃 from Tirole, Duvelle and Bendor for answers! doi.org/10.64898/202...
Time, but not reward, shapes replay-based episodic prioritization
Why are some experiences remembered better than others? Leading theories propose that hippocampal replay prioritizes memories for consolidation according to their expected future value. We recorded hi...
doi.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...
New preprint! We show low arousal states promote hippocampal ripple genesis in sleep and wake. This bridges rodent work, where ripples predominate during sleep, with human studies reporting ripples during active behavior, identifying low arousal as a common mechanism www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Arousal state modulates human hippocampal ripples
Hippocampal ripples are transient, high-frequency oscillations linked to memory replay and consolidation. Ripples are well-characterized in rodents to occur during periods of behavioral inactivity (i....
biorxiv.org
A *super* exciting new paper from @lizsiefert.bsky.social!! Human hippocampal ripple rates track very closely with several indicators of low arousal, during both sleep and wake. This is probably the most compelling data I have ever been associated with.
Liz Siefert@lizsiefert.bsky.social · last mo.New preprint! We show low arousal states promote hippocampal ripple genesis in sleep and wake. This bridges rodent work, where ripples predominate during sleep, with human studies reporting ripples during active behavior, identifying low arousal as a common mechanism www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/ 🚨 New preprint: "Closing the Loop to Discover Psychological Theories with an Automated Cognitive Scientist" Introducing AutoCog 🤖 — a fully autonomous AI system that runs the entire scientific discovery cycle in cognitive science to surface novel theories of human behavior 🧵
Check out @jonathannicholas.bsky.social 's new preprint measuring eye movements to infer individual memory retrievals during decision making, plus a cool RNN modelof that process. Can't express how excited I am about this new technique!
Jonathan Nicholas@jonathannicholas.bsky.social · 2mo agoWe make flexible choices in new situations by knitting together information from separate relevant memories. But what governs which memories are retrieved and when? In a new preprint, we captured how people build decision variables from different memories by tracking their gaze on a blank screen.
How 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...
1/11 Happy to share our TICS paper on using the flexibility of one of the most basic cognitive functions, perception, to understand one of the most complex cognitive dysfunctions, psychiatric conditions (also my first formal work in computational psychiatry 🎉) 📄: www.cell.com/trends/cogni... 🧵 : 👇
Perceptual multistability: a multifaceted window into brain dysfunctions
Perceptual multistability, observed across species and sensory modalities, offers valuable insights into numerous cognitive functions and dysfunctions. For instance, differences in temporal dynamics a...
cell.com
Trends in Cognitive Sciences@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social · 4mo agoOnline Now: Perceptual multistability: a multifaceted window into brain dysfunctions
Only one week left until our PhD application deadline @mpicybernetics.bsky.social. If you’re interested in the intersection of RL, RNNs, and analyses of neural & behavioral data from novel, cross-species foraging experiments, make sure to submit your application by June 15! #NeuroJobs More info👇
Roxana Zeraati@roxana-zeraati.bsky.social · 3mo agoIf these research directions resonate with you and you're interested in joining our team, we now have 2 open PhD positions! More information about the positions: nextcloud.tuebingen.mpg.de/index.php/s/... More information about our research: www.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/906930/natur... #NeuroJobs
New preprint! 🚨 Work w/ Sangita Dandekar & Clayton Curtis at NYU during my PhD. We show how prefrontal & visual cortices coordinate to keep working memories alive via localized & long-range β-band dynamics. 🧠 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (1/5)
biorxiv.org
Computational models are a key part of science but discovering new ones is hard! DataDIVER discovers concise models from data, which surface new mechanistic ideas and clear predictions for future experiments From Google Deepmind Neuroscience Lab + collaborators www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
New preprint w/ @fredcallaway.bsky.social! How does the brain decide which computations to run? We combine rational meta-reasoning with a meta-learning algorithm to build a recurrent network that learns to select computations. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Learning to select computations in recurrent neural circuits
Two hallmarks of biological computation are its flexibility and efficiency. These features are often attributed to cognitive control processes that balance external utility against computational cost. However, how the brain could implement such adaptive control remains unknown. Here, we provide one possible answer by combining the computational theory of rational meta-reasoning with a meta-learning algorithm recently proposed as a model of prefrontal cortex. This yields a recurrent neural network model that learns to select computations. In simple choice tasks, the model approximates the algorithms and representations of optimal symbolic models and reproduces neural dynamics observed in macaque orbitofrontal cortex. In multi-step planning tasks, the model replicates key behavioral signatures of human planning strategies and captures human neural dynamics associated with step-by-step mental simulation. Our framework unifies meta-reasoning and meta-learning by showing that learning to reason can be understood as learning to learn from information generated by one’s own cognitive operations, providing a mechanistic account of how adaptive control of thought can be implemented in neural systems. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
biorxiv.org
Super proud to have contributed to this amazing team effort, led by @sreejan.bsky.social and @botoscsabi.bsky.social! We asked: Which AI models learn to play video games like humans, comparing both behavior and internal representations. The answer surprised us! Check out our paper and post below
Botos Csabi@botoscsabi.bsky.social · 3mo agoJeee 🐦⬛ I am very proud of our joint effort with @sreejan.bsky.social on the project "Reason to Play" LRMs show human-like rule discovery, and their hidden states predict human brain activity during gameplay 10x better than previous methods Interactive demo + paper: botcs.github.io/reason-to-pl...
Jeee 🐦⬛ I am very proud of our joint effort with @sreejan.bsky.social on the project "Reason to Play" LRMs show human-like rule discovery, and their hidden states predict human brain activity during gameplay 10x better than previous methods Interactive demo + paper: botcs.github.io/reason-to-pl...
Reason to Play - Behavioral and Brain Alignment
32 fMRI-scanned humans and 8 frontier open weight LLMs play ARC-AGI like games with no rules given. The reasoning models match the human learning trajectories and their hidden states predict human bra...
botcs.github.io
New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Olivia R. Christiano and Sebastian Michelmann: Reliability and signal comparison of OPM-MEG, fMRI & iEEG in a repeated movie viewing paradigm doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...
New Annual Review with @nathanieldaw.bsky.social: “Planning in the Brain: It's Not What You Think It Is.” We argue that the brain's 'planning' machinery is mostly used for learning from simulated experience, and that thinking prospectively at decision time is just one special case of this process.
Planning in the Brain: It's Not What You Think It Is
The neuroscience of planning has long been analogized to search algorithms in artificial intelligence (AI), which simulate future actions to guide immediate choices. We argue that advances in both neu...
annualreviews.org
24-Hour Final Call for BAMB! 2026 ⏳ Join us in Barcelona (July 12–23) and learn from our expert faculty: @meganakpeters.bsky.social @marcelomattar.bsky.social @khamascience.bsky.social @thecharleywu.bsky.social Apply now: www.bambschool.org
BAMB! 2026 | Barcelona Summer School for Advanced Modeling of Behavior
Intensive training for experienced researchers in cognitive science, computational neuroscience and neuro-AI. Five interconnected modules, expert faculty, hands-on projects. July 12-23, 2026.
bambschool.org
1/ New preprint out! “Control of cortical population activity with patterned microstimulation.” We show that brief training with multi-electrode stimulation pulses is enough to steer prefrontal population activity along desired trajectories in awake macaques. tinyurl.com/3d6kv26w
biorxiv.org
Come be our colleague! The Center for Neural Science at NYU is accepting applications at the Assistant Professor level in computational neuroscience and/or neural engineering apply.interfolio.com/182074
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News! I've joined the Astera Institute to lead its neuroscience based AGI research. Backed by $1B+ commitment over the coming decade, my team will explore novel, brain-inspired architectures and algos toward safe, efficient human-like AGI, working alongside Doris Tsao. 1/ astera.org/dileep-georg...
Dileep George joins Astera to lead its neuro-inspired AGI effort
Dileep George is joining Astera as Head of AI, leading our AGI research division. Working alongside our Chief Scientist Doris Tsao, he and the team will explore novel, brain-inspired computational arc...
astera.org
I'm excited to announce that I had my first (co-authored) book published today! "The Rational Use of Cognitive Resources" with Falk Lieder and Tom Griffiths (@cocoscilab.bsky.social ). You can read it for free! (see thread)
