Now out at PNAS - congratulations to Ramanujan Srinath and the team! Ram's ability and willingness to connect all these data, models, and ideas has changed my thinking/interpretation of many findings. I suspect I will keep learning from this study for a long time. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The structure of correlated variability reflects task-relevant information in sensory neurons | PNAS

Shared trial-to-trial variability across sensory neurons is reliably reduced when perceptual performance improves, yet this variability is low dime...

pnas.org

Marlene Cohen@marlenecohen.bsky.social · 12mo ago

One of the joys of being a scientist is the ability to think about a problem for a long time. Our new preprint solves a mystery that has been bugging me since I was a graduate student (which was, ahem, a while ago). 🧪🧠🧵1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I have always believed that ideas from basic systems neuroscience could eventually help people. But for years that felt more like hope than reality. But look! This is one of the most personally satisfying papers my lab has produced because we’re getting there. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧪🧵 1/

Congratulations to fantastic postdoc Ramanujan Srinath and former star tech Martyna Czarnik on their new paper on the neural basis of flexible generalization in Nature Communications today! 🥳 Stable readout of visual representations mediates flexible generalization www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I really enjoyed this terrific review by two terrific scientists. It tackles challenging and deep ideas about the neural basis of cognitively complex behavior in an accessible way. Highly recommended!

Cheng Xue@cxue.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Excited to share our new review in Trends in Neuroscience with Gouki Okazawa @gouki-okazawa.bsky.social : "The 'neat' and 'messy' in task-dependent neural geometry and computation" where we reviewed what we know about the 'task-manager' in the brain. A thread 👇

More new results, this time from the amazing Lily Kramer! 🎉 “Sequential experience reshapes population representations in visual cortex” doi.org/10.64898/202... Visual experience unfolds in time. We asked how temporal structure reshapes population activity in visual cortex. 🧪🧵1/

New preprint: our lab’s first Alzheimer’s paper! “Loss of neuronal population organization links pathology to behavior in a model of Alzheimer's disease” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧪🧵1/

We have two SfN presentations this morning, featuring star grad student 1st authors Grace DiRisio and Sylvia Durian. Cheng Xue is an author on both & not only is he an incredible scientist, he's also an incredible advertiser/communicator; check out his cartoons! x.com/_chengxue/st...

Cheng Xue on X: "#SfN25 How does the primate brain instantly recognize images? Humans can easily remember thousands of images after a single viewing. @GraceDiRisio @marlenecohen and I set out to find the core mechanisms in the visual cortex for this fast, high-capacity coding. https://t.co/hdrmmbvphf" / X

#SfN25 How does the primate brain instantly recognize images? Humans can easily remember thousands of images after a single viewing. @GraceDiRisio @marlenecohen and I set out to find the core mechanisms in the visual cortex for this fast, high-capacity coding. https://t.co/hdrmmbvphf

x.com

New preprint from the lab! 🎉 Postdoc Keon Allen led this study exploring how subjects combine sources of sensory information, including unfamiliar & cross-modal cues, and what that can tell us about decision-making, neural mechanisms, and neurodiversity. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵🧪1/

Behavioural and neuronal insights into multisensory combination of unpracticed cues.

Effective decision-making requires integrating multiple information sources, weighted by their reliability and context. While classic studies show near-optimal cue combination with well-learned signal...

biorxiv.org

New preprint! How can you remember an image you saw once, even after seeing thousands of them? We find a role for humble mid-level visual cortex in high-capacity, one-shot learning. doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.22.677855 🧵🧪1/

Neuronal signatures of successful one-shot memory in mid-level visual cortex

High-capacity, one-shot visual recognition memory challenges theories of learning and neural coding because it requires rapid, robust, and durable representations. Most studies have focused on the hip...

doi.org

One of the joys of being a scientist is the ability to think about a problem for a long time. Our new preprint solves a mystery that has been bugging me since I was a graduate student (which was, ahem, a while ago). 🧪🧠🧵1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Guided by Noise: Correlated Variability Channels Task-Relevant Information in Sensory Neurons

Shared trial-to-trial variability across sensory neurons is reliably reduced when perceptual performance improves, yet this variability is low-dimensional, so it could be ignored by an optimal readout...

biorxiv.org

Cutting $20 billion to NIH over 25 years may save $500 billion on paper, but it’d end up costing $8.2 trillion in lost human health. But NIH isn't the only thing being cut. The budget also slashes all NSF-funded science by 73 percent. NASA faces “the biggest single-year cut to NASA in history."

Donald Trump’s proposed budget would gut American science

It would slash cancer research, drug trials, space exploration, and so much more.

motherjones.com

we're crowd-sourcing a searchable repository of tangible benefits stemming from federally-funded research. Come enjoy the great stories; or send in an idea; or volunteer to join the team. publicusaresearchbenefits.com please share and re-share so we get more great stories in there!

Calling all science advocates!! Carlos Brody+ are creating a searchable database of tangible science benefits, and they need you. publicusaresearchbenefits.com They are asking for suggestions - from brief to lengthy. The database is state-searchable, so all 50 states. Please spread the word!

Announcing - the 3rd annual Midway Meeting of the Memory Minds (Mmmm)! Chicago-area memory neuroscientists, please join us for a day of talks, discussions, and a keynote by none other than @earlkmiller.bsky.social ! Registration is free, but space is limited. forms.office.com/r/rMxqDQ4sZF

The NIH’s new imposed standard indirect cost rate threatens life-saving brain & behavior research that benefits millions of Americans. SfN, with other scientific organizations,urge reversal of this policy & implore Congress to protect critical research infrastructure. Full statement: bit.ly/4jVJnCL

Federal restrictions & funding freezes threaten vital research and halts scientific progress that benefits all Americans. Join fellow #NeuroAdvocates in urging Congress to protect congressionally approved funding & ensure uninterrupted support for the scientific workforce. 👇 #NeuroSky

New results for a new year! “Linking neural population formatting to function” describes our modern take on an old question: how can we understand the contribution of a brain area to behavior? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧠👩🏻‍🔬🧪🧵 #neuroskyence 1/

Linking neural population formatting to function

Animals capable of complex behaviors tend to have more distinct brain areas than simpler organisms, and artificial networks that perform many tasks tend to self-organize into modules (1-3). This sugge...

biorxiv.org

Hello! I'm excited for my first post to be a plug for the work of our terrific collaborators, Deying Song and Chengcheng Huang, with Doug Ruff in my lab. Deying created a circuit model of divisive normalization that explains & predicts many experimental results: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Neuronal heterogeneity of normalization strength in a circuit model

The size of a neuron's receptive field increases along the visual hierarchy. Neurons in higher-order visual areas integrate information through a canonical computation called normalization, where neur...

biorxiv.org