Jascha Achterberg
@achterbrain.bsky.social
Neuroscience & AI at University of Oxford and University of Cambridge | Principles of efficient computations + learning in brains, AI, and silicon 🧠 NeuroAI | Gates Cambridge Scholar
www.jachterberg.com
www.jachterberg.com
Enjoyed @giacomoi.bsky.social commentary in PNAS on how #NeuroAI and Neuromorphic Engineering should come together to allow brain circuit motifs to positively influence the design of computing systems:
Biological fidelity: The engine driving the neuromorphic renaissance
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Biological fidelity: The engine driving the neuromorphic renaissance
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
December 18, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Enjoyed @giacomoi.bsky.social commentary in PNAS on how #NeuroAI and Neuromorphic Engineering should come together to allow brain circuit motifs to positively influence the design of computing systems:
Biological fidelity: The engine driving the neuromorphic renaissance
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Biological fidelity: The engine driving the neuromorphic renaissance
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Let me know if you are in San Diego for #Neurips and wanted to chat about #compneuro / #neuroAI and neuroscience-inspired computing!
December 1, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Let me know if you are in San Diego for #Neurips and wanted to chat about #compneuro / #neuroAI and neuroscience-inspired computing!
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
How do brain areas control each other? 🧠🎛️
✨In our NeurIPS 2025 Spotlight paper, we introduce a data-driven framework to answer this question using deep learning, nonlinear control, and differential geometry.🧵⬇️
✨In our NeurIPS 2025 Spotlight paper, we introduce a data-driven framework to answer this question using deep learning, nonlinear control, and differential geometry.🧵⬇️
November 26, 2025 at 7:32 PM
How do brain areas control each other? 🧠🎛️
✨In our NeurIPS 2025 Spotlight paper, we introduce a data-driven framework to answer this question using deep learning, nonlinear control, and differential geometry.🧵⬇️
✨In our NeurIPS 2025 Spotlight paper, we introduce a data-driven framework to answer this question using deep learning, nonlinear control, and differential geometry.🧵⬇️
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
A beautiful summary of our paper! Thank you @neurosock.bsky.social
The hippocampus is not a library, it is a simulation engine.
HPC is known for storing maps of the environment but not so known for generating planned trajectories.
This paper proposes that recurrence in CA3 is crucial for planning.
A🧵with my toy model and notes:
#neuroskyence #compneuro #NeuroAI
HPC is known for storing maps of the environment but not so known for generating planned trajectories.
This paper proposes that recurrence in CA3 is crucial for planning.
A🧵with my toy model and notes:
#neuroskyence #compneuro #NeuroAI
November 28, 2025 at 7:58 AM
A beautiful summary of our paper! Thank you @neurosock.bsky.social
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
One example of how multiplexing might be implemented in the brain was shown in the great work by Thomas Akam with Dmitri Kullmann, a decade ago.
The papers are cited well but the general multiplexing idea never really took the field by storm as much as it deserved
www.nature.com/articles/nrn...
The papers are cited well but the general multiplexing idea never really took the field by storm as much as it deserved
www.nature.com/articles/nrn...
November 24, 2025 at 10:07 AM
One example of how multiplexing might be implemented in the brain was shown in the great work by Thomas Akam with Dmitri Kullmann, a decade ago.
The papers are cited well but the general multiplexing idea never really took the field by storm as much as it deserved
www.nature.com/articles/nrn...
The papers are cited well but the general multiplexing idea never really took the field by storm as much as it deserved
www.nature.com/articles/nrn...
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
Postdoc fellowship opportunity for ECRs (<3 yrs post-PhD). Note that if you want to apply to work with me as your mentor, our dept has an internal deadline of Dec 4th so please email me asap. Our internal process is shorter than the full application. 🤖🧠🧪
royalcommission1851.org/fellowships/...
royalcommission1851.org/fellowships/...
Research Fellowships
Our Mission to “increase the means of industrial education and extend the influence of science and art upon productive industry” Supplemental Charter of 1851
royalcommission1851.org
November 21, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Postdoc fellowship opportunity for ECRs (<3 yrs post-PhD). Note that if you want to apply to work with me as your mentor, our dept has an internal deadline of Dec 4th so please email me asap. Our internal process is shorter than the full application. 🤖🧠🧪
royalcommission1851.org/fellowships/...
royalcommission1851.org/fellowships/...
Brains have many pathways / subnetworks but which principles underlie their formation?
In our #NeurIPS paper lead by Jack Cook we identify biologically relevant inductive biases that create pathways in brain-like Mixture-of-Experts models🧵
#neuroskyence #compneuro #neuroAI
arxiv.org/abs/2506.02813
In our #NeurIPS paper lead by Jack Cook we identify biologically relevant inductive biases that create pathways in brain-like Mixture-of-Experts models🧵
#neuroskyence #compneuro #neuroAI
arxiv.org/abs/2506.02813
November 21, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Brains have many pathways / subnetworks but which principles underlie their formation?
In our #NeurIPS paper lead by Jack Cook we identify biologically relevant inductive biases that create pathways in brain-like Mixture-of-Experts models🧵
#neuroskyence #compneuro #neuroAI
arxiv.org/abs/2506.02813
In our #NeurIPS paper lead by Jack Cook we identify biologically relevant inductive biases that create pathways in brain-like Mixture-of-Experts models🧵
#neuroskyence #compneuro #neuroAI
arxiv.org/abs/2506.02813
Check out this cool new work lead by @pengfei-sun.bsky.social !
Psst - neuromorphic folks. Did you know that you can solve the SHD dataset with 90% accuracy using only 22 kb of parameter memory by quantising weights and delays? Check out our preprint with @pengfei-sun.bsky.social and @danakarca.bsky.social, or read the TLDR below. 👇🤖🧠🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2510.27434
Exploiting heterogeneous delays for efficient computation in low-bit neural networks
Neural networks rely on learning synaptic weights. However, this overlooks other neural parameters that can also be learned and may be utilized by the brain. One such parameter is the delay: the brain...
arxiv.org
November 14, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Check out this cool new work lead by @pengfei-sun.bsky.social !
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
With my great advisors and colleagues, @achterbrain.bsky.social @zhe @danakarca.bsky.social @neural-reckoning.org, we show that if heterogeneous axonal delays (imprecise) can capture the essential temporal structure of a task, spiking networks do not need precise synaptic weights to perform well.
Psst - neuromorphic folks. Did you know that you can solve the SHD dataset with 90% accuracy using only 22 kb of parameter memory by quantising weights and delays? Check out our preprint with @pengfei-sun.bsky.social and @danakarca.bsky.social, or read the TLDR below. 👇🤖🧠🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2510.27434
Exploiting heterogeneous delays for efficient computation in low-bit neural networks
Neural networks rely on learning synaptic weights. However, this overlooks other neural parameters that can also be learned and may be utilized by the brain. One such parameter is the delay: the brain...
arxiv.org
November 13, 2025 at 8:51 PM
With my great advisors and colleagues, @achterbrain.bsky.social @zhe @danakarca.bsky.social @neural-reckoning.org, we show that if heterogeneous axonal delays (imprecise) can capture the essential temporal structure of a task, spiking networks do not need precise synaptic weights to perform well.
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
Come be our colleague at EPFL! Several open calls for positions 🧪🧠🤖
* Neuroscience www.epfl.ch/about/workin... (deadline Oct 1)
* Life Science Engineering www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
* CS general call www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
* Learning Sciences www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
* Neuroscience www.epfl.ch/about/workin... (deadline Oct 1)
* Life Science Engineering www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
* CS general call www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
* Learning Sciences www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
Faculty Position in Neuroscience
The School of Life Sciences at EPFL invites applications for a Tenure Track Assistant Professor position in Neuroscience. At EPFL researchers develop and apply innovative technologies to understand br...
www.epfl.ch
September 29, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Come be our colleague at EPFL! Several open calls for positions 🧪🧠🤖
* Neuroscience www.epfl.ch/about/workin... (deadline Oct 1)
* Life Science Engineering www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
* CS general call www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
* Learning Sciences www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
* Neuroscience www.epfl.ch/about/workin... (deadline Oct 1)
* Life Science Engineering www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
* CS general call www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
* Learning Sciences www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
Statistical methods for dissecting interactions between brain areas
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Statistical methods for dissecting interactions between brain areas
The brain is composed of many functionally distinct areas. This organization supports distributed processing, and requires the coordination of signals…
www.sciencedirect.com
September 8, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Statistical methods for dissecting interactions between brain areas
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
ATTN🚨: I will be looking for PhD students through NYU's Center for Data Science PhD program this year. Applicants should have an interest in either NeuroAI (specifically biological attention or AI interpretability) or ML for Remote Sensing. Visit my lab website for more info: lindsay-lab.github.io
PhD in Data Science: Admissions Requirements | NYU CDS
Discover the PhD in Data Science requirements at NYU. Learn about deadlines, required degrees, coursework, and application details for Fall 2025 admissions.
cds.nyu.edu
August 24, 2025 at 5:41 PM
ATTN🚨: I will be looking for PhD students through NYU's Center for Data Science PhD program this year. Applicants should have an interest in either NeuroAI (specifically biological attention or AI interpretability) or ML for Remote Sensing. Visit my lab website for more info: lindsay-lab.github.io
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
Could we understand vision as a type of problem-solving? In this new paper, we develop a computational model that iteratively refines the hypothesis about the visual input with evolutionary search.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
work led by @tarunkhajuria.bsky.social
#visionscience #neuroAI
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
work led by @tarunkhajuria.bsky.social
#visionscience #neuroAI
August 25, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Could we understand vision as a type of problem-solving? In this new paper, we develop a computational model that iteratively refines the hypothesis about the visual input with evolutionary search.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
work led by @tarunkhajuria.bsky.social
#visionscience #neuroAI
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
work led by @tarunkhajuria.bsky.social
#visionscience #neuroAI
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
This is really funny…
The FT has been consistently good on this stuff, the only outlet to really take coreweave seriously, had great reporting, probably my fav business outlet. The Altman oil piece by bryce elder is one of the most devastating things I've ever read
www.ft.com/content/b180...
www.ft.com/content/b180...
Three things we learned about Sam Altman by scoping his kitchen
All Drizzle, no sizzle
www.ft.com
August 20, 2025 at 12:43 PM
This is really funny…
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
Can large language models play simple arcade games? Kind of. Sometimes. Slowly, and not as well as a simple search algorithm. And only if you format the input right. Of course, we made a benchmark to investigate this in more detail, because that's what we do. Paper here:
arxiv.org/html/2508.08...
arxiv.org/html/2508.08...
GVGAI-LLM: Evaluating Large Language Model Agents with Infinite Games
arxiv.org
August 18, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Can large language models play simple arcade games? Kind of. Sometimes. Slowly, and not as well as a simple search algorithm. And only if you format the input right. Of course, we made a benchmark to investigate this in more detail, because that's what we do. Paper here:
arxiv.org/html/2508.08...
arxiv.org/html/2508.08...
Great and detailed blog post on compositionality, written by Eric Elmoznino:
ericelmoznino.github.io/blog/2025/08...
#compneuro #neuroai #neuroscience
ericelmoznino.github.io/blog/2025/08...
#compneuro #neuroai #neuroscience
Defining and quantifying compositional structure
What is compositionality? For those of us working in AI or cognitive neuroscience this question can appear easy at first, but becomes increasingly perplexing the more we think about it. We aren’t shor...
ericelmoznino.github.io
August 20, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Great and detailed blog post on compositionality, written by Eric Elmoznino:
ericelmoznino.github.io/blog/2025/08...
#compneuro #neuroai #neuroscience
ericelmoznino.github.io/blog/2025/08...
#compneuro #neuroai #neuroscience
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
#CCN2025 is over. Over 5 days there were 6 fantastic keynotes, 550 posters, 3 community events, 3 keynote & tutorials, 3 generative adversarial collaborations, 8 Satellite events, 1 community lunch meeting, 1 cross-conference hackathon, 1 competition, coffee all day, stroopwafels on day 1,
August 17, 2025 at 3:06 PM
#CCN2025 is over. Over 5 days there were 6 fantastic keynotes, 550 posters, 3 community events, 3 keynote & tutorials, 3 generative adversarial collaborations, 8 Satellite events, 1 community lunch meeting, 1 cross-conference hackathon, 1 competition, coffee all day, stroopwafels on day 1,
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
I'm curious if any senior nonhuman primate Neuro-AI researchers would be interested in joining Queen's University if we were to obtain a research chair position (full professor level)?
Could you please send me a confidential message to indicate your interest? Gunnar.blohm@queensu.ca
Could you please send me a confidential message to indicate your interest? Gunnar.blohm@queensu.ca
a bald man is sitting in a chair and pointing at the camera
ALT: a bald man is sitting in a chair and pointing at the camera
media.tenor.com
July 24, 2025 at 4:46 PM
I'm curious if any senior nonhuman primate Neuro-AI researchers would be interested in joining Queen's University if we were to obtain a research chair position (full professor level)?
Could you please send me a confidential message to indicate your interest? Gunnar.blohm@queensu.ca
Could you please send me a confidential message to indicate your interest? Gunnar.blohm@queensu.ca
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
Sad to miss #CCN2025. It will be the 1st conference where a PhD working w/ me will speak 😭
go see Lubna's talk (Friday) about distributed neural correlates of flexible decision making in 🐒,
work done in collaboration w/ @scottbrincat.bsky.social @siegellab.bsky.social & @earlkmiller.bsky.social
go see Lubna's talk (Friday) about distributed neural correlates of flexible decision making in 🐒,
work done in collaboration w/ @scottbrincat.bsky.social @siegellab.bsky.social & @earlkmiller.bsky.social
August 10, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Sad to miss #CCN2025. It will be the 1st conference where a PhD working w/ me will speak 😭
go see Lubna's talk (Friday) about distributed neural correlates of flexible decision making in 🐒,
work done in collaboration w/ @scottbrincat.bsky.social @siegellab.bsky.social & @earlkmiller.bsky.social
go see Lubna's talk (Friday) about distributed neural correlates of flexible decision making in 🐒,
work done in collaboration w/ @scottbrincat.bsky.social @siegellab.bsky.social & @earlkmiller.bsky.social
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
The registration desk for the first day is now open! If you are looking for information to get to the venue, you can find it here: 2025.ccneuro.org/venue-inform...
Look out for the CCN banners!
Look out for the CCN banners!
August 12, 2025 at 6:41 AM
The registration desk for the first day is now open! If you are looking for information to get to the venue, you can find it here: 2025.ccneuro.org/venue-inform...
Look out for the CCN banners!
Look out for the CCN banners!
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
Less than 2 weeks until CCN 2025 in Amsterdam! Here's everything you need to know to prepare for the 8th Cognitive Computational Neuroscience conference, August 12-15 at University of Amsterdam 🧠
August 1, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Less than 2 weeks until CCN 2025 in Amsterdam! Here's everything you need to know to prepare for the 8th Cognitive Computational Neuroscience conference, August 12-15 at University of Amsterdam 🧠
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
I wrote an article earlier in the week arguing that we need to give junior researchers more independence earlier, and this should be our focus, not moonshot mega projects led by senior researchers.
I was surprised how much agreement I'm seeing.
So next question: how do we do this?
I was surprised how much agreement I'm seeing.
So next question: how do we do this?
Large-scale projects run the risk of stifling scientific independence. Instead, let’s explore alternative mechanisms of collaboration, writes @neuralreckoning.bsky.social.
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/funding/neur...
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/funding/neur...
Neuroscience needs to empower early-career researchers, not fund moon shots
Large-scale projects run the risk of stifling scientific independence. Instead, let’s explore alternative mechanisms of collaboration.
www.thetransmitter.org
May 29, 2025 at 6:59 PM
I wrote an article earlier in the week arguing that we need to give junior researchers more independence earlier, and this should be our focus, not moonshot mega projects led by senior researchers.
I was surprised how much agreement I'm seeing.
So next question: how do we do this?
I was surprised how much agreement I'm seeing.
So next question: how do we do this?
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
#NeuroAI finds itself facing an interesting question these days:
1) which of these now-many schemes for bio-plausible credit assignment actually operate in the brain?
-and if more than one-
2) how the hell do they operate when they, inevitably, interact?
1) which of these now-many schemes for bio-plausible credit assignment actually operate in the brain?
-and if more than one-
2) how the hell do they operate when they, inevitably, interact?
1/6 Why does the brain maintain such precise excitatory-inhibitory balance?
Our new preprint explores a provocative idea: Small, targeted deviations from this balance may serve a purpose: to encode local error signals for learning.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
led by @jrbch.bsky.social
Our new preprint explores a provocative idea: Small, targeted deviations from this balance may serve a purpose: to encode local error signals for learning.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
led by @jrbch.bsky.social
May 27, 2025 at 11:42 AM
#NeuroAI finds itself facing an interesting question these days:
1) which of these now-many schemes for bio-plausible credit assignment actually operate in the brain?
-and if more than one-
2) how the hell do they operate when they, inevitably, interact?
1) which of these now-many schemes for bio-plausible credit assignment actually operate in the brain?
-and if more than one-
2) how the hell do they operate when they, inevitably, interact?
Now out 🚨 🧪 : our preprint describing dynamics of an extended frontal lobe network (4 cortical regions) in monkeys solving complex multi-step spatial problems! We observe distributed codes for goals, states, and planned moves across PFC!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroscience #compneuro
🧵👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroscience #compneuro
🧵👇
Neural dynamics of an extended frontal lobe network in goal-subgoal problem solving
Complex behavior calls for hierarchical representation of current state, goal, and component moves. In the human brain, a network of “multiple-demand” (MD) regions underpins cognitive control. We reco...
www.biorxiv.org
May 29, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Now out 🚨 🧪 : our preprint describing dynamics of an extended frontal lobe network (4 cortical regions) in monkeys solving complex multi-step spatial problems! We observe distributed codes for goals, states, and planned moves across PFC!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroscience #compneuro
🧵👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroscience #compneuro
🧵👇
Reposted by Jascha Achterberg
