Colton Casto
@coltoncasto.bsky.social
PhD student at Harvard/MIT working with @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social | interested in neuroscience, language, AI | @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social @mitbcs.bsky.social | coltoncasto.github.io
Pinned
Colton Casto
@coltoncasto.bsky.social
· Apr 21
The cerebellar components of the human language network
The cerebellum's capacity for neural computation is arguably unmatched. Yet despite evidence of cerebellar contributions to cognition, including language, its precise role remains debated. Here, we sy...
www.biorxiv.org
New paper! 🧠 **The cerebellar components of the human language network**
with: @hsmall.bsky.social @moshepoliak.bsky.social @gretatuckute.bsky.social @benlipkin.bsky.social @awolna.bsky.social @aniladmello.bsky.social and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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with: @hsmall.bsky.social @moshepoliak.bsky.social @gretatuckute.bsky.social @benlipkin.bsky.social @awolna.bsky.social @aniladmello.bsky.social and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Reposted by Colton Casto
New paper with @rjantonello.bsky.social @csinva.bsky.social, Suna Guo, Gavin Mischler, Jianfeng Gao, & Nima Mesgarani: We use LLMs to generate VERY interpretable embeddings where each dimension corresponds to a scientific theory, & then use these embeddings to predict fMRI and ECoG. It WORKS!
Evaluating scientific theories as predictive models in language neuroscience https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.12.669958v1
August 18, 2025 at 6:34 PM
New paper with @rjantonello.bsky.social @csinva.bsky.social, Suna Guo, Gavin Mischler, Jianfeng Gao, & Nima Mesgarani: We use LLMs to generate VERY interpretable embeddings where each dimension corresponds to a scientific theory, & then use these embeddings to predict fMRI and ECoG. It WORKS!
Reposted by Colton Casto
🚨 New Preprint 🚨
Targeting intracranial electrical stimulation (ES) to network regions defined within individuals causes network-level effects
By Cyr et al.
***
Q: Can we use individualized network maps from precision fMRI to modulate a targeted network via intracranial ES?
A: Yes!
🧵:
Targeting intracranial electrical stimulation (ES) to network regions defined within individuals causes network-level effects
By Cyr et al.
***
Q: Can we use individualized network maps from precision fMRI to modulate a targeted network via intracranial ES?
A: Yes!
🧵:
August 5, 2025 at 3:31 PM
🚨 New Preprint 🚨
Targeting intracranial electrical stimulation (ES) to network regions defined within individuals causes network-level effects
By Cyr et al.
***
Q: Can we use individualized network maps from precision fMRI to modulate a targeted network via intracranial ES?
A: Yes!
🧵:
Targeting intracranial electrical stimulation (ES) to network regions defined within individuals causes network-level effects
By Cyr et al.
***
Q: Can we use individualized network maps from precision fMRI to modulate a targeted network via intracranial ES?
A: Yes!
🧵:
Reposted by Colton Casto
New paper with @mujianing.bsky.social & @prestonlab.bsky.social! We propose a simple model for human memory of narratives: we uniformly sample incoming information at a constant rate. This explains behavioral data much better than variable-rate sampling triggered by event segmentation or surprisal.
Efficient uniform sampling explains non-uniform memory of narrative stories https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.31.667952v1
August 1, 2025 at 4:45 PM
New paper with @mujianing.bsky.social & @prestonlab.bsky.social! We propose a simple model for human memory of narratives: we uniformly sample incoming information at a constant rate. This explains behavioral data much better than variable-rate sampling triggered by event segmentation or surprisal.
Reposted by Colton Casto
Super excited to share our new article: “Dissociable cortical regions represent things and stuff in the human brain” with @nancykanwisher.bsky.social, @rtpramod.bsky.social and @joshtenenbaum.bsky.social
Video abstract: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0XR...
Paper: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lWxv3QW8S...
Video abstract: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0XR...
Paper: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lWxv3QW8S...
Things and Stuff: How the brain distinguishes oozing fluids from solid objects
YouTube video by McGovern Institute
www.youtube.com
August 1, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Super excited to share our new article: “Dissociable cortical regions represent things and stuff in the human brain” with @nancykanwisher.bsky.social, @rtpramod.bsky.social and @joshtenenbaum.bsky.social
Video abstract: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0XR...
Paper: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lWxv3QW8S...
Video abstract: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0XR...
Paper: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lWxv3QW8S...
Reposted by Colton Casto
Check out Zaid's open "Podcast" ECoG dataset for natural language comprehension (w/ Hasson Lab). The paper is now out at Scientific Data (nature.com/articles/s41...) and the data are available on OpenNeuro (openneuro.org/datasets/ds0...).
July 7, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Check out Zaid's open "Podcast" ECoG dataset for natural language comprehension (w/ Hasson Lab). The paper is now out at Scientific Data (nature.com/articles/s41...) and the data are available on OpenNeuro (openneuro.org/datasets/ds0...).
Reposted by Colton Casto
**ecstatic** to share our @iclr-conf.bsky.social paper: sparse components distinguish visual pathways & their alignment to neural networks, with @nancykanwisher.bsky.social and meenakshi khosla (openreview.net/forum?id=IqH...)
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Sparse components distinguish visual pathways & their alignment to...
The ventral, dorsal, and lateral streams in high-level human visual cortex are implicated in distinct functional processes. Yet, deep neural networks (DNNs) trained on a single task model the...
openreview.net
April 22, 2025 at 8:35 PM
**ecstatic** to share our @iclr-conf.bsky.social paper: sparse components distinguish visual pathways & their alignment to neural networks, with @nancykanwisher.bsky.social and meenakshi khosla (openreview.net/forum?id=IqH...)
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Reposted by Colton Casto
"With precision fMRI, we identify cerebellar regions that respond to language across modalities, one supporting semantic processing, the other three integrating info from diverse neocortical regions." Elegant work by @evfedorenko.bsky.social lab, with 🧵 from lead author @coltoncasto.bsky.social. 🧪
New paper! 🧠 **The cerebellar components of the human language network**
with: @hsmall.bsky.social @moshepoliak.bsky.social @gretatuckute.bsky.social @benlipkin.bsky.social @awolna.bsky.social @aniladmello.bsky.social and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n 🧵
with: @hsmall.bsky.social @moshepoliak.bsky.social @gretatuckute.bsky.social @benlipkin.bsky.social @awolna.bsky.social @aniladmello.bsky.social and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n 🧵
The cerebellar components of the human language network
The cerebellum's capacity for neural computation is arguably unmatched. Yet despite evidence of cerebellar contributions to cognition, including language, its precise role remains debated. Here, we sy...
www.biorxiv.org
April 21, 2025 at 5:10 PM
"With precision fMRI, we identify cerebellar regions that respond to language across modalities, one supporting semantic processing, the other three integrating info from diverse neocortical regions." Elegant work by @evfedorenko.bsky.social lab, with 🧵 from lead author @coltoncasto.bsky.social. 🧪
New paper! 🧠 **The cerebellar components of the human language network**
with: @hsmall.bsky.social @moshepoliak.bsky.social @gretatuckute.bsky.social @benlipkin.bsky.social @awolna.bsky.social @aniladmello.bsky.social and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n 🧵
with: @hsmall.bsky.social @moshepoliak.bsky.social @gretatuckute.bsky.social @benlipkin.bsky.social @awolna.bsky.social @aniladmello.bsky.social and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n 🧵
The cerebellar components of the human language network
The cerebellum's capacity for neural computation is arguably unmatched. Yet despite evidence of cerebellar contributions to cognition, including language, its precise role remains debated. Here, we sy...
www.biorxiv.org
April 21, 2025 at 3:19 PM
New paper! 🧠 **The cerebellar components of the human language network**
with: @hsmall.bsky.social @moshepoliak.bsky.social @gretatuckute.bsky.social @benlipkin.bsky.social @awolna.bsky.social @aniladmello.bsky.social and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n 🧵
with: @hsmall.bsky.social @moshepoliak.bsky.social @gretatuckute.bsky.social @benlipkin.bsky.social @awolna.bsky.social @aniladmello.bsky.social and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n 🧵
Reposted by Colton Casto
Excited to share new work on the language system!
Using a large fMRI dataset (n=772) we comprehensively search for language-selective regions across the brain. w/
Aaron Wright, @benlipkin.bsky.social, and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
Link to the preprint: biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thread below!👇🧵
Using a large fMRI dataset (n=772) we comprehensively search for language-selective regions across the brain. w/
Aaron Wright, @benlipkin.bsky.social, and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
Link to the preprint: biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thread below!👇🧵
The extended language network: Language selective brain areas whose contributions to language remain to be discovered
Although language neuroscience has largely focused on core left frontal and temporal brain areas and their right-hemisphere homotopes, numerous other areas - cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar - ha...
biorxiv.org
April 3, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Excited to share new work on the language system!
Using a large fMRI dataset (n=772) we comprehensively search for language-selective regions across the brain. w/
Aaron Wright, @benlipkin.bsky.social, and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
Link to the preprint: biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thread below!👇🧵
Using a large fMRI dataset (n=772) we comprehensively search for language-selective regions across the brain. w/
Aaron Wright, @benlipkin.bsky.social, and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
Link to the preprint: biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thread below!👇🧵