Jesse Geerts
@jessegeerts.bsky.social
Cognitive neuroscientist and AI researcher
Pinned
Jesse Geerts
@jessegeerts.bsky.social
· Jun 6
🧠 How do transformers learn relational reasoning? We trained small transformers on transitive inference (if A>B and B>C, then A>C) and discovered striking differences between learning paradigms. Our latest work reveals when and why AI systems generalize beyond training data 🤖
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
New paper led by wonder postdocs Francesca Greenstreet and @jessegeerts.bsky.social and @clopathlab.bsky.social trying to understand why –in the "what for" sense– there are multiple motor learning systems –supervised and RL-based– in the brain.
Check out Jesse's 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Check out Jesse's 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🧠 New year, new preprint!
Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
January 6, 2026 at 1:43 PM
New paper led by wonder postdocs Francesca Greenstreet and @jessegeerts.bsky.social and @clopathlab.bsky.social trying to understand why –in the "what for" sense– there are multiple motor learning systems –supervised and RL-based– in the brain.
Check out Jesse's 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Check out Jesse's 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
Check out our new work on motor learning across multiple brain regions!
🧠 New year, new preprint!
Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
January 5, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Check out our new work on motor learning across multiple brain regions!
🧠 New year, new preprint!
Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
January 5, 2026 at 12:54 PM
🧠 New year, new preprint!
Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
Thrilled to start 2026 as faculty in Psych & CS
@ualberta.bsky.social + Amii.ca Fellow! 🥳 Recruiting students to develop theories of cognition in natural & artificial systems 🤖💭🧠. Find me at #NeurIPS2025 workshops (speaking coginterp.github.io/neurips2025 & organising @dataonbrainmind.bsky.social)
@ualberta.bsky.social + Amii.ca Fellow! 🥳 Recruiting students to develop theories of cognition in natural & artificial systems 🤖💭🧠. Find me at #NeurIPS2025 workshops (speaking coginterp.github.io/neurips2025 & organising @dataonbrainmind.bsky.social)
December 6, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Thrilled to start 2026 as faculty in Psych & CS
@ualberta.bsky.social + Amii.ca Fellow! 🥳 Recruiting students to develop theories of cognition in natural & artificial systems 🤖💭🧠. Find me at #NeurIPS2025 workshops (speaking coginterp.github.io/neurips2025 & organising @dataonbrainmind.bsky.social)
@ualberta.bsky.social + Amii.ca Fellow! 🥳 Recruiting students to develop theories of cognition in natural & artificial systems 🤖💭🧠. Find me at #NeurIPS2025 workshops (speaking coginterp.github.io/neurips2025 & organising @dataonbrainmind.bsky.social)
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
What aspects of human knowledge do vision models like CLIP fail to capture, and how can we improve them? We suggest models miss key global organization; aligning them makes them more robust. Check out LukasMuttenthaler's work, finally out (in Nature!?) www.nature.com/articles/s41... + our blog! 1/3
Aligning machine and human visual representations across abstraction levels - Nature
Aligning foundation models with human judgments enables them to more accurately approximate human behaviour and uncertainty across various levels of visual abstraction, while additionally improving th...
www.nature.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:50 PM
What aspects of human knowledge do vision models like CLIP fail to capture, and how can we improve them? We suggest models miss key global organization; aligning them makes them more robust. Check out LukasMuttenthaler's work, finally out (in Nature!?) www.nature.com/articles/s41... + our blog! 1/3
Excited to share that the full programme for the 2025 UCL NeuroAI Annual Conference is now live! 🧠🤖 @ucl-neuroai.bsky.social
Spaces are limited, so register soon:
lnkd.in/ehiKrSaf
Full programme here:
lnkd.in/e8cV3mAZ
Spaces are limited, so register soon:
lnkd.in/ehiKrSaf
Full programme here:
lnkd.in/e8cV3mAZ
October 27, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Excited to share that the full programme for the 2025 UCL NeuroAI Annual Conference is now live! 🧠🤖 @ucl-neuroai.bsky.social
Spaces are limited, so register soon:
lnkd.in/ehiKrSaf
Full programme here:
lnkd.in/e8cV3mAZ
Spaces are limited, so register soon:
lnkd.in/ehiKrSaf
Full programme here:
lnkd.in/e8cV3mAZ
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
We are delighted to support the 2025 @ucl-neurodomain.bsky.social NeuroAI Annual Conference.
Join experts in neuroscience, AI, machine learning, and related fields on Wednesday 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
Join experts in neuroscience, AI, machine learning, and related fields on Wednesday 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
October 17, 2025 at 1:42 PM
We are delighted to support the 2025 @ucl-neurodomain.bsky.social NeuroAI Annual Conference.
Join experts in neuroscience, AI, machine learning, and related fields on Wednesday 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
Join experts in neuroscience, AI, machine learning, and related fields on Wednesday 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
Looks like a great conference---
Remember to submit an abstract to UCL NeuroAI 2025 by Wednesday! 🧠🤖 This will be a great opportunity to present your work to the local community, and we have a fantastic line-up of keynote speakers:
@ucl-neuroai.bsky.social @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social
@ucl-neuroai.bsky.social @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social
Submission deadline extended!
Submit your poster or lightning talk abstract by Wednesday 15th October 2025, 12:00pm
Submit your poster or lightning talk abstract by Wednesday 15th October 2025, 12:00pm
October 14, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Looks like a great conference---
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
Really interesting work by Bakhurin and colleagues challenging the reward prediction error hypothesis of dopamine:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I love this figure which both echoes and undermines the famous figure from Schultz et al. (1997).
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I love this figure which both echoes and undermines the famous figure from Schultz et al. (1997).
October 14, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Really interesting work by Bakhurin and colleagues challenging the reward prediction error hypothesis of dopamine:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I love this figure which both echoes and undermines the famous figure from Schultz et al. (1997).
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I love this figure which both echoes and undermines the famous figure from Schultz et al. (1997).
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
Remember to submit an abstract to UCL NeuroAI 2025 by Wednesday! 🧠🤖 This will be a great opportunity to present your work to the local community, and we have a fantastic line-up of keynote speakers:
@ucl-neuroai.bsky.social @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social
@ucl-neuroai.bsky.social @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social
Submission deadline extended!
Submit your poster or lightning talk abstract by Wednesday 15th October 2025, 12:00pm
Submit your poster or lightning talk abstract by Wednesday 15th October 2025, 12:00pm
📢 We are very happy to announce the 2025 @ucl.ac.uk
#NeuroAI Annual Conference!
Join us on Wed 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
Poster and lightning talks submissions are now open, up to 8th Oct.
@ucl-neurodomain.bsky.social
#NeuroAI Annual Conference!
Join us on Wed 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
Poster and lightning talks submissions are now open, up to 8th Oct.
@ucl-neurodomain.bsky.social
October 13, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Remember to submit an abstract to UCL NeuroAI 2025 by Wednesday! 🧠🤖 This will be a great opportunity to present your work to the local community, and we have a fantastic line-up of keynote speakers:
@ucl-neuroai.bsky.social @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social
@ucl-neuroai.bsky.social @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social
Remember to submit an abstract to UCL NeuroAI 2025 by Wednesday! 🧠🤖 This will be a great opportunity to present your work to the local community, and we have a fantastic line-up of keynote speakers:
@ucl-neuroai.bsky.social @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social
@ucl-neuroai.bsky.social @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social
Submission deadline extended!
Submit your poster or lightning talk abstract by Wednesday 15th October 2025, 12:00pm
Submit your poster or lightning talk abstract by Wednesday 15th October 2025, 12:00pm
📢 We are very happy to announce the 2025 @ucl.ac.uk
#NeuroAI Annual Conference!
Join us on Wed 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
Poster and lightning talks submissions are now open, up to 8th Oct.
@ucl-neurodomain.bsky.social
#NeuroAI Annual Conference!
Join us on Wed 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
Poster and lightning talks submissions are now open, up to 8th Oct.
@ucl-neurodomain.bsky.social
October 13, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Remember to submit an abstract to UCL NeuroAI 2025 by Wednesday! 🧠🤖 This will be a great opportunity to present your work to the local community, and we have a fantastic line-up of keynote speakers:
@ucl-neuroai.bsky.social @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social
@ucl-neuroai.bsky.social @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
🚀 New Preprint from our team: comparing place cells across species!
Disentangling methods from biology provides a roadmap for cross-species insights into spatial coding 🌍
👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Disentangling methods from biology provides a roadmap for cross-species insights into spatial coding 🌍
👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 7, 2025 at 4:52 PM
🚀 New Preprint from our team: comparing place cells across species!
Disentangling methods from biology provides a roadmap for cross-species insights into spatial coding 🌍
👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Disentangling methods from biology provides a roadmap for cross-species insights into spatial coding 🌍
👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
Submission deadline extended!
Submit your poster or lightning talk abstract by Wednesday 15th October 2025, 12:00pm
Submit your poster or lightning talk abstract by Wednesday 15th October 2025, 12:00pm
📢 We are very happy to announce the 2025 @ucl.ac.uk
#NeuroAI Annual Conference!
Join us on Wed 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
Poster and lightning talks submissions are now open, up to 8th Oct.
@ucl-neurodomain.bsky.social
#NeuroAI Annual Conference!
Join us on Wed 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
Poster and lightning talks submissions are now open, up to 8th Oct.
@ucl-neurodomain.bsky.social
UCL Event Ticketing
www.ucl.ac.uk
October 7, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Submission deadline extended!
Submit your poster or lightning talk abstract by Wednesday 15th October 2025, 12:00pm
Submit your poster or lightning talk abstract by Wednesday 15th October 2025, 12:00pm
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
📢 We are very happy to announce the 2025 @ucl.ac.uk
#NeuroAI Annual Conference!
Join us on Wed 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
Poster and lightning talks submissions are now open, up to 8th Oct.
@ucl-neurodomain.bsky.social
#NeuroAI Annual Conference!
Join us on Wed 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
Poster and lightning talks submissions are now open, up to 8th Oct.
@ucl-neurodomain.bsky.social
UCL Event Ticketing
www.ucl.ac.uk
September 26, 2025 at 1:26 PM
📢 We are very happy to announce the 2025 @ucl.ac.uk
#NeuroAI Annual Conference!
Join us on Wed 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
Poster and lightning talks submissions are now open, up to 8th Oct.
@ucl-neurodomain.bsky.social
#NeuroAI Annual Conference!
Join us on Wed 5 November 2025 at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social
Details and registration: www.ucl.ac.uk/event-ticket...
Poster and lightning talks submissions are now open, up to 8th Oct.
@ucl-neurodomain.bsky.social
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
I’m super excited to finally put my recent work with @behrenstimb.bsky.social on bioRxiv, where we develop a new mechanistic theory of how PFC structures adaptive behaviour using attractor dynamics in space and time!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 24, 2025 at 12:04 PM
I’m super excited to finally put my recent work with @behrenstimb.bsky.social on bioRxiv, where we develop a new mechanistic theory of how PFC structures adaptive behaviour using attractor dynamics in space and time!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
Dear colleagues, we have an open PhD position in computational neuroscience - spatial memory models and intracranial recordings - fully funded. Re-advertised, candidates are ideally available in the near future. A collab. with 4 labs. Apply here: tinyurl.com/yc84ctap
PhD position or a Doctoral Candidate in computational neuroscience. (m/f/d) | Karriereportal Max-Planck-Institut für Kognitions- und Neurowissenschaften
PhD position or a Doctoral Candidate in computational neuroscience. (m/f/d) | Karriereportal Max-Planck-Institut für Kognitions- und Neurowissenschaften
tinyurl.com
September 8, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Dear colleagues, we have an open PhD position in computational neuroscience - spatial memory models and intracranial recordings - fully funded. Re-advertised, candidates are ideally available in the near future. A collab. with 4 labs. Apply here: tinyurl.com/yc84ctap
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
Check out our latest episode on habit formation with DrFrancesca Greenstreet ✅📝 We talk about how habits are made how they may not require reward-based learning … 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/1gZI...
August 28, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Check out our latest episode on habit formation with DrFrancesca Greenstreet ✅📝 We talk about how habits are made how they may not require reward-based learning … 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/1gZI...
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
🚨New paper! We know models learn distinct in-context learning strategies, but *why*? Why generalize instead of memorize to lower loss? And why is generalization transient?
Our work explains this & *predicts Transformer behavior throughout training* without its weights! 🧵
1/
Our work explains this & *predicts Transformer behavior throughout training* without its weights! 🧵
1/
June 28, 2025 at 2:35 AM
🚨New paper! We know models learn distinct in-context learning strategies, but *why*? Why generalize instead of memorize to lower loss? And why is generalization transient?
Our work explains this & *predicts Transformer behavior throughout training* without its weights! 🧵
1/
Our work explains this & *predicts Transformer behavior throughout training* without its weights! 🧵
1/
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
Humans and animals can rapidly learn in new environments. What computations support this? We study the mechanisms of in-context reinforcement learning in transformers, and propose how episodic memory can support rapid learning. Work w/ @kanakarajanphd.bsky.social : arxiv.org/abs/2506.19686
From memories to maps: Mechanisms of in context reinforcement learning in transformers
Humans and animals show remarkable learning efficiency, adapting to new environments with minimal experience. This capability is not well captured by standard reinforcement learning algorithms that re...
arxiv.org
June 26, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Humans and animals can rapidly learn in new environments. What computations support this? We study the mechanisms of in-context reinforcement learning in transformers, and propose how episodic memory can support rapid learning. Work w/ @kanakarajanphd.bsky.social : arxiv.org/abs/2506.19686
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
New work on relational reasoning in transformers!
TLDR: Inductive biases of In-Weight and In-Context Learning in transformers are really different for relational reasoning, and pretraining can make a big difference for in-context.
Check out @jessegeerts.bsky.social's thread for more!
TLDR: Inductive biases of In-Weight and In-Context Learning in transformers are really different for relational reasoning, and pretraining can make a big difference for in-context.
Check out @jessegeerts.bsky.social's thread for more!
June 16, 2025 at 10:23 PM
New work on relational reasoning in transformers!
TLDR: Inductive biases of In-Weight and In-Context Learning in transformers are really different for relational reasoning, and pretraining can make a big difference for in-context.
Check out @jessegeerts.bsky.social's thread for more!
TLDR: Inductive biases of In-Weight and In-Context Learning in transformers are really different for relational reasoning, and pretraining can make a big difference for in-context.
Check out @jessegeerts.bsky.social's thread for more!
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
‘Some dopamine neurons signal default behaviors to reinforce habits’
SWC research features in @thetransmitter.bsky.social ⬇️
www.thetransmitter.org/neurobiology...
SWC research features in @thetransmitter.bsky.social ⬇️
www.thetransmitter.org/neurobiology...
Dopamine neurons signal default behavior to reinforce habits
Movement-sensing neurons in the striatum influence a mouse’s choice of action by favoring routine behaviors.
www.thetransmitter.org
June 11, 2025 at 1:32 PM
‘Some dopamine neurons signal default behaviors to reinforce habits’
SWC research features in @thetransmitter.bsky.social ⬇️
www.thetransmitter.org/neurobiology...
SWC research features in @thetransmitter.bsky.social ⬇️
www.thetransmitter.org/neurobiology...
This is a nice paper which applies and refines some of the ideas we put forward in our Psych Review paper. Our model combined multiple Successor Representations which it switches between based on uncertainty. Jess's model adds reward outcomes to this process and captures splitter cells and more!
Congrats to the fantastic Jess P for her new paper! She compared how feature Vs outcome focussed agents learn to solve contextual inference problems. She found that you need a balance of both to learn these tasks - and that this mix recapitulates pfc and hippocampal activity in rodent tasks!
Contextual inference through flexible integration of environmental features and behavioural outcomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656607v1
June 6, 2025 at 3:10 PM
This is a nice paper which applies and refines some of the ideas we put forward in our Psych Review paper. Our model combined multiple Successor Representations which it switches between based on uncertainty. Jess's model adds reward outcomes to this process and captures splitter cells and more!
Reposted by Jesse Geerts
Congrats to the fantastic Jess P for her new paper! She compared how feature Vs outcome focussed agents learn to solve contextual inference problems. She found that you need a balance of both to learn these tasks - and that this mix recapitulates pfc and hippocampal activity in rodent tasks!
Contextual inference through flexible integration of environmental features and behavioural outcomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656607v1
May 29, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Congrats to the fantastic Jess P for her new paper! She compared how feature Vs outcome focussed agents learn to solve contextual inference problems. She found that you need a balance of both to learn these tasks - and that this mix recapitulates pfc and hippocampal activity in rodent tasks!
🧠 How do transformers learn relational reasoning? We trained small transformers on transitive inference (if A>B and B>C, then A>C) and discovered striking differences between learning paradigms. Our latest work reveals when and why AI systems generalize beyond training data 🤖
June 6, 2025 at 2:28 PM
🧠 How do transformers learn relational reasoning? We trained small transformers on transitive inference (if A>B and B>C, then A>C) and discovered striking differences between learning paradigms. Our latest work reveals when and why AI systems generalize beyond training data 🤖
Excited to see this work out! Check it out for a novel view on habit learning and the computational role of dopamine
Impressive study in @nature from my colleague Marcus Stephenson-Jones at UCL in the @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Dopaminergic action prediction errors serve as a value-free teaching signal - Nature
Dopaminergic action prediction error signals are used by mice as a value-free teaching signal to reinforce stable sound–action associations in the tail of the striatum.
www.nature.com
June 6, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Excited to see this work out! Check it out for a novel view on habit learning and the computational role of dopamine