Markus Meister
@mameister4.bsky.social
Neuroscientist. Long-form opinions at https://markusmeister.com.
Come on Konrad, why do you cave so easily? Here, let me try it for you:
1. Spikes are (to good approximation) the only events that matter.
2. Extracellular fields are one way by which spikes interact with each other.
1/2
1. Spikes are (to good approximation) the only events that matter.
2. Extracellular fields are one way by which spikes interact with each other.
1/2
As we are having a discussion on neural codes: @earlkmiller.bsky.social is entirely right that the "only spike rates matter" idea that is so prominent in neuroscience has no credible evidence. We simply do not currently know how neurons code relevant information. Oscillations are likely part of it.
November 21, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Come on Konrad, why do you cave so easily? Here, let me try it for you:
1. Spikes are (to good approximation) the only events that matter.
2. Extracellular fields are one way by which spikes interact with each other.
1/2
1. Spikes are (to good approximation) the only events that matter.
2. Extracellular fields are one way by which spikes interact with each other.
1/2
Observed at an SfN poster session?
Man Trying To Enter Conversation Spends Few Minutes Smiling And Nodding At Edge Of Circle https://theonion.com/man-trying-to-enter-conversation-spends-few-minutes-smi-1819577205/
November 20, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Observed at an SfN poster session?
Reposted by Markus Meister
#SfN25 's hottest club is Poster X8 Tuesday Morning. This club has everything: mice hunting robotic bait, quantitative behavior modeling, chronic superior colliculus Neuropixel data, and GLM encoding/decoding, not to mention the cheap new DAQ EVERYONE's been rumbling about. See you there!
November 17, 2025 at 9:37 PM
#SfN25 's hottest club is Poster X8 Tuesday Morning. This club has everything: mice hunting robotic bait, quantitative behavior modeling, chronic superior colliculus Neuropixel data, and GLM encoding/decoding, not to mention the cheap new DAQ EVERYONE's been rumbling about. See you there!
If you are looking for a postdoc with interests in animal cognition and behavior, be sure to talk to Jieyu Zheng: you won't regret it!
November 16, 2025 at 8:43 PM
If you are looking for a postdoc with interests in animal cognition and behavior, be sure to talk to Jieyu Zheng: you won't regret it!
That image is from 1961 and an idealization. Here is an actual trajectory of fixational eye movements. The dots are 2 ms apart. If a midget ganglion cell, with single-cone receptive field, fires at 100 Hz, then every spike reports about a different cone. How can we ever read anything?
November 7, 2025 at 6:23 PM
That image is from 1961 and an idealization. Here is an actual trajectory of fixational eye movements. The dots are 2 ms apart. If a midget ganglion cell, with single-cone receptive field, fires at 100 Hz, then every spike reports about a different cone. How can we ever read anything?
That's nothing! The US, as we know, is an agrarian economy, optimized for growing soybeans exported to China. The yearly production of soybean seeds, if placed end to end, forms a chain of beads 10^10 km long: the distance from the Sun to Pluto and back. It streams at about 0.1% the speed of light.
Putting the 512 million panels of 1.95 meters long in a line, they form a band of 1 million kilometers length, wrapped 25 times around the equator.
During those 6 months, it streamed from the factories into the country at a speed of 230 km/h :)
During those 6 months, it streamed from the factories into the country at a speed of 230 km/h :)
November 3, 2025 at 12:07 AM
That's nothing! The US, as we know, is an agrarian economy, optimized for growing soybeans exported to China. The yearly production of soybean seeds, if placed end to end, forms a chain of beads 10^10 km long: the distance from the Sun to Pluto and back. It streams at about 0.1% the speed of light.
Sure, China has invented the future, with innovations like high-speed trains and all-electric traffic. But no-one talks about the Jim Beam Soda Fountain! Dispenses everything from straight Bourbon to 3 different cocktails. Beating Kentucky at its own game...
September 22, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Sure, China has invented the future, with innovations like high-speed trains and all-electric traffic. But no-one talks about the Jim Beam Soda Fountain! Dispenses everything from straight Bourbon to 3 different cocktails. Beating Kentucky at its own game...
Human intelligence is overrated and not a useful yardstick for AI - a polemic. markusmeister.com/2025/09/15/w...
September 15, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Human intelligence is overrated and not a useful yardstick for AI - a polemic. markusmeister.com/2025/09/15/w...
What a cool public science project! www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/w...
August 8, 2025 at 4:05 PM
What a cool public science project! www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/w...
I learned a lot from reading this book on climate science: "Unsettled?" by Steven E. Koonin. Sure, it comes from a contrarian perspective, but it's quantitative, well-sourced, and nuanced in its critique. Lots of useful pointers to go explore the primary literature.
July 30, 2025 at 3:16 AM
I learned a lot from reading this book on climate science: "Unsettled?" by Steven E. Koonin. Sure, it comes from a contrarian perspective, but it's quantitative, well-sourced, and nuanced in its critique. Lots of useful pointers to go explore the primary literature.
Reposted by Markus Meister
I wrote about the government's attacks on Harvard. Hope this reaches a few persuadable minds.
prosyn.org/PhWi74r?h=Ky...
prosyn.org/PhWi74r?h=Ky...
Defunding Harvard Hurts America | by Adam Ezra Cohen - Project Syndicate
Adam Ezra Cohen explains the real-world consequences of canceling federal research grants in the name of fighting antisemitism.
prosyn.org
May 28, 2025 at 12:52 PM
I wrote about the government's attacks on Harvard. Hope this reaches a few persuadable minds.
prosyn.org/PhWi74r?h=Ky...
prosyn.org/PhWi74r?h=Ky...
If you're planning a course with mathematical methods content, or use such methods in your own work, please take a look at "Mathematics in Biology", by Meister, Lee, and Portugues, published at MIT Press. 1/2 @portugueslab.bsky.social mitpress.mit.edu/978026204940...
Mathematics in Biology
Biology has turned into a quantitative science. The core problems in the life sciences today involve complex systems that require mathematical expression, ye...
mitpress.mit.edu
May 21, 2025 at 9:53 PM
If you're planning a course with mathematical methods content, or use such methods in your own work, please take a look at "Mathematics in Biology", by Meister, Lee, and Portugues, published at MIT Press. 1/2 @portugueslab.bsky.social mitpress.mit.edu/978026204940...
A sobering assessment of consciousness studies from Hakwan Lau: "the label ’consciousness’ may eventually serve little other function but to signal that the associated studies are subpar and overinterpreted compared to mainstream cognitive neuroscience research"
i have uploaded this preprint a while back, but hadn't promoted it directly here. in this piece i explain why i can no longer recommend trainees to participate in my former home field.
The End of Conscioussness - osf.io/preprints/ps...
but i've learned a lot. thank you for everything.
🧠📈
The End of Conscioussness - osf.io/preprints/ps...
but i've learned a lot. thank you for everything.
🧠📈
OSF
osf.io
May 2, 2025 at 12:35 PM
A sobering assessment of consciousness studies from Hakwan Lau: "the label ’consciousness’ may eventually serve little other function but to signal that the associated studies are subpar and overinterpreted compared to mainstream cognitive neuroscience research"
I'm with David Sussillo's critique here. If you want answers you have to ask concrete questions. Black-box modelling of huge data volumes won't get you any closer.
Eva Dyer and I wrote an opinion piece for @thetransmitter.bsky.social on why neuroscience needs to embrace complexity and accept the "bitter lesson" by using a data-driven regime at scale.
With commentary from several wonderful researchers!
🧠📈 #NeuroAI 🧪
With commentary from several wonderful researchers!
🧠📈 #NeuroAI 🧪
How can we make progress in developing a general model of neural computation rather than a series of disjointed models tied to specific experimental circumstances, ask Eva Dyer and @tyrellturing.bsky.social in the latest entry in our NeuroAI series.
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroai/acce...
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroai/acce...
March 26, 2025 at 6:43 PM
I'm with David Sussillo's critique here. If you want answers you have to ask concrete questions. Black-box modelling of huge data volumes won't get you any closer.
Here it is finally: Our mathematical methods book for life scientists! Aimed at advanced undergrads and beginning grad students, plus all those who want a deeper look at the math behind quantitative biology. @portugueslab.bsky.social.
1/3
1/3
"Mathematics in Biology" is a concise but rigorous textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students across the biological sciences that provides a foundation for understanding the methods used in quantitative biology: @mameister4.bsky.social
Mathematics in Biology
Biology has turned into a quantitative science. The core problems in the life sciences today involve complex systems that require mathematical expression, ye...
mitpress.mit.edu
February 20, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Here it is finally: Our mathematical methods book for life scientists! Aimed at advanced undergrads and beginning grad students, plus all those who want a deeper look at the math behind quantitative biology. @portugueslab.bsky.social.
1/3
1/3
Reposted by Markus Meister
I wrote about a scientific paper called “The Unbearable Slowness of Being” which finds that the human brain’s throughput is just 10 bits per second. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/s...
🧪
🧪
Human Thought Is Far Slower Than Your Internet Connection (Gift Article)
A new study is “a bit of a counterweight to the endless hyperbole about how incredibly complex and powerful the human brain is,” one researcher said.
www.nytimes.com
December 26, 2024 at 1:49 PM
I wrote about a scientific paper called “The Unbearable Slowness of Being” which finds that the human brain’s throughput is just 10 bits per second. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/s...
🧪
🧪
Reposted by Markus Meister
"[It’s] the largest unexplained number in brain science. I feel like neuroscience should pay more attention to it ..." said Marcus Meister when @claudia-lopez.bsky.social sat down with him and @jieyusz.bsky.social for a Q&A about the brain's information-processing rate.
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/3ZXxWTf
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/3ZXxWTf
Explaining ‘the largest unexplained number in brain science’: Q&A with Markus Meister and Jieyu Zheng
The human brain takes in sensory information roughly 100 million times faster than it can respond. Neuroscientists need to explore this perceptual paradox to better understand the limits of the brain…
bit.ly
December 17, 2024 at 4:11 PM
"[It’s] the largest unexplained number in brain science. I feel like neuroscience should pay more attention to it ..." said Marcus Meister when @claudia-lopez.bsky.social sat down with him and @jieyusz.bsky.social for a Q&A about the brain's information-processing rate.
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/3ZXxWTf
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/3ZXxWTf
The unbearable slowness of being: Humans still clock in at just 10 bits/s. Even after peer review :) Share link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1kHVa3BtfH.... ArXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234
authors.elsevier.com
December 17, 2024 at 6:54 PM
The unbearable slowness of being: Humans still clock in at just 10 bits/s. Even after peer review :) Share link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1kHVa3BtfH.... ArXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234
After being gifted the most magical computing device on the planet, humans use it to organize more vicious fist fights. Does anyone still think that human intelligence is a useful milestone on the way to machine intelligence? www.nytimes.com/2024/12/15/t... #NeuroAI
How Student Phones and Social Media Are Fueling Fights in Schools
Cafeteria melees. Students kicked in the head. Injured educators. Technology is stoking cycles of violence in schools across the United States.
www.nytimes.com
December 15, 2024 at 6:31 PM
After being gifted the most magical computing device on the planet, humans use it to organize more vicious fist fights. Does anyone still think that human intelligence is a useful milestone on the way to machine intelligence? www.nytimes.com/2024/12/15/t... #NeuroAI
Horace Barlow, by all accounts, was thinking about 30 years ahead of his time. Here is a transcript of the opening keynote I gave at a symposium honoring Horace's scientific legacy: markusmeister.com/2024/12/14/h....
December 14, 2024 at 9:41 PM
Horace Barlow, by all accounts, was thinking about 30 years ahead of his time. Here is a transcript of the opening keynote I gave at a symposium honoring Horace's scientific legacy: markusmeister.com/2024/12/14/h....
If you're a student interested in quantitative life science, and you don't have this book on your shelf yet, this is the best time to correct that!
The third edition of my textbook, Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos, was published today. You can preview the first 68 pages on Google Books, or take a look at the preface below to see what's new. The main new thing is a chapter on the Kuramoto model! Hope you enjoy it.
December 12, 2024 at 5:39 PM
If you're a student interested in quantitative life science, and you don't have this book on your shelf yet, this is the best time to correct that!
Reposted by Markus Meister
The third edition of my textbook, Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos, was published today. You can preview the first 68 pages on Google Books, or take a look at the preface below to see what's new. The main new thing is a chapter on the Kuramoto model! Hope you enjoy it.
January 16, 2024 at 3:55 PM
The third edition of my textbook, Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos, was published today. You can preview the first 68 pages on Google Books, or take a look at the preface below to see what's new. The main new thing is a chapter on the Kuramoto model! Hope you enjoy it.
Have you had private doubts whether we'll ever understand the brain? Whether we'll be able explain psychological phenomena in an exhaustive way that ranges from molecules to membranes to synapses to cells to cell types to circuits to computation to perception and behavior?
November 14, 2024 at 5:18 AM
Have you had private doubts whether we'll ever understand the brain? Whether we'll be able explain psychological phenomena in an exhaustive way that ranges from molecules to membranes to synapses to cells to cell types to circuits to computation to perception and behavior?
Flying Lufthansa during the presidential debate. We’re told that “unfortunately” the WiFi is broken. Clever move to ensure a peaceful flight.
September 11, 2024 at 12:49 AM
Flying Lufthansa during the presidential debate. We’re told that “unfortunately” the WiFi is broken. Clever move to ensure a peaceful flight.
From my file of "papers that keep on giving", this beautiful review from Mike Land on eye movements in everyday life: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16516530/. I read this back when, but came across it again now with different needs, and learned a whole set of orthogonal things.
Eye movements and the control of actions in everyday life - PubMed
The patterns of eye movement that accompany static activities such as reading have been studied since the early 1900s, but it is only since head-mounted eye trackers became available in the 1980s that...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
September 11, 2024 at 12:10 AM
From my file of "papers that keep on giving", this beautiful review from Mike Land on eye movements in everyday life: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16516530/. I read this back when, but came across it again now with different needs, and learned a whole set of orthogonal things.