Mark D Humphries
@markdhumphries.bsky.social
Theoretical systems neuroscientist. Author of “The Spike: An Epic Journey Through the Brain in 2.1 Seconds”: https://tinyurl.com/ymwy9jrh
Lab: https://humphries-lab.org
Essays on the brain: https://drmdhumphries.medium.com/
Lab: https://humphries-lab.org
Essays on the brain: https://drmdhumphries.medium.com/
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
Just published my review of neuroscience in 2025, on The Spike.
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
2025: A Review of the Year in Neuroscience
Enlightening the brain
medium.com
December 30, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Just published my review of neuroscience in 2025, on The Spike.
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
Always full of insightful laughs! Thank you for keeping it up for 10 years, @markdhumphries.bsky.social.
" ... It can though predict with fair accuracy the activity of held-out neurons during videos of natural scenes. Scenes like driving through a desert. As mice do ... "
" ... It can though predict with fair accuracy the activity of held-out neurons during videos of natural scenes. Scenes like driving through a desert. As mice do ... "
Just published my review of neuroscience in 2025, on The Spike.
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
2025: A Review of the Year in Neuroscience
Enlightening the brain
medium.com
December 30, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Always full of insightful laughs! Thank you for keeping it up for 10 years, @markdhumphries.bsky.social.
" ... It can though predict with fair accuracy the activity of held-out neurons during videos of natural scenes. Scenes like driving through a desert. As mice do ... "
" ... It can though predict with fair accuracy the activity of held-out neurons during videos of natural scenes. Scenes like driving through a desert. As mice do ... "
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
Great summary, thanks for writing this!
One nit, we started the 'core' merely as a shared feature space for (translation invariant) visual neurons*. Simple idea, not to be conflated with all the 'foundation model' and 'digital twin' marketing later 😜
* proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2017/f...
One nit, we started the 'core' merely as a shared feature space for (translation invariant) visual neurons*. Simple idea, not to be conflated with all the 'foundation model' and 'digital twin' marketing later 😜
* proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2017/f...
proceedings.neurips.cc
December 30, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Great summary, thanks for writing this!
One nit, we started the 'core' merely as a shared feature space for (translation invariant) visual neurons*. Simple idea, not to be conflated with all the 'foundation model' and 'digital twin' marketing later 😜
* proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2017/f...
One nit, we started the 'core' merely as a shared feature space for (translation invariant) visual neurons*. Simple idea, not to be conflated with all the 'foundation model' and 'digital twin' marketing later 😜
* proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2017/f...
Just published my review of neuroscience in 2025, on The Spike.
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
2025: A Review of the Year in Neuroscience
Enlightening the brain
medium.com
December 30, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Just published my review of neuroscience in 2025, on The Spike.
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
🚨Funded PhD studentship project🚨
"Leveraging population activity trajectories to optimise Brain-computer interfaces for arm movement" with myself & @katjakornysheva.bsky.social
By: Jan 9th 2026
Info on project, funding & how to apply: more.bham.ac.uk/mrc-aim/phd-... (submit to Nottingham)
"Leveraging population activity trajectories to optimise Brain-computer interfaces for arm movement" with myself & @katjakornysheva.bsky.social
By: Jan 9th 2026
Info on project, funding & how to apply: more.bham.ac.uk/mrc-aim/phd-... (submit to Nottingham)
PhD Opportunities – MRC AIM
more.bham.ac.uk
December 9, 2025 at 10:34 AM
🚨Funded PhD studentship project🚨
"Leveraging population activity trajectories to optimise Brain-computer interfaces for arm movement" with myself & @katjakornysheva.bsky.social
By: Jan 9th 2026
Info on project, funding & how to apply: more.bham.ac.uk/mrc-aim/phd-... (submit to Nottingham)
"Leveraging population activity trajectories to optimise Brain-computer interfaces for arm movement" with myself & @katjakornysheva.bsky.social
By: Jan 9th 2026
Info on project, funding & how to apply: more.bham.ac.uk/mrc-aim/phd-... (submit to Nottingham)
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
Read yet another review today that ascribes GECIs' larger SNR vs GEVIs to their being evolved earlier (suggesting the GECIs are better optimized). This assumption is understandable but incorrect. GEVIs' photonic response per molecule per AP have been as good as GECIs since ASAP3.
December 6, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Read yet another review today that ascribes GECIs' larger SNR vs GEVIs to their being evolved earlier (suggesting the GECIs are better optimized). This assumption is understandable but incorrect. GEVIs' photonic response per molecule per AP have been as good as GECIs since ASAP3.
Terrific work led by @emmaroscow.bsky.social showing that hippocampal replay reflects events with large prediction errors, all the better to bootstrap learning as we slumber
Congratulations to Matt Jones & Nathan Lepora for seeing this through to the end!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Congratulations to Matt Jones & Nathan Lepora for seeing this through to the end!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Post-learning replay of hippocampal-striatal activity is biased by reward-prediction signals - Nature Communications
It is unclear which aspects of experience shape sleep’s contributions to learning. Here, by combining neural recordings in rats with reinforcement learning, the authors show that reward-prediction sig...
www.nature.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Terrific work led by @emmaroscow.bsky.social showing that hippocampal replay reflects events with large prediction errors, all the better to bootstrap learning as we slumber
Congratulations to Matt Jones & Nathan Lepora for seeing this through to the end!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Congratulations to Matt Jones & Nathan Lepora for seeing this through to the end!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
🧪Preprint!
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 4:32 PM
🧪Preprint!
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
Excited to share our preprint on variability in patch leaving decisions! Check out the 🧵 below
🧪Preprint!
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Excited to share our preprint on variability in patch leaving decisions! Check out the 🧵 below
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
Super pleased with this one, led by the amazing PhD student and foraging expert @emmavscholey.bsky.social!
🧪Preprint!
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Super pleased with this one, led by the amazing PhD student and foraging expert @emmavscholey.bsky.social!
🧪Preprint!
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 4:32 PM
🧪Preprint!
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
Delighted to share our latest preprint. It's been a long time coming. Thanks to all the authors for their unique contribution and for for their patience. We show how the visual thalamus deals with active and passive head motion in freely moving animals: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Efficient mixed representation of active and passive motion in the mouse visual thalamus during natural behaviour
During natural behaviour, changes in the visual scene are largely driven by the subject’s own movements, which can be actively generated (e.g., walking) or passively imposed by external forces (e.g., ...
www.biorxiv.org
November 9, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Delighted to share our latest preprint. It's been a long time coming. Thanks to all the authors for their unique contribution and for for their patience. We show how the visual thalamus deals with active and passive head motion in freely moving animals: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
Okay, here are some first reflections on Watson.
Watson's life is a tragedy, really of Shakespearean proportions. He did not, as most bios will tell you, do one great thing when he was young and then collect laurels for it for the next 60 years. His career arc was unlike any in science.
Watson's life is a tragedy, really of Shakespearean proportions. He did not, as most bios will tell you, do one great thing when he was young and then collect laurels for it for the next 60 years. His career arc was unlike any in science.
November 8, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Okay, here are some first reflections on Watson.
Watson's life is a tragedy, really of Shakespearean proportions. He did not, as most bios will tell you, do one great thing when he was young and then collect laurels for it for the next 60 years. His career arc was unlike any in science.
Watson's life is a tragedy, really of Shakespearean proportions. He did not, as most bios will tell you, do one great thing when he was young and then collect laurels for it for the next 60 years. His career arc was unlike any in science.
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
Nearly ready to go! Mechanistic Basis of Foraging 2025!
November 4, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Nearly ready to go! Mechanistic Basis of Foraging 2025!
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint:
“Sexual dimorphism in the complete connectome of the Drosophila male central nervous system” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We describe the #connectomics reconstruction and analysis of an entire adult #maleCNS #drosophila central nervous system. 1/10
“Sexual dimorphism in the complete connectome of the Drosophila male central nervous system” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We describe the #connectomics reconstruction and analysis of an entire adult #maleCNS #drosophila central nervous system. 1/10
October 15, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint:
“Sexual dimorphism in the complete connectome of the Drosophila male central nervous system” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We describe the #connectomics reconstruction and analysis of an entire adult #maleCNS #drosophila central nervous system. 1/10
“Sexual dimorphism in the complete connectome of the Drosophila male central nervous system” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We describe the #connectomics reconstruction and analysis of an entire adult #maleCNS #drosophila central nervous system. 1/10
🚨Registration for Mechanistic Basis of Foraging 2025 closes October 20th 🚨
Speakers
@mkflugge.bsky.social @aaronbornstein.bsky.social @benhayden.bsky.social @ellileadbeater.bsky.social
@davidrobbe.bsky.social @dlbarack.bsky.social @becketebs.bsky.social
uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...
Speakers
@mkflugge.bsky.social @aaronbornstein.bsky.social @benhayden.bsky.social @ellileadbeater.bsky.social
@davidrobbe.bsky.social @dlbarack.bsky.social @becketebs.bsky.social
uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...
Home - The Mechanistic Basis of Foraging
uobevents.eventsair.com
October 13, 2025 at 9:23 AM
🚨Registration for Mechanistic Basis of Foraging 2025 closes October 20th 🚨
Speakers
@mkflugge.bsky.social @aaronbornstein.bsky.social @benhayden.bsky.social @ellileadbeater.bsky.social
@davidrobbe.bsky.social @dlbarack.bsky.social @becketebs.bsky.social
uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...
Speakers
@mkflugge.bsky.social @aaronbornstein.bsky.social @benhayden.bsky.social @ellileadbeater.bsky.social
@davidrobbe.bsky.social @dlbarack.bsky.social @becketebs.bsky.social
uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
We are looking for a postdoctoral fellow to join the lab to study how cortical microcircuits are organised at the single cell level using high throughput molecular methods. Please share and get in touch if interested!
www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...
www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...
October 10, 2025 at 10:08 AM
We are looking for a postdoctoral fellow to join the lab to study how cortical microcircuits are organised at the single cell level using high throughput molecular methods. Please share and get in touch if interested!
www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...
www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
Pleased to have this review out in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social. In it we discuss various aspects of the intersection between foraging behaviors and neuroscience, and offer some future directions: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Foraging as an ethological framework for neuroscience
The study of foraging is central to a renewed interest in naturalistic behavior in neuroscience. Applying a foraging framework grounded in behavioral …
www.sciencedirect.com
October 7, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Pleased to have this review out in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social. In it we discuss various aspects of the intersection between foraging behaviors and neuroscience, and offer some future directions: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
Plus, there's now a related conference organized by some wonderful people @unibirmingham.bsky.social in the UK, including @brainapps.bsky.social, @markdhumphries.bsky.social, and others. (Registration for this conference is still open until the 20th October!) uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...
Home - The Mechanistic Basis of Foraging
uobevents.eventsair.com
October 7, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Plus, there's now a related conference organized by some wonderful people @unibirmingham.bsky.social in the UK, including @brainapps.bsky.social, @markdhumphries.bsky.social, and others. (Registration for this conference is still open until the 20th October!) uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
#neuroskyence, a question for you:
Can you think of a paper that shows the latent dynamics of a network are robust to the loss of its neurons?
(Or, if you prefer, that the manifold is robust to the same)
Can you think of a paper that shows the latent dynamics of a network are robust to the loss of its neurons?
(Or, if you prefer, that the manifold is robust to the same)
October 7, 2025 at 7:52 AM
#neuroskyence, a question for you:
Can you think of a paper that shows the latent dynamics of a network are robust to the loss of its neurons?
(Or, if you prefer, that the manifold is robust to the same)
Can you think of a paper that shows the latent dynamics of a network are robust to the loss of its neurons?
(Or, if you prefer, that the manifold is robust to the same)
#neuroskyence, a question for you:
Can you think of a paper that shows the latent dynamics of a network are robust to the loss of its neurons?
(Or, if you prefer, that the manifold is robust to the same)
Can you think of a paper that shows the latent dynamics of a network are robust to the loss of its neurons?
(Or, if you prefer, that the manifold is robust to the same)
October 7, 2025 at 7:52 AM
#neuroskyence, a question for you:
Can you think of a paper that shows the latent dynamics of a network are robust to the loss of its neurons?
(Or, if you prefer, that the manifold is robust to the same)
Can you think of a paper that shows the latent dynamics of a network are robust to the loss of its neurons?
(Or, if you prefer, that the manifold is robust to the same)
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
“Mapping ion channel function” doi.org/10.7554/eLif... isn’t exactly a citation slayer, but it’s still one of my favourites (& my first independent project). Today we push pt 2, where we trace code origin & unite almost all channel models in a common expression. Boom! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
An ion channel omnimodel for standardized biophysical neuron modelling
Biophysical neuron modeling is an indispensable tool in neuroscience research, with the combination of diverse ion channel kinetics and morphologies being used to explain various single-neuron propert...
www.biorxiv.org
October 6, 2025 at 6:25 PM
“Mapping ion channel function” doi.org/10.7554/eLif... isn’t exactly a citation slayer, but it’s still one of my favourites (& my first independent project). Today we push pt 2, where we trace code origin & unite almost all channel models in a common expression. Boom! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Mark D Humphries
#Neuroskyence hive mind: what’s the best single paper that explains the attractor theory of working memory?
For reference, my go to has been Wang’s 2001 TINS paper, but that’s nearly a quarter century old!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
For reference, my go to has been Wang’s 2001 TINS paper, but that’s nearly a quarter century old!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Synaptic reverberation underlying mnemonic persistent activity
Stimulus-specific persistent neural activity is the neural process underlying active (working) memory. Since its discovery 30 years ago, mnemonic acti…
www.sciencedirect.com
September 29, 2025 at 11:16 AM
#Neuroskyence hive mind: what’s the best single paper that explains the attractor theory of working memory?
For reference, my go to has been Wang’s 2001 TINS paper, but that’s nearly a quarter century old!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
For reference, my go to has been Wang’s 2001 TINS paper, but that’s nearly a quarter century old!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#Neuroskyence hive mind: what’s the best single paper that explains the attractor theory of working memory?
For reference, my go to has been Wang’s 2001 TINS paper, but that’s nearly a quarter century old!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
For reference, my go to has been Wang’s 2001 TINS paper, but that’s nearly a quarter century old!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Synaptic reverberation underlying mnemonic persistent activity
Stimulus-specific persistent neural activity is the neural process underlying active (working) memory. Since its discovery 30 years ago, mnemonic acti…
www.sciencedirect.com
September 29, 2025 at 11:16 AM
#Neuroskyence hive mind: what’s the best single paper that explains the attractor theory of working memory?
For reference, my go to has been Wang’s 2001 TINS paper, but that’s nearly a quarter century old!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
For reference, my go to has been Wang’s 2001 TINS paper, but that’s nearly a quarter century old!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Early-bird registration for "The Mechanistic Basis of Foraging 2025" ends September 30th
A meeting for everyone fascinated by the brain's role in foraging, 3-5 November 2025 at University of Birmingham.
Full speaker list, schedule and more now on the website
uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...
A meeting for everyone fascinated by the brain's role in foraging, 3-5 November 2025 at University of Birmingham.
Full speaker list, schedule and more now on the website
uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...
Home - The Mechanistic Basis of Foraging
uobevents.eventsair.com
September 19, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Early-bird registration for "The Mechanistic Basis of Foraging 2025" ends September 30th
A meeting for everyone fascinated by the brain's role in foraging, 3-5 November 2025 at University of Birmingham.
Full speaker list, schedule and more now on the website
uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...
A meeting for everyone fascinated by the brain's role in foraging, 3-5 November 2025 at University of Birmingham.
Full speaker list, schedule and more now on the website
uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...