Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
@neur1s.bsky.social
Neuroscience PhD candidate committed to engrams and social memory | Josselyn lab & Laschowski lab based @UofT & @SickKids | 🇨🇦🇺🇦
Pinned
Had a pleasure to give an invited talk at UCU on engrams and how they support various memory phenomena:
youtu.be/ETVgqyQwZVM?...
youtu.be/ETVgqyQwZVM?...
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
New paper from the lab 🚨
Led by Ali Golbabaei, this study explores the how the composition of prefrontal cortical engrams changes with memory age:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lzT-3BtfH...
Led by Ali Golbabaei, this study explores the how the composition of prefrontal cortical engrams changes with memory age:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lzT-3BtfH...
authors.elsevier.com
October 22, 2025 at 6:50 PM
New paper from the lab 🚨
Led by Ali Golbabaei, this study explores the how the composition of prefrontal cortical engrams changes with memory age:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lzT-3BtfH...
Led by Ali Golbabaei, this study explores the how the composition of prefrontal cortical engrams changes with memory age:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lzT-3BtfH...
Had a pleasure to give an invited talk at UCU on engrams and how they support various memory phenomena:
youtu.be/ETVgqyQwZVM?...
youtu.be/ETVgqyQwZVM?...
October 14, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Had a pleasure to give an invited talk at UCU on engrams and how they support various memory phenomena:
youtu.be/ETVgqyQwZVM?...
youtu.be/ETVgqyQwZVM?...
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
Imagine a brain decoding algorithm that could generalize across different subjects and tasks. Today, we’re one step closer to achieving that vision.
Introducing the flagship paper of our brain decoding program: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroAI #compneuro @utoronto.ca @uhn.ca
Introducing the flagship paper of our brain decoding program: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroAI #compneuro @utoronto.ca @uhn.ca
October 7, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Imagine a brain decoding algorithm that could generalize across different subjects and tasks. Today, we’re one step closer to achieving that vision.
Introducing the flagship paper of our brain decoding program: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroAI #compneuro @utoronto.ca @uhn.ca
Introducing the flagship paper of our brain decoding program: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroAI #compneuro @utoronto.ca @uhn.ca
Looking forward to giving a talk on the latest developments in engram research 🧠
The main lecture will be in English, with a part on my own research in Ukrainian.
Kindly hosted by Ukrainian Catholic University — everyone’s welcome! Register via the QR code 👇
Kindly hosted by Ukrainian Catholic University — everyone’s welcome! Register via the QR code 👇
October 1, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Looking forward to giving a talk on the latest developments in engram research 🧠
The main lecture will be in English, with a part on my own research in Ukrainian.
Kindly hosted by Ukrainian Catholic University — everyone’s welcome! Register via the QR code 👇
Kindly hosted by Ukrainian Catholic University — everyone’s welcome! Register via the QR code 👇
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
“If everything is everywhere, why have distinct areas? Here we show that the function of a brain area is more related to how different types of information are combined (formatted) in neural representations than merely whether that information is present.”
New results for a new year! “Linking neural population formatting to function” describes our modern take on an old question: how can we understand the contribution of a brain area to behavior?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧠👩🏻🔬🧪🧵
#neuroskyence
1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧠👩🏻🔬🧪🧵
#neuroskyence
1/
Linking neural population formatting to function
Animals capable of complex behaviors tend to have more distinct brain areas than simpler organisms, and artificial networks that perform many tasks tend to self-organize into modules (1-3). This sugge...
www.biorxiv.org
September 7, 2025 at 4:32 PM
“If everything is everywhere, why have distinct areas? Here we show that the function of a brain area is more related to how different types of information are combined (formatted) in neural representations than merely whether that information is present.”
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
Despite its efficiency, the brain is oddly inefficient: requires ~8 hours of sleep for every 16 hours of runtime. We spend a third of our lives recharging.
September 7, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Despite its efficiency, the brain is oddly inefficient: requires ~8 hours of sleep for every 16 hours of runtime. We spend a third of our lives recharging.
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
Come join us at University of Toronto. We're hiring a Professor of computational cognitive neuroscience.
#neuroAI #compneuro jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...
#neuroAI #compneuro jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...
Professor - Computational Cognitive Neuroscience
Professor - Computational Cognitive Neuroscience
jobs.utoronto.ca
September 5, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Come join us at University of Toronto. We're hiring a Professor of computational cognitive neuroscience.
#neuroAI #compneuro jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...
#neuroAI #compneuro jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...
#IBB shared some highlights from their visit to @sjo09.bsky.social lab. It was rewarding to see how much interest was sparked by #engrams as well as #ML and #NeuroAI 🧠✨
Shoutout to @mhsarikahya.bsky.social & other JF lab members!
Shoutout to @mhsarikahya.bsky.social & other JF lab members!
July 30, 2025 at 6:20 PM
#IBB shared some highlights from their visit to @sjo09.bsky.social lab. It was rewarding to see how much interest was sparked by #engrams as well as #ML and #NeuroAI 🧠✨
Shoutout to @mhsarikahya.bsky.social & other JF lab members!
Shoutout to @mhsarikahya.bsky.social & other JF lab members!
Wrapped up 2 intense weeks at #NeuroAI by @neuromatch.bsky.social! 🚀
Our team explored how RNNs encode spatial memory — and found they implicitly learn a discrete spatial layout.
🔍 Check it out: github.com/neur1s/GridVaders
Thanks to my amazing teammates!
#AI #Neuroscience #RNN #GridWorld
Our team explored how RNNs encode spatial memory — and found they implicitly learn a discrete spatial layout.
🔍 Check it out: github.com/neur1s/GridVaders
Thanks to my amazing teammates!
#AI #Neuroscience #RNN #GridWorld
July 26, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Wrapped up 2 intense weeks at #NeuroAI by @neuromatch.bsky.social! 🚀
Our team explored how RNNs encode spatial memory — and found they implicitly learn a discrete spatial layout.
🔍 Check it out: github.com/neur1s/GridVaders
Thanks to my amazing teammates!
#AI #Neuroscience #RNN #GridWorld
Our team explored how RNNs encode spatial memory — and found they implicitly learn a discrete spatial layout.
🔍 Check it out: github.com/neur1s/GridVaders
Thanks to my amazing teammates!
#AI #Neuroscience #RNN #GridWorld
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
(1/7) New preprint from Rajan lab! 🧠🤖
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built
Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built
Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981
July 2, 2025 at 6:34 PM
(1/7) New preprint from Rajan lab! 🧠🤖
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built
Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built
Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
This is fun - to make RL models more like mice in the paths they select, you gotta give them the fear of death:
arxiv.org/abs/2505.12204
🧠📈 🧪
arxiv.org/abs/2505.12204
🧠📈 🧪
Of Mice and Machines: A Comparison of Learning Between Real World Mice and RL Agents
Recent advances in reinforcement learning (RL) have demonstrated impressive capabilities in complex decision-making tasks. This progress raises a natural question: how do these artificial systems comp...
arxiv.org
June 30, 2025 at 7:08 PM
This is fun - to make RL models more like mice in the paths they select, you gotta give them the fear of death:
arxiv.org/abs/2505.12204
🧠📈 🧪
arxiv.org/abs/2505.12204
🧠📈 🧪
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
Your brain doesn’t just passively track time ⏳ - it structures it.
In @Science.org we show that activity in 🧠 memory circuits (LEC) drifts constantly, but makes sharp jumps at key moments, segmenting life into meaningful events. (1/2)
👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
In @Science.org we show that activity in 🧠 memory circuits (LEC) drifts constantly, but makes sharp jumps at key moments, segmenting life into meaningful events. (1/2)
👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Event structure sculpts neural population dynamics in the lateral entorhinal cortex
Our experience of the world is a continuous stream of events that must be segmented and organized at multiple timescales. The neural mechanisms underlying this process remain unknown. In this work, we...
www.science.org
June 26, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Your brain doesn’t just passively track time ⏳ - it structures it.
In @Science.org we show that activity in 🧠 memory circuits (LEC) drifts constantly, but makes sharp jumps at key moments, segmenting life into meaningful events. (1/2)
👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
In @Science.org we show that activity in 🧠 memory circuits (LEC) drifts constantly, but makes sharp jumps at key moments, segmenting life into meaningful events. (1/2)
👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
☝️
This is your quarterly reminder that the hippocampus is a cortical (not subcortical) structure! Nicola Palomero-Gallagher underscored this point during our #OHBM2025 educational course!
June 24, 2025 at 7:45 PM
☝️
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
It took me a while, but I can now see a purpose in speaking to the discussion of my departure from Yale for the University of Toronto. Here I address four public framings of last year’s move that arose in recent weeks, which tell us something of our present moment
snyder.substack.com/p/last-years...
snyder.substack.com/p/last-years...
Last Year's Move to Toronto
And This Year's Politics (video and commentary)
snyder.substack.com
June 2, 2025 at 3:37 PM
It took me a while, but I can now see a purpose in speaking to the discussion of my departure from Yale for the University of Toronto. Here I address four public framings of last year’s move that arose in recent weeks, which tell us something of our present moment
snyder.substack.com/p/last-years...
snyder.substack.com/p/last-years...
Conferenciating at #CAN2025 today? Come see my poster on social memory!
Learn how the amygdala helps us tell apart friends vs. foes (as reenacted in the photo) and how this ability is shaped by oxytocin signaling and engrams :)
Learn how the amygdala helps us tell apart friends vs. foes (as reenacted in the photo) and how this ability is shaped by oxytocin signaling and engrams :)
May 23, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Conferenciating at #CAN2025 today? Come see my poster on social memory!
Learn how the amygdala helps us tell apart friends vs. foes (as reenacted in the photo) and how this ability is shaped by oxytocin signaling and engrams :)
Learn how the amygdala helps us tell apart friends vs. foes (as reenacted in the photo) and how this ability is shaped by oxytocin signaling and engrams :)
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
fantastic day at the 2025 Neural Circuits and Behaviour Satellite meeting! great talks by trainees Xin Zhao, Govind Peringod, Luca Pancotti, and Peiying Wen, and congrats to Govind for his top trainee talk award! so cool to see all the great circuits and behaviour work across the country
May 22, 2025 at 12:01 PM
fantastic day at the 2025 Neural Circuits and Behaviour Satellite meeting! great talks by trainees Xin Zhao, Govind Peringod, Luca Pancotti, and Peiying Wen, and congrats to Govind for his top trainee talk award! so cool to see all the great circuits and behaviour work across the country
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
Superb @nature.com study from @dulaclab.bsky.social’s lab, led by @dingliu.bsky.social, shedding light on the neural circuitry underlying social homeostasis, centred around two hypothalamic cell populations.
Deep similarities with other physiological needs 🧪🧠
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Deep similarities with other physiological needs 🧪🧠
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A hypothalamic circuit underlying the dynamic control of social homeostasis - Nature
New data on brain-wide circuits centred around two interconnected hypothalamic neuron populations provide significant mechanistic insights into the emergence of social need during social isolation and...
www.nature.com
February 26, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Superb @nature.com study from @dulaclab.bsky.social’s lab, led by @dingliu.bsky.social, shedding light on the neural circuitry underlying social homeostasis, centred around two hypothalamic cell populations.
Deep similarities with other physiological needs 🧪🧠
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Deep similarities with other physiological needs 🧪🧠
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Sadly, today marks three years since russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. I’m deeply grateful to those who continue to defend and support my homeland. Toronto stands with Ukraine! 💙💛
#StandWithUkraine
#StandWithUkraine
February 24, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Sadly, today marks three years since russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. I’m deeply grateful to those who continue to defend and support my homeland. Toronto stands with Ukraine! 💙💛
#StandWithUkraine
#StandWithUkraine
DeepLabCut has demonstrated high performance on professional skiers, but how does it handle snowboarders who spend more time eating snow than riding? 🤭
Despite a very small training dataset, the output is surprisingly promising! @deeplabcut.bsky.social
#PoseEstimation #Snowboarding
Despite a very small training dataset, the output is surprisingly promising! @deeplabcut.bsky.social
#PoseEstimation #Snowboarding
February 24, 2025 at 12:00 AM
DeepLabCut has demonstrated high performance on professional skiers, but how does it handle snowboarders who spend more time eating snow than riding? 🤭
Despite a very small training dataset, the output is surprisingly promising! @deeplabcut.bsky.social
#PoseEstimation #Snowboarding
Despite a very small training dataset, the output is surprisingly promising! @deeplabcut.bsky.social
#PoseEstimation #Snowboarding
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
A crucial role for the cortical amygdala in shaping social encounters
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A crucial role for the cortical amygdala in shaping social encounters - Nature
The posterolateral cortical amygdala and other connected brain regions have a key role in mediating the transition from investigative to aggressive behaviour in male mice.
www.nature.com
February 12, 2025 at 5:53 PM
A crucial role for the cortical amygdala in shaping social encounters
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Celebrating Women in Science with @sickkidsvs.bsky.social! 👩🔬👯♀️
Video reposted from www.instagram.com/reel/DF8Zz2n...
Video reposted from www.instagram.com/reel/DF8Zz2n...
February 11, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Celebrating Women in Science with @sickkidsvs.bsky.social! 👩🔬👯♀️
Video reposted from www.instagram.com/reel/DF8Zz2n...
Video reposted from www.instagram.com/reel/DF8Zz2n...
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
Am organizing a workshop this week @SimonsInstitute on Large language models, cognitive science, linguistics, neuroscience and theory. Many excellent speakers. Can register here for livestream! simons.berkeley.edu/workshops/ll...
LLMs, Cognitive Science, Linguistics, and Neuroscience
At a conceptual level, LLMs profoundly change the landscape for theories of human language, of the brain and computation, and of the nature of human intelligence. In linguistics, they provide a new wa...
simons.berkeley.edu
February 3, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Am organizing a workshop this week @SimonsInstitute on Large language models, cognitive science, linguistics, neuroscience and theory. Many excellent speakers. Can register here for livestream! simons.berkeley.edu/workshops/ll...
Reposted by Sofiya Zbaranska 🇺🇦
Registration is OPEN!
Ticket sales for the CAN 2025 "Neural Circuits and Behaviour" satellite event have opened! Lots of exciting talks, including the keynote address from @sjo09.bsky.social. Trainees, we'll select 4 trainee attendees for talks, along with a "Best Talk" award. Details: www.eventbrite.ca/e/neural-cir...
February 3, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Registration is OPEN!