Rui Ponte Costa
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somnirons.bsky.social
Rui Ponte Costa
@somnirons.bsky.social
Computational neuroscientist bringing machine and neural learning closer together @ox.ac.uk @oxforddpag.bsky.social 🇵🇹🇪🇺🇬🇧🌳

neuralml.github.io
Pinned
How does the brain find its way in realistic environments? 🧠 Using deep RL and neural data, we show that hippocampal-like networks support navigation, learning, and generalisation in partially observable environments—mirroring real animal behaviour. Now out:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroAI
Hippocampus supports multi-task reinforcement learning under partial observability - Nature Communications
Neural mechanisms underlying reinforcement learning in naturalistic environments are not fully understood. Here authors show that reinforcement learning (RL) agents with hippocampal-like recurrence, u...
www.nature.com
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Delighted to see this finally out: rdcu.be/eO9oW
We tested whether brief striatal dopamine release events influence the vigor of skilled movements. Despite popular belief, we did not find any evidence linking rapid dopamine dynamics to motor vigor on a moment-by-moment basis.
Subsecond dopamine fluctuations do not specify the vigor of ongoing actions
Nature Neuroscience - Liu and colleagues show that the vigor (that is, speed and amplitude) of dexterous movements is not controlled by ongoing fluctuations in extracellular dopamine within the...
rdcu.be
November 10, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Apply to become a CSHL-Simons Fellow in Neuroscience!

Run your own lab, pursue bold ideas, join a highly collaborative community!

All areas including experimental or computational neuro, including NeuroAI & systems

PhD required; ≤~1 yr postdoc

www.cshl.edu/about-us/car...
Fellows Positions | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
CSHL Simons Fellow in NEUROSCIENCE Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is seeking to fill a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Fellow position in the area of NEUROSCIENCE (experimental and/or computationa...
www.cshl.edu
October 24, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
1/N
How do neural dynamics in motor cortex interact with those in subcortical networks to flexibly control movement? I’m beyond thrilled to share our work on this problem, led by Eric Kirk @eric-kirk.bsky.social with help from Kangjia Cai!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
June 23, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Multiple BBSRC funded PhD projects available via SWBio

with Paul Chadderton looking at cerebellum bpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.bristo...

with Denize Atan, Zaf Bashir Marc Goodfellow & Mike Ashby
bpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.bristo...

Please get in touch if you are interested in either project.
November 5, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
🚨Job alert🚨

The lab has up to *3 postdoc openings* for comp systems neuroscientists interested in describing and manipulating neural population dynamics mediating behaviour

This is part of a collaborative ARIA grant "4D precision control of cortical dynamics"

euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/383909
3 Postdoctoral Research Fellows
Champalimaud Foundation (Fundação D. Anna de Sommer Champalimaud e Dr.
euraxess.ec.europa.eu
November 4, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Interested in #neuroscience + #AI and looking for a PhD position?

I can support your application @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social

✅ Check your eligibility (below)
✅ Contact me (DM or email)

UK nationals: www.imperial.ac.uk/life-science...

Otherwise: www.imperial.ac.uk/study/fees-a...
November 4, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Proud to share our manifesto - with a vision and concrete steps towards just sustainability transitions in Dutch academia!

With @rogierk.bsky.social, De Jonge Akademie, Green Young Academy

www.dejongeakademie.nl/en/news/3148...
Universities should be more ambitious in the climate transition, according to The Young Academy - De Jonge Akademie
News
www.dejongeakademie.nl
November 4, 2025 at 11:43 AM
How does the brain find its way in realistic environments? 🧠 Using deep RL and neural data, we show that hippocampal-like networks support navigation, learning, and generalisation in partially observable environments—mirroring real animal behaviour. Now out:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroAI
Hippocampus supports multi-task reinforcement learning under partial observability - Nature Communications
Neural mechanisms underlying reinforcement learning in naturalistic environments are not fully understood. Here authors show that reinforcement learning (RL) agents with hippocampal-like recurrence, u...
www.nature.com
November 3, 2025 at 10:20 AM
A cool summary of our paper!
A core function of cortex is predicting what happens next given the world's state.

This recent paper from Oxford shows how cortical layers may use a delay trick to learn to predict.

A simple illustration can explain the idea.

A🧵with my toy model and notes:

#neuroskyence #compneuro #NeuroAI
October 31, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
A core function of cortex is predicting what happens next given the world's state.

This recent paper from Oxford shows how cortical layers may use a delay trick to learn to predict.

A simple illustration can explain the idea.

A🧵with my toy model and notes:

#neuroskyence #compneuro #NeuroAI
October 9, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Apply to the new CSHL grad program in BioAI/neuroAI!

(Masters degree or equivalent required in a quantitative area such as computer science, physics, mathematics, or engineering)

www.cshl.edu/phd-program/...
October 22, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Applications open for postdoc fellowships at the @epfl-ai-center.bsky.social, deadline Nov 3. www.epfl.ch/research/fun.... Great opportunity to work with our world class faculty; the fellowship is set up for collaboration between multiple labs, including my #NeuroAI group 🤖🧠🧪
EPFL AI Center and Swiss AI Initiative Postdoctoral Fellowships
The 2nd call is now open with a deadline for submissions of 3 November (17.00 CET)!Applications are encouraged from researchers at the postdoctoral level with a keen interest in collaborative, interdi...
www.epfl.ch
October 14, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
A study led by Cina Aghamohammadi is now out in ‪@natcomms.nature.com‬! We developed a mathematical framework for partitioning spiking variability, which revealed that spiking irregularity is nearly invariant for each neuron and decreases along the cortical hierarchy.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 12, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Come do a postdoc at the Wu Tsai Institute!

WTI fellows have freedom to work with anyone at the institute, and preference is given to applicants who want to work on interdisciplinary projects with multiple faculty mentors.

If you’re interested to work with me, please reach out!
📣 Calling experimental, computational, or theoretical researchers!

WTI's Postdoc Fellowships application is now open, offering a competitive salary, structured mentorship, world-class facilities + more: wti.yale.edu/initiatives/...

Apply by November 10: apply.interfolio.com/174525

#KnowTogether
October 8, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Michael X Cohen on why he left academia/neuroscience.
mikexcohen.substack.com/p/why-i-left...
Why I left academia and neuroscience
Don't worry, this isn't yet another story of rage-quitting.
mikexcohen.substack.com
October 6, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Come be our colleague at EPFL! Several open calls for positions 🧪🧠🤖

* Neuroscience www.epfl.ch/about/workin... (deadline Oct 1)

* Life Science Engineering www.epfl.ch/about/workin...

* CS general call www.epfl.ch/about/workin...

* Learning Sciences www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
Faculty Position in Neuroscience
The School of Life Sciences at EPFL invites applications for a Tenure Track Assistant Professor position in Neuroscience. At EPFL researchers develop and apply innovative technologies to understand br...
www.epfl.ch
September 29, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
A rather 'unique' paper from our lab is online in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social now. Unique in the sense that I don't think anyone else will be rushing to optotag cortical interneurons in the early postnatal brain... because it is nigh on impossible!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
GABAergic circuits reflect different requirements for sensory integration in postnatal mouse neocortex
Information transfer in mammalian cerebral cortex is dependent on GABAergic interneuron circuits that are widely assumed to be uniform across the neoc…
www.sciencedirect.com
September 18, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Interested in doing a Ph.D. to work on building models of the brain/behavior? Consider applying to graduate schools at CU Anschutz:
1. Neuroscience www.cuanschutz.edu/graduate-pro...
2. Bioengineering engineering.ucdenver.edu/bioengineeri...

You could work with several comp neuro PIs, including me.
September 27, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
How is valence computed in the brain? Check out our new preprint about a single cell that integrates excitatory and inhibitory input across modalities according to valence and impacts behavioral decisions. An exciting collaboration across many labs. Enjoy reading!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A multisensory, bidirectional, valence encoder guides behavioral decisions
A key function of the brain is to categorize sensory cues as repulsive or attractive and respond accordingly. While we have some understanding of how sensory information is processed in the sensory pe...
www.biorxiv.org
September 27, 2025 at 5:46 AM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Looking for a PhD next year? Want to come and work on the next generation of OPM-MEG/EEG biomarkers in computational psychiatry?

Apply for our MRC iCase studentship with @mkflugge.bsky.social, collabs with @lilweb.bsky.social + industrial placement at P1Vital:
www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/gradua...
Development of robust, single-subject markers of predictive inference for computational psychiatry
www.medsci.ox.ac.uk
September 26, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
#Cosyne2026 is now open for business!

Show us what you got both for the main meeting & workshop proposals 🧠🥳🧠🥳🧠
September 9, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
This rule would have meant I couldn't do my Ph.D. in America.

I did do it in America. Became a professor. 12 thriving U.S. labs are now headed by trainees from my research lab. Like me, they are all working hard to enrich American knowledge and society.

With this self-harming rule, none of that.
Trump admin planning to change student visas from lasting for duration of academic program to fixed 4-yr term, and then much harder to renew
Could destroy US ability to attract global talent, particularly those seeking advanced degrees in STEM. The median time to complete a PhD is 5.7 yrs per NSF.
Trump Deals A New Immigration Blow To International Students
Trump officials have proposed a new rule limiting international students to fixed periods of entry, making a U.S. education more precarious.
www.forbes.com
August 29, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
🚨We believe this is a major step forward in how we study hippocampus function in healthy humans.

Using novel behavioral tasks, fMRI, RL & RNN modeling, and transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS), we demonstrate the causal role of hippocampus in relational structure learning.
August 28, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
I wrote a Comment on neurotheory, and now you can read it!

Some thoughts on where neurotheory has and has not taken root within the neuroscience community, how it has shaped those subfields, and where we theorists might look next for fresh adventures.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Theoretical neuroscience has room to grow
Nature Reviews Neuroscience - The goal of theoretical neuroscience is to uncover principles of neural computation through careful design and interpretation of mathematical models. Here, I examine...
www.nature.com
August 20, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Sorry to be missing CCN'25!! But if you are around come and check-out some of our work in the cogcompneuro space!
@cogcompneuro.bsky.social @achterbrain.bsky.social @Michal, @Angeliki and @Austin
August 12, 2025 at 1:33 PM