Bridging computation and representation in associative learning:
gershmanlab.com/pubs/Gershma...

Just out by Ellen Lau: How single-neuron computation matters for cognitive neuroscience doi.org/10.21428/8e6...

Future Tense Fiction Magazine asked me to write a short scifi story for them, which would be paired with a response from a scientist.

Inspired by work from Cristopher Moore, @thehessam.bsky.social & @lenoreblum.bsky.social I wrote "Coda"

And Cristopher Moore wrote the response essay! Links below:

From the Besse's lab.
#RNAbiology #RNAlocalization #spatialbiology

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Feels weird to promote science right now but here’s a new review/opinion piece from the lab where we outline new insights about how Arc mediates long lasting synaptic plasticity and memory formation. 🧪🧠 kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

It’s an incredible feeling to see something you’ve poured your heart into come to life. This work was born from my curiosity about hippocampal “cognitive tuning.”
Our interpretation of the environment depends on our actions, constantly evolving as we pursue our goals

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I'm thrilled to be opening my own lab this Fall at the @maxplanck.de MPI for Brain Research in Frankfurt. The lab is going to investigate the neuronal and genetic underpinnings of behavioral evolution. We are hiring on all levels. Don't hesitate to share widely and reach out if interested.

Where does pattern come from inside cells? in this revised preprint, @aralbright.bsky.social
Shows that regionalization of mRNA in a Stentor cell depends on dynein motors and the microtubule cytoskeleton
doi.org/10.1101/2023...

@jonathannajenson.bsky.social and I will discuss @thehessam.bsky.social's work in the next session of our International Memory Reading Group

@thehessam.bsky.social speculates that universal computation implemented by RNA is behind memory and cognition. It's a cool idea, though probably wrong. 1/

I admire trainees stepping up like this to talk about the big questions. @thehessam.bsky.social does a terrific job here talking about the nature of memory storage (synaptic vs not).

I almost forgot how in the old twitter days, we could have productive exchanges in the comments. It’s happening again for me on bluesky - where I walk away from a discussion with learning something new to look up!

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻?
Maybe not neurons, perhaps RNA??
Great episode of Brain Inspired with Hessam Akhlaghpour.
Do dynamical systems and/or RNNs implement universal computation? This discussion alone would be worth having.
#neuroscience
braininspired.co/podcast/199/

Since my early postdoc years, whenever my hands were busy with experiments but my mind was free, I’d listen to Brain Inspired. I would have been thrilled to know that I’d be on Paul’s show in the future, discussing what I think is the most exciting problem in biology.

braininspired.co/podcast/199/

Could the brain’s computational abilities extend beyond neural networks to molecular mechanisms?

Listen to Paul Middlebrooks's latest "Brain Inspired" podcast, in which he talks with @thehessam.bsky.social about how universal computation may have evolved via RNA mechanisms: bit.ly/4eQ4Idc

New post on my Substack: aiguide.substack.com/p/the-llm-re...

Are transformers/LLMs actually Turing-complete? (i.e., capable of computing anything a standard programming language can compute)

I look at 16 papers on the subject. My conclusion is that, despite the claims, no one has proved this yet.

lifeiscomputation.com/transformers...

I need someone to make a comic where people decide the best way to solve a problem is to create an AI far smarter than them and have that solve it. Then that AI, being very smart, decides to create another smarter AI. This goes on recursively, forever, and nothing gets solved.