Valentin Schmutz
@bio-emergent.bsky.social
Theoretical Neuroscientist | 🔎 Emergent neural population dynamics | Postdoc in Carandini-Harris lab at UCL | PhD from Gerstner lab at EPFL
https://tinyurl.com/yrxws43r
https://tinyurl.com/yrxws43r
Pinned
🎉 "High-dimensional neuronal activity from low-dimensional latent dynamics: a solvable model" will be presented as an oral at #NeurIPS2025 🎉
Feeling very grateful that reviewers and chairs appreciated concise mathematical explanations, in this age of big models.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/2
Feeling very grateful that reviewers and chairs appreciated concise mathematical explanations, in this age of big models.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/2
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
1. New preprint resolving a conundrum in systems neuroscience with an AI scientist, and humans Reilly Tilbury, Dabin Kwon, @haydari.bsky.social, @jacobmratliff.bsky.social, @bio-emergent.bsky.social, @carandinilab.net, @kevinjmiller.bsky.social, @neurokim.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Characterizing neuronal population geometry with AI equation discovery
The visual cortex contains millions of neurons, whose combined activity forms a population code representing visual stimuli. There is, however, a discrepancy between our understanding of this code at ...
www.biorxiv.org
November 14, 2025 at 6:07 PM
1. New preprint resolving a conundrum in systems neuroscience with an AI scientist, and humans Reilly Tilbury, Dabin Kwon, @haydari.bsky.social, @jacobmratliff.bsky.social, @bio-emergent.bsky.social, @carandinilab.net, @kevinjmiller.bsky.social, @neurokim.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
Excited to share our new work with @engeltatiana.bsky.social!
RNNs are often used to explore how the brain may solve specific tasks. We show that, depending on the architecture, RNNs find distinct circuit solutions, behaving differently when exposed to novel stimuli.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
RNNs are often used to explore how the brain may solve specific tasks. We show that, depending on the architecture, RNNs find distinct circuit solutions, behaving differently when exposed to novel stimuli.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Single-unit activations confer inductive biases for emergent circuit solutions to cognitive tasks - Nature Machine Intelligence
Recurrent neural networks are widely used to model brain dynamics. Tolmachev and Engel show that single-unit activation functions influence task solutions that emerge in trained networks, raising the ...
www.nature.com
October 24, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Excited to share our new work with @engeltatiana.bsky.social!
RNNs are often used to explore how the brain may solve specific tasks. We show that, depending on the architecture, RNNs find distinct circuit solutions, behaving differently when exposed to novel stimuli.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
RNNs are often used to explore how the brain may solve specific tasks. We show that, depending on the architecture, RNNs find distinct circuit solutions, behaving differently when exposed to novel stimuli.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
To the math/comp neuro folks in Oxford. I'll be giving a math neuro talk in the Partial Differential Equations Seminar at the MI on Monday 27 Oct at 16:30 (details in the link).
www.maths.ox.ac.uk/node/74242
I'll be talking about the "universality" of spatially extended mean-field PDEs (see 🧵⬇️)
www.maths.ox.ac.uk/node/74242
I'll be talking about the "universality" of spatially extended mean-field PDEs (see 🧵⬇️)
October 22, 2025 at 3:31 PM
To the math/comp neuro folks in Oxford. I'll be giving a math neuro talk in the Partial Differential Equations Seminar at the MI on Monday 27 Oct at 16:30 (details in the link).
www.maths.ox.ac.uk/node/74242
I'll be talking about the "universality" of spatially extended mean-field PDEs (see 🧵⬇️)
www.maths.ox.ac.uk/node/74242
I'll be talking about the "universality" of spatially extended mean-field PDEs (see 🧵⬇️)
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
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...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 12, 2025 at 12:42 AM
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...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
Message for participants of the #SNUFA 2025 spiking neural network workshop. We got almost 60 awesome abstract submissions, and we'd now like your help to select which ones should be offered talks. Follow the "abstract voting" link at snufa.net/2025/ to take part. It should take <15m. Thanks! ❤️
SNUFA 2025
Spiking Neural networks as Universal Function Approximators
snufa.net
October 1, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Message for participants of the #SNUFA 2025 spiking neural network workshop. We got almost 60 awesome abstract submissions, and we'd now like your help to select which ones should be offered talks. Follow the "abstract voting" link at snufa.net/2025/ to take part. It should take <15m. Thanks! ❤️
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
New in @pnas.org: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
We study how humans explore a 61-state environment with a stochastic region that mimics a “noisy-TV.”
Results: Participants keep exploring the stochastic part even when it’s unhelpful, and novelty-seeking best explains this behavior.
#cogsci #neuroskyence
We study how humans explore a 61-state environment with a stochastic region that mimics a “noisy-TV.”
Results: Participants keep exploring the stochastic part even when it’s unhelpful, and novelty-seeking best explains this behavior.
#cogsci #neuroskyence
September 28, 2025 at 11:07 AM
New in @pnas.org: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
We study how humans explore a 61-state environment with a stochastic region that mimics a “noisy-TV.”
Results: Participants keep exploring the stochastic part even when it’s unhelpful, and novelty-seeking best explains this behavior.
#cogsci #neuroskyence
We study how humans explore a 61-state environment with a stochastic region that mimics a “noisy-TV.”
Results: Participants keep exploring the stochastic part even when it’s unhelpful, and novelty-seeking best explains this behavior.
#cogsci #neuroskyence
🎉 "High-dimensional neuronal activity from low-dimensional latent dynamics: a solvable model" will be presented as an oral at #NeurIPS2025 🎉
Feeling very grateful that reviewers and chairs appreciated concise mathematical explanations, in this age of big models.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/2
Feeling very grateful that reviewers and chairs appreciated concise mathematical explanations, in this age of big models.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/2
September 19, 2025 at 8:01 AM
🎉 "High-dimensional neuronal activity from low-dimensional latent dynamics: a solvable model" will be presented as an oral at #NeurIPS2025 🎉
Feeling very grateful that reviewers and chairs appreciated concise mathematical explanations, in this age of big models.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/2
Feeling very grateful that reviewers and chairs appreciated concise mathematical explanations, in this age of big models.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/2
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
Submissions (short!) due for SNUFA spiking neural networks conference in <2 weeks! 🤖🧠🧪
forms.cloud.microsoft/e/XkZLavhaJe
More info at snufa.net/2025/
Note that we normally get around 700 participants and recordings go on YouTube and get 100s-1000s views.
Please repost.
forms.cloud.microsoft/e/XkZLavhaJe
More info at snufa.net/2025/
Note that we normally get around 700 participants and recordings go on YouTube and get 100s-1000s views.
Please repost.
SNUFA 2025
Spiking Neural networks as Universal Function Approximators
snufa.net
September 16, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Submissions (short!) due for SNUFA spiking neural networks conference in <2 weeks! 🤖🧠🧪
forms.cloud.microsoft/e/XkZLavhaJe
More info at snufa.net/2025/
Note that we normally get around 700 participants and recordings go on YouTube and get 100s-1000s views.
Please repost.
forms.cloud.microsoft/e/XkZLavhaJe
More info at snufa.net/2025/
Note that we normally get around 700 participants and recordings go on YouTube and get 100s-1000s views.
Please repost.
Westlake University (西湖大学), a few hours before the start of this year's Summer School on Mathematical Neuroscience
its.westlake.edu.cn/info/1017/28...
its.westlake.edu.cn/info/1017/28...
August 24, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Westlake University (西湖大学), a few hours before the start of this year's Summer School on Mathematical Neuroscience
its.westlake.edu.cn/info/1017/28...
its.westlake.edu.cn/info/1017/28...
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
Is it possible to go from spikes to rates without averaging?
We show how to exactly map recurrent spiking networks into recurrent rate networks, with the same number of neurons. No temporal or spatial averaging needed!
Presented at Gatsby Neural Dynamics Workshop, London.
We show how to exactly map recurrent spiking networks into recurrent rate networks, with the same number of neurons. No temporal or spatial averaging needed!
Presented at Gatsby Neural Dynamics Workshop, London.
From Spikes To Rates
YouTube video by Gerstner Lab
youtu.be
August 8, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Is it possible to go from spikes to rates without averaging?
We show how to exactly map recurrent spiking networks into recurrent rate networks, with the same number of neurons. No temporal or spatial averaging needed!
Presented at Gatsby Neural Dynamics Workshop, London.
We show how to exactly map recurrent spiking networks into recurrent rate networks, with the same number of neurons. No temporal or spatial averaging needed!
Presented at Gatsby Neural Dynamics Workshop, London.
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
🚨New paper🚨
Neural manifolds went from a niche-y word to an ubiquitous term in systems neuro thanks to many interesting findings across fields. But like with any emerging term, people use it very differently.
Here, we clarify our take on the term, and review key findings & challenges rdcu.be/ex8hW
Neural manifolds went from a niche-y word to an ubiquitous term in systems neuro thanks to many interesting findings across fields. But like with any emerging term, people use it very differently.
Here, we clarify our take on the term, and review key findings & challenges rdcu.be/ex8hW
August 1, 2025 at 9:57 AM
🚨New paper🚨
Neural manifolds went from a niche-y word to an ubiquitous term in systems neuro thanks to many interesting findings across fields. But like with any emerging term, people use it very differently.
Here, we clarify our take on the term, and review key findings & challenges rdcu.be/ex8hW
Neural manifolds went from a niche-y word to an ubiquitous term in systems neuro thanks to many interesting findings across fields. But like with any emerging term, people use it very differently.
Here, we clarify our take on the term, and review key findings & challenges rdcu.be/ex8hW
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
Glad to see my PhD work out! Thanks to all my collaborators and to Kenneth and Matteo for making this possible!
A new study led by @timothysit.bsky.social reveals that different layers of mouse V1 integrate visual and non-visual signals differently.
Activity is dominated by vision (or spontaneous fluctuations) in L2/3 and by movement in L5. This leads to different geometries.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Activity is dominated by vision (or spontaneous fluctuations) in L2/3 and by movement in L5. This leads to different geometries.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
July 21, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Glad to see my PhD work out! Thanks to all my collaborators and to Kenneth and Matteo for making this possible!
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
New by Agnès Landemard (@agnesland.bsky.social) & co
Brainwide blood volume reflects opposing neural populations
Brainwide fluctuations in blood volume arise from two populations with opposite relation to brain state and distinct relationships to blood supply
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Brainwide blood volume reflects opposing neural populations
Brainwide fluctuations in blood volume arise from two populations with opposite relation to brain state and distinct relationships to blood supply
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
July 7, 2025 at 3:01 PM
New by Agnès Landemard (@agnesland.bsky.social) & co
Brainwide blood volume reflects opposing neural populations
Brainwide fluctuations in blood volume arise from two populations with opposite relation to brain state and distinct relationships to blood supply
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Brainwide blood volume reflects opposing neural populations
Brainwide fluctuations in blood volume arise from two populations with opposite relation to brain state and distinct relationships to blood supply
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
Out today in @nature.com: we show that individual neurons have diverse tuning to a decision variable computed by the entire population, revealing a unifying geometric principle for the encoding of sensory and dynamic cognitive variables.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
June 25, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Out today in @nature.com: we show that individual neurons have diverse tuning to a decision variable computed by the entire population, revealing a unifying geometric principle for the encoding of sensory and dynamic cognitive variables.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
Our preprint is finally out! How can we understand the role of Behavioral Timescale Synaptic Plasticity in credit assignment? Does it fit into existing supervised and unsupervised learning frameworks? What theoretical gaps are still left unexplained?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
June 16, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Our preprint is finally out! How can we understand the role of Behavioral Timescale Synaptic Plasticity in credit assignment? Does it fit into existing supervised and unsupervised learning frameworks? What theoretical gaps are still left unexplained?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
🚀 We are excited to share that bombcell is now available in Python! 🐍 Automatically sort your units into good/MUA/noise/non-somatic using quality metrics and interpretable & adjustable classification thresholds.
pip install and play around with our toy dataset:
🔗 github.com/Julie-Fabre/...
pip install and play around with our toy dataset:
🔗 github.com/Julie-Fabre/...
GitHub - Julie-Fabre/bombcell: Automated quality control, curation and neuron classification of spike-sorted electrophysiology data
Automated quality control, curation and neuron classification of spike-sorted electrophysiology data - Julie-Fabre/bombcell
github.com
June 13, 2025 at 6:55 PM
🚀 We are excited to share that bombcell is now available in Python! 🐍 Automatically sort your units into good/MUA/noise/non-somatic using quality metrics and interpretable & adjustable classification thresholds.
pip install and play around with our toy dataset:
🔗 github.com/Julie-Fabre/...
pip install and play around with our toy dataset:
🔗 github.com/Julie-Fabre/...
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
Interested in high-dim chaotic networks? Ever wondered about the structure of their state space? @jakobstubenrauch.bsky.social has answers - from a separation of fixed points and dynamics onto distinct shells to a shared lower-dim manifold and linear prediction of dynamics.
(1/3) How to analyse a dynamical system? Find its fixed points, study their properties!
How to analyse a *high-dimensional* dynamical system? Find its fixed points, study their properties!
We do that for a chaotic neural network! finally published: doi.org/10.1103/Phys...
How to analyse a *high-dimensional* dynamical system? Find its fixed points, study their properties!
We do that for a chaotic neural network! finally published: doi.org/10.1103/Phys...
Fixed point geometry in chaotic neural networks
Understanding the high-dimensional chaotic dynamics occurring in complex biological systems such as recurrent neural networks or ecosystems remains a conceptual challenge. For low-dimensional dynamics...
doi.org
June 10, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Interested in high-dim chaotic networks? Ever wondered about the structure of their state space? @jakobstubenrauch.bsky.social has answers - from a separation of fixed points and dynamics onto distinct shells to a shared lower-dim manifold and linear prediction of dynamics.
Our new preprint 👀
The firing of neural populations is high-dim even if their subthreshold activity is low-dim! This work by @bio-emergent.bsky.social and @haydari.bsky.social shows how, with a solvable model, a data analysis technique, and data from mouse visual cortex: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
High-dimensional neuronal activity from low-dimensional latent dynamics: a solvable model
Computation in recurrent networks of neurons has been hypothesized to occur at the level of low-dimensional latent dynamics, both in artificial systems and in the brain. This hypothesis seems at odds ...
www.biorxiv.org
June 9, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Our new preprint 👀
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
Two (tenure track) Junior Professorship Chair in Nice, France on:
'Modeling in Neurosciences and Cognition'
math.univ-cotedazur.fr/laboratoire/...
'Mathematics of Life"
math.univ-cotedazur.fr/laboratoire/...
'Modeling in Neurosciences and Cognition'
math.univ-cotedazur.fr/laboratoire/...
'Mathematics of Life"
math.univ-cotedazur.fr/laboratoire/...
Junior Professorship Chair: Modeling in Neurosciences and Cognition | Mathématiques et Interactions à Nice
The J. A. Dieudonné research unit and the NeuroMod Institute at Université Côte d'Azur are proud to announce the opening of a Junior Professorship Chair on
math.univ-cotedazur.fr
May 21, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Two (tenure track) Junior Professorship Chair in Nice, France on:
'Modeling in Neurosciences and Cognition'
math.univ-cotedazur.fr/laboratoire/...
'Mathematics of Life"
math.univ-cotedazur.fr/laboratoire/...
'Modeling in Neurosciences and Cognition'
math.univ-cotedazur.fr/laboratoire/...
'Mathematics of Life"
math.univ-cotedazur.fr/laboratoire/...
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
Delighted to join the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge! It's been in the news since 1660, and more so lately. Grateful to all my collaborators over the years.
Congratulations to Prof Matteo Carandini @carandinilab.net @ucleye.bsky.social on his election as a Fellow of the @royalsociety.org in recognition of his invaluable contributions to scientific research in visual neuroscience #RSFellows @uclbrainscience.bsky.social www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/ma...
UCL visual neuroscientist elected Fellow of the Royal Society
Professor Matteo Carandini (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his invaluable contributions to scientific research.
www.ucl.ac.uk
May 21, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Delighted to join the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge! It's been in the news since 1660, and more so lately. Grateful to all my collaborators over the years.
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
Excited to share my PhD paper! In it, we use targeted 2-photon optogenetic stimulation to determine how V1 activity is read-out in a detection task. We found that network influence, not visual coding properties, predicted the impact of ensembles on behavior - contradicting our expectations (1/5).
May 15, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Excited to share my PhD paper! In it, we use targeted 2-photon optogenetic stimulation to determine how V1 activity is read-out in a detection task. We found that network influence, not visual coding properties, predicted the impact of ensembles on behavior - contradicting our expectations (1/5).
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
Many of us use 2p scopes to image 3D volumes of brain. But then we analyze the data plane by plane, resulting in duplicated neurons, missed neurons, and low s/n. Let's go 3D!
Suite3D: Volumetric cell detection for two-photon microscopy
by @haydari.bsky.social & team.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Suite3D: Volumetric cell detection for two-photon microscopy
by @haydari.bsky.social & team.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
April 1, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Many of us use 2p scopes to image 3D volumes of brain. But then we analyze the data plane by plane, resulting in duplicated neurons, missed neurons, and low s/n. Let's go 3D!
Suite3D: Volumetric cell detection for two-photon microscopy
by @haydari.bsky.social & team.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Suite3D: Volumetric cell detection for two-photon microscopy
by @haydari.bsky.social & team.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
I am very proud to announce that my PhD paper finally came out in Cell! In this *very* collaborative study, we develop and release a deep-learning approach to predict neuron type identity from their electrical signature. doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... 1/16 🧵
March 1, 2025 at 1:14 PM
I am very proud to announce that my PhD paper finally came out in Cell! In this *very* collaborative study, we develop and release a deep-learning approach to predict neuron type identity from their electrical signature. doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... 1/16 🧵
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
Thrilled to share our latest work exploring new avenues for combining #Neuropixels with #Optogenetics! Congratulations to co-first author Anna Lakunina, the Neuropixels Opto Consortium and collaborators! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
February 12, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Thrilled to share our latest work exploring new avenues for combining #Neuropixels with #Optogenetics! Congratulations to co-first author Anna Lakunina, the Neuropixels Opto Consortium and collaborators! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Valentin Schmutz
(1/30) New preprint! "Symmetries and continuous attractors in disordered neural circuits" with Larry Abbott and Haim Sompolinsky
bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Symmetries and Continuous Attractors in Disordered Neural Circuits
A major challenge in neuroscience is reconciling idealized theoretical models with complex, heterogeneous experimental data. We address this challenge through the lens of continuous-attractor networks...
www.biorxiv.org
January 29, 2025 at 6:26 PM
(1/30) New preprint! "Symmetries and continuous attractors in disordered neural circuits" with Larry Abbott and Haim Sompolinsky
bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...