@jcbyts.bsky.social
Reposted
I think that if most young people really knew how much non-science work a scientific career requires, most would not persue it. And I say that as someone with zero teaching and only grant and paper related admin.
October 14, 2025 at 11:49 AM
I think that if most young people really knew how much non-science work a scientific career requires, most would not persue it. And I say that as someone with zero teaching and only grant and paper related admin.
Reposted
🚨Our NeurIPS 2025 competition Mouse vs. AI is LIVE!
We combine a visual navigation task + large-scale mouse neural data to test what makes visual RL agents robust and brain-like.
Top teams: featured at NeurIPS + co-author our summary paper. Join the challenge!
Whitepaper: arxiv.org/abs/2509.14446
We combine a visual navigation task + large-scale mouse neural data to test what makes visual RL agents robust and brain-like.
Top teams: featured at NeurIPS + co-author our summary paper. Join the challenge!
Whitepaper: arxiv.org/abs/2509.14446
Mouse vs. AI: A Neuroethological Benchmark for Visual Robustness and Neural Alignment
Visual robustness under real-world conditions remains a critical bottleneck for modern reinforcement learning agents. In contrast, biological systems such as mice show remarkable resilience to environ...
arxiv.org
September 22, 2025 at 11:13 PM
🚨Our NeurIPS 2025 competition Mouse vs. AI is LIVE!
We combine a visual navigation task + large-scale mouse neural data to test what makes visual RL agents robust and brain-like.
Top teams: featured at NeurIPS + co-author our summary paper. Join the challenge!
Whitepaper: arxiv.org/abs/2509.14446
We combine a visual navigation task + large-scale mouse neural data to test what makes visual RL agents robust and brain-like.
Top teams: featured at NeurIPS + co-author our summary paper. Join the challenge!
Whitepaper: arxiv.org/abs/2509.14446
Reposted
What drives behavior in living organisms? And how can we design artificial agents that learn interactively?
📢 To address these, the Sensorimotor AI Journal Club is launching the "RL Debate Series"👇
w/ @elisennesh.bsky.social, @noreward4u.bsky.social, @tommasosalvatori.bsky.social
🧵[1/5]
🧠🤖🧠📈
📢 To address these, the Sensorimotor AI Journal Club is launching the "RL Debate Series"👇
w/ @elisennesh.bsky.social, @noreward4u.bsky.social, @tommasosalvatori.bsky.social
🧵[1/5]
🧠🤖🧠📈
September 17, 2025 at 4:32 PM
What drives behavior in living organisms? And how can we design artificial agents that learn interactively?
📢 To address these, the Sensorimotor AI Journal Club is launching the "RL Debate Series"👇
w/ @elisennesh.bsky.social, @noreward4u.bsky.social, @tommasosalvatori.bsky.social
🧵[1/5]
🧠🤖🧠📈
📢 To address these, the Sensorimotor AI Journal Club is launching the "RL Debate Series"👇
w/ @elisennesh.bsky.social, @noreward4u.bsky.social, @tommasosalvatori.bsky.social
🧵[1/5]
🧠🤖🧠📈
Reposted
Finding correlates of the same signal in different brain areas is not evidence against specialisation, it is evidence for interconnection.
When I flush my toilet, the level in the tank and the flow rate in the supply pipe become perfectly correlated. Yet these toilet areas have distinct functions.
When I flush my toilet, the level in the tank and the flow rate in the supply pipe become perfectly correlated. Yet these toilet areas have distinct functions.
Sad day for peope who still believe brain areas are the primary organizational units of function in the brain.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour - Nature
The International Brain Laboratory presents a brain-wide electrophysiological map obtained from pooling data from 12 laboratories that performed the same standardized perceptual decision-making task i...
www.nature.com
September 4, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Finding correlates of the same signal in different brain areas is not evidence against specialisation, it is evidence for interconnection.
When I flush my toilet, the level in the tank and the flow rate in the supply pipe become perfectly correlated. Yet these toilet areas have distinct functions.
When I flush my toilet, the level in the tank and the flow rate in the supply pipe become perfectly correlated. Yet these toilet areas have distinct functions.
Reposted
Very happy to announce that our paper “Sensory Horizons and the Functions of Conscious Vision” is now out as a target article in BBS!! @smfleming.bsky.social and I present a new theory of the evolution and functions of visual consciousness. Article here: doi.org/10.1017/S014.... A (long) thread 🧵
Sensory Horizons and the Functions of Conscious Vision | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Sensory Horizons and the Functions of Conscious Vision
doi.org
April 21, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Very happy to announce that our paper “Sensory Horizons and the Functions of Conscious Vision” is now out as a target article in BBS!! @smfleming.bsky.social and I present a new theory of the evolution and functions of visual consciousness. Article here: doi.org/10.1017/S014.... A (long) thread 🧵
Reposted
• When:
📅 First Thursday of every month, 9:00-11:00 AM Pacific Time (starting August 7, 2025)
• Where:
📍 BWW, Berkeley (breakfast provided!) + 💻🌎 Also on Zoom
(Here's the sign up form again: forms.gle/o5DXD4WMdhTg...)
🧵[4/5]
📅 First Thursday of every month, 9:00-11:00 AM Pacific Time (starting August 7, 2025)
• Where:
📍 BWW, Berkeley (breakfast provided!) + 💻🌎 Also on Zoom
(Here's the sign up form again: forms.gle/o5DXD4WMdhTg...)
🧵[4/5]
Sensorimotor AI Journal Club
We're launching a monthly journal club focused on sensorimotor AI, probabilistic inference, brain-inspired approaches, and more.
What we explore: Online learning, RL/active inference, partial observa...
forms.gle
July 9, 2025 at 10:31 PM
• When:
📅 First Thursday of every month, 9:00-11:00 AM Pacific Time (starting August 7, 2025)
• Where:
📍 BWW, Berkeley (breakfast provided!) + 💻🌎 Also on Zoom
(Here's the sign up form again: forms.gle/o5DXD4WMdhTg...)
🧵[4/5]
📅 First Thursday of every month, 9:00-11:00 AM Pacific Time (starting August 7, 2025)
• Where:
📍 BWW, Berkeley (breakfast provided!) + 💻🌎 Also on Zoom
(Here's the sign up form again: forms.gle/o5DXD4WMdhTg...)
🧵[4/5]
Reposted
Announcing the new "Sensorimotor AI" Journal Club — please share/repost!
w/ Kaylene Stocking, Tommaso Salvatori, and @elisennesh.bsky.social
Sign up link: forms.gle/o5DXD4WMdhTg...
More details below 🧵[1/5]
🧠🤖🧠📈
w/ Kaylene Stocking, Tommaso Salvatori, and @elisennesh.bsky.social
Sign up link: forms.gle/o5DXD4WMdhTg...
More details below 🧵[1/5]
🧠🤖🧠📈
July 9, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Announcing the new "Sensorimotor AI" Journal Club — please share/repost!
w/ Kaylene Stocking, Tommaso Salvatori, and @elisennesh.bsky.social
Sign up link: forms.gle/o5DXD4WMdhTg...
More details below 🧵[1/5]
🧠🤖🧠📈
w/ Kaylene Stocking, Tommaso Salvatori, and @elisennesh.bsky.social
Sign up link: forms.gle/o5DXD4WMdhTg...
More details below 🧵[1/5]
🧠🤖🧠📈
Reposted
Any good neuroscience/NeuroAI discord servers I should know about? I feel like the neuroscience town square on bsky is a bit of a ghost town
May 6, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Any good neuroscience/NeuroAI discord servers I should know about? I feel like the neuroscience town square on bsky is a bit of a ghost town
Reposted
I agree with @hakwan.bsky.social that it's great for trainees to hear critical questions at meetings. These have disappeared, especially in the US. Maybe it's the drop in NIH funding rates in the 2000s. People don't want enemies. The worst are the meetings hosted by funders: people just nod & smile.
May 4, 2025 at 8:10 AM
I agree with @hakwan.bsky.social that it's great for trainees to hear critical questions at meetings. These have disappeared, especially in the US. Maybe it's the drop in NIH funding rates in the 2000s. People don't want enemies. The worst are the meetings hosted by funders: people just nod & smile.
Reposted
A sobering assessment of consciousness studies from Hakwan Lau: "the label ’consciousness’ may eventually serve little other function but to signal that the associated studies are subpar and overinterpreted compared to mainstream cognitive neuroscience research"
i have uploaded this preprint a while back, but hadn't promoted it directly here. in this piece i explain why i can no longer recommend trainees to participate in my former home field.
The End of Conscioussness - osf.io/preprints/ps...
but i've learned a lot. thank you for everything.
🧠📈
The End of Conscioussness - osf.io/preprints/ps...
but i've learned a lot. thank you for everything.
🧠📈
OSF
osf.io
May 2, 2025 at 12:35 PM
A sobering assessment of consciousness studies from Hakwan Lau: "the label ’consciousness’ may eventually serve little other function but to signal that the associated studies are subpar and overinterpreted compared to mainstream cognitive neuroscience research"
Reposted
This paper is the result of >20 yrs of hard work by talented students, postdocs and collaborators, but none more than my co-author Ren Ng and his team in EECS.
1/n
Novel color via stimulation of individual photoreceptors at population scale | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
1/n
Novel color via stimulation of individual photoreceptors at population scale | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Novel color via stimulation of individual photoreceptors at population scale
Image display by cell-by-cell retina stimulation, enabling colors impossible to see under natural viewing.
www.science.org
April 20, 2025 at 7:39 PM
This paper is the result of >20 yrs of hard work by talented students, postdocs and collaborators, but none more than my co-author Ren Ng and his team in EECS.
1/n
Novel color via stimulation of individual photoreceptors at population scale | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
1/n
Novel color via stimulation of individual photoreceptors at population scale | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted
In the United States of America.
February 21, 2025 at 6:35 AM
In the United States of America.
Reposted
Academic Skyers: I am compiling a list of policies and statements from various universities about how they are handling the "pause" in terms of stopping expenditures (or not).
Please respond to this post with your institution and materials.
THANK YOU!
Please respond to this post with your institution and materials.
THANK YOU!
January 28, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Academic Skyers: I am compiling a list of policies and statements from various universities about how they are handling the "pause" in terms of stopping expenditures (or not).
Please respond to this post with your institution and materials.
THANK YOU!
Please respond to this post with your institution and materials.
THANK YOU!
Reposted
Per an NIH source:
“Discussions with colleagues have suggested that if the universities all come together and raise hell about the delays to funding caused by not holding meetings, that might move the needle. From every state. There are well-funded universities in red states that will be impacted.”
“Discussions with colleagues have suggested that if the universities all come together and raise hell about the delays to funding caused by not holding meetings, that might move the needle. From every state. There are well-funded universities in red states that will be impacted.”
January 28, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Per an NIH source:
“Discussions with colleagues have suggested that if the universities all come together and raise hell about the delays to funding caused by not holding meetings, that might move the needle. From every state. There are well-funded universities in red states that will be impacted.”
“Discussions with colleagues have suggested that if the universities all come together and raise hell about the delays to funding caused by not holding meetings, that might move the needle. From every state. There are well-funded universities in red states that will be impacted.”
Reposted
Wikipedia is one of the last major bastions of verified information. Which, of course, is why the oligarchs want to destroy it.
You can donate to them here.
donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?...
You can donate to them here.
donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?...
January 22, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Wikipedia is one of the last major bastions of verified information. Which, of course, is why the oligarchs want to destroy it.
You can donate to them here.
donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?...
You can donate to them here.
donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?...
Reposted
12 years in the making! I remember having long chats with Michael Oliver about this paper in 2012. Those are still some of the most comprehensive V4 recordings out there. So happy this is finally out.
"...responses of V4 neurons under naturalistic conditions can be explained by a hierarchical three-stage model where each stage consists entirely of units like those found in area V1"
#NeuroAI
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#NeuroAI
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
December 26, 2024 at 10:27 PM
12 years in the making! I remember having long chats with Michael Oliver about this paper in 2012. Those are still some of the most comprehensive V4 recordings out there. So happy this is finally out.
Reposted
This is largely due to NIH funding.
And when you look even further back than that, it is stunning for much improvement there has been in treatment and surviveability.
And when you look even further back than that, it is stunning for much improvement there has been in treatment and surviveability.
Americans are now one-third less likely to die from cancer at the same ages as Americans in 1990
December 10, 2024 at 2:07 AM
This is largely due to NIH funding.
And when you look even further back than that, it is stunning for much improvement there has been in treatment and surviveability.
And when you look even further back than that, it is stunning for much improvement there has been in treatment and surviveability.
Reposted
Recent studies found pronounced neuromodulation in the early visual cortex due to locomotion and spontaneous body movements in mice but not in non-human primates. We reconciled this dichotomy in this new open-access feature review @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Is the impact of spontaneous movements on early visual cortex species specific?
Recent studies in non-human primates do not find pronounced signals related to the animal’s own body movements in the responses of neurons in the visu…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 18, 2024 at 5:50 PM
Recent studies found pronounced neuromodulation in the early visual cortex due to locomotion and spontaneous body movements in mice but not in non-human primates. We reconciled this dichotomy in this new open-access feature review @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted
Eero Simoncelli on the geometry of the distribution of natural images
December 14, 2024 at 5:20 PM
Eero Simoncelli on the geometry of the distribution of natural images
Reposted
Horace Barlow, by all accounts, was thinking about 30 years ahead of his time. Here is a transcript of the opening keynote I gave at a symposium honoring Horace's scientific legacy: markusmeister.com/2024/12/14/h....
December 14, 2024 at 9:41 PM
Horace Barlow, by all accounts, was thinking about 30 years ahead of his time. Here is a transcript of the opening keynote I gave at a symposium honoring Horace's scientific legacy: markusmeister.com/2024/12/14/h....
Reposted
It is sad to see authors not being able to present their work at #NeurIPS2024 because of visa issues.
But some authors went above and beyond.
Here is @hadivafaii.bsky.social tele-presenting his work with an impressive setup (ipad, mic, speaker, holder, battery).
Well done sir!
But some authors went above and beyond.
Here is @hadivafaii.bsky.social tele-presenting his work with an impressive setup (ipad, mic, speaker, holder, battery).
Well done sir!
December 13, 2024 at 8:35 AM
It is sad to see authors not being able to present their work at #NeurIPS2024 because of visa issues.
But some authors went above and beyond.
Here is @hadivafaii.bsky.social tele-presenting his work with an impressive setup (ipad, mic, speaker, holder, battery).
Well done sir!
But some authors went above and beyond.
Here is @hadivafaii.bsky.social tele-presenting his work with an impressive setup (ipad, mic, speaker, holder, battery).
Well done sir!
I think we need to stop asking about the next generation of scientists and figure out how to retain the current generation of scientists. It take a long time to gain expertise and, in the current system, most of that expertise leaves academic research.
Paul Middlebrooks asked what we need to prepare the next gen of scientists. @tyrellturing.bsky.social said that we need to first teach students hard skills earlier in their careers: math, physics, engineering, and then have them do biology experiments, instead of the opposite order. I agree 2/
December 7, 2024 at 6:58 PM
I think we need to stop asking about the next generation of scientists and figure out how to retain the current generation of scientists. It take a long time to gain expertise and, in the current system, most of that expertise leaves academic research.
Reposted
If you are a Julia user you should be aware of this: yuri.is/not-julia/
Why I no longer recommend Julia
yuri.is
November 20, 2024 at 1:57 PM
If you are a Julia user you should be aware of this: yuri.is/not-julia/