Matthijs Pals
@matthijspals.bsky.social
Using deep learning to study neural dynamics
@mackelab.bsky.social
@mackelab.bsky.social
Pinned
Matthijs Pals
@matthijspals.bsky.social
· Nov 14
Inferring stochastic low-rank recurrent neural networks from neural data
A central aim in computational neuroscience is to relate the activity of large populations of neurons to an underlying dynamical system. Models of these neural dynamics should ideally be both interpre...
arxiv.org
Seems like it's a good time to jump ship! I am working in @mackelab.bsky.social, on using deep learning (usually recurrent neural networks; RNNs) to study neural dynamics.
A cool example is recent work where we show how to generate long sequences of realistic neural data: arxiv.org/abs/2406.16749
A cool example is recent work where we show how to generate long sequences of realistic neural data: arxiv.org/abs/2406.16749
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
The Macke lab is well-represented at the @bernsteinneuro.bsky.social conference in Frankfurt this year! We have lots of exciting new work to present with 7 posters (details👇) 1/9
September 30, 2025 at 2:06 PM
The Macke lab is well-represented at the @bernsteinneuro.bsky.social conference in Frankfurt this year! We have lots of exciting new work to present with 7 posters (details👇) 1/9
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
I've been waiting some years to make this joke and now it’s real:
I conned somebody into giving me a faculty job!
I’m starting as a W1 Tenure-Track Professor at Goethe University Frankfurt in a week (lol), in the Faculty of CS and Math
and I'm recruiting PhD students 🤗
I conned somebody into giving me a faculty job!
I’m starting as a W1 Tenure-Track Professor at Goethe University Frankfurt in a week (lol), in the Faculty of CS and Math
and I'm recruiting PhD students 🤗
a man wearing a white shirt and tie smiles in front of a window
ALT: a man wearing a white shirt and tie smiles in front of a window
media.tenor.com
September 23, 2025 at 1:00 PM
I've been waiting some years to make this joke and now it’s real:
I conned somebody into giving me a faculty job!
I’m starting as a W1 Tenure-Track Professor at Goethe University Frankfurt in a week (lol), in the Faculty of CS and Math
and I'm recruiting PhD students 🤗
I conned somebody into giving me a faculty job!
I’m starting as a W1 Tenure-Track Professor at Goethe University Frankfurt in a week (lol), in the Faculty of CS and Math
and I'm recruiting PhD students 🤗
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
Our #AI #DynamicalSystems #FoundationModel DynaMix was accepted to #NeurIPS2025 with outstanding reviews (6555) – first model which can *zero-shot*, w/o any fine-tuning, forecast the *long-term statistics* of time series provided a context. Test it on #HuggingFace:
huggingface.co/spaces/Durst...
huggingface.co/spaces/Durst...
September 21, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Our #AI #DynamicalSystems #FoundationModel DynaMix was accepted to #NeurIPS2025 with outstanding reviews (6555) – first model which can *zero-shot*, w/o any fine-tuning, forecast the *long-term statistics* of time series provided a context. Test it on #HuggingFace:
huggingface.co/spaces/Durst...
huggingface.co/spaces/Durst...
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
From hackathon to release: sbi v0.25 is here! 🎉
What happens when dozens of SBI researchers and practitioners collaborate for a week? New inference methods, new documentation, lots of new embedding networks, a bridge to pyro and a bridge between flow matching and score-based methods 🤯
1/7 🧵
What happens when dozens of SBI researchers and practitioners collaborate for a week? New inference methods, new documentation, lots of new embedding networks, a bridge to pyro and a bridge between flow matching and score-based methods 🤯
1/7 🧵
September 9, 2025 at 3:00 PM
From hackathon to release: sbi v0.25 is here! 🎉
What happens when dozens of SBI researchers and practitioners collaborate for a week? New inference methods, new documentation, lots of new embedding networks, a bridge to pyro and a bridge between flow matching and score-based methods 🤯
1/7 🧵
What happens when dozens of SBI researchers and practitioners collaborate for a week? New inference methods, new documentation, lots of new embedding networks, a bridge to pyro and a bridge between flow matching and score-based methods 🤯
1/7 🧵
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
Got prov. approval for 2 major grants in Neuro-AI & Dynamical Systems Reconstruction, on learning & inference in non-stationary environments, out-of-domain generalization, and DS foundation models. To all AI/math/DS enthusiasts: Expect job announcements (PhD/PostDoc) soon! Feel free to get in touch.
July 13, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Got prov. approval for 2 major grants in Neuro-AI & Dynamical Systems Reconstruction, on learning & inference in non-stationary environments, out-of-domain generalization, and DS foundation models. To all AI/math/DS enthusiasts: Expect job announcements (PhD/PostDoc) soon! Feel free to get in touch.
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
Jelmer Borst and I are looking for a PhD candidate to build an EEG-based model of human working memory! This is a really cool project that I've wanted to kick off for a while, and I can't wait to see it happen. Please share and I'm happy to answer any Qs about the project!
www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor...
www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor...
Vacatures bij de RUG
www.rug.nl
July 3, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Jelmer Borst and I are looking for a PhD candidate to build an EEG-based model of human working memory! This is a really cool project that I've wanted to kick off for a while, and I can't wait to see it happen. Please share and I'm happy to answer any Qs about the project!
www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor...
www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor...
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
The neurons that encode sequential information into working memory do not fire in that same order during recall, a finding that is at odds with a long-standing theory. Read more in this month’s Null and Noteworthy.
By @ldattaro.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/null-and-not...
By @ldattaro.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/null-and-not...
Null and Noteworthy: Neurons tracking sequences don’t fire in order
Instead, neurons encode the position of sequential items in working memory based on when they fire during ongoing brain wave oscillations—a finding that challenges a long-standing theory.
www.thetransmitter.org
June 30, 2025 at 4:08 PM
The neurons that encode sequential information into working memory do not fire in that same order during recall, a finding that is at odds with a long-standing theory. Read more in this month’s Null and Noteworthy.
By @ldattaro.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/null-and-not...
By @ldattaro.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/null-and-not...
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
How do animals learn new rules? By systematically testing diff. behavioral strategies, guided by selective attn. to rule-relevant cues: rdcu.be/etlRV
Akin to in-context learning in AI, strategy selection depends on the animals' "training set" (prior experience), with similar repr. in rats & humans.
Akin to in-context learning in AI, strategy selection depends on the animals' "training set" (prior experience), with similar repr. in rats & humans.
Abstract rule learning promotes cognitive flexibility in complex environments across species
Nature Communications - Whether neurocomputational mechanisms that speed up human learning in changing environments also exist in other species remains unclear. Here, the authors show that both...
rdcu.be
June 26, 2025 at 3:30 PM
How do animals learn new rules? By systematically testing diff. behavioral strategies, guided by selective attn. to rule-relevant cues: rdcu.be/etlRV
Akin to in-context learning in AI, strategy selection depends on the animals' "training set" (prior experience), with similar repr. in rats & humans.
Akin to in-context learning in AI, strategy selection depends on the animals' "training set" (prior experience), with similar repr. in rats & humans.
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
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 Matthijs Pals
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 Matthijs Pals
We just pushed “Memory by a 1000 rules” onto bioRxiv, where we use clever #ML to find #plasticity quadruplets (EE, EI, IE, II) that learn basic stability in spiking nets. Why is it cool? We find 1000s!! of solutions, and they don’t just stabilise. They #memorise! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Memory by a thousand rules: Automated discovery of functional multi-type plasticity rules reveals variety & degeneracy at the heart of learning
Synaptic plasticity is the basis of learning and memory, but the link between synaptic changes and neural function remains elusive. Here, we used automated search algorithms to obtain thousands of str...
www.biorxiv.org
June 2, 2025 at 6:50 PM
We just pushed “Memory by a 1000 rules” onto bioRxiv, where we use clever #ML to find #plasticity quadruplets (EE, EI, IE, II) that learn basic stability in spiking nets. Why is it cool? We find 1000s!! of solutions, and they don’t just stabilise. They #memorise! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
Great news! Our March SBI hackathon in Tübingen was a huge success, with 40+ participants (30 onsite!). Expect significant updates soon: awesome new features & a revamped documentation you'll love! Huge thanks to our amazing SBI community! Release details coming soon. 🥁 🎉
May 12, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Great news! Our March SBI hackathon in Tübingen was a huge success, with 40+ participants (30 onsite!). Expect significant updates soon: awesome new features & a revamped documentation you'll love! Huge thanks to our amazing SBI community! Release details coming soon. 🥁 🎉
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
Please RT🙏
Reach out if you want to help understand cognition by modelling, analyzing and/or collect large scale intracortical data from 👩🐒🐁
We're a friendly, diverse group (n>25) w/ this terrace 😎 in the center of Paris! See👇 for + info about the lab
We have funding to support your application!
Reach out if you want to help understand cognition by modelling, analyzing and/or collect large scale intracortical data from 👩🐒🐁
We're a friendly, diverse group (n>25) w/ this terrace 😎 in the center of Paris! See👇 for + info about the lab
We have funding to support your application!
May 10, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Please RT🙏
Reach out if you want to help understand cognition by modelling, analyzing and/or collect large scale intracortical data from 👩🐒🐁
We're a friendly, diverse group (n>25) w/ this terrace 😎 in the center of Paris! See👇 for + info about the lab
We have funding to support your application!
Reach out if you want to help understand cognition by modelling, analyzing and/or collect large scale intracortical data from 👩🐒🐁
We're a friendly, diverse group (n>25) w/ this terrace 😎 in the center of Paris! See👇 for + info about the lab
We have funding to support your application!
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
🎓Hiring now! 🧠 Join us at the exciting intersection of ML and Neuroscience! #AI4science
We’re looking for PhDs, Postdocs and Scientific Programmers that want to use deep learning to build, optimize and study mechanistic models of neural computations. Full details: www.mackelab.org/jobs/ 1/5
We’re looking for PhDs, Postdocs and Scientific Programmers that want to use deep learning to build, optimize and study mechanistic models of neural computations. Full details: www.mackelab.org/jobs/ 1/5
Jobs - mackelab
The MackeLab is a research group at the Excellence Cluster Machine Learning at Tübingen University!
www.mackelab.org
April 30, 2025 at 1:43 PM
🎓Hiring now! 🧠 Join us at the exciting intersection of ML and Neuroscience! #AI4science
We’re looking for PhDs, Postdocs and Scientific Programmers that want to use deep learning to build, optimize and study mechanistic models of neural computations. Full details: www.mackelab.org/jobs/ 1/5
We’re looking for PhDs, Postdocs and Scientific Programmers that want to use deep learning to build, optimize and study mechanistic models of neural computations. Full details: www.mackelab.org/jobs/ 1/5
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
Re-posting is appreciated: We have a fully funded PhD position in CMC lab @cmc-lab.bsky.social (at @tudresden_de). You can use forms.gle/qiAv5NZ871kv... to send your application and find more information. Deadline is April 30. Find more about CMC lab: cmclab.org and email me if you have questions.
forms.gle
February 20, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Re-posting is appreciated: We have a fully funded PhD position in CMC lab @cmc-lab.bsky.social (at @tudresden_de). You can use forms.gle/qiAv5NZ871kv... to send your application and find more information. Deadline is April 30. Find more about CMC lab: cmclab.org and email me if you have questions.
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
Excited to present our work on compositional SBI for time series at #ICLR2025 tomorrow!
If you're interested in simulation-based inference for time series, come chat with Manuel Gloeckler or Shoji Toyota
at Poster #420, Saturday 10:00–12:00 in Hall 3.
📰: arxiv.org/abs/2411.02728
If you're interested in simulation-based inference for time series, come chat with Manuel Gloeckler or Shoji Toyota
at Poster #420, Saturday 10:00–12:00 in Hall 3.
📰: arxiv.org/abs/2411.02728
Compositional simulation-based inference for time series
Amortized simulation-based inference (SBI) methods train neural networks on simulated data to perform Bayesian inference. While this strategy avoids the need for tractable likelihoods, it often requir...
arxiv.org
April 25, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Excited to present our work on compositional SBI for time series at #ICLR2025 tomorrow!
If you're interested in simulation-based inference for time series, come chat with Manuel Gloeckler or Shoji Toyota
at Poster #420, Saturday 10:00–12:00 in Hall 3.
📰: arxiv.org/abs/2411.02728
If you're interested in simulation-based inference for time series, come chat with Manuel Gloeckler or Shoji Toyota
at Poster #420, Saturday 10:00–12:00 in Hall 3.
📰: arxiv.org/abs/2411.02728
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
Excited to announce that our paper on "Comparing noisy neural population dynamics using optimal transport distances" has been selected for an oral presentation in #ICLR2025 (1.8% top papers). Check the thread for paper details (0/n).
Presentation info: iclr.cc/virtual/2025....
Presentation info: iclr.cc/virtual/2025....
ICLR 2025 Comparing noisy neural population dynamics using optimal transport distances OralICLR 2025
iclr.cc
April 22, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Excited to announce that our paper on "Comparing noisy neural population dynamics using optimal transport distances" has been selected for an oral presentation in #ICLR2025 (1.8% top papers). Check the thread for paper details (0/n).
Presentation info: iclr.cc/virtual/2025....
Presentation info: iclr.cc/virtual/2025....
Happening tomorrow morning :).
Interested in obtained models that are both interpretable and that can generate realistic neural data?
@matthijspals.bsky.social will give a contributed talk on fitting stochastic low-rank RNNs to neural data, Saturday 10:00 at the main conference! 🤩
@matthijspals.bsky.social will give a contributed talk on fitting stochastic low-rank RNNs to neural data, Saturday 10:00 at the main conference! 🤩
March 28, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Happening tomorrow morning :).
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
The @mackelab.bsky.social is represented at @cosynemeeting.bsky.social #cosyne2025 in Montreal
with 3 posters, 2 workshop talks, and a main conference contributed talk (for the very first time in Mackelab history 🎉)!
with 3 posters, 2 workshop talks, and a main conference contributed talk (for the very first time in Mackelab history 🎉)!
March 27, 2025 at 2:03 PM
The @mackelab.bsky.social is represented at @cosynemeeting.bsky.social #cosyne2025 in Montreal
with 3 posters, 2 workshop talks, and a main conference contributed talk (for the very first time in Mackelab history 🎉)!
with 3 posters, 2 workshop talks, and a main conference contributed talk (for the very first time in Mackelab history 🎉)!
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
Out now 'in print'--- a true labor of love, in more ways than one. See the paper and press-release below!
Also, go and see @matthijspals.bsky.social's talk at #Cosyne, where he will talk about related/follow up work!
uni-tuebingen.de/en/research/...
Also, go and see @matthijspals.bsky.social's talk at #Cosyne, where he will talk about related/follow up work!
uni-tuebingen.de/en/research/...
March 24, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Out now 'in print'--- a true labor of love, in more ways than one. See the paper and press-release below!
Also, go and see @matthijspals.bsky.social's talk at #Cosyne, where he will talk about related/follow up work!
uni-tuebingen.de/en/research/...
Also, go and see @matthijspals.bsky.social's talk at #Cosyne, where he will talk about related/follow up work!
uni-tuebingen.de/en/research/...
Our study on sequence working memory using human spiking data and RNNs, is finally published :). Check it out! 👇
Science Alert 🚨: Our paper is now out in @natureneuro.bsky.social - We show that the firing phase of neurons in human MTL doesn’t reflect the order of events, challenging a long-standing theory of human memory.
nature.com/articles/s41593-025-01893-7
nature.com/articles/s41593-025-01893-7
Phase of firing does not reflect temporal order in sequence memory of humans and recurrent neural networks - Nature Neuroscience
The temporal order of events in working memory is thought to be reflected by ordered neuronal firing at different phases. Here the authors show that this is not the case and that phase order is linked...
www.nature.com
March 24, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Our study on sequence working memory using human spiking data and RNNs, is finally published :). Check it out! 👇
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
In the physical world, almost all information is transmitted through traveling waves -- why should it be any different in your neural network?
Super excited to share recent work with the brilliant @mozesjacobs.bsky.social: "Traveling Waves Integrate Spatial Information Through Time"
1/14
Super excited to share recent work with the brilliant @mozesjacobs.bsky.social: "Traveling Waves Integrate Spatial Information Through Time"
1/14
March 10, 2025 at 3:34 PM
In the physical world, almost all information is transmitted through traveling waves -- why should it be any different in your neural network?
Super excited to share recent work with the brilliant @mozesjacobs.bsky.social: "Traveling Waves Integrate Spatial Information Through Time"
1/14
Super excited to share recent work with the brilliant @mozesjacobs.bsky.social: "Traveling Waves Integrate Spatial Information Through Time"
1/14
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
Together with @dendritesgr.bsky.social, we’ll be hosting a tutorial on constructing and optimizing biophysical models (via Jaxley & DendroTweaks) 🚀
Join us in Florence if you like dendrites, biophysics, or optimization!
Join us in Florence if you like dendrites, biophysics, or optimization!
We are thrilled to host a tutorial on biophysical modeling with Jaxley & DendroTweaks at #CNS2025! 📍 Florence, July 5 — looking forward to seeing you there! www.cnsorg.org/cns-2025 @cnsorg.bsky.social
February 28, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Together with @dendritesgr.bsky.social, we’ll be hosting a tutorial on constructing and optimizing biophysical models (via Jaxley & DendroTweaks) 🚀
Join us in Florence if you like dendrites, biophysics, or optimization!
Join us in Florence if you like dendrites, biophysics, or optimization!
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
1) Some exciting science in turbulent times:
How do mice distinguish self-generated vs. object-generated looming stimuli? Our new study combines VR and neural recordings from superior colliculus (SC) 🧠🐭 to explore this question.
Check out our preprint doi.org/10.1101/2024... 🧵
How do mice distinguish self-generated vs. object-generated looming stimuli? Our new study combines VR and neural recordings from superior colliculus (SC) 🧠🐭 to explore this question.
Check out our preprint doi.org/10.1101/2024... 🧵
February 3, 2025 at 7:19 PM
1) Some exciting science in turbulent times:
How do mice distinguish self-generated vs. object-generated looming stimuli? Our new study combines VR and neural recordings from superior colliculus (SC) 🧠🐭 to explore this question.
Check out our preprint doi.org/10.1101/2024... 🧵
How do mice distinguish self-generated vs. object-generated looming stimuli? Our new study combines VR and neural recordings from superior colliculus (SC) 🧠🐭 to explore this question.
Check out our preprint doi.org/10.1101/2024... 🧵
Reposted by Matthijs Pals
🚨Excited to share my first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social🚨 with the amazing Smith lab, @jbarbosa.org and Albert Compte who made this work possible.
We show that 🐒prefrontal hemispheres combine redundancy (for precision) & weak connections (for capacity) for supporting spatial working memory (WM). 1/🧵
We show that 🐒prefrontal hemispheres combine redundancy (for precision) & weak connections (for capacity) for supporting spatial working memory (WM). 1/🧵
Redundant, weakly connected prefrontal hemispheres balance precision and capacity in spatial working memory https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.15.633176v1
January 20, 2025 at 12:10 PM
🚨Excited to share my first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social🚨 with the amazing Smith lab, @jbarbosa.org and Albert Compte who made this work possible.
We show that 🐒prefrontal hemispheres combine redundancy (for precision) & weak connections (for capacity) for supporting spatial working memory (WM). 1/🧵
We show that 🐒prefrontal hemispheres combine redundancy (for precision) & weak connections (for capacity) for supporting spatial working memory (WM). 1/🧵