Nico Foley
@nicofoley.bsky.social
Neuroscientist. Visual Attention: expectations, uncertainty, eye movements, retinotopy. Dynamical systems modeling. Networks and dimensional reduction. Circadian rhythms. Generally optimistic.
I filled out the survey, I would have written a quite different set of questions since my experience of world models (or I would probably call it internal experience) is very fluid and multimodal
November 24, 2025 at 3:54 AM
I filled out the survey, I would have written a quite different set of questions since my experience of world models (or I would probably call it internal experience) is very fluid and multimodal
Barbara Tuchman had a good introduction to this in “A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century” which is in part a biography of Enguerrand VII de Coucy, which is that while it is fair to judge on many issues, there is a certain level of alienness to historical cultures that can’t be bridged
November 23, 2025 at 3:52 AM
Barbara Tuchman had a good introduction to this in “A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century” which is in part a biography of Enguerrand VII de Coucy, which is that while it is fair to judge on many issues, there is a certain level of alienness to historical cultures that can’t be bridged
I’d say the evidence provided suggests the opposite.. due to cup width, surface tension and undocumented sip timing, it suggests that this was a good cup of coffee that you were reluctant to finish
November 20, 2025 at 3:35 AM
I’d say the evidence provided suggests the opposite.. due to cup width, surface tension and undocumented sip timing, it suggests that this was a good cup of coffee that you were reluctant to finish
My experience most of that is due to a combination of three factors:
1) actual unicorns who can run multiple labs (when I did my PhD with Steve Grossberg he peaked at 26 current students)
2) collaborations which don’t have institutional weight (thinking Emery Brown 25y ago)
3) bullshit overselling
1) actual unicorns who can run multiple labs (when I did my PhD with Steve Grossberg he peaked at 26 current students)
2) collaborations which don’t have institutional weight (thinking Emery Brown 25y ago)
3) bullshit overselling
November 20, 2025 at 3:23 AM
My experience most of that is due to a combination of three factors:
1) actual unicorns who can run multiple labs (when I did my PhD with Steve Grossberg he peaked at 26 current students)
2) collaborations which don’t have institutional weight (thinking Emery Brown 25y ago)
3) bullshit overselling
1) actual unicorns who can run multiple labs (when I did my PhD with Steve Grossberg he peaked at 26 current students)
2) collaborations which don’t have institutional weight (thinking Emery Brown 25y ago)
3) bullshit overselling
Very cool stuff! I’m glad to see that LAMINART is still being developed.
I’ll have to think through compatibility carefully, but there is another (in part complementary) explanation for crowding in the Grossberg schema (dARTSCAN) which is that it’s a where-stream frontal-parietal phenomenon
I’ll have to think through compatibility carefully, but there is another (in part complementary) explanation for crowding in the Grossberg schema (dARTSCAN) which is that it’s a where-stream frontal-parietal phenomenon
Neural dynamics of object-based multifocal visual spatial attention and priming: Object cueing, useful-field-of-view, and crowding
How are spatial and object attention coordinated to achieve rapid object learning and recognition during eye movement search? How do prefrontal priming and parietal spatial mechanisms interact to determine the reaction time costs of intra-object ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
November 17, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Very cool stuff! I’m glad to see that LAMINART is still being developed.
I’ll have to think through compatibility carefully, but there is another (in part complementary) explanation for crowding in the Grossberg schema (dARTSCAN) which is that it’s a where-stream frontal-parietal phenomenon
I’ll have to think through compatibility carefully, but there is another (in part complementary) explanation for crowding in the Grossberg schema (dARTSCAN) which is that it’s a where-stream frontal-parietal phenomenon
The idea that the steepness of the learning curve drives curiosity is elegant and parsimonious, but that when you try to make the definitions rigorous and design experiments to directly test, it seems as if the idea is at least incomplete
November 17, 2025 at 1:14 AM
The idea that the steepness of the learning curve drives curiosity is elegant and parsimonious, but that when you try to make the definitions rigorous and design experiments to directly test, it seems as if the idea is at least incomplete
Pierre-Yves Oudeyer and Adrien Baranes, among others, followed this up this line of thinking around 12 years ago, with a rigorous mathematical definition of curiosity.. I don’t think the monkey results were ever published, but under their criterion neither humans nor monkeys are curious
November 16, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Pierre-Yves Oudeyer and Adrien Baranes, among others, followed this up this line of thinking around 12 years ago, with a rigorous mathematical definition of curiosity.. I don’t think the monkey results were ever published, but under their criterion neither humans nor monkeys are curious
His DC office lets you leave a message if you press 3
November 9, 2025 at 10:40 PM
His DC office lets you leave a message if you press 3
When I was living in Prague (~20 years ago) the fare system was you either bought tickets (stamped at boarding) or had a photo-pass, there were random checks at any time during travel, fine was equivalent to a 6 month pass.. I didn’t see any fare evasion (I got checked about once a month)
November 9, 2025 at 8:42 PM
When I was living in Prague (~20 years ago) the fare system was you either bought tickets (stamped at boarding) or had a photo-pass, there were random checks at any time during travel, fine was equivalent to a 6 month pass.. I didn’t see any fare evasion (I got checked about once a month)
I think there is a dichotomy between the constant lies of the authoritarian right and the endemic hallucinations of LLMs, and that things like deep convolutional networks can do amazing things that no one notices
November 1, 2025 at 8:18 PM
I think there is a dichotomy between the constant lies of the authoritarian right and the endemic hallucinations of LLMs, and that things like deep convolutional networks can do amazing things that no one notices
For the record, Apple doesn’t either.. need to reverify my MacBook WiFi logins from my phone all the time
November 1, 2025 at 12:30 AM
For the record, Apple doesn’t either.. need to reverify my MacBook WiFi logins from my phone all the time
I can confirm that I am extra careful and nitpicking with authors I know and respect for two reasons 1) I probably tend to agree with them, which means blind-spots through inattention and 2) I want them to produce the best work (that I know they can do)
October 31, 2025 at 2:35 PM
I can confirm that I am extra careful and nitpicking with authors I know and respect for two reasons 1) I probably tend to agree with them, which means blind-spots through inattention and 2) I want them to produce the best work (that I know they can do)
So under this interpretation prior trial no rewards (even if predicted) are a distraction
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37669966/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37669966/
Beta traveling waves in monkey frontal and parietal areas encode recent reward history - PubMed
Brain function depends on neural communication, but the mechanisms of this communication are not well understood. Recent studies suggest that one form of neural communication is through traveling waves (TWs)-patterns of neural oscillations that propagate within and between brain areas. We show that …
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
October 31, 2025 at 2:13 PM
So under this interpretation prior trial no rewards (even if predicted) are a distraction
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37669966/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37669966/
There’s actually an equestrian statue of Franz Siegel at the end of my block.. if only he’d have been half as good a commander as a recruiter
October 30, 2025 at 2:10 PM
There’s actually an equestrian statue of Franz Siegel at the end of my block.. if only he’d have been half as good a commander as a recruiter
I’m reading Pride and Pleasure by Amanda Vaill about the Schuyler sisters, and it is fabulous
October 28, 2025 at 10:56 AM
I’m reading Pride and Pleasure by Amanda Vaill about the Schuyler sisters, and it is fabulous
All 4 non-military people I know who’ve done late in life PhDs got started by going to a few conferences, talking to PIs whose lab has interesting posters/talks and seeing if there’s some side project that they’ve always wanted to do, but never gotten around to, that you can execute
October 16, 2025 at 9:06 PM
All 4 non-military people I know who’ve done late in life PhDs got started by going to a few conferences, talking to PIs whose lab has interesting posters/talks and seeing if there’s some side project that they’ve always wanted to do, but never gotten around to, that you can execute
Isn’t that like a phenomenally good way to clear your mind? I try to keep my email read, but over three computers I have about 500 tabs open, and clicking on the wrong one.. oh boy
October 13, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Isn’t that like a phenomenally good way to clear your mind? I try to keep my email read, but over three computers I have about 500 tabs open, and clicking on the wrong one.. oh boy
Angband and many other rogue-likes, I thought Horizon: Zero Dawn maxed your power mid-game, some of the expansions for Pathfinder: WOTR
October 11, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Angband and many other rogue-likes, I thought Horizon: Zero Dawn maxed your power mid-game, some of the expansions for Pathfinder: WOTR
Note to file: do not try this with legacy network IT systems
October 11, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Note to file: do not try this with legacy network IT systems
There is a great neighborhood bar/pizza joint, Woody’s, in Boston that I frequented in grad school.. loved chatting with people at the bar.. went 0 for around 150 on who is Adam Smith
October 4, 2025 at 11:45 PM
There is a great neighborhood bar/pizza joint, Woody’s, in Boston that I frequented in grad school.. loved chatting with people at the bar.. went 0 for around 150 on who is Adam Smith
You witnessed the playoff debut of two great young pitchers who we’ll be hearing more from
October 3, 2025 at 3:31 AM
You witnessed the playoff debut of two great young pitchers who we’ll be hearing more from
Dunno if you can fix the toothbrush, but reorienting is as my cousin says, toots Magoots!
September 28, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Dunno if you can fix the toothbrush, but reorienting is as my cousin says, toots Magoots!