Shifting neural code powers speech comprehension Dynamic coding helps explain how the brain processes multiple features of speech—from the smallest units of sounds to full sentences—simultaneously.

Dynamic coding of speech, as suggested by two new studies, challenges the idea that language features are encoded in a one-to-one manner in the brain.

By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/language/shi...

Cell types: from genes to circuits Part II in our series on cell types and connectomes

Here's the second one: www.neuroai.science/p/cell-types... . I made a New Year's resolution to blog more, and so far I'm sticking to it!

Cell types: encoding the brain's BIOS Inferring the structure of primary rewards from connectomics

What are cell types good for, computationally? Encoding innate behavior! In this 2-parter, I break down the relationship between cell types—which I had, in years prior, dismissed as mere implementation detail—and computation. I changed my mind!

www.neuroai.science/p/cell-types...

Infant brain categorizes common objects by two months of age Brain activity patterns in the ventral visual cortex appear to distinguish images across 12 categories, including birds and trees, fMRI scans suggest.

Functional MRI scans of more than 100 2-month-old infants suggest that they are capable of distinguishing among a variety of different objects. The findings challenge perceptions of cognitive development as a gradual process.

By @helenak.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/cognitive-ne...

Two neurobiologists win 2026 Brain Prize for discovering mechanics of touch Research by Patrik Ernfors and David Ginty has delineated the diverse cell types of the somatosensory system and revealed how they detect and discriminate among different types of tactile information.

Two neurobiologists who helped decipher how the somatosensory system detects touch and pain have won this year’s Brain Prize, the largest award in neuroscience.

By @helenak.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/somatosensat...

Can the Most Abstract Math Make the World a Better Place? | Quanta Magazine Columnist Natalie Wolchover explores whether applied category theory can be “green” math.

Qualia essays go where curiosity leads. This week, join @nattyover.bsky.social on her quest to understand whether a burgeoning, abstract mathematical field can help the planet. www.quantamagazine.org/can-the-most...

NEW: #Kempner researchers develop a mean-field theory of task-trained RNNs that bridges random and learned connectivity—and find macaque motor cortex is best captured by an intermediate, task-specific recurrent structure.
Read the blog post 👇
🔗 bit.ly/47f3Ldl

happy to announce i just got examiner feedback on my thesis. recommended for acceptance as is, no changes, no corrections :)

link: osf.io/preprints/th...

Cognitive control networks in human and macaque
doi.org/10.64898/202...
#neuroscience

Peer review would be easier if we stopped treating it like combat with the authors. Results want to be free, and perfect is the enemy of good. Do the data support the conclusions? If so, that’s enough. A paper isn’t a blank slate for projecting your own ideas.

New paper: The origins of meaning: From pragmatic control signals to semantic representations
philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...

Frontiers | Cross-population amplitude coupling in high-dimensional oscillatory neural time series Neural oscillations have long been considered important markers of interaction across brain regions, yet identifying coordinated oscillatory activity from hi...

The brain oscillates and we should figure out why. Development of new analytics will be key:
Cross-population amplitude coupling in high-dimensional oscillatory neural time series
www.frontiersin.org/journals/com...
#neuroscience

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀?
Interesting paper tackling this difficult question.
Answer (in part): it's complicated!
The same fixed system can be interpreted as implementing many (even infinitely many) computations depending on the chosen decoding map.
doi.org/10.1088/2632...

Vectorized instructive signals in cortical dendrites - Nature Mice learning a neurofeedback brain–computer interface task show neuron-specific teaching signals in cortical dendrites, consistent with a vectorized solution for credit assignment in the brain.

This paper on how the brain may do gradient descent is very cool: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Will anyone review this paper? Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review Scholarly publishing relies on peer review to identify the best science. Yet finding willing and qualified reviewers to evaluate manuscripts has become an increasingly challenging task, possibly even ...

1. Kevin Gross and I just posted a new science-of-science preprint.

This one explores the looming peer review crisis. As many of you know, it's becoming significantly more difficult for journal editors to find scholars willing to serve as peer reviewers for submitted manuscripts.

Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review The process of peer review is vital to contemporary science, but is also under enormous strain. This study uses mathematical models to dissect the threats to the long-term viability of peer review, su...

1. Kevin Gross and I have a new paper out today PLOS Biology.

We used economic models based around screening games and the market for unpaid labor to highlight a meltdown cycle threatening peer review.

Frontiers | Regional heterogeneity of striatal cholinergic interneurons: setting the stage for diverse behavioral repertoires Cholinergic interneurons (ChIs) constitute only a small fraction of striatal neurons, yet their dense axonal arborizations and widespread acetylcholine relea...

As promised at the #GRC Basal Ganglia, here is our recent review on striatal cholinergic heterogeneity. I hope people find it useful and inspiring.

www.frontiersin.org/journals/cel...

Maximum Principles A crash course on optimal control

A crash course on optimal control and how it obscures the power and perils of feedback.

How Can Infinity Come in Many Sizes? | Quanta Magazine Intuition breaks down once we’re dealing with the endless. To begin with: Some infinities are bigger than others.

Learn how some infinities can be larger than others in this visual explainer:
www.quantamagazine.org/how-can-infi...

Generative AI for synthetic biology: Designing biological parts, circuits, and genomes The convergence of generative AI and synthetic biology is transforming biological design, enabling the de novo creation of biological parts and systems with predictable, programmable function. Kim et ...

*Very* interested to see this, for all sorts of reasons.
www.cell.com/cell-systems...

The revised version of our paper on the impact of top-down feedback is now out @elife.bsky.social:

doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

tl;dr: we show that using human-brain-like feedback/anatomy in a deep RNN leads to human-like visual biases!

This work was led by @tmshbr.bsky.social

#NeuroAI 🧠📈 🧪

Recent studies in living animals reveal that the cytoplasm is a thick, jam-like fluid. And yet, miraculously, hoards of molecules find their way to each other in every crowded cell. www.quantamagazine.org/the-biophysi...

I just read Gunther Stent’s 1977 review of The Selfish Gene (in the Hastings Center Report), and oh boy. A 🧵

Some samples:
Dawkins’ “perverse” definition of the gene “denatures the meaningful and well-established central concept of genetics into a fuzzy and heuristically useless notion.” /1

Ida Momennejad, The Ontological Reversal of Computation and the Brain - PhilArchive The Brain Abstracted (2025) critiques treating abstractions in neuroscience as complete explanations of the brain, for their oversimplification and control-orientation. Chirimuuta argues that neurosci...

On the invitation for a commentary on Mazviita Chirimuuta's The Brain Abstracted, I had the pleasure of writing on equating the brain with computation.

The Ontological Reversal of Computation and the Brain

in Philosophy & the Mind Sciences.
Below see what I agree & disagree with in the book.
🧵 1/n

A New Complexity Theory for the Quantum Age | Quanta Magazine Henry Yuen is developing a new mathematical language to describe problems whose inputs and outputs aren’t ordinary numbers.

Traditional complexity theory can't accommodate problems with quantum inputs and outputs. Henry Yuen wants to build a new theory that can. @benbenbrubaker.bsky.social reports:
www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-comple...

Neuroscience has a species problem If neuroscience is serious about building general principles of brain function, cross-species dialogue must become a core organizing principle.

If neuroscience is serious about building general principles of brain function, cross-species dialogue must become a core organizing principle rather than an afterthought, writes @suthanalab.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/animal-model...

😂

Abdus-Saboor on balancing the study of pain and pleasure David Anderson’s 2013 paper revealed the sensory neurons involved in pleasurable touch and led Ishmail Abdus-Saboor down a new research path.

“I like to work on problems where there’s still room to make a big impact.” In “This paper changed my life,” @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social discusses how a 2013 paper from David Anderson inspired him to study the circuits of pain and pleasure.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-c...

👏🏻

In case anyone has been wondering what I have been doing for the past 40 years, it is summed up in this slide.
#neuroscience