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Arman Behrad

@armanbehrad

Computational Neuroscience | PhD. candidate at @cmc-lab.bsky.social | Fine Arts, Music

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11.11.2024
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Latest posts by Arman Behrad @armanbehrad

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1-031, Poster session 1 (Thu, Mar. 12, 20:30): @maxschwabe.bsky.social (a Cosyne presenter awardee πŸŽ‰, a MASTER student) will present how decomposing neural dynamics to intrinsic and input-driven modes can tell us how naturalistic decision computations are realized in the RNNs.

09.03.2026 18:30 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 2

CMC lab is heading to #Cosyne2026, with 3 wonderful posters (1-031, 3-001, and 3-008 also see thread πŸ‘‡), 2 new enthusiastic team members (@clairesturgill.bsky.social and @maxschwabe.bsky.social ), and tons of excitement for discussions and new ideas!

09.03.2026 18:30 πŸ‘ 21 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

That was wonderful πŸ‘

08.03.2026 15:02 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Seems super interesting. 🀩

23.02.2026 10:34 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Endurance brain cells may determine how long you can run for The activity of certain neurons may influence our endurance for exercise, and these could be targeted to help us run faster for longer

The activity of certain neurons may influence our endurance for exercise, and these could be targeted to help us run faster for longer

23.02.2026 08:32 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Convocatorias - FundaciΓ³n RamΓ³n Areces

For Spanish researchers interested in postdoc positions: my lab at Amsterdam is looking for candidates to apply for a Ramon Areces postdoctoral fellowship, to work for 2 years on compneuro and digital brains. Deadline Feb 23. Please spread the word! More info: www.fundacionareces.es/fundacionare...

03.02.2026 10:51 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Built a domain-agnostic peak detection algorithm and now hunting for datasets with known/annotated peaks to test it on πŸ‘€
Any domain worksβ€”signals,bio,astro,finance, spectroscopy, etc.
Got data or know a benchmark? Would love pointers πŸ™Œ

#SignalProcessing #DataScience #TimeSeries #OpenData #Research

28.01.2026 15:18 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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This book is a wonderful, synthetic and richly illustrated journey through the natural history of the vertebrate brain 🀩

A big thank you to the authors πŸ™

"A major theme in the evolution of the telencephalon has been the emergence of novel pathways...

1/2

17.01.2026 09:05 πŸ‘ 96 πŸ” 25 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 2

This work couldn’t have happened without my wonderful collaborators: @neurostrow.bsky.social and Ila Fiete (master minds behind the original DSA), @mmdtaha.bsky.social, Christian Beste, and @neuroprinciplist.bsky.social ; and support from the @cmc-lab.bsky.social .

08.01.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

There are also other fantastic tools around for comparing circuits/brains/models like the RSA developed by Nikolaus Kriegeskorte and many others (e.g., see the great work www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... by @jbarbosa.org , and @itsneuronal.bsky.social )

08.01.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Related: @neurostrow.bsky.social thread with @wtredman.bsky.social & Igor Mezic on extending dynamical-similarity ideasβ€”an exciting direction for future DSA-style methods: bsky.app/profile/neur...

08.01.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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We also built 2 simple nonlinear systems (A, B) with identical eigenvalues but different eigenvectors. As expected, Wasserstein-based kwDSA struggles to separate them. All 3 fastDSA variants reliably distinguish A vs B (represented w/ MDS).

08.01.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Under strong noise, we repeat the transformation tests (Plus kernelDMD+Wasserstein distance (kwDSA)). kwDSA highlights a key pitfall: relying mainly on eigenvalues (ignoring eigenvectors) can miss fine dynamical differences. fastDSA alternatives remain sensitive and perform well even at high noise.

08.01.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Next we tested sensitivity to dynamical change by morphing a ring attractor into a line attractor (same model). fastDSA distances jump at the ring↔line transition, capturing topology changeβ€”unlike Procrustesβ€”while being way faster than DSA.

08.01.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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We first tested whether fastDSA is invariant to purely geometric deformationsβ€”changes that preserve the same underlying dynamics and attractor topology. All 3 fastDSA variants are faithful to dynamics and remain stable across geometric deformations, while being computationally more efficient.

08.01.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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With different forms of noise, we showed how well the rank estimate supports DMD reconstruction. Across noise levels, the method detects the rank at the knee point automatically (with no tuning)

08.01.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Our method efficiently estimates the rank of delay embeddings of a dynamical system. For example, on Lorenz trajectories projected to higher dimensions, the estimated order matches the true latent rank and aligns with AIC/BIC baselines.

08.01.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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We made DSA up to 150 times faster 🀯 by introducing 3 new optimization objectives and solvers to speed up the DSA alignment step. Instead of enforcing exact orthogonality at every iteration, we use faster formulations that approximate or penalize the constraint.

08.01.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

The original dynamic similarity analysis (DSA) developed by @neurostrow.bsky.social and Ila Fiete is a powerful method to compare trajectories of (nonlinear) neural dynamics between different datasets and models: arxiv.org/abs/2306.10168

08.01.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Wanna compare dynamics across neural data, RNNs, or dynamical systems? We got a fast and furious method🏎️
The 1st preprint of my PhD πŸ₯³ fast dynamical similarity analysis (fastDSA):
πŸ“œ: arxiv.org/abs/2511.22828
πŸ’»: github.com/CMC-lab/fast...
I’ll be @cosynemeeting.bsky.social - happy to chat πŸ˜‰

08.01.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 114 πŸ” 35 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 4
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Way back in 1999, Kenji Doya sketched a big picture theory of the brain:

1️⃣The cerebellum is specialized for supervised learning
2️⃣The basal ganglia are for reinforcement learning
3️⃣The cerebral cortex is for unsupervised learning

How does this hold up in 2026? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

01.01.2026 15:36 πŸ‘ 37 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 1
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From sensory to perceptual manifolds: The twist of neural geometry The brain uses geometric twists to expand neural dimensionality, thus untangling perception from sensation.

From sensory to perceptual manifolds: The twist of neural geometry
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
#neuroscience

26.12.2025 22:07 πŸ‘ 48 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

Thank you for having me on BrainInspired, Paul @braininspired.bsky.social! It was such an honor to be on my favorite showβ€”a rare place where we can leisurely talk about manifolds, latent circuits, power laws, and other esoteric ideas, and still be taken seriously in knowing they are all real.

05.12.2025 04:42 πŸ‘ 57 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
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🚨new work with the dream team @danakarca.bsky.social @loopyluppi.bsky.social @fatemehhadaeghi.bsky.social @stuartoldham.bsky.social @duncanastle.bsky.social
We use game theory and show the brain is not optimally wired for communication and there’s more to its story:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

15.12.2025 08:01 πŸ‘ 60 πŸ” 26 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0

Congratulations. 🎊

10.11.2025 20:52 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Our next paper on comparing dynamical systems (with special interest to artificial and biological neural networks) is out!! Joint work with @annhuang42.bsky.social , as well as @satpreetsingh.bsky.social , @leokoz8.bsky.social , Ila Fiete, and @kanakarajanphd.bsky.social : arxiv.org/pdf/2510.25943

10.11.2025 16:16 πŸ‘ 70 πŸ” 24 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 5
Bernstein Conference 2025 Conference Abstracts

If you are @ #BernsteinConference we have 4 posters, threadπŸ‘‡
P II 25, Tue 18–19:30: abstracts.g-node.org/conference/B...
P IV 5, Wed 14-15:30: abstracts.g-node.org/conference/B...
P II 25, Tue 18-19:30: abstracts.g-node.org/conference/B...
P I 11, Tue 16:30-18: abstracts.g-node.org/conference/B...

30.09.2025 13:23 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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(4/4) How about a simulation of more naturalistic setting?

30.09.2025 20:54 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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(3/4)
Next: biological networks.
We applied UNITE to V4 activity (PSTH) from a monkey doing a visual cognitive task. πŸ’πŸ‘οΈ

30.09.2025 20:54 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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(2/4)
First test: an RNN solving a cognitive task.
UNITE identify state transitions without supervision. πŸ”

30.09.2025 20:54 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0