DNN models of the brain are getting bigger. Are we replacing one complicated system in vivo with another in silico?
In new work, we seek the *smallest* DNN models of visual cortex, balancing prediction with parsimony.
It turns out these compact models are surprisingly small!
rdcu.be/e5H8G
'Only four in 10 UK PhD graduates remain in academia just over a year after completing their degrees with many more heading overseas for research jobs than in previous years, a major national poll suggests.' 1/3
I agree with that. Diagnoses are only practically useful if symptoms profile are similar enough, and ASD is stretched too far.
Take people's height... there are some people we call tall, we even have special tall-people clothes shops, but there isn't a discrete cutoff to be called tall like 1.78m
I also think it's possible to accept the extreme heterogeneity of autism without resorting to a discrete subtypes model.
'Subtypes' to me implies clusters of individuals with similar symptoms, and few individuals between the clusters. No good evidence for such clusters afaik.
This is a very interesting read and a lot of food for thought but I found this view on masking quite dismissive.
😵💫
they will one day!
How are neural manifolds and single-neuron response properties related to circuit structure?
How degenerate are these relationships?
Theory and a plethora of examples can be found in the following paper, out today in Neuron 🌟
It was a privilege to co-supervise first author @lpezon.bsky.social!
I started copying @conjh.bsky.social's version of this trick for writing science papers: sit down with the other lead authors and one person reads the manuscript draft out line by line, paragraph by paragraph, then perform live surgery together on shared doc. Incredibly good way to improve the text
Design of the protein FRET ladder
Fancy a fresh preprint for Friday? When we were first getting involved with single molecule FRET, there weren't any standard protein molecules that suited our applications to help us develop our pipeline. So we built some! A universal protein ladder for FRET. 🧵 1/
RIP efficient coding 😜
You’ve just gotten home from an exhausting day. All you want to do is put your feet up and zone out to whatever is on television. Though the inactivity may feel like a well-earned rest, your brain is not just chilling.
'The opportunity, launched on 2 March by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), requires expressions of interest and applications to be submitted by 16 and 31 March, respectively. The successful project is expected to start on 1 May.'
Seriously? Stitch-up or cock-up?
Out now in @plos.org CB: doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Neural representations of tasks change over time, even in the absence of changes in task performance. But neurons change tuning at different rates. How does a neuron's stability relate to its interactions with the population?
#compneuro #neuroskyence
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...
First preprint from the lab! Using intracellular recordings & analysis of 2-photon imaging data, we show that spiking & neuromodulatory input during experience drive a reorganization of visuomotor inputs in V1 layer 2/3 neurons, consistent with enhanced visuomotor cancellation - bioRxiv link below.
Maybe! Depends where electricity prices go I guess...
Feel like solar is the answer. So cheap now to install. Colleague told me are buying panels, batteries etc for their home for <£10K and expect to break even in ~5 years... and that's in sun-deprived Northern Ireland
After years of work, the centerpiece of my PhD is published in @natmethods.nature.com! Read it to learn about the biophysical insights we can get from single-cell data!
But first, I would like to talk a bit about RNA velocity and normalization. 1/
Screen shot from the UKRI Funding Finder. Title: Fundamental AI Research Lab. Timeline Open 2nd March, intention to submit date 16 March, Closing Date 31 March 2026.
Can anyone think of an example of government spend of this magnitude and speed (excluding covid)??
4 weeks from call announcement to submission (no advance warning) and within that only 2 weeks to flag your intention to submit.
£40M total - individual awards £9.4M
www.ukri.org/opportunity/...
😅 would love to but just can't make the maths add up!
For [reasons], 2/3 of homes in Northern Ireland still use home heating oil
Two days ago I ordered 300L of home heating oil at 73p/litre. Checked same company again today, now quoting £1.05/L 😳
At the Bernstein Conference 2024, Jeremie Lefebvre and I organized a workshop on the computational consequences of neural heterogeneity. Now, slightly more than a year later, we funneled the emerging discussions into a perspective piece: www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Thanks for highlighting this interview Ben!
At the Deep Learning Indaba 2025 (Urunana!) I chatted with the EIC of iafrikan.com about the importance of summer schools like Neuromatch Academy for accessing Comp Neuro and NeuroAI training!
@deeplearningindaba.bsky.social
@neuromatch.bsky.social
me too
is he still complaining about immigrants?
With most psychedelic drugs, you never know what you're going to get. But this mysterious mushroom from China - without fail - causes users to hallucinate tiny people: crawling up walls, popping out from under furniture and marching under doors. www.bbc.com/future/artic...
There's no such thing as complete precision here anyway. Research excellence and value is always subjective to some degree
The Transmitter writes about @clionaod.bsky.social's work with
@ainedineen.bsky.social, @annatruzzi.bsky.social, Graham King, @lorinanaci.bsky.social, Keelin Harrison, Enna-Louise D'Arcy, Jessica White, @chiarac.bsky.social, Tamrin Holloway, Anna Kravchenko, @diedrichsenjorn.bsky.social!
Strong dislike for this view that bland, formulaic scientific writing is desirable. I mean, we have to read this stuff, give us some flow
