Anna Vasilevskaya
@loghyr.bsky.social
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PhD student studying cortical computations in
https://www.apredictiveprocessinglab.org
reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Georg Keller
11 days ago
We think cortex might function like a JEPA. It looks like prediction errors in layer 2/3 are not computed against input (as is the idea in predictive processing), but against a representation in latent space (i.e. like in a JEPA
arxiv.org/abs/2301.08243
or RPL
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
).
add a skeleton here at some point
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Our work with
@georgkeller.bsky.social
on testing predictive processing (PP) models in cortex is out on biorvix now!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A short thread on our findings and thoughts on where we should move on from PP below.
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A functional influence based circuit motif that constrains the set of plausible algorithms of cortical function
There are several plausible algorithms for cortical function that are specific enough to make testable predictions of the interactions between functionally identified cell types. Many of these algorithms are based on some variant of predictive processing. Here we set out to experimentally distinguish between two such predictive processing variants. A central point of variability between them lies in the proposed vertical communication between layer 2/3 and layer 5, which stems from the diverging assumptions about the computational role of layer 5. One assumes a hierarchically organized architecture and proposes that, within a given node of the network, layer 5 conveys unexplained bottom-up input to prediction error neurons of layer 2/3. The other proposes a non-hierarchical architecture in which internal representation neurons of layer 5 provide predictions for the local prediction error neurons of layer 2/3. We show that the functional influence of layer 2/3 cell types on layer 5 is incompatible with the hierarchical variant, while the functional influence of layer 5 cell types on prediction error neurons of layer 2/3 is incompatible with the non-hierarchical variant. Given these data, we can constrain the space of plausible algorithms of cortical function. We propose a model for cortical function based on a combination of a joint embedding predictive architecture (JEPA) and predictive processing that makes experimentally testable predictions. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Swiss National Science Foundation, https://ror.org/00yjd3n13 Novartis Foundation, https://ror.org/04f9t1x17 European Research Council, https://ror.org/0472cxd90, 865617
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.29.702557v1
11 days ago
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Allen Institute
13 days ago
You have less than 3 days to apply for the
#LakeConference
on the Neurobiology of Mental Health in Lake Thun, Switzerland! 📆 May 17-21 in Thun, Switzerland 🏔️ All career stages welcomed ⏳ Apply by January 31 Learn more and apply:
https://bit.ly/4pCHrAH
🧠📈
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Portugues Lab
about 1 month ago
1/n: A new collaborative preprint from the lab to start the year: "A multi-ring shifter network computes head direction in zebrafish" together with Siyuan Mei, Martin Stemmler and Andreas Herz from the LMU, Munich.
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Friedemann Zenke
3 months ago
1/6 New preprint 🚀 How does the cortex learn to represent things and how they move without reconstructing sensory stimuli? We developed a circuit-centric recurrent predictive learning (RPL) model based on JEPAs. 🔗
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Led by
@atenagm.bsky.social
@mshalvagal.bsky.social
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Georg Keller
3 months ago
One of the most promising approaches to making headway in understanding the cortical algorithm that I have seen in a long time!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Understanding cortical computation through the lens of joint-embedding predictive architectures
Tracking prey or recognizing a lurking predator is as crucial for survival as anticipating their actions. To guide behavior, the brain must extract information about object identities and their dynami...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.25.690220v1
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Lake Conferences
4 months ago
Join us for the second Neurobiology of Mental Health conference (May 2026) that will explore the biological mechanisms underlying mental health challenges and their treatment. Information and application on:
lakeconferences.org
. The deadline for applications is January 31st, 2026.
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Home - Lake Conferences
https://lakeconferences.org
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Alex
4 months ago
How does the brain balance learning new things without overwriting what it already knows? Our new paper tackles this long-standing stability–plasticity dilemma during active navigation. With Tony Drinnenberg from the Deisseroth Lab (
@deisseroth.bsky.social
)
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
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Environmental Novelty Modulates Rapid Cortical Plasticity During Navigation
In novel environments, animals quickly learn to navigate, and position-correlated spatial representations rapidly emerge in both the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) and primary visual cortex (V1). However,...
https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.10.21.683723
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Kris Jensen
5 months ago
I’m super excited to finally put my recent work with
@behrenstimb.bsky.social
on bioRxiv, where we develop a new mechanistic theory of how PFC structures adaptive behaviour using attractor dynamics in space and time!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
FMI science
5 months ago
This year's Ruth Chiquet Prize goes to
@solygamagda.bsky.social
, who sent a video message, for her work on how the brain detects sensory mismatches. Read more at:
www.fmi.ch/news-events/...
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Magdalena Solyga
6 months ago
A new preprint from our lab with
@zelechowski.bsky.social
&
@georgkeller.bsky.social
! Using wireless EEG + VR, we recorded visuomotor mismatch responses in freely moving humans. Huge thanks to all participants, Keller Lab members and FMI facilities! Read more:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Flor Iacaruso
6 months ago
1/N What are the organizational principles underlying crossmodal cortical connections? We address this in this new preprint, led by
@alexegeaweiss.bsky.social
& @bturner-bridger.bsky.social in collab w/ @petrznam.bsky.social
@crick.ac.uk
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
eLife
7 months ago
Ditching months-long delays for fast, constructive feedback. This interview with
@solygamagda.bsky.social
dives into the experience of publishing with eLife and what it could mean for a more open and efficient future in science.
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Publishing with eLife: “the future of science lies in greater transparency”
Neuroscientist Magdalena Solyga shares her latest study and her experience publishing with eLife.
https://buff.ly/Et56awc
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Victor Tatarskiy
7 months ago
100%, but also - the eLife experiment is a good reminer that we need experiments here. Open reviews were not a thing until they were, peer reviews were not a thing until they were, so did preprints, and the ability not to respond to reviewers comments etc. We can try to re-imagine publishing!
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Tim Behrens
7 months ago
Let's say you have a journal that isn't worried about protecting an impact factor, so it didn't need to package a million results into a single paper (to maximise citation-to-publication ratio). What would you do? Couple of suggestions below. Others very much appreciated!
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Alex Kwan
8 months ago
SCN2A is a top risk gene for autism. But how does losing one copy of it affect dendritic function during flexible decision-making? 🧬🐭🧠🧪 Our study in preprint @biorxivpreprint:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Supported by a
@simonsfoundation.org
SFARI Pilot Award 🙌
#SCN2A
#cureSCN2A
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Julian Rossbroich
9 months ago
I've spent much of my PhD thinking about E/I balance, and our latest preprint represents the culmination of that journey. Huge thanks to
@fzenke.bsky.social
for guiding me. Looking forward to your thoughts & comments.
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Antonio Falasconi
9 months ago
Forelimb movement control at the basal ganglia - brainstem interface! Happy to finally share this work from me and
@harsh-kanodia.bsky.social
with Silvia Arber!
@biozentrum.unibas.ch
@fmiscience.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Dynamic basal ganglia output signals license and suppress forelimb movements - Nature
Basal ganglia output neurons fire dynamically in bidirectional and movement-specific patterns to license forelimb movements.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09066-z
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Markus Meister
9 months ago
If you're planning a course with mathematical methods content, or use such methods in your own work, please take a look at "Mathematics in Biology", by Meister, Lee, and Portugues, published at MIT Press. 1/2
@portugueslab.bsky.social
mitpress.mit.edu/978026204940...
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Mathematics in Biology
Biology has turned into a quantitative science. The core problems in the life sciences today involve complex systems that require mathematical expression, ye...
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049405/mathematics-in-biology/
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Magdalena Solyga
9 months ago
A few words on our latest paper and where we're heading next ⬇️
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Jérôme Lecoq
10 months ago
How does our brain predict the future? Our review of predictive processing + research program is now on arXiv
arxiv.org/abs/2504.09614
50+ neuroscientists distributed across the world worked together to create this unique community project.
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Portugues Lab
10 months ago
3/3 We are looking for a lab technician, a lab manager and researchers to join us in this new chapter. Read the post here:
portugueslab.com/the-lab-is-h...
Reach out to us if you are interested.
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https://portugueslab.com/the-lab-is-heading-to-cornell)Reach
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Georg Keller
11 months ago
Consistent with the work of
@jeremiahycohen.bsky.social
and
@mishaahrens.bsky.social
labs, we find that serotonin axons in mouse visual cortex appear to signal recent visuomotor uncertainty (and unlike norepinephrine axons, they have no visuomotor mismatch responses)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Activity in serotonergic axons in visuomotor areas of cortex is modulated by the recent history of visuomotor coupling
Visuomotor experience is necessary for the development of normal function of visual cortex (Attinger et al., 2017) and likely establishes a balance between movement-related predictions and sensory sig...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.11.642559v1
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
eLife
11 months ago
🎉 It’s been over two years since we launched the eLife Model for publishing that places the focus on nuanced public assessments instead of publishing outcomes. 1/ Here’s how it’s going:
buff.ly/wnJrXie
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Tim Behrens
12 months ago
If only we had a system like
@elife.bsky.social
where peer review was public and accountable, we wouldn’t have to “rely” on peer review to “validate” papers!
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Blake Richards
about 1 year ago
Paper in eLife from Solyga & Keller on responses in auditory cortex to multi-modal mismatches:
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
🧠📈 🧪
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Multimodal mismatch responses in mouse auditory cortex
https://elifesciences.org/reviewed-preprints/95398
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Lake Conferences
about 1 year ago
Join us for the Sensation and Action conference 2025 – application is now open:
lakeconferences.org
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Home - Lake Conferences
https://lakeconferences.org
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reposted by
Anna Vasilevskaya
Markus Meister
over 1 year ago
Why is reality so slow? Why can we only have one thought at a time? Why do we need so many neurons? Will Elon Musk's Neuralink really speed up his cognition? For answers and more questions check out our new review: "The Unbearable Slowness of Being".
arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234
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The Unbearable Slowness of Being
This article is about the neural conundrum behind the slowness of human behavior. The information throughput of a human being is about 10 bits/s. In comparison, our sensory systems gather data at...
https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234
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