Cool basal ganglia preprints today! 2 on DA/ACh 1. @paulkramer.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 2. @arifahamid.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Motor learning @juangallego.bsky.social and @clopathlab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU!🎄✨

Peer review is important and useful but we should focus our efforts on a small number of papers that matter (making big claims, using new approaches) and let the vast majority of work live on a preprint server to be judged by their utility over time to domain experts.

“Women who think critically are always labeled difficult because it saves the world from admitting they’re right” — bell hooks Repost of Charmaine Simpson, on LinkendIN: www.linkedin.com/posts/blackh...

Direct Fit to Nature: An Evolutionary Perspective on Biological and Artificial Neural Networks www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... - thought-provoking (2019) paper from @urihasson.bsky.social and colleagues

Soapbox time: the problem with metabolic efficiency arguments in neuroscience is that they often confuse energy efficiency with energy expenditure. Biological systems are optimized for energy efficiency, but that does NOT imply they are optimized for low energy expenditure 🧵 1/

This review below by Herz and Brown, about effort, bradykinesia in Parkinson disease is really such an excellent read. If you are interested in dopamine, basal ganglia, motor control and motivation, this is really a must read 👌 doi.org/10.1093/brai...

My book "The Brain, in Theory" on the publisher's website (out in April 2026): press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

Super pleased with this one, led by the amazing PhD student and foraging expert @emmavscholey.bsky.social!

Project structure for scientific coding projects - the latest in my Better Code, Better Science series open.substack.com/pub/russpold...

The race to churn out papers is a systemic problem. Early career scholars are desperate to get more papers to compete in the academic job market. This can make it hard for faculty mentors hard to reduce their output unless they shrink their lab (which removes opportunities from next generation).

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

New preprint: Neural manifolds that orchestrate walking and stopping Here we develop a new theory for neural generation of walking and how it can stop- Next we test the theory using Neuropixels probes in the lumber spinal cord of freely moving rats. See more: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A yr ago, I wrote a piece about what is becoming a quasi-obsession in neuroscience: internal models/representations. I’m kind of stuck and not sure what to do with it. Meanwhile, I came across 2 excellent "critical" papers on the same topic by @olivia.science and @smellosopher.bsky.social 🙏💪 :

I haven’t posted much here since leaving Twitter/X, but I feel a growing need to share again papers and thoughts about science, the brain, and our too often absurd academic life . My feed hasn’t been very exciting so far, so let’s see if posting and interacting more helps

New preprint from Satoshi Kuroki & Sébastien Royer Grid cells encode reward distance during path integration in cue-rich environments www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7...

New Pre-Print: www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... We’re all familiar with having to practice a new skill to get better at it, but what really happens during practice? The answer, I propose, is reinforcement learning - specifically policy-gradient reinforcement learning. Overview 🧵 below...

🚨Registration for Mechanistic Basis of Foraging 2025 closes October 20th 🚨 Speakers @mkflugge.bsky.social @aaronbornstein.bsky.social @benhayden.bsky.social @ellileadbeater.bsky.social @davidrobbe.bsky.social @dlbarack.bsky.social @becketebs.bsky.social uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...

Can one bring together Reinforcement learning and Drift Diffusion models to understand collective foraging ? Congrads to Jonathan Marienhagen , Lisa Blum Moyse and Dominik Deffner on this new study. Very happy that I was part of this collaboration. Preprint here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

I have an op-ed out today in @resprofnews.bsky.social introducing my new book on the commercialisation of open access publishing.

Here's a link to the paper: Beyond Mechanism—Extending Our Concepts of Causation in Neuroscience onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

It is simply amazing how Djokovic can so often anticipate where Alcaraz, one of the most creative players, will direct his next shot. Perception intertwined with action. This match is just incredible...

Closing soon! Abstract submission for The Mechanistic Basis of Foraging 2025 A multidisciplinary meeting on the neural, behavioural and computational foundations of foraging across species: uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis... Deadline: August 29

Status, humiliation, and expert knowledge A must-read for my fellow experts who want to better understand why so many people proudly reject what we have to offer in favor of common sense. Get ready to look in the mirror! www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/status-cla...

There's a movement in neuroscience suggesting we should be pursuing bigger bets with larger teams. I think there's a case for doing a bit of this, but I think it's a bad idea to prioritise it for two reasons, and a good case for saying we should be moving in the exact opposite direction. 🧠🧪

First post on Bluesky! Had a great time chatting with @braininspired (Paul Middlebrooks) on his podcast about the conceptual and experimental issues related to the perception of time, and how Bergson's philosophy of the living could be helpful. 1/2