Psyched to announce our COSYNE workshop on social behaviors (Mar 17th, Cascais). We have a stellar lineup of speakers on topics from animal cooperation and aggression to the social dynamics of LLM agents. Co-organized with Libby Zhang (Allen Institute + UW). cosyne-social-behavior.github.io

When I was choosing between PhD programs, I had a hard time gauging what mattered most. Everyone I asked valued something different, which made it even harder to figure out what I should be weighing. Wrote up the framework I wish I'd had: www.yaelcourtney.com/resources-an...

If you’re a rock climber, Vetbond is clutch for closing skin splits. Fast, doesn’t get hot, and non-toxic! Other hacks include the dremel sanding bit for finger calluses and presentation laser pointer for pointing out holds on a route. I of course would never use lab supplies for such things!

📣 Excited to announce the 2nd edition of our workshop “Agent-Based Models in Neuroscience: Theory, Autonomy, Embodiment & Environment” at @cosynemeeting.bsky.social #CoSyNe2026!! 🧠🤖🌍🪰🐟🐭💪🧘🏃 🗓️ March 17, 2026 📍 Cascais, Portugal 🔗 Speaker lineup and schedule: neuro-agent-models.github.io

I am totally pumped about this new work . "Task-trained RNNs" are a powerful and influential framework in neuroscience, but have lacked a firm theoretical footing. This work provides one, and makes direct contact with the classical theory of random RNNs: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Going to #COSYNE2026? Don't miss our tutorial on our open neural dynamics data resources. 🗓️ March 12, 9:15-10:15am 🧑‍🏫 Presented by @sejdevries.bsky.social 🔗 More info: https://www.cosyne.org/tutorials @cosynemeeting.bsky.social#COSYNE2026

“I want to study how the brain takes knowledge about some topic then applies it to solve a totally new problem...” tinyurl.com/ynvyv685

Monitoring gene expression in the brain with a simple blood test? In collaboration with @jerzyszablowski.bsky.social & his lab we figured out how to do it nonhuman primates using noninvasive neuroengineering of synthetic serum markers. nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

I whipped up another learning related Skill! Smaller than Learning Opportunities, but very complementary: interactive guidance through a quick research-backed psychological intervention that helps improve learning plans, motivation and commitment

 github.com/DrCatHicks/l...

NYU's Center for Neural Science is seeking a faculty candidate that would be jointly appointed with our Tandon School of Engineering. We are looking for post-doc applicants with neuroengineering or computational backgrounds. apply.interfolio.com/182074

Another work “of potential interest” from the Chand lab! Nicole’s work on identifying cell types is now in press! With careful dissection, high-density probes can tell you quite a lot about underlying physiology!

Thrilled to finally share this work! 🧠🔊 Using a new reinforcement-free task we show mice (like humans) extract abstract structure from sound (unsupervised) & dCA1 is causally required by building factorised, orthogonal subspaces of abstract rules. Led by Dammy Onih! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Key to efficient learning is realizing how we ACTUALLY learn, not just what FEELS like learning. I wrote a Claude Skill for some friends to help them think about this and they've liked it -- see Principles for some directions you could explore github.com/DrCatHicks/l...

My take on the Defining Cell Types perspective at @thetransmitter.bsky.social

Defining brain cell types is no longer a matter of classification alone, but of embedding their genetic identities within the dynamical organization of population activity, writes @lmprida.bsky.social. #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/defining-cel...

Cosyne Viewing Parties Visas, costs, care responsibilities, and environmental concerns all limit Cosyne attendance. Luckily, the talks are livestreamed; but watching alone is the high road to an aneurism. Hence: viewing parties! Gather regionally to watch Cosyne talks! More info: shorturl.at/3DHZX.

Reminds me of the time Jeff Hawkins had this “brain” on one of his slides unironically. It was like the first slide and I just dissociated for the rest of the presentation.

NIH, CDC, HHS, and all of US cancer research and public health needed and still needs protection from Russell Vought and the P2025 White House. The defining feature of 2025 at NIH was not merely grant changes. It was unprecedented levels of presidential interference with NIH decision-making. 1/

There’s still time to apply for #OptoGRC2026! 🙌 All applications are considered for support, including the opportunity for full registration coverage. Poster submissions & statements of interest encouraged! Apply by 2/20 to maximize your chances👇 www.grc.org/optogenetic-...

Seconding that this also encapsulates how I’ve been feeling and is a response to anyone still claiming that AI “doesn’t work” or is “untrustworthy”. I still find mistakes but have been using Opus 4.6 agent teams and it’s been incredible for literature review and refactoring my codebase.

From Chand: “of potential interest”. Our lab’s first dataset! Tian and friends used Neuropixels to record from 7,500 units across DLPFC and PMd to show how contextual decision making (specifically, XOR computation) occurs and how this differs by location in DLPFC and between areas.

No Kings includes Draft Kings

My campaign faces its first test: qualifying for the ballot. From my work on gerrymandering, I know that New Jersey politicians play dirty. To beat their games, I need at least 1,000 signatures from Democrats and unaffiliated voters in the 12th District. To help, sign up at SamForNJ.org - or DM me!

New Neuroscience Masters Degree at Johns Hopkins The M.S. degree in Neuroscience is a full-time in-person program consisting of intensive coursework followed by 12 months of laboratory research. The application deadline is May 15, and more information is available at neuroscience.jhu.edu/graduate/51

Boston - pls be on the lookout for my bike that was stolen from this exact rack on Longwood Ave today. 2021 Specialized Diverge Expert Carbon, size 52 cm, raspberry and blk with studded tires. Yes I know it’s too nice for commuting but ya know, we ride what we got and I spend a lot of time commuting

If that’s its V1 then this monkey’s got the power to see into the future.

🤖📊 NEW in the Deeper Learning blog: @annhuang42.bsky.social & @kanakarajanphd.bsky.social break down their recent work examining how #RNNs solve the same task in different ways, and why that matters. Joint work with @satpreetsingh.bsky.social & @flavioh.bsky.social bit.ly/4kj4fVd #NeuroAI

We're partnering with @anthropic.com on the development of artificial intelligence tools for massive data analysis and exploration. This collaboration will explore how AI systems could expedite analysis and day-to-day scientific workflows. 🔗 https://bit.ly/4rsghh9

This tweet which NIH Director Bhattacharya retweeted raises some interesting points (although perhaps not the ones that they intended). The tweeter notes how AIDS was treated when he started medical school in the San Francisco Bay area in 1988. This is misinformed. Sorry for a long 🧵 1/19

A new study from Anthropic finds that gains in coding efficiency when relying on AI assistance did did not meet statistical significance; AI use noticeably degraded programmers’ understanding of what they were doing. Incredible.

Postdoc position in Paris: come help develop new generation human brain computer interfaces ⚡🧠💻 Interested? Contact me if you have experience with machine learning (e.g. simulation-based inference, RL, generative/diffusion models) or dynamical systems. See below for + details and retweet 🙏

What happens when a neuroscientist realizes trauma rewired their own brain? ❤️‍🩹 I’ll be sharing that very personal story - the intersection of my research, insights it's brought me & the healing journey I've embarked on - LIVE & LIVESTREAMING on 1/26! Tickets 👇 www.storycollider.org/tickets/2026...

Cosyne workshop list is out! Excited to be presenting one with Josh Siegle on "Bridging the gap between cell types and spike trains" more info on this later! www.cosyne.org/workshops-pr...

The Master of Science in Neural Technologies (MiNT) – jointly offered by CMU's Neuroscience Institute and the Department of Biomedical Engineering — places students at the edge of a fast-moving field where neuroscience meets engineering and AI. www.cmu.edu/ni/news-even...

It’s just so weird to read this because if you talk to any devs that use these tools, you get near unmitigated praise. I get 5x or more speed ups: ported my entire codebase into Python and built an app in 4 hours with Claude code. I’m convinced people who write this off just don’t know how to use it

Very excited to share a new preprint - my first paper in the @mikeeconomo.bsky.social lab where we asked when and why the motor cortex is recruited for movement control:🧠👇https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.13.699314v1

Anyone else going to #Cosyne2026 and interested in some sport climbing/bouldering? I’m bringing gear for potentially the 11th, 15th, and 18th. Farol da Guia and Sintra.

✨New Corder Lab preprint 🧠⚡️ - from Dr Sophie Rogers ! Differential modulation of aversive signaling by expectation across the cingulate cortex We image the same ACC + RSC neurons over time during noxious fear learning to ask: who encodes aversion vs who predicts it 🔮 biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We are excited to announce the 2026 GRC Neurobiology of Cognition (7/19-24) in beautiful Waterville Valley, NH! Registration/abstract submission open. Wonderful speakers/program covering cognition across scales & species, incl. AI & neuromodulation! @desrocherslab.bsky.social @erinlrich.bsky.social

Just finished this thrilling, vulnerable, and inspiring book on friendship, loss, addiction, resilience, and editing memories by Prof Steve Ramirez. Neuroscientists and neuroscience enthusiasts should enjoy this one.

Same work accepted at Nature Comms but rejected at Cosyne in the same week! Science is so capricious!

My alma mater! Coincidentally, it was also a talk at Puget Sound by an Allen Institute scientist that led me to work there after graduation which then set me on my current path in neuroscience. Very full circle to see students being shown calcium imaging data, some of which I helped collect!

Cut to me aura farming at the department holiday party having already been accepted for a workshop while everyone else is stressing over abstracts.

Our paper on data constrained RNN that generalize to optogenetic perturbations now citable on eLife: doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

If you're (1) into nhp neurophysiology and/or biological motor control, (2) a foreign big shot and (3) interested in moving here, please reach out -- this new program looks extremely attractive (min. $8M over 8y)! www.uwo.ca/research/can...

Happy to share this new paper from the lab led by Angus Chapman, now out in PLoS Biology! It presents an integrated spatiotemporal normalization model for continuous vision. @afchapman.bsky.social journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Another good work showing not everything and not everywhere! Reminds me of Lin et al which also showed OFC signals reward but does not accumulate it, DLPFC does.

For all #electrophysiology folks! We just released and end-to-end spike sorting pipeline for large scale ephys! It's based on Nextflow and SpikeInterface, fully reproducible and parallelized. Check out the preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

$600 million dollar bet by Astera Foundation to solve consciousness via reading and writing of neural activity led by Doris Tsao. astera.org/neuroscienti...

Great news! We are looking for an NHP neuroscientist as the assistant professor level. We have no preconceived ideas -- looking for the most exciting research going. If you have any questions, please reach out. universityaffairs.ca/search-jobs/...