Wisdom

The brain continuously optimizing its predictions. Local "leaky" circuits correct errors, while hierarchies link these computations using nonlinearities shaped by prior expectations. Predictive Coding with Bayesian Priors via Proximal Gradients arxiv.org/abs/2606.08374 #neuroscience

Finally putting this work out as a preprint :) Thanks to Emery Brown and @earlkmiller.bsky.social for helping conceptualize this work! Code: github.com/Bowen-Zheng-... and a tutorial notebook on the key ideas: github.com/Bowen-Zheng-... A 3-min overview below: (1/)

New results! A new method that analyzes brain waves and spike timing together. This lets us pinpoint exactly which rhythms neurons are locking to. BAYESIAN STATE-SPACE MODEL FOR JOINT INFERENCE OF OSCILLATORY DYNAMICS AND POINT-PROCESS COUPLING doi.org/10.64898/202... #neuroscience

Distinct temporal patterns of beta bursts differentiate successful and failed movement cancellation www.cell.com/iscience/ful... #neuroscience

Speedy, spiraling electrical waves may be key to brain’s information flow Rotating neuronal waves are built into brain anatomy and help coordinate far-flung regions, mouse imaging study suggests www.science.org/content/arti... #neuroscience

Prefrontal parvalbumin neurons mediate working memory in a task demand-dependent manner www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroscience

Macroscale traveling waves link perception, response selection, and vocal production during marmoset vocal interactions doi.org/10.64898/202... #neuroscience

Neural synchrony between prefrontal and visual cortex supports visual working memory doi.org/10.64898/202... #neuroscience

Tonight! Or on YouTube soon.

New results! Mechanistic corticostriatal circuit model predicts learning-dependent fMRI dynamics and individual reward bias in humans doi.org/10.64898/202... #neuroscience #neuroblox

Correction: June 11. On Thurs, 6/11/26, 8pm, I will give the PSW public science lecture at the Cosmos Club in DC And you (yes, you) can watch online: pswscience.org/meeting/2537/ Thought Emerges from Neural Dynamics How Science is Unraveling the Nature of Cognition and Consciousness. #neuroscience

Congratulations to the newly minted *Dr.* Adam Eisen. He has that new Ph.D. smell. @adamjeisen.bsky.social @picowerinstitute.bsky.social

New results! The prefrontal cortex uses a compact, low-dimensional “coding space”. Information can be captured in just 3–6 dimensions. The brain compresses what we remember. Low-dimensional prefrontal representations of objects during working memory doi.org/10.64898/202... #neuroscience

The cortex is not best understood as a set of fully separate, self-contained modules. Instead, regions work together in a more integrated, network-like way. Brain-wide distributed processing underlying natural vision and audition doi.org/10.64898/202... #neuroscience

Michael Levin & Earl Miller: Platonic Space of Minds, Bioelectricity, Cell Intelligence & Neurobots youtu.be/6mU5nN5nlLA?... #neuroscience

I was happy to be a part.

A model of how beta and gamma rhythms impact synaptic integration in pyramidal neurons. Spatially targeted inhibitory rhythms differentially affect neuronal integration doi.org/10.7554/eLif... #neuroscience

New results! Theta rhythms flexibly routing information based on behavior and feedback, organizing local and long-range neural communication. Theta gates and routes information in the frontal cortex doi.org/10.64898/202... #neuroscience

Beta rhythms sending top-down feedback to refine perception. Olfactory bulb-cortex oscillations encode perceived odor intensity rather than concentration journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... #neuroscience

“…about the multi-generational effort to build national capacity in science and technology… the effort and ingenuity of so many people over 160 years of American life, that is currently being deliberately destroyed.” I feel this too.

Thalamic recordings show a rhythm that’s strong in wake and REM and absent in deep sleep: An electrophysiological signature of conscious states. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroscience

Myriam Heiman named the director of The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. Heiman, who studies neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, will lead the institute beginning July 1. picower.mit.edu/news/myriam-... #neuroscience

OFC encodes option values while LPFC tracks spatial locations during both overt (eye movements) and covert (internal) attention. Effects of overt and covert attention on decision-making dynamics in prefrontal cortex doi.org/10.64898/202... #neuroscience

Sensorimotor transformation of number in the primate parietal cortex www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroscience

Analog computation in the brain? Yes, says Brass-for-Brains: Analog Computation for Cognition osf.io/preprints/ps... And we agree: Analog Cognition and Consciousness osf.io/preprints/ps... #neuroscience

Visual attention relies on coordinated activity across brain areas. Computational neural dynamics of goal-directed visual attention in macaques doi.org/10.1126/scia... #neuroscience

Support our fight to save democracy using science! secure.actblue.com/donate/sam4n...

Brains seem to be wired so that signals are “just right”. This paper argues that there is a special “sweet spot” in how the brain is organized that keeps activity balanced. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroscience

The brain’s code seems to be in constant flux. Neurons fire much more erratically than researchers thought. www.nature.com/articles/d41... #neuroscience

Check out John Duncan's (@john-duncan.bsky.social) substack blog. He'll drop knowledge on you: johnduncananimalandthinker.substack.com

Wish I could have been there for this. Loving both psychology and neuroscience, my prior is that the former (for now) is the more informative level for questions like this. But I would have loved to get this prior updated. Example: johnduncananimalandthinker.substack.com/p/culture-wa...

Join us at MIT today. We're going to science the shit out of Democracy. #neuroscience @picowerinstitute.bsky.social

New lab photo. Miller Lab @ MIT #neuroscience @picowerinstitute.bsky.social

What are the functions of primary visual cortex (V1)? doi.org/10.1016/j.co... #neuroscience

Huzzah!

Our brains don’t think in a steady stream. They rhythmically “scan” different alternatives, using attention cycles to sample and compare choices. Rhythmic sampling of multiple decision alternatives in the human brain www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroscience

A communication subspace relays context-dependent actions from human prefrontal to motor cortex www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroscience

The influence of nonlinear resonance on human cortical oscillations www.nature.com/articles/s42... #neuroscience

Prefrontal modulation of striatal engagement: a hierarchical framework for goal-directed behavior www.nature.com/articles/s42... #neuroscience

Beta bursts in motor cortex systematically reorganize with practice Beta burst dynamics in the motor cortex are reshaped through sensorimotor refinement direct.mit.edu/imag/article... #neuroscience

Fluctuating internal states mediate neural–behavioral covariations in V1 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroscience

Traveling waves steer neural timing across cortex, causally linking wave propagation to working-memory performance and sensory processing. Traveling-wave transcranial alternating current stimulation (twtACS) causally links neural timing to cognitive function doi.org/10.1073/pnas... #neuroscience

Adding an adaptive “braking” mechanism makes brain simulations more realistic and better able to capture how changes in excitability shape brain rhythms. doi.org/10.1371/jour... #neuroscience

More evidence for the role of alpha/beta rhythms in top-down control. Alpha oscillatory activity reveals focused-attentional disparity between cochlear implant users and normal hearing listeners www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroscience

The paper shows that high‑gamma field activity and local spiking are distinct. The “hashy” signal often treated as a proxy for spiking is partly generated by other biophysics like dendritic and network‑level currents, not just summed spikes. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroscience

Prefrontal modulation of striatal engagement: a hierarchical framework for goal-directed behavior www.nature.com/articles/s42... #neuroscience

Imagining philosophical zombies does not reveal an explanatory gap. It only shows imagination not possibility. Imaging airplanes flying backward reveals no deep mystery about aerodynamics. There Is No ‘Hard Problem Of Consciousness’ www.noemamag.com/there-is-no-... #neuroscience

There Is No Hard Problem of Consciousness www.noemamag.com/there-is-no-... #neuroscience

Biology, Brain Rhythms, and Consciousness Preprint: t.co/4HgaLu9XP6 Original: iai.tv/articles/stu... #neuroscience