Ning Leow

Coming March 17, 2026!
Just got my advance copy of Emergence — a memoir about growing up in group homes and somehow ending up in neuroscience and AI. It’s personal, it’s scientific, and it’s been a wild thing to write. Grateful and excited to share it soon.

Feature-specific inhibitory connectivity augments the accuracy of cortical representations To interpret complex sensory scenes, animals exploit statistical regularities to infer missing features and suppress redundant or ambiguous information. Cortical microcircuits might contribute to this...

I continue to think interneuron circuits are an untapped inspiration in neural network design for context-dependent computation.

“Top-down and bottom-up neuroscience: overcoming the clash of research cultures”
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Small contribution in this piece by @frosas.bsky.social and colleagues on how we need both types of research culture in neuroscience.
#neuroskyence

"No animal prior to the advent of modern neuroscience has ever seen repeating sequences of images."

Wonderfully pithy observation @georgkeller.bsky.social love it.

Our work, out at Cell, shows that the brain’s dopamine signals teach each individual a unique learning trajectory. Collaborative experiment-theory effort, led by Sam Liebana in the lab. The first experiment my lab started just shy of 6y ago & v excited to see it out: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

System-wide dissociation of reward and aversive dopaminergic signals Dopamine is central to reinforcement learning, classically linked to reward prediction error signaling. However, recent findings suggest a more complex picture, with dopamine neurons responding to ave...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Reasoning Goals and Representational Decisions in Computational Cognitive Neuroscience: Lessons From the Drift Diffusion Model The appropriate form of the drift diffusion model depends on how one wishes to reason about their target with the model. If the goal is to parsimoniously explain the speed-accuracy tradeoff, the appr...

super excited that the first paper from my PhD is now out! we develop a "philosophical toolkit" for computational cognitive modeling & use it to conceptually re-analyze a long-standing debate about evidence accumulation models of decision making 🧠📈 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Compositional pretraining improves computational efficiency and matches animal behaviour on complex tasks - Nature Machine Intelligence Hocker et al. demonstrate a method for training recurrent neural networks, which they call ‘kindergarten curriculum learning’, involving pretraining on simple cognitive tasks to improve learning effic...

www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Basic pain research ‘is not working’: Q&A with Steven Prescott and Stéphanie Ratté Prescott and Ratté critique the clinical relevance of preclinical studies in the field and highlight areas for improvement.

Basic pain researchers Steven Prescott and Stéphanie Ratté critique the clinical relevance of preclinical studies in the field and highlight areas for improvement.

By @sydneywyatt.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/pain/basic-p...

Natural Neuroscience Natural neuroscience departs from the classical reductionist approach, which emphasizes control at the expense of natural behaviors, by proposing a shift tow...

I highly recommend this inspiring new book by Nahum Ulanovsky! A plea for neuroscientists to embrace “Natural Neuroscience”: use emerging technologies to uncover meaningful behavior and neural representations in free-roaming animals exposed to real-world stimuli.
mitpress.mit.edu/978026204499...

Stereo olfaction underlies stable coding of head direction in blind mice - Nature Communications Stereo olfaction involves comparing odor differences between the two nostrils. Here, using neuronal recordings and a behavioral test, the authors demonstrate that blind mice use stereo olfaction to fo...

🚨new paper alert
Blind mice use stereo olfaction, comparing smells between nostrils, to maintain a stable sense of direction. Blocking this ability disrupts their internal compass.

Kudos to @kasumbisa.bsky.social! Another cool chapter of the Trenholm-Peyrache collab😉

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The proximate mechanisms responsible for triggering mammalian fever are relatively well understood. When immune cells recognize the presence of a pathogen, they release signaling chemicals known as cytokines. Among many other functions, cytokine signals stimulate the brain region known as the hypothalamus, which is responsible for regulating many of the body’s physiological systems (Figure 20.2). The signals induce a shift in the body’s thermal setpoint for temperature regulation, promoting warmth-seeking behavior while driving an endogenous increase in body temperature and inducing fever (Osterhout et al. 2022). For example, when components of the bacterial cell wall are bound by immune cells known as macrophages, the macrophages produce the fever-inducing signals. The presence

of bacterial cell wall components is a strong indicator of bacterial infection, and thus this pathway illustrates a mechanistic coupling between indications of pathogen challenge and the fever response. Consequences of Fever In humans, higher fevers are associated with more severe infections. A number of studies of human patients have shown that patients who receive fever- reducing antipyretic drugs such as aspirin, acetaminophen, or ibuprofen recover less quickly from viral infection (Hasday et al. 2000). These observations indicate that fever may play a beneficial role in shortening the duration of infection. Studies of patients with bacterial sepsis (a severe and very dangerous full-body inflammatory response induced by bacterial infection) have often, but not always, revealed a higher survival rate in patients that exhibit fever than in patients without fever. It is important to recognize that this observed correlation does not provide direct evidence of causation. Survival rates could be lower in patients without fever because, for example, the inability to mount a fever response could be indicative of more severe illness. As we described in the introduction of this chapter, numerous nonhuman species exhibit a fever response as well (Figure 20.3). In many of the species, manipulative studies are possible. Animals infected with bacterial pathogens and then treated with antipyretic drugs have more rapid bacterial proliferation and higher mortality rates than individuals allowed to develop a normal fever response. Similar results have been observed for viral infections. Because manipulating temperature by pharmaceutical means may cause additional side effects that make it hard to interpret the experimental results, researchers have also conducted experiments in which they manipulate body temperature directly. These studies tend to show comparable benefits to elevated body temperature. Taken together, the correlational studies in humans and manipulative studies in …

of bacterial cell wall components is a strong indicator of bacterial infection, and thus this pathway illustrates a mechanistic coupling between indications of pathogen challenge and the fever response. Consequences of Fever In humans, higher fevers are associated with more severe infections. A number of studies of human patients have shown that patients who receive fever- reducing antipyretic drugs such as aspirin, acetaminophen, or ibuprofen recover less quickly from viral infection (Hasday et al. 2000). These observations indicate that fever may play a beneficial role in shortening the duration of infection. Studies of patients with bacterial sepsis (a severe and very dangerous full-body inflammatory response induced by bacterial infection) have often, but not always, revealed a higher survival rate in patients that exhibit fever than in patients without fever. It is important to recognize that this observed correlation does not provide direct evidence of causation. Survival rates could be lower in patients without fever because, for example, the inability to mount a fever response could be indicative of more severe illness. As we described in the introduction of this chapter, numerous nonhuman species exhibit a fever response as well (Figure 20.3). In many of the species, manipulative studies are possible. Animals infected with bacterial pathogens and then treated with antipyretic drugs have more rapid bacterial proliferation and higher mortality rates than individuals allowed to develop a normal fever response. Similar results have been observed for viral infections. Because manipulating temperature by pharmaceutical means may cause additional side effects that make it hard to interpret the experimental results, researchers have also conducted experiments in which they manipulate body temperature directly. These studies tend to show comparable benefits to elevated body temperature. Taken together, the correlational studies in humans and manipulative studies in …

downtime—is far less than the cost of failing to produce a fever when it is needed to clear an infection. Thus, we might expect that fevers should be relatively common, and most should be unnecessary. If so, this means that in most cases, we should be able to intervene safely, reducing fever with antipyretic drugs. Medical technologies—most notably antibiotics and rehydration therapy—and improvements in nutritional status further reduce the risk of death by infection relative to what it would have been throughout much of our evolutionary history. Even many of those infections that might historically have been lethal without a fever response can now be safely controlled without fever. This is not to say that treating most fevers with antipyretic drugs is necessarily a good idea. Further research will be needed to resolve that issue. But it does provide an explanation for why we can often safely interfere with fever, despite its role as an evolved defense against pathogens.

Since people expressed curiosity, here's an excerpt from my textbook Evolution (coauthored with Lee Dugatkin) that addresses fever as an evolved defense and why we can treat it safely nonetheless.

Latest update (same link): spokesperson says the conference ban for scientists is *reversed* & travel can resume "following established approval processes within each Institute & Center."

The reporting shows how much protocol seems to be getting set verbally, and not in writing. Such a disaster.

Tracking Trump’s Higher-Ed Agenda The federal government is reshaping its relationship with the nation’s colleges. Use our new tracker to keep up with the latest.

the @chronicle.com has launched what is going to be a tremendously useful tool: a tracker of the Trump administration's activities affecting higher ed, particularly in the areas of civil rights, research, policy, and immigration. check it out: www.chronicle.com/article/trac...

The curious interpretation of novel object recognition tests Novel object recognition tasks are commonly used to assess memory in rodents. These tests rely on an innate preference for exploring objects that are new or have been moved or changed. However, this p...

Interesting commentary in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social, arguing that we need to be careful not to always assume that rodents prefer novelty:

www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

🧠📈 🧪

The Coming Out of a Transgender Scientist "I know that I am making the right decision because whenever I think about changing my gender role, I am flooded with feelings of relief."

We're disappointed to see Ben Barres's powerful book "The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist" among the ~400 titles removed from the Naval Academy Library. Needless to say, we're proud to have published his book and will keep it — and his memory — alive.

Many of us use 2p scopes to image 3D volumes of brain. But then we analyze the data plane by plane, resulting in duplicated neurons, missed neurons, and low s/n. Let's go 3D!

Suite3D: Volumetric cell detection for two-photon microscopy
by @haydari.bsky.social & team.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

BlueBerry Wireless Optogenetics BlueBerry is a multi-channel wireless optogenetic system for freely moving mice and rats.

Kicking off Bluesky with BlueBerry, our open-access, multichannel wireless optogenetic device for freely moving rodents. Visit www.OptoBlueBerry.org for documentation and see its neuroscience applications from large-scale to social settings in our recent preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... ​

Spent a moment compiling drawings from my past few years of funding applications, including so very many drawings of mice.

Posted here in hopes they save someone else the effort:
drive.google.com/file/d/1x_Jo...

Theoretical Neuroscience | Understanding Cognition | Xiao-Jing Wang | This textbook is an introduction to Systems and Theoretical/Computational Neuroscience, with a particular emphasis on cognition. It consists of three parts:

As our community increasingly shifts toward embracing the complexity of the brain, this new book by Xiao-Jing Wang will be an essential go-to.

He is among a small, prescient group that embraced important ideas before the rest of us. Here he unpacks them. 1/2

www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/1...

The Possibility Space Concept in Neuroscience: Possibilities, Constraints, and Explanations Although the brain is often characterized as a complex system, theoretical and philosophical frameworks often struggle to capture this. For example, mainstream mechanistic accounts model neural syste...

This is a bright spot to start the day (on the West Coast, that is). The paper on "possibility space" with @laurennross.bsky.social and Viktor Jirsa is now published!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Comparison of odorant concentrations in experimental studies, headspace of natural sources, and detection thresholds in rodents.

Glad to share this review of odor concentrations in nature versus experiments, just out in J Neurosci. Spoiler: they are far apart. We discuss implications for olfactory neuroscience and welcome debate. With @neuroboz.bsky.social @dewanlab.bsky.social, Betty Hong. www.jneurosci.org/content/45/1...

The Z-score method is apparently last and not just in alphabetical order for analyzing in vivo dopamine signals in the brain

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check out the scientific journey behind the newest FDA-approved pain medication! 💊 Learn how NIH-funded research played a crucial role—both directly and indirectly—in bringing this breakthrough to life. 🧪

It's finally out!

Visual experience orthogonalizes visual cortical responses

Training in a visual task changes V1 tuning curves in odd ways. This effect is explained by a simple convex transformation. It orthogonalizes the population, making it easier to decode.

10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115235

Really enjoyed this one as a preprint and happy to see it published relatively quickly! Super cool work re: the content of wake replay and adaptation.

❤️ A hole in my heart has mended, finally having a taste of my scientific home - MIT Brain & Cog - while home in Singapore because of the IDG/McGovern Neurofrontiers symposium held at NUS over the past 2 days.

Hippocampal neuronal activity is aligned with action plans - Nature Using high-density electrophysiological recordings, how internally generated cell assemblies are updated by action plans to meet external goals is explored.

It’s an incredible feeling to see something you’ve poured your heart into come to life. This work was born from my curiosity about hippocampal “cognitive tuning.”
Our interpretation of the environment depends on our actions, constantly evolving as we pursue our goals

www.nature.com/articles/s41...