Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit

Under He/Lecun inits, theory implies Kernel OR Unstable regimes as width→∞. Discrepancies (e.g. feature learning) are seen as finite width effects.

Our #NeurIPS2025 spotlight refutes this: practical nets do not converge to kernel limits; Feature learning persists as width→∞🧵

At #NeurIPS ? Visit our posters! 🧵

Demystifying Spectral Feature Learning for Instrumental Variable Regression: #2600, Wed 11am

Regularized least squares learning with heavy-tailed noise is minimax optimal: #3012, Wed 4:30pm ✨spotlight✨

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Find us at NeurIPS, Thur 4:30 pm #2115! We know networks have to be both plastic and stable but we're used to thinking about computations, such as memory, as additional requirements. Instead, we find that almost all stable & plastic networks display simple memory abilities.

A list of acceped papers by researchers at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, with corresponding poster time.

👋 Will you be at #NeurIPS?

Stop by our researchers' posters to learn more about their work!

The date should of course be August 17-28 2026!

📢 Project Research Internship (spring 2026)

Apply now to work with Dr Leena Chennuru Vankadara (@leenacvankadara.bsky.social) on the fundamental principles governing the behaviour of modern large-scale machine learning systems.

⏰ Deadline: 18 Dec 2025, 1pm GMT
ℹ️ www.ucl.ac.uk/life-science...

Coming up on Wed Nov 19 1-4:15PM
NANO052: Auditory Processing at Multiple Scales

👂Contributions of sound offsets and onsets to auditory cortical population dynamics evoked by brief gaps in noise

with Zimo Li, Chen Lu, Maneesh Sahani and Jennifer Linden

✈️ Heading to #SfN25?

Check out Kira's (@kiradust.bsky.social) work
"Autistic individuals learn to exploit temporal regularities in simple but not complex contexts"
at Early Career Poster Session (Nov 15 18:45-20:45, A21) or Autism: Behavioral Analysis session (Nov 16 13-17, A27).

Don't miss it!

If you are interested in Bonsai and attending #SfN25 in San Diego, come and hang out by the Bonsai Foundation Booth 3726, Hall B2.

Task logic, Harp devices, online real-time Machine Learning, new language features. We will be there everyday with live demos and open to chat about all things Bonsai!

Dopamine as a teaching signal: understanding its role in shaping individual behavior - Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy - Dopamine as a teaching signal: understanding its role in shaping individual behavior

Honored to have a research highlight featuring our work!

A comprehensive overview of our results and their impact for future research and applications:

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

AI for Good Webinar Series 'From Molecules to Models': With Arthur Gretton on causal effect estimation

💬 AI for Good Webinar Series 'From Molecules to Models' - today with @arthurgretton.bsky.social (@ucl.ac.uk, ELLIS Fellow) on causal effect estimation.

📅 Oct 29th
🕓 17:00-18:00 CET

🔗 Registration: aiforgood.itu.int/event/learn-...
ℹ️ More info: ellis.eu/news/continu...

⏰ Deadline approaching for our PhD programmes!

👋 Apply by 3 Nov to join us and immerse yourself in world-class research and vibrant London life!

Gatsby Unit: ucl.ac.uk/life-science...

@sainsburywellcome.bsky.social: sainsburywellcome.org/web/content/...

Joint: www.ucl.ac.uk/life-science...

Looking forward to next week's Winter School on Causality and Explainable AI!

xai-winter-school.github.io

Applying to the #ELLISPhD Program? If you are selecting a Gatsby Unit faculty member as your main supervisor, don't forget to apply to the Gatsby Unit PhD Programme in parallel. Our deadline is 3 Nov 2025.
👉 www.ucl.ac.uk/life-science...

Photo of staff and students at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, with robots competing in a football match.

Congratulations to all the new SWC & @gatsbyucl.bsky.social PhD students for successfully completing Boot Camp!

We are delighted to welcome you to the community.

Students showcased their robots in our hotly anticipated annual @noblackboxes.bsky.social Robot Competition 🦾⚽💻

🙋Are you interested in bridging theory & experiments?

Applications are now open for 2026 entry to the Gatsby Unit & SWC joint PhD programme.

Join us and be part of a vibrant research community!

💰 Fully-funded 4-year programme
ℹ️ www.ucl.ac.uk/life-science...

@sainsburywellcome.bsky.social

Interested in a #PhD in machine learning & theoretical neuroscience?

Applications for 2026 entry to the Gatsby Unit PhD programme are open!

💰 Fully-funded 4-year programme
🤝 Close links to @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social
ℹ️ www.ucl.ac.uk/life-sciences/gatsby/study-and-work/gatsby-unit-phd-programme

A complete brain-wide activity map at single-cell resolution has been revealed for the first time.

Researchers recorded from 650,000+ neurons across 279 brain areas to track decision-making in mice.

Read the story:
🔗 www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/research...

Made possible only by the unique environment and amazing community at Janelia and the Gatsby. @hhmijanelia.bsky.social @gatsbyucl.bsky.social

Feedback, ideas, or requests for transgenic lines, protocols, and code are warmly welcome!

ProbNum 2025 Keynote 2 ``Gradient Flows on the Maximum Mean Discrepancy'' by @arthurgretton.bsky.social ( @gatsbyucl.bsky.social and Google DeepMind.

Slides available here: probnum25.github.io/keynotes

📢 ❗JOB OPPORTUNITY: Today is the closing date for this fantastic role we are funding at @gatsbyucl.bsky.social.
⏰ Apply before 23.59BST. 👇

Aeon is a new platform for continuous brain and behaviour research in naturalistic environments — already used in 15+ projects, including long-term social learning studies.

🔗 www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/blog/new...
📄 Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Are similar representations in neural nets evidence of shared computation? In new theory work w/ Lukas Braun (lukasbraun.com) & @saxelab.bsky.social, we prove that representational comparisons are ill-posed in general, unless networks are efficient.

@icmlconf.bsky.social @cogcompneuro.bsky.social

Main takeaway: Valid representational comparison relies on implicit assumptions (task-optimization *plus* efficient implementation). ⚠️ More work to do on making these assumptions explicit!

🧠 CCN poster (today): 2025.ccneuro.org/poster/?id=w...

📄 ICML paper (July): icml.cc/virtual/2025/poster/44890

Speakers and organizers of the GAC debate. Time and location of the GAC debate: 5 PM in Room C1.03.

Our #CCN2025 GAC debate w/ @gretatuckute.bsky.social, Gemma Roig (www.cvai.cs.uni-frankfurt.de), Jacqueline Gottlieb (gottlieblab.com), Klaus Oberauer, @mschrimpf.bsky.social &‬ @brittawestner.bsky.social asks:

📊 What benchmarks are useful for cognitive science? 💭
2025.ccneuro.org/gac

Sequential kernel embedding for mediated and time-varying dose response curves

Appearing in Bernoulli:
projecteuclid.org/journals/ber...

with preprint here: arxiv.org/abs/2111.03950

...along with code!
github.com/liyuan9988/K...

Rahul Singh, Liyuan Xu

UCL – University College London UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

JOB: We're recruiting for a 2-year post doc fellowship based at @gatsbyucl.bsky.social working with Prof Arthur Gretton to create new statistically efficient causal and interaction models with the aim of elucidating cellular interactions
⏰closing 27 August
👉 details: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Dopamine encodes deep network teaching signals for individual learning trajectories Longitudinal tracking of long-term learning behavior and striatal dopamine reveals that dopamine teaching signals shape individually diverse yet systematic learning trajectories, captured mathematical...

Does the brain learn by gradient descent?

It's a pleasure to share our paper at @cp-cell.bsky.social, showing how mice learning over long timescales display key hallmarks of gradient descent (GD).

The culmination of my PhD supervised by @laklab.bsky.social, @saxelab.bsky.social and Rafal Bogacz!

Aeon: an open-source platform to study the neural basis of ethological behaviours over naturalistic timescales Ethological behaviours are a powerful tool for neuroscience since they leverage the robust neural computations shaped by the species' evolution to study the neural basis of high-level cognitive functi...

New from @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social, @gatsbyucl.bsky.social, NeuroGEARS & DataJoint:

Aeon - an open-source platform combining long-term neural recording with naturalistic behavioural tracking in enriched habitats.

📑 Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🎓Thrilled to share I’ve officially defended my PhD!🥳

At @gatsbyucl.bsky.social, my research explored how prior knowledge shapes neural representations.

I’m deeply grateful to my mentors, @saxelab.bsky.social and @caswell.bsky.social, my incredible collaborators, and everyone who supported me!