Kanaka Rajan

(7/7) Congrats to Riley & Ryan on this work. Also huge thanks to collaborators Felix Berg, @raymondrchua.bsky.social‬, John Vastola, @joshlunger.bsky.social, Billy Qian & everyone who helps us kick the tires.

(6/7) A 4096-unit agent that remembers, plans & navigates risks gives a “window-sized” brain we can watch neuron-by-neuron. ForageWorld is a perfect sandbox for testing cognitive map theories & offers a blueprint for ultra-efficient autonomous AI systems in a naturalistic world.

(5/7) Analyzing the trained agent reveals an interpretable neural GPS: past & future positions can be linearly decoded over long horizons from the agent’s ‘neural’ activity, and a lightweight “predict-its-own-position” signal sharpens its compass even further.

(4/7) What we see is planning & recall over hundreds of timesteps!

After a quick wander, the agent switches from exploring to visiting patches from memory: revisiting food not seen for over 500-1000 steps, skirting predator zones & timing resource visits.

(3/7) For the agent’s “brain,” we used a lean recurrent network: 4096 units (<0.2% of the size of an ant brain), with only 10% connectivity & we let RL teach it what to do by trial & error.

(2/7) Introducing ForageWorld: Each session spawns a large arena with lakes, predators & food patches that deplete over time. The AI agent must juggle hunger, thirst & fatigue in this virtual space.

The agent can only "see" a small patch around itself, so no bird’s-eye view.

(1/7) New preprint from Rajan lab! 🧠🤖
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built

Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981

Rajan Lab presentation at RLDM 2025, Investigating active electrosensing and communication in deep-reinforcement learning trained artificial fish collectives

New work incoming at #RLDM2025 🤖 🐟

While we look forward to sharing our research, I'm mindful that many colleagues, including the authors of our second abstract, can't attend due to funding & travel issues.

Read the extended abstracts: rldm.org/program-2025/ #neuroskyence

Kanaka and Konrad smiling together in front of a blackboard

It was such a pleasure to host @kordinglab.bsky.social at @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social last week - thank you for joining us!

Big day for the Rajan lab at @harvardmed.bsky.social Friday Seminar Series 🌟

@satpreetsingh.bsky.social & Siyan Zhou gave outstanding talks on collective behaviors in artificial fish schools & disordered attractors in mice. I’m so proud of their work! 🤖🧠

‘Natural Neuroscience,’ an excerpt In his new book, Nachum Ulanovsky calls on the field to embrace naturalistic conditions and move away from overcontrolled experiments.

In his new book, published today, Nachum Ulanovsky calls on the field to embrace naturalistic conditions and move away from overcontrolled experiments.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...

COSYNE 2025 workshop information for the Rajan Lab. Monday, March 31, 9:00am-6:30pm features a Workshop titled 'Agent-based models in Neuroscience: Complex Planning, Embodiment, and Beyond'. The workshop explores digital agents and neural computations behind naturalistic behavior, bringing together experimentalists and theorists at the intersection of neuroscience, AI, and biomechanics. Names and headshots for the organizers (Ching Fang, PhD; Satpreet Singh, PhD; and Gizem Ozdil, PhD) are included

Headed to #Cosyne2025?

Don't miss this workshop led by Rajan lab postdocs @satpreetsingh.bsky.social, @chingfang.bsky.social & @gzmozd.bsky.social on how complex tasks, agent-based models & theory-experiment cross-talk help us study how the brain works 🧠🤖

#neuroskyence @cosynemeeting.bsky.social

Are you at @CosyneMeeting? Stop by the poster session today to see work from the #KempnerInstitute! #COSYNE2025

@cpehlevan.bsky.social @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social @blsabatini.bsky.social @kanakarajanphd.bsky.social @gershbrain.bsky.social

COSYNE 2025 Rajan lab posters. Friday, March 28 - Poster Session 2: 2-043: Emergent small-group foraging under variable group size, food scarcity, and sensory capabilities by Zhouyang (Hanson) Lu, Satpreet H Singh, Sonja Johnson-Yu, Aaron Walsman, Kanaka Rajan 2-058: 'Modeling rapid neuromodulation in the cortex-basal ganglia-thalamus loop' by Julia Costacurta and Yu Duan (co-first), John Assad, Kanaka Rajan and Scott Linderman (co-senior) 2-060: 'Measuring and Controlling Solution Degeneracy across Task-Trained RNNs' by Ann Huang, Satpreet Singh, Kanaka Rajan Saturday, March 29 - Poster Session 3: 3-020: 'ForageWorld: RL agents in complex foraging arenas develop internal maps for navigation and planning' by Ryan Badman, Riley Simmons-Edler, Joshua Lunger, John Vastola, William Qian, Kanaka Rajan 3-109: 'Inhibition-stabilized disordered dynamics in mouse cortex during navigational decision-making' by Siyan Zhou, Ryan Badman, Charlotte Arlt, Kanaka Rajan, Christopher Harvey

Big showing from the Rajan Lab at @cosynemeeting.bsky.social!

We have posters on everything from multi-agent social foraging to neuromodulated neural networks. Catch us in Poster Sessions 2 & 3 🧠🤖

#Cosyne2025 #NeuroAI #CompSci #neuroskyence

Six women stand close together, smiling at the camera in a well-lit indoor space with arched windows at a professional conference. The background features black-framed doors and a glimpse of palm trees outside.

Attended my first @cziscience.bsky.social #Neuroscience 2025 Meeting 🧠

Grateful to speak alongside such amazing theorists, see old & new friends & connect across academia & industry

Shoutout to @bjmarlin.bsky.social, @muraronara.bsky.social , @erinmgibson.bsky.social & all these wonderful folks🌟

With insights from SWC Seminar speakers Andrew Alexander (UCSB), @kanakarajanphd.bsky.social ( @harvard.edu ), Teresa Guillamón Vivancos (Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante), @hannahpayne.bsky.social ( @columbiauniversity.bsky.social ) André Fenton (New York University)

Wave shape on an orange background

What do neural oscillations like theta and gamma do? 14 leading experts explain the role of rhythms in the brain from coordinating neural processes to encoding memories and more.

Read more: www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/blog/mak...

#BrainAwarenessWeek

More brainlike computers could change AI for the better New brain-inspired hardware, architectures and algorithms could lead to more efficient, more capable forms of AI.

Could worm brains and ideas from neuroscience lead to better #AI? I just got my copy of a story I wrote about #neuromorphic computing for @sciencenews.bsky.social sciencenews.org/article/brai... 🧪 Thanks @subutaiahmad.bsky.social @kanakarajanphd.bsky.social & many others who shared their expertise

Huge thanks to our other collaborators Fede Pedraja, Aaron Walsman, Denis Turcu, @nsaphra.bsky.social & Pratyusha Sharma. Thank you also to @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social for helping make our work possible 🧠🤖

#neuroskyence #NeuroAI

Digital illustration of a school of red fish with simple geometric features on a purple background. Some fish are connected by curved dashed and solid lines, suggesting interactions or relationships between them.

Enjoyed sharing our work on electric fish with @dryohanjohn.bsky.social⚡🐟 Their electric "conversations" help us build models to discover neural mechanisms of social cognition. Work led by Sonja Johnson-Yu & @satpreetsingh.bsky.social with Nate Sawtell

kempnerinstitute.harvard.edu/news/what-el...

President Biden Honors Nearly 400 Federally Funded Early-Career Scientists | OSTP | The White House Today, President Biden awarded nearly 400 scientists and engineers the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outst...

Deeply honored to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers #PECASE. Thanks to the NIH funding and my incredible team who make our work pushing the boundaries of NeuroAI possible 🧠🤖

www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-up...

The Transmitter books The Transmitter’s first book, “Thinking about neuroscience: Essays from the field,” features a rich collection of writing from researchers Nicole Rust, Anthony Zador and many more.

Delighted to have a chance to contribute my thoughts to @thetransmitter.bsky.social’s debut book! I highlight how noise in the brain could actively shape cognition & serve as a model for adaptive AI. Thank you @nicolecrust.bsky.social for including me in your piece! #neuroscience 🧠🤖

screenshot of me from the pdf

My essay features @manlius.bsky.social, @antihebbiann.bsky.social, @marinopagan.bsky.social, @pessoabrain.bsky.social, @kanakarajanphd.bsky.social, @crozell.bsky.social and many more - all looking fabulous. @rebeccasky.bsky.social and @thetransmitter.bsky.social team do such a terrific job!

Register — AE Global Summit on Open Problems for AI

If you're interested in the future of #AI, the AE Global Summit on Open Problems for AI is tomorrow! 🤖

Join us to learn more about the biggest challenges in modern AI. I'm looking forward to discussing our work in #NeuroAI

Register below 👇🏽Hope to see you there!
www.algopreneurship.ai/register

Joint the Comp Neuro conversation

go.bsky.app/K8hiHqe

Can't recommend this starter pack enough!

Rajan Lab The Rajan Lab integrates brain research with AI, by using real neuroscience data to build flexible, complex computational models of the brain.

👋🏽 Hi Bluesky! Happy to see so many more faces here.

I’m an Associate Professor at Harvard and the Kempner Institute using AI and computational models to unlock the secrets of how our brains learn and make decisions across different scales 👩🏽‍🔬🧠🤖 #neuroskyence #academicsky

www.rajanlab.com

This is awesome. Would love to be added!

My new piece for @thetransmitter.bsky.social. Why is treating brain dysfunction so ENORMOUSLY challenging?

Because it amounts to controlling a complex system.

Drawing from the history of weather research, I pose the question: Can it even be done?

www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...

With thoughts from 14 experts, including: @manlius.bsky.social, @antihebbiann.bsky.social, @pessoabrain.bsky.social, @kanakarajanphd.bsky.social, @crozell.bsky.social.

Would love to hear your thoughts as well!

#neuroskyence, #complexity, 🧪​