Nidhi Seethapathi

Feedback control of random networks as a model of flexible motor cortical dynamics across tasks Kalidindi and Crevecoeur develop a computational framework linking feedback-controlled networks to limb dynamics. They demonstrate that optimal control of fixed network reproduces key motor cortical d...

Paper is out by @harikalidindi.bsky.social : feedback control model of neural population activity
www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Meet Surabhi Simha, a Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgia Tech and Emory University, whose research investigates neural control of human movement with a focus on mechanistic muscle spindle models and energy-efficient gait adaptation.

Part of our Women at IMSI spotlight series.
#WomenAtIMSI #Biomechanics

Striatal modulation supports context-specific reinforcement and not action selection Hodge et al. used closed-loop optogenetic stimulation and naturalistic behaviors to determine that striatal activity does not select the action to perform but rather biases performance through reinfor...

I hope this new-ish paper will challenge people to think about the interpretations of our models
STRIATUM SUPPORTS REINFORCEMENT AND NOT ACTION SELECTION (!!!)
tinyurl.com/HodgeAndYttri

@cmuscience.bsky.social
@cmu-neuroscience.bsky.social
#neuroskyence

Staying stable Scientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute have determined that animals with very different bodies likely use a shared strategy to balance themselves when they walk.

Yang ICoN researchers are revealing the shared rules of balance across species. 🧠🚶‍♀️🐭🪰 Humans, mice, and flies all use the same error-correction strategy to stay upright, thanks to new work led by ICoN Center’s @nidhise.bsky.social & ICoN Fellow @antoinecomite.bsky.social.

Shared feedback control principles across standing and walking Feedback control is required to maintain stability in both walking and standing, whereas the control parameters may differ due to the inherently different characteristics of these tasks. How feedback ...

New preprint; Shared feedback control principles across standing and walking. With Yang Geng and @jvandieen.bsky.social. Feedback welcome!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Yes, this was a very fun exercise to introspect about.

is there any reasons why world models need to be conscious / explicit?

World-models in your head Talking with a lot of people, they have rather shocking different kinds of world-models. I believe that people have somewhat specialized simulators. Let me list some and then give you the chance to ad...

Let's compare our world models. I find that different people seem to have rather distinct internal world models. E.g. I personally have neither visual imagination nor an inner voice, found it weird others do. Here is a quick google forms to check idea:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The best place in the world to be at the cutting edge of muscle models!

I think almost all scientific projects should be planned carefully. And I think an app can dramatically improve that. So I wrote an app for that (free for now, if you can fund this let me know). I tested it quite a bit (>8000 users in beta so far). try it: planyourscience.com

Postdoctoral researcher for DFG-funded project “FossilGaitSim” The Biomechanical Motion Analysis and Creation (BioMAC) group at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) invites applications for a postdoctoral position with the goal to…

My research group has an open position for a postdoc! Interested in investigating the postural transition towards mammalian gait using movement simulations? We might have the right position for you! More details and application info here: www.asm.tf.fau.de/en/2025/11/1...

On a similar note, I feel like we ought to stop writing papers as flowing text and instead just have the bullet points you would have used as a prompt.

I'm actually not joking.

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.

MLMC2025 is tomorrow!

For those joining remotely, here is the link for the meeting:

harvard.zoom.us/j/9544921964...

Reminder, the conference will start promptly at 9am PST.

Please visit the website for additional information, schedule, registration, etc!

motor-conference.org/openconf.php

Come to my poster at SfN on Wednesday morning! I'll present my work on how the cerebellum uses internal models to control neocortical dynamics in a non-motor learning task. I'm biased, but I think it's pretty exciting! www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/21171...

India wins Women’s Cricket World Cup for first time with 52-run victory over South Africa India has won the Women’s Cricket World Cup for the first time with a 52-run victory over South Africa on Sunday.

India won the Women’s Cricket World Cup for the first time with a 52-run victory over South Africa on Sunday.

1/N
How do neural dynamics in motor cortex interact with those in subcortical networks to flexibly control movement? I’m beyond thrilled to share our work on this problem, led by Eric Kirk @eric-kirk.bsky.social with help from Kangjia Cai!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We are excited to share our new paper that dives into how ongoing decision deliberation reflects ongoing movements: (jneurosci.org/content/45/3...
A tour-de-force by the incredible Jan Calalo.

Cerebellar Contributions to Action and Cognition: Prediction, Timescale, and Continuity The cerebellum is implicated in nearly every domain of human cognition, yet our understanding of how this subcortical structure contributes to cognition remains elusive. Efforts on this front have ten...

The cerebellum isn’t just about coordinating movement. It’s implicated in nearly every domain of cognition—from language to social behavior.

But how exactly does the cerebellum contribute to action and cognition? 🧵

Check out our new paper w/ Rich Ivry.
arxiv.org/abs/2509.09818

Stoked to see our study out in final form! Big kudos to @jonathanamichaels.bsky.social for driving this along for the past 5 years.

Policy-Gradient Reinforcement Learning as a General Theory of Practice-Based Motor Skill Learning Mastering any new skill requires extensive practice, but the computational principles underlying this learning are not clearly understood. Existing theories of motor learning can explain short-term ad...

New Pre-Print:
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

We’re all familiar with having to practice a new skill to get better at it, but what really happens during practice? The answer, I propose, is reinforcement learning - specifically policy-gradient reinforcement learning.

Overview 🧵 below...

Exploration-based learning of a stabilizing controller predicts locomotor adaptation - Nature Communications People learn to walk better over time in novel situations, such as walking with new shoes. Here, the authors show that such adaptive behavior relies on a stabilizer that reacts quickly to keep the wal...

link to our paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Policy-Gradient Reinforcement Learning as a General Theory of Practice-Based Motor Skill Learning Mastering any new skill requires extensive practice, but the computational principles underlying this learning are not clearly understood. Existing theories of motor learning can explain short-term ad...

Our 2024 paper showed that policy gradient RL (with performance-based memory updates) predicts long-horizon motor learning. Now, @adrianhaith.bsky.social shows that policy-gradient RL also explains learning in other shorter horizon tasks. Exciting!

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

Important work by @nidhise.bsky.social discovering signatures of control for stable locomotion across species. Excited to see the models applied to diverse species as part of IMSI @movementscience.bsky.social

Thanks, Monica!!

aw, thanks Abhilasha! Hope we can work on some of these questions together ;)

Check out this #incredible work on #stability and #control during movement across #humans, #mice, and #flies.
Congratulations @nidhise.bsky.social and @antoinecomite.bsky.social 👏🏽⭐

that is much more recent than I would have imagined!

Excited that this work discovering cross-species signatures of stabilizing foot placement control is now out in PNAS!

pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

@antoinecomite.bsky.social

EPFL-Smart-Kitchen-30: Densely annotated cooking dataset with 3D kinematics to challenge video and language models Understanding behavior requires datasets that capture humans while carrying out complex tasks. The kitchen is an excellent environment for assessing human motor and cognitive function, as many complex...

Understanding behavior requires datasets that capture humans while carrying out complex tasks. The kitchen is an excellent environment for assessing human motor and cognitive function, as many complex actions are naturally exhibited in kitchens from chopping to 🧽!

arxiv.org/abs/2506.01608

thanks, Deepak :)