Constantinople lab

Inspired by discussions at several recent foraging-related seminar series and conferences, our review in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social explores an expanded role for foraging as a framework in neuroscience and discusses future directions for the field. Do check it out.

doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...

What happens in your brain when you make up your mind?

Postdoc (soon faculty at U. of Utah) @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social and ex-grad student (now Shanahan Fellow at Allen Institute) @timkimd.bsky.social have some answers in this new paper out in Nature!

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

🧵 1/6

Rats vs. Chats, round 1: bomb safety

It is real! Sadly not in NYC, but in Capitol Hill, Seattle. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Rat...

Orbitofrontal cortex computes gaze-dependent comparisons between attributes rather than integrated values When choosing between options with multiple attributes, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is thought to integrate across those attributes, aiding in value comparisons. This study shows in monkeys that OF...

Happy to have some good science news - our new study with @aqperkins.bsky.social is out in @plosbiology.org!

dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Rat-mon y Cajal, our lab mascot, is a pro at our task because he went to kindergarten first. His nemesis, Le Chat GPT, just copied off everyone else’s homework.

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

Standing Up for Science in NYC This form is for organizing the fight against attacks on science and science funding through "Ask-A-Scientist" and other outreach events around NYC. Find and contribute to plans here: https://docs.goo...

Scientists based in New York - do you want to help raise awareness about attacks on science & science funding? We are organizing low-effort outreach events in the city. Some amazing NYUers did a test run in Washington Square Park already.

Sign up for more info here! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Rat-mon is a pro at our task because he went to kindergarten first.

Wild!

Stephen, Praneel and their team use fluorescence lifetime imaging and various manipulations to show that, in male mice, both mating drive and hypothalamic tonic dopamine release drop after a successful mating and gradually recover over the next week, paralleling the recovery in sperm count.

The war on science in the US is already having an effect on private sector research like AlphaFold. Bears repeating but the private sector builds on top of things created by academic research for the public good. This hurts everyone.

Common reviewer comment: "Why do they have so many rats?"

Because it's NYC b*tch.

During Q&A, whenever someone asks a question about our "mice."

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...

David Hocker’s paper about compositional pretraining for RNNs that efficiently produces animal-like behaviors! Modeling cognitive tasks in RNNs requires thinking about latent abilities that animals bring to an experiment. Funded by NIH/CRCNS. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

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...

This is such a mistake - these alternative ways of testing aren't good enough "models" to evaluate new drugs. People will suffer and die because of this.

I never thought that I wouldn't be able rely on the US FDA for safety and effectiveness. What a sad era ...

Brain-wide presynaptic networks of functionally distinct cortical neurons - Nature Behavioural-state-dependent pyramidal neurons have a distinct pattern of long-range glutamatergic inputs, with a larger proportion of thalamic versus motor cortex inputs compared with non-behavio...

Groundbreaking work by Dr. Soohyun Lee from the National Institute of Mental Health at NIH
The brilliant young scientist faces termination.
Science like this leads to discoveries that can revolutionize how we understand the brain.
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
#neuroscience #neuroskyence

hello world. we have an opening for a strong theory postdoc to work in my lab on a exciting collaboration with Josh Berke and Loren Frank labs modeling and analyzing data on rat hipp-pfc-bg-da involvement in spatial maze foraging, replay, value etc. apply here: www.princeton.edu/acad-positio...

SHARE WIDELY.
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS.

With mass deportations starting today across the country, it is vitally important - for both citizens and non-citizens - to know your rights.

You have the right to remain silent. Assert it. You have the right to a lawyer. Ask for one.

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It's official, the Rich lab is now part of the Center for Neural Science at NYU! I'm thrilled to be joining CNS! At the same time, I'll miss my amazing colleagues at Sinai (even though we're not going far).

Here's to new adventures in the new year!🥂

NYU campus near Washington Square

We are hiring at NYU! An Assistant Professor position between the Department of Biology and the Center for Neural Science.

apply.interfolio.com/160048

Deadline Jan 8th

Please re-post / re-Sky / re-Blue...just tell people

Cosyne 2025 Undergraduate Travel Grant Program

The Undergrad Travel Grant Program (deadline: Dec 6th) provides an opportunity for undergrads to learn more about comp systems neuro. It’s especially suited for students considering neuro graduate study!

Apply here:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

More info:
www.cosyne.org/travel-grants

The Center for Neural Science at NYU is aiming to add another computational neuroscientist to our community: apply.interfolio.com/157767
Come join us!
Deadline 31 Dec 2024

🚨 PhD opportunity alert! 🚨

Join our lab @sidb-edinburgh.bsky.social in beautiful Edinburgh! We study the neural mechanisms underlying flexible decision-making using cutting-edge experimental and computational approaches.

We’re recruiting for two fully funded PhD positions. Details below 👇

Sharing this wonderful collaboration led by @yashsmehta.bsky.social and @janfunkey.bsky.social seems like a great way to introduce myself to bluesky. So check it out! It was a pleasure to work with this amazing team of scientists!

Estrogenic control of reward prediction errors and reinforcement learning Gonadal hormones act throughout the brain[1][1], and neuropsychiatric disorders vary in symptom severity over the reproductive cycle, pregnancy, and perimenopause[2][2]–[4][3]. Yet how hormones influe...

Excited to be here in this quest for simpler times!

Here’s where you can find what I’ve been working on the last five years: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...