Gaia Tavoni

Couldn't be prouder of my team at #SfN25 - Timothy and Kaining crushed their poster session yesterday! 😁

Long-standing theoretical neuroscience fellowship program loses financial support Funding from the Swartz and Sloan Foundations helped bring physicists and mathematicians into neuroscience for more than 30 years.

I will always be grateful for the immense -- and unique -- contribution the Swartz Program made in supporting theoretical neuroscience over the past 30 years. Its closure leaves a profound void. doi.org/10.53053/FPR...

Finally, in bipartite models of the CA3-DG circuit in the hippocampus, a wiring strategy called "quasi-indexing" can boost memory capacity and protect stored information even when some neurons are lost, offering new insights into how the brain encodes and safeguards memories.

This prediction holds across various biologically relevant scenarios, including the storage of independent patterns in both classical and dendritic networks, as well as the storage of correlated patterns clustered around prototypes that represent concepts.

Although heterogeneity in neuron coding levels and inward connection counts (in-degrees) generally reduces capacity, maximal capacity is retained when these two parameters are correlated.

We derived an analytical formula for the maximal memory capacity of networks with heterogeneous neuron activation rates (coding levels) and arbitrary connectivity architectures. Using this result, we made normative predictions about the properties that maximize capacity in brain-inspired networks.

Our paper on the memory capacity of heterogeneous networks is now published in PRX Life! First author: Kaining Zhang. Congratulations, Kaining! journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...

The conundrum of the undergrad neuro program: should it be deeply quantitative or not? How do you design a single program that accommodates both students drawn to eg behavioral neuro & those interested in the intersection with maths? & not being only premed?

Blake shares an interesting story 👇

I dazi di Trump aprono al contrabbando: un nuovo proibizionismo YouTube video by Roberto Saviano Official

Chi ci guadagna dai dazi di Trump? Cosa c'entra la #Cina? In questo video vi voglio raccontare la strategia estorsiva di #Trump, cioè quella di portare gli stati a negoziare alle sue condizioni, e cosa c'entra la mafia con tutto questo.

One can reckon that the landscape of science funding is changing in the United States.
Whatever happens, I do hope that we see more targeted focused organizations adding up a new dimension to what the traditional university departments and industry research labs were/are doing.

Congrats Trevor! We are excited to welcome you to WashU :)

Excited to join @WashUPhysics as an assistant professor in Fall 2025! My group will develop non-equilibrium statistical physics to study criticality in biology—biomolecular condensates, gene regulation & adaptive immune systems. DM for postdoc/grad openings! #myphysicsjourney

Here, we began to bridge computational and algorithmic perspectives on sensory coding, integrating multimodal function. In an upcoming study, we will further connect computational and implementational perspectives, moving toward a full integration of Marr's triad. Stay tuned!

(3) Finally, it provides a normative explanation for a class of observed 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘭 receptive fields while integrating previous knowledge of 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘭 processing as a special case within a broader, unitary framework.

(2) The study demonstrates how efficient and predictive 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 are concurrently supported by a shared neural substrate and how different network components can implement these computations at the 𝘢𝘭𝘨𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘮𝘪𝘤 level.

(1) The study shows that in feedback-modulated canonical networks, efficient coding automatically generates predictive codes, where stimuli from one modality can serve as predictors for stimuli in another modality. Cross-modal 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 computations are an emergent property of 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 codes.

Convergence of efficient and predictive coding in multimodal sensory processing The existence of pathways connecting different sensory modalities in the brain challenges the traditional view of sensory systems as operating independently. However, the reasons and mechanisms underl...

New ms! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
I developed a normative coding theory for feedback-modulated canonical networks, providing a unified view of (1) efficient & predictive coding, (2) computational & algorithmic principles, (3) unimodal & multimodal sensory processing.

Breaking the barrier between theorists and experimentalists Many neuroscience students are steeped in an experiment-first style of thinking. Let’s not forget how theory can guide experiments.

Many neuroscience students are steeped in an experiment-first style of thinking that leads to “random walk science.” Let’s not forget how theory can guide experiments towards deeper insights, writes @gershbrain.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/theoretical-...