Cool! Are these dimensions PCs or just the first 250 dims of a word embedding? Also, are these networks in any way interpretable? Maybe the embedding network -> human alignment helps with this?
🚨 New preprint on individual differences in artificial neural networks and human behavior.
We show that individual differences among ANN instances trained with different random initializations capture the individual differences in human behavior.
1/8
1/7 Can infants recognise the world around them? 👶🧠 As part of the FOUNDCOG project, we scanned 134 awake infants using fMRI. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, our research reveals 2-month-old infants already possess complex visual representations in VVC that align with DNNs.
The last chapter of my PhD (expanded) is finally out as a preprint!
“Semantic reasoning takes place largely outside the language network” 🧠🧐
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
What is semantic reasoning? Read on! 🧵👇
Check this out!
What does it mean to understand language? We argue that the brain’s core language system is limited, and that *deeply* understanding language requires EXPORTING info to other brain regions.
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇
Our paper “The cost of thinking is similar between large reasoning models and humans” is now out in PNAS! 🤖🧠
w/ @fepdelia.bsky.social, @hopekean.bsky.social, @lampinen.bsky.social, and @evfedorenko.bsky.social
Link: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... (1/6)
🤖📈 How do LLMs use their depth?
Akshat Gupta led a fun project to find out! We leverage TunedLens (~linear decoding of tokens) to explore how LLMs' internal representations change from layer to layer.
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2510.18871
1/
The new #NSF #GRFP application now excludes 1000’s of students, including those who were told they could apply this year, or who planned to apply next year.
We have a new specific petition urging #NSFGRFP undo this harmful action. If you are impacted sign here: laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/
Our young lab greatly appreciates open datasets and code provided by pioneers in the field! @alexanderhuth.bsky.social
@amandalebel.bsky.social
@rjantonello.bsky.social
@mtoneva.bsky.social
@samnastase.bsky.social
@jixingli.bsky.social
@mschrimpf.bsky.social
@evfedorenko.bsky.social
etc
3/end
Check out @neurotaha.bsky.social new work!
The GRFP announcement from NSF cuts out an entire cohort of 2nd year students from consideration, without warning. This is so deeply unfair that it warrants a formal protest from the scientific community. If someone wants to work with me to craft an open letter and solicit signatures, LMK.
Here is our best thinking about how to make world models. I would apologize for it being a massive 40-page behemoth, but it's worth reading. arxiv.org/pdf/2509.09737
I am hiring a post doc at UAlberta, affiliated with Amii! We study language processing in the brain using LLMs and neuroimaging. Looking for someone with experience with ideally both neuroimaging and LLMs, or a willingness to learn. Email me with Qs
apps.ualberta.ca/careers/post...
Image of labubu doll labeled labubu next to image of spiky labubu doll labeled lakiki
::slowly stands while clapping::
An empty booth with a sign that says “vendor removed for selling AI art #ArtBYHumans”
I love the smell of consequences in the morning. Thank you, @dragoncon.org
In our new paper, we explore how we can build encoding models that are both powerful and understandable. Our model uses an LLM to answer 35 questions about a sentence's content. The answers linearly contribute to our prediction of how the brain will respond to that sentence. 1/6
Many thanks to the volunteer organizers and the flash talk presenters for making the CCN watch party at Georgia Tech a success! And thanks all attendees for coming and engaging in discussions!
Looking forward to #CogSci2025 ! Find us throughout the conference
Atlanta community: we are organizing a CCN @cogcompneuro.bsky.social watch party!
Watch the talks, engage in structured discussions, and (optionally) present your own work.
Register:
forms.gle/AWxVPbrgxkdd...
Schedule:
tinyurl.com/ccn2025atlanta
Georgia Tech’s Neuro Next Initiative has officially evolved into the Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society (INNS). A new era of interdisciplinary research begins today.
🔗 neuro.gatech.edu
#Neuroscience #Neurotech #GeorgiaTech
So far we have CCN local meetups @ NYC @neurograce.bsky.social, Boston @lynnkasorensen.bsky.social, Atlanta @neuranna.bsky.social, Lyon and Bucharest!
Who will host one on even further away from Amsterdam (West Coast? East Asia? Africa?)
What are the organizing dimensions of language processing?
We show that voxel responses during comprehension are organized along 2 main axes: processing difficulty & meaning abstractness—revealing an interpretable, topographic representational basis for language processing shared across individuals
A postdoc in my lab contacted a fellow scientist to get some advice and was told that, because he's currently working on the topic, he "can't give away all his secrets." I find this extremely lame, and yet I keep encountering it. Science is not a zero-sum game!!
New preprint ✨ w/ @olafhauk.bsky.social and Matt Lambon Ralph @mrccbu.bsky.social @cambridgeuni.bsky.social @gatescambridge.bsky.social
The anterior temporal lobe (ATL) seems crucial for both semantic memory and semantic composition. How to make sense of this neuroanatomical alignment? 🧠
🧵
Very cool work by Qiawen (Ella) Liu, Paridon, @glupyan.bsky.social: e.g., Is white hot or cold?
LMs consider 'white' cold because it's mediated by 'snow'
Ablate the mediators, and you eliminate the associations.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
New brain/language study w/ @evfedorenko.bsky.social! We applied task-agnostic individualized functional connectomics (iFC) to the entire history of fMRI scanning in the Fedorenko lab, parcellating nearly 1200 brains into networks based on activity fluctuations alone. doi.org/10.1101/2025... . 🧵
LIT lab is presenting 2 posters at #CNS2025!
Session D - Scaling Laws in Functional Region of Interest (fROI) Analyses by @ruimingao.bsky.social
Session E - Characterizing the effects of content, task and modality on task-driven semantic processing in the brain (sketchpad series) by Jin Li
