Topic: Neuro

OHBM 2027 Annual Meeting

Annual meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, bringing together researchers to share groundbreaking research, engage in educational forums, and foster collaboration across neuroimaging methods and applications.

FENS Regional Meeting 2027

FENS Regional Meeting held 26-29 May 2027 in Istanbul, Turkey, jointly organised by the Neuroscience Society of Turkey, the Hellenic Society for Neuroscience, the Serbian Neuroscience Society and the Slovenian Neuroscience Association.

VSS 2027

The 2027 Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, held May 21-25, 2027 in Seattle, Washington, gathering the interdisciplinary vision science community spanning visual perception, psychophysics, and visual neuroscience.

Comparative (neuro)science in insects

This EMBO Workshop integrates developmental biology, sensory neuroscience, central circuits, motor control, behavior, population genetics, genomics, and ecology to advance comparative insect neuroscience. Early-career researchers are prioritized for selected talks, and all accepted participants present their work.

Astrocytes: from molecules to systems

This EMBO Workshop brings together researchers studying astrocytes from molecular mechanisms to systems-level brain functions. The programme covers astrocyte roles in synapse assembly, circuit modulation, homeostasis, metabolism, memory, behavior, the blood-brain barrier, interactions with neurons and glia, and emerging therapeutic strategies.

Neurodegeneration: From Mechanisms to Precision Diagnosis and Therapies

This Keystone Symposium integrates fundamental mechanisms, precision diagnostics, and therapeutic development for Alzheimer's disease, non-Alzheimer dementias, and other neurodegenerative disorders. Joint programming with the Neural-Immune Interactions meeting connects disease mechanisms and clinical strategy with immune modulation of central nervous system biology.

Cosyne 2027

The annual Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne) meeting, an exchange forum for experimental and theoretical/computational approaches to problems in systems neuroscience. Cosyne returns to Montreal, Canada, from 11-16 March 2027.

Cancer Neuroscience: Neural Mechanisms as Therapeutic Targets in Cancer

This Keystone Symposium examines how nerves and neural activity shape cancer initiation, progression, metastasis, cognition, and treatment, with a focus on actionable therapeutic targets.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Mechanisms and Therapeutics

A Keystone Symposium connecting genetics, functional genomics, developmental neurobiology, and industry to identify convergent mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Neuromodulation of Circuit Plasticity: From Adaptive Behavior to Precision Therapeutics

Kuan Hong Wang examines how dopaminergic, cannabinoid, and neuroimmune signaling regulate circuit plasticity across development, experience, and disease, and how cross-species work may inform selective therapies.

Neuroscience 2026

The Society for Neuroscience annual meeting brings together the global neuroscience community for lectures, symposia, nanosymposia, posters, professional-development sessions and exhibits. The 2026 meeting offers in-person participation in Washington, D.C. and a virtual component with posters and livestreamed featured lectures.

Knight Initiative - Rosenkranz Aging Symposium

An in-person Stanford symposium highlighting recent progress in brain resilience and aging research, followed by a neuroscience poster session featuring work from the Stanford community.

McKnight Scholar Awards

Supports exceptional young neuroscientists in the early stages of establishing an independent laboratory and research career. Up to ten scholars receive a total award of $225,000 paid in equal installments of $75,000 in 2027, 2028, and 2029; applications open early August 2026.

Emily Jacobs - New frontiers in women's brain health

Emily Jacobs will examine how endocrine transitions such as the circadian cycle, menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and menopause reshape the human brain. The talk combines precision brain imaging with a review of research, policy, and funding efforts intended to close persistent gaps in women's brain-health evidence.

The 2026 Picower Lecture with Richard L. Huganir

Richard L. Huganir discusses research on the molecular mechanisms that regulate glutamate receptors, the brain's major excitatory neurotransmitter receptors, and thereby modulate communication between neurons.

HICCC Cancer Neuroscience Symposium

Columbia's half-day symposium examines neural mechanisms in brain, gastrointestinal, pancreatic, and lung cancers. The program spans neuron-glioma crosstalk, tumor-induced neurological dysfunction, cancer pain circuits, peripheral nervous-system structure, metabolism, and therapeutic targets.

2026 Lake Conference - Comparative and Evolutionary Neurobiology

This Lake Conference is a 3.5-day forum on comparative and evolutionary approaches to nervous-system function. The program includes invited and selected talks, poster sessions, comparative genomics and genetics, evolutionary and developmental mechanisms, and evolutionary neuroscience systems biology.

Towards Biologically Informed Subgroups Across Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Jason Lerch presents a translational neuroimaging analysis spanning mouse models and human MRI cohorts to identify biologically informed subgroups across autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute Symposium 2026: Building the Brain

This Stanford symposium examines how molecular, cellular, and circuit-level advances in neurodevelopment shape understanding of behavior and health, with scientific talks, awards, and a poster session.

EMBO Workshop: Organelle dynamics in health and disease: bridging molecules to organisms

This EMBO Workshop connects organelle contact sites and cytoskeletal interactions with metabolism, signalling, and trafficking, and examines their relevance to neurodegeneration, cancer, and other diseases.

Takaki Komiyama - A cell-type-specific cortical circuit for maintenance of value representations

Takaki Komiyama will discuss how cortical circuits maintain information about the value of behavioral options across trials and transform past experience into future choices. The talk draws on longitudinal imaging and circuit manipulation in mice to examine distinct neuronal populations and local and long-range interactions in history-dependent decision-making.

A cell-type-specific cortical circuit for maintenance of value representations

Takaki Komiyama presents longitudinal imaging and circuit-manipulation studies of history-dependent decision-making. The work identifies retrosplenial-cortex populations and local and long-range interactions that maintain option values across trials, update them after outcomes and translate past experience into future choices.

BRAIN Initiative: Research Resource Grants for Technology Integration and Dissemination (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

This NIH BRAIN Initiative opportunity supports dissemination of existing resources into neuroscience research practice. Activities may include distribution of tools and reagents, training in new technologies, access to technology platforms or specialized facilities, minor improvements to resource delivery, and adaptations for user communities.

BRAIN Initiative: Theories, Models and Methods for Analysis of Complex Data from the Brain (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

This NIH BRAIN Initiative funding opportunity supports new or substantially advanced theories, mechanistic or predictive models, and computational or statistical methods that improve quantitative understanding of brain function across scales. Tools must address complex neural and behavioral data and be made broadly available to the neuroscience research community.

Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition with Christopher Harvey, PhD, Harvard University

Picower Institute Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition featuring Christopher Harvey, PhD, of Harvard University, held in Singleton Auditorium (46-3002) at MIT Building 46, 43 Vassar Street.

Engineering human myelination in vitro: Mechanobiologically compatible platforms for CNS drug discovery

UCL Department of Neuroinflammation Seminar by Professor Emad Moeendarbary (Professor of Cell Mechanics and Mechanobiology, UCL Mechanical Engineering) on how biophysical factors such as substrate stiffness and axon geometry regulate oligodendrocyte behavior and myelin formation, presenting the AxoMetic in vitro myelination platform for discovery of remyelinating therapies.

Bernstein Conference 2026

Annual conference of the Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, bringing together students, postdocs and PIs from around the world to meet and discuss new scientific discoveries in computational neuroscience. Satellite workshops Sep 28-29, main conference Sep 29-Oct 1 at Goethe University, Campus Westend, Frankfurt am Main.

6th Annual Precision Mental Health Symposium: From Circuits to Mindsets: Precision Mental Health in the Real World

Stanford's annual Precision Mental Health Symposium explores how neuroscience, psychiatry, data science, and artificial intelligence can translate brain research into real-world mental-health care. Themes include circuits and cognition, biomarkers and neuroimaging, rapid-acting interventions, neuromodulation, and precision therapeutics.

Innovation for the Aging Brain

The MIT Aging Brain Initiative brings together work in molecular imaging, cognition, chemistry, bioengineering, neurodegeneration, and artificial intelligence to address brain aging and Alzheimer's prevention.

Biophysical underpinnings of computation and learning in the neocortex

Mark Harnett presents work on how synaptic organization, nonlinear dendritic processing, and neuronal activity patterns interact to support computation, flexibility, and learning in the adult mammalian neocortex. The Brain and Cognitive Sciences colloquium is followed by a reception.

Lessons from the Dead

Z Yan Wang presents comparative neuroscience research on the brains and behaviors of octopuses and bumblebees to illuminate life-history processes. The talk is part of Columbia's Tuesdays@10 neuroscience seminar program for researchers across fields and career stages.

Early Sleep Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease Pathophysiology and Memory Impairment

Bryce Mander presents research on early sleep biomarkers associated with Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology and memory impairment. The William C. Dement Seminar connects sleep and circadian neuroscience with neurodegeneration, cognition and clinically relevant approaches to detecting disease-related change.

The Connectome in Use: From anatomical wiring to functional organization in the behaving C. elegans brain

Rani Borbara presents brain-wide recordings from more than 150 freely moving C. elegans to examine how anatomical connectivity becomes functional organization during behavior. Cross-animal models map cell-class conditional dependencies and test how synapses, gap junctions, neuromodulation and shared brain states shape circuit dynamics.

Deciphering the Dynamics of the Unconscious Brain under General Anesthesia

Stanford Neurosciences Seminar Series talk by Emery Brown (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Neuroscience Statistics Research Lab) on deciphering the dynamics of the unconscious brain under general anesthesia, hosted by the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.

Finding Meaning in Memories

Daphna Shohamy and Ashok Litwin-Kumar bridge experimental and computational neuroscience to explain how the brain assigns significance to memories, how dopamine shapes memory-guided decisions, and how bodily signals influence learning. Isabel Low moderates a public discussion and question session.

Margaret S. Livingstone, Ph.D. - PNI Seminar Series

Margaret Livingstone of Harvard Medical School presents in Princeton Neuroscience Institute's public seminar series. Livingstone's laboratory studies how visual recognition occurs in the primate brain using behavior, brain imaging, and electrophysiology.

How energy determines where proteins are produced in neurons

Gaute Einevoll talks with Tatjana Tchumatchenko about a mechanistic mathematical model of how neurons minimize energy use by deciding whether ion-channel proteins are produced locally in dendrites or in the soma. The model’s predictions agree with experimental findings.

How to Improve Motivation & Overcome Procrastination | Dr. Masud Husain

Masud Husain explains the neuroscience of motivation, dopamine, effort, and reward, together with research on apathy, dementia, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and cognitive resilience.

Researchers test magic mushrooms as an anorexia treatment

Scientific American's Science Quickly examines an early pilot trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy for people with long-term anorexia. The episode carefully discusses reported changes in symptoms and motivation, possible neuroplasticity mechanisms, the small uncontrolled sample and the need for larger randomized studies and clinical safeguards.

Briefing Chat: New narcolepsy drug could unlock host of novel brain therapies

Nature staff discuss how a newly approved orexin-targeting narcolepsy drug could enable therapies for other neurological conditions, and examine human brain organoids that have remained viable for more than five years. The episode connects sleep medicine, therapeutic neuroscience, and long-term models of human brain development.

BI 244 Marco Facchin: Philosophy and Science of Biological Brains

Marco Facchin joins Brain Inspired to discuss computationalism and alternatives in the philosophy and science of biological brains. The conversation covers embodied and 4E cognition, predictive processing, artificial intelligence, metabolic constraints, biological detail, and how theories of mind relate to consciousness and neuroscience.

Neuroscience of Emotions & Tools for Improving Emotion Regulation | Dr. Ralph Adolphs

Ralph Adolphs explains how the brain creates emotions including fear, joy, and awe, and discusses evidence-based approaches to emotion regulation. The episode connects neural mechanisms with attention, decision-making, and bodily state.

Special Seminar with Hee-Sup Shin, MD, PhD, Institute for Basic Science (IBS)

Special seminar at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory with neuroscientist Hee-Sup Shin, MD, PhD, of the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), held in the Picower Seminar Room (46-3310) at 43 Vassar Street.

Emerging NeuroTech: Ultrasound in Neuroscience

Two talks present emerging applications of ultrasound technology in neuroscience, spanning brain imaging and human-machine interaction. The in-person seminar is open to MIT researchers, students, and staff and is supported by the MIT School of Science and the Feng Lab at the McGovern Institute.

Emerging NeuroTech: Ultrasound in Neuroscience

MIT researchers and students are invited to two talks on emerging applications of ultrasound for non-invasive brain imaging, neural modulation and wearable human-machine interaction.

Essentials: Control Your Brain Chemistry for Focus, Motivation & Well-Being

Andrew Huberman explains how key neuromodulators shape motivation, energy, focus and mood, with science-supported behavioral, nutritional and supplement strategies.

BI 243 Alison Barth: Learning as a Window to Cortex

Alison Barth explains how distinct neuron types contribute to cortical function and how learning can be used as an experimental window into the organization and plasticity of cortical circuits.

Episode 104: July 2026

This eLife episode explores trade-offs between body size and sperm production in gorillas, fever-driven changes in malaria-infected cells, the neuroscience of gambling machines, whether infants are predisposed to dance, and high-altitude adaptations in bird eggs.

FENS Forum 2026

Europe’s leading neuroscience conference, bringing together researchers, clinicians, and innovators across molecular, cellular, systems, cognitive, and clinical neuroscience.

Adventures in Spin Labeling: Clinical Perfusion Imaging and the Path to Technical Innovation

Arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI has become a vital tool in clinical neuroimaging, enabling noninvasive assessment of cerebral perfusion across a range of conditions including stroke, vascular malformations, and brain tumors. With broader clinical adoption, its practical strengths — as well as important limitations — have become increasingly clear.

Predictive Coding Light

Current machine learning systems consume vastly more energy than biological brains. Neuromorphic systems aim to overcome this difference by mimicking the brain’s information coding via discrete voltage spikes. However, it remains unclear how both artificial and natural networks of spiking neurons can learn energy-efficient information processing strategies. Here we propose Predictive Coding Light (PCL), a recurrent hierarchical spiking neural network for unsupervised representation learning. In contrast to previous predictive coding approaches, PCL does not transmit prediction errors to higher processing stages. Instead, it suppresses the most predictable spikes and transmits a compressed representation of the input. Using only biologically plausible spike-timing based learning rules, PCL reproduces a wealth of findings on information processing in visual cortex and permits strong performance in downstream classification tasks. Overall, PCL offers a new approach to predictive coding and its implementation in natural and artificial spiking neural networks

Consciousness at the edge of chaos

Over the last 20 years, neuroimaging and electrophysiology techniques have become central to understanding the mechanisms that accompany loss and recovery of consciousness. Much of this research is performed in the context of healthy individuals with neurotypical brain dynamics. Yet, a true understanding of how consciousness emerges from the joint action of neurons has to account for how severely pathological brains, often showing phenotypes typical of unconsciousness, can nonetheless generate a subjective viewpoint. In this presentation, I will start from the context of Disorders of Consciousness and will discuss recent work aimed at finding generalizable signatures of consciousness that are reliable across a spectrum of brain electrophysiological phenotypes focusing in particular on the notion of edge-of-chaos criticality.

Computational Mechanisms of Predictive Processing in Brains and Machines

Predictive processing offers a unifying view of neural computation, proposing that brains continuously anticipate sensory input and update internal models based on prediction errors. In this talk, I will present converging evidence for the computational mechanisms underlying this framework across human neuroscience and deep neural networks. I will begin with recent work showing that large-scale distributed prediction-error encoding in the human brain directly predicts how sensory representations reorganize through predictive learning. I will then turn to PredNet, a popular predictive coding inspired deep network that has been widely used to model real-world biological vision systems. Using dynamic stimuli generated with our Spatiotemporal Style Transfer algorithm, we demonstrate that PredNet relies primarily on low-level spatiotemporal structure and remains insensitive to high-level content, revealing limits in its generalization capacity. Finally, I will discuss new recurrent vision models that integrate top-down feedback connections with intrinsic neural variability, uncovering a dual mechanism for robust sensory coding in which neural variability decorrelates unit responses, while top-down feedback stabilizes network dynamics. Together, these results outline how prediction error signaling and top-down feedback pathways shape adaptive sensory processing in biological and artificial systems.

High Stakes in the Adolescent Brain: Glia Ignite Under THC’s Influence

Convergent large-scale network and local vulnerabilities underlie brain atrophy across Parkinson’s disease stages

Biomolecular condensates as drivers of neuroinflammation

Spike train structure of cortical transcriptomic populations in vivo

The cortex comprises many neuronal types, which can be distinguished by their transcriptomes: the sets of genes they express. Little is known about the in vivo activity of these cell types, particularly as regards the structure of their spike trains, which might provide clues to cortical circuit function. To address this question, we used Neuropixels electrodes to record layer 5 excitatory populations in mouse V1, then transcriptomically identified the recorded cell types. To do so, we performed a subsequent recording of the same cells using 2-photon (2p) calcium imaging, identifying neurons between the two recording modalities by fingerprinting their responses to a “zebra noise” stimulus and estimating the path of the electrode through the 2p stack with a probabilistic method. We then cut brain slices and performed in situ transcriptomics to localize ~300 genes using coppaFISH3d, a new open source method, and aligned the transcriptomic data to the 2p stack. Analysis of the data is ongoing, and suggests substantial differences in spike time coordination between ET and IT neurons, as well as between transcriptomic subtypes of both these excitatory types.

The tubulin code in neuron health and disease : focus on detyrosination

Astrocytes: From Metabolism to Cognition

Different brain cell types exhibit distinct metabolic signatures that link energy economy to cellular function. Astrocytes and neurons, for instance, diverge dramatically in their reliance on glycolysis versus oxidative phosphorylation, underscoring that metabolic fuel efficiency is not uniform across cell types. A key factor shaping this divergence is the structural organization of the mitochondrial respiratory chain into supercomplexes. Specifically, complexes I (CI) and III (CIII) form a CI–CIII supercomplex, but the degree of this assembly varies by cell type. In neurons, CI is predominantly integrated into supercomplexes, resulting in highly efficient mitochondrial respiration and minimal reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Conversely, in astrocytes, a larger fraction of CI remains unassembled, freely existing apart from CIII, leading to reduced respiratory efficiency and elevated mitochondrial ROS production. Despite this apparent inefficiency, astrocytes boast a highly adaptable metabolism capable of responding to diverse stressors. Their looser CI–CIII organization allows for flexible ROS signaling, which activates antioxidant programs via transcription factors like Nrf2. This modular architecture enables astrocytes not only to balance energy production but also to support neuronal health and influence complex organismal behaviors.

Cellular Crosstalk in Brain Development, Evolution and Disease

Cellular crosstalk is an essential process during brain development and is influenced by numerous factors, including cell morphology, adhesion, the local extracellular matrix and secreted vesicles. Inspired by mutations associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, we focus on understanding the role of extracellular mechanisms essential for the proper development of the human brain. Therefore, we combine 2D and 3D in vitro human models to better understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in progenitor proliferation and fate, migration and maturation of excitatory and inhibitory neurons during human brain development and tackle the causes of neurodevelopmental disorders.

AutoMIND: Deep inverse models for revealing neural circuit invariances

Endocannabinoid System Dysregulations in Binge Eating Disorder and Obesity

Low intensity rTMS: age dependent effects, and mechanisms underlying neural plasticity

Neuroplasticity is essential for the establishment and strengthening of neural circuits. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is commonly used to modulate cortical excitability and shows promise in the treatment of some neurological disorders. Low intensity magnetic stimulation (LI-rTMS), which does not directly elicit action potentials in the stimulated neurons, have also shown some therapeutic effects, and it is important to determine the biological mechanisms underlying the effects of these low intensity magnetic fields, such as would occur in the regions surrounding the central high-intensity focus of rTMS. Our team has used a focal low-intensity (10mT) magnetic stimulation approach to address some of these questions and to identify cellular mechanisms. I will present several studies from our laboratory, addressing (1) effects of LIrTMS on neuronal activity and excitability ; and (2) neuronal morphology and post-lesion repair. The ensemble of our results indicate that the effects of LI-rTMS depend upon the stimulation pattern, the age of the animal, and the presence of cellular magnetoreceptors.

Go with the visual flow: circuit mechanisms for gaze control during locomotion

How the presynapse forms and functions”

Nervous system function relies on the polarized architecture of neurons, established by directional transport of pre- and postsynaptic cargoes. While delivery of postsynaptic components depends on the secretory pathway, the identity of the membrane compartment(s) that supply presynaptic active zone (AZ) and synaptic vesicle (SV) proteins is largely unknown. I will discuss our recent advances in our understanding of how key components of the presynaptic machinery for neurotransmitter release are transported and assembled focussing on our studies in genome-engineered human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons. Specifically, I will focus on the composition and cell biological identity of the axonal transport vesicles that shuttle key components of neurotransmission to nascent synapses and on machinery for axonal transport and its control by signaling lipids. Our studies identify a crucial mechanism mediating the delivery of SV and active zone proteins to developing synapses and reveal connections to neurological disorders. In the second part of my talk, I will discuss how exocytosis and endocytosis are coupled to maintain presynaptic membrane homeostasis. I will present unpublished data regarding the role of membrane tension in the coupling of exocytosis and endocytosis at synapses. We have identified an endocytic BAR domain protein that is capable of sensing alterations in membrane tension caused by the exocytotic fusion of SVs to initiate compensatory endocytosis to restore plasma membrane area. Interference with this mechanism results in defects in the coupling of presynaptic exocytosis and SV recycling at human synapses.

OpenNeuro FitLins GLM: An Accessible, Semi-Automated Pipeline for OpenNeuro Task fMRI Analysis

In this talk, I will discuss the OpenNeuro Fitlins GLM package and provide an illustration of the analytic workflow. OpenNeuro FitLins GLM is a semi-automated pipeline that reduces barriers to analyzing task-based fMRI data from OpenNeuro's 600+ task datasets. Created for psychology, psychiatry and cognitive neuroscience researchers without extensive computational expertise, this tool automates what is largely a manual process and compilation of in-house scripts for data retrieval, validation, quality control, statistical modeling and reporting that, in some cases, may require weeks of effort. The workflow abides by open-science practices, enhancing reproducibility and incorporates community feedback for model improvement. The pipeline integrates BIDS-compliant datasets and fMRIPrep preprocessed derivatives, and dynamically creates BIDS Statistical Model specifications (with Fitlins) to perform common mass univariate [GLM] analyses. To enhance and standardize reporting, it generates comprehensive reports which includes design matrices, statistical maps and COBIDAS-aligned reporting that is fully reproducible from the model specifications and derivatives. OpenNeuro Fitlins GLM has been tested on over 30 datasets spanning 50+ unique fMRI tasks (e.g., working memory, social processing, emotion regulation, decision-making, motor paradigms), reducing analysis times from weeks to hours when using high-performance computers, thereby enabling researchers to conduct robust single-study, meta- and mega-analyses of task fMRI data with significantly improved accessibility, standardized reporting and reproducibility.

Cause & Consequences of neuronal Tau protein ‘activation’

Memory Decoding Journal Club: "Binary and analog variation of synapses between cortical pyramidal neurons

Binary and analog variation of synapses between cortical pyramidal neurons

Non-invasive human neuroimaging studies of motor plasticity have predominantly focused on the cerebral cortex due to low signal-to-noise ration of blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals in subcortical structures and the small effect sizes typically observed in plasticity paradigms. Precision functional mapping can help overcome these challenges and has revealed significant and reversible functional alterations in the cortico-subcortical motor circuit during arm immobilization

Understanding reward-guided learning using large-scale datasets

Understanding the neural mechanisms of reward-guided learning is a long-standing goal of computational neuroscience. Recent methodological innovations enable us to collect ever larger neural and behavioral datasets. This presents opportunities to achieve greater understanding of learning in the brain at scale, as well as methodological challenges. In the first part of the talk, I will discuss our recent insights into the mechanisms by which zebra finch songbirds learn to sing. Dopamine has been long thought to guide reward-based trial-and-error learning by encoding reward prediction errors. However, it is unknown whether the learning of natural behaviours, such as developmental vocal learning, occurs through dopamine-based reinforcement. Longitudinal recordings of dopamine and bird songs reveal that dopamine activity is indeed consistent with encoding a reward prediction error during naturalistic learning. In the second part of the talk, I will talk about recent work we are doing at DeepMind to develop tools for automatically discovering interpretable models of behavior directly from animal choice data. Our method, dubbed CogFunSearch, uses LLMs within an evolutionary search process in order to "discover" novel models in the form of Python programs that excel at accurately predicting animal behavior during reward-guided learning. The discovered programs reveal novel patterns of learning and choice behavior that update our understanding of how the brain solves reinforcement learning problems.

Digital Traces of Human Behaviour: From Political Mobilisation to Conspiracy Narratives

Digital platforms generate unprecedented traces of human behaviour, offering new methodological approaches to understanding collective action, polarisation, and social dynamics. Through analysis of millions of digital traces across multiple studies, we demonstrate how online behaviours predict offline action: Brexit-related tribal discourse responds to real-world events, machine learning models achieve 80% accuracy in predicting real-world protest attendance from digital signals, and social validation through "likes" emerges as a key driver of mobilization. Extending this approach to conspiracy narratives reveals how digital traces illuminate psychological mechanisms of belief and community formation. Longitudinal analysis of YouTube conspiracy content demonstrates how narratives systematically address existential, epistemic, and social needs, while examination of alt-tech platforms shows how emotions of anger, contempt, and disgust correlate with violence-legitimating discourse, with significant differences between narratives associated with offline violence versus peaceful communities. This work establishes digital traces as both methodological innovation and theoretical lens, demonstrating that computational social science can illuminate fundamental questions about polarisation, mobilisation, and collective behaviour across contexts from electoral politics to conspiracy communities.

“Brain theory, what is it or what should it be?”

n the neurosciences the need for some 'overarching' theory is sometimes expressed, but it is not always obvious what is meant by this. One can perhaps agree that in modern science observation and experimentation is normally complemented by 'theory', i.e. the development of theoretical concepts that help guiding and evaluating experiments and measurements. A deeper discussion of 'brain theory' will require the clarification of some further distictions, in particular: theory vs. model and brain research (and its theory) vs. neuroscience. Other questions are: Does a theory require mathematics? Or even differential equations? Today it is often taken for granted that the whole universe including everything in it, for example humans, animals, and plants, can be adequately treated by physics and therefore theoretical physics is the overarching theory. Even if this is the case, it has turned out that in some particular parts of physics (the historical example is thermodynamics) it may be useful to simplify the theory by introducing additional theoretical concepts that can in principle be 'reduced' to more complex descriptions on the 'microscopic' level of basic physical particals and forces. In this sense, brain theory may be regarded as part of theoretical neuroscience, which is inside biophysics and therefore inside physics, or theoretical physics. Still, in neuroscience and brain research, additional concepts are typically used to describe results and help guiding experimentation that are 'outside' physics, beginning with neurons and synapses, names of brain parts and areas, up to concepts like 'learning', 'motivation', 'attention'. Certainly, we do not yet have one theory that includes all these concepts. So 'brain theory' is still in a 'pre-newtonian' state. However, it may still be useful to understand in general the relations between a larger theory and its 'parts', or between microscopic and macroscopic theories, or between theories at different 'levels' of description. This is what I plan to do.

Seeing a changing world through the eyes of coral fishes

Neural control of internal affective states”

Neural circuits underlying sleep structure and functions

Sleep is an active state critical for processing emotional memories encoded during waking in both humans and animals. There is a remarkable overlap between the brain structures and circuits active during sleep, particularly rapid eye-movement (REM) sleep, and the those encoding emotions. Accordingly, disruptions in sleep quality or quantity, including REM sleep, are often associated with, and precede the onset of, nearly all affective psychiatric and mood disorders. In this context, a major biomedical challenge is to better understand the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between (REM) sleep and emotion encoding to improve treatments for mental health. This lecture will summarize our investigation of the cellular and circuit mechanisms underlying sleep architecture, sleep oscillations, and local brain dynamics across sleep-wake states using electrophysiological recordings combined with single-cell calcium imaging or optogenetics. The presentation will detail the discovery of a 'somato-dendritic decoupling'in prefrontal cortex pyramidal neurons underlying REM sleep-dependent stabilization of optimal emotional memory traces. This decoupling reflects a tonic inhibition at the somas of pyramidal cells, occurring simultaneously with a selective disinhibition of their dendritic arbors selectively during REM sleep. Recent findings on REM sleep-dependent subcortical inputs and neuromodulation of this decoupling will be discussed in the context of synaptic plasticity and the optimization of emotional responses in the maintenance of mental health.

Neurobiological constraints on learning: bug or feature?

Understanding how brains learn requires bridging evidence across scales—from behaviour and neural circuits to cells, synapses, and molecules. In our work, we use computational modelling and data analysis to explore how the physical properties of neurons and neural circuits constrain learning. These include limits imposed by brain wiring, energy availability, molecular noise, and the 3D structure of dendritic spines. In this talk I will describe one such project testing if wiring motifs from fly brain connectomes can improve performance of reservoir computers, a type of recurrent neural network. The hope is that these insights into brain learning will lead to improved learning algorithms for artificial systems.

HealthCore: A modular data collection ecosystem to connect the dots in Neurorehab

Astrocytes release glutamate by regulated exocytosis in health and disease

Astrocytes release glutamate by regulated exocytosis in health and disease Vladimir Parpura, International Translational Neuroscience Research Institute, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, P.R. China Parpura will present you with the evidence that astrocytes, a subtype of glial cells in the brain, can exocytotically release the neurotransmitter glutamate and how this release is regulated. Spatiotemporal characteristic of vesicular fusion that underlie glutamate release in astrocytes will be discussed. He will also present data on a translational project in which this release pathway can be targeted for the treatment of glioblastoma, the deadliest brain cancer.

Expanding mechanisms and therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative disease

A hallmark pathological feature of the neurodegenerative diseases amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the depletion of RNA-binding protein TDP-43 from the nucleus of neurons in the brain and spinal cord. A major function of TDP-43 is as a repressor of cryptic exon inclusion during RNA splicing. By re-analyzing RNA-sequencing datasets from human FTD/ALS brains, we discovered dozens of novel cryptic splicing events in important neuronal genes. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in UNC13A are among the strongest hits associated with FTD and ALS in human genome-wide association studies, but how those variants increase risk for disease is unknown. We discovered that TDP-43 represses a cryptic exon-splicing event in UNC13A. Loss of TDP-43 from the nucleus in human brain, neuronal cell lines and motor neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells resulted in the inclusion of a cryptic exon in UNC13A mRNA and reduced UNC13A protein expression. The top variants associated with FTD or ALS risk in humans are located in the intron harboring the cryptic exon, and we show that they increase UNC13A cryptic exon splicing in the face of TDP-43 dysfunction. Together, our data provide a direct functional link between one of the strongest genetic risk factors for FTD and ALS (UNC13A genetic variants), and loss of TDP-43 function. Recent analyses have revealed even further changes in TDP-43 target genes, including widespread changes in alternative polyadenylation, impacting expression of disease-relevant genes (e.g., ELP1, NEFL, and TMEM106B) and providing evidence that alternative polyadenylation is a new facet of TDP-43 pathology.

Investigating the Neurobiology and Neurophysiology of Psilocybin Using Drosophila melanogaster as a Model System

The Direct Impact Of Amyloid-Beta Oligomers On Neuronal Activity And Neurotransmitter Releases On In Vivo Analysis

Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation - an introduction to the diagnosis and treatment of vision disorders secondary to neurological impairment

Restoring Sight to the Blind: Effects of Structural and Functional Plasticity

Visual restoration after decades of blindness is now becoming possible by means of retinal and cortical prostheses, as well as emerging stem cell and gene therapeutic approaches. After restoring visual perception, however, a key question remains. Are there optimal means and methods for retraining the visual cortex to process visual inputs, and for learning or relearning to “see”? Up to this point, it has been largely assumed that if the sensory loss is visual, then the rehabilitation focus should also be primarily visual. However, the other senses play a key role in visual rehabilitation due to the plastic repurposing of visual cortex during blindness by audition and somatosensation, and also to the reintegration of restored vision with the other senses. I will present multisensory neuroimaging results, cortical thickness changes, as well as behavioral outcomes for patients with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), which causes blindness by destroying photoreceptors in the retina. These patients have had their vision partially restored by the implantation of a retinal prosthesis, which electrically stimulates still viable retinal ganglion cells in the eye. Our multisensory and structural neuroimaging and behavioral results suggest a new, holistic concept of visual rehabilitation that leverages rather than neglects audition, somatosensation, and other sensory modalities.

Functional Plasticity in the Language Network – evidence from Neuroimaging and Neurostimulation

Efficient cognition requires flexible interactions between distributed neural networks in the human brain. These networks adapt to challenges by flexibly recruiting different regions and connections. In this talk, I will discuss how we study functional network plasticity and reorganization with combined neurostimulation and neuroimaging across the adult life span. I will argue that short-term plasticity enables flexible adaptation to challenges, via functional reorganization. My key hypothesis is that disruption of higher-level cognitive functions such as language can be compensated for by the recruitment of domain-general networks in our brain. Examples from healthy young brains illustrate how neurostimulation can be used to temporarily interfere with efficient processing, probing short-term network plasticity at the systems level. Examples from people with dyslexia help to better understand network disorders in the language domain and outline the potential of facilitatory neurostimulation for treatment. I will also discuss examples from aging brains where plasticity helps to compensate for loss of function. Finally, examples from lesioned brains after stroke provide insight into the brain’s potential for long-term reorganization and recovery of function. Collectively, these results challenge the view of a modular organization of the human brain and argue for a flexible redistribution of function via systems plasticity.

Neural Signal Propagation Atlas of C. elegans

In the age of connectomics, it is increasingly important to understand how the nodes and edges of a brain's anatomical network, or "connectome," gives rise to neural signaling and neural function. I will present the first comprehensive brain-wide cell-resolved causal measurements of how neurons signal to one another in response to stimulation in the nematode C. elegans. I will compare this signal propagation atlas to the worm's known connectome to address fundamental questions of structure and function in the brain.

The cellular phase of Alzheimer’s Disease and the path towards therapies

Neural mechanisms of rhythmic motor control in Drosophila

All animal locomotion is rhythmic,whether it is achieved through undulatory movement of the whole body or the coordination of articulated limbs. Neurobiologists have long studied locomotor circuits that produce rhythmic activity with non-rhythmic input, also called central pattern generators (CPGs). However, the cellular and microcircuit implementation of a walking CPG has not been described for any limbed animal. New comprehensive connectomes of the fruit fly ventral nerve cord (VNC) provide an opportunity to study rhythmogenic walking circuits at a synaptic scale.We use a data-driven network modeling approach to identify and characterize a putative walking CPG in the Drosophila leg motor system.

Single-neuron correlates of perception and memory in the human medial temporal lobe

The human medial temporal lobe contains neurons that respond selectively to the semantic contents of a presented stimulus. These "concept cells" may respond to very different pictures of a given person and even to their written or spoken name. Their response latency is far longer than necessary for object recognition, they follow subjective, conscious perception, and they are found in brain regions that are crucial for declarative memory formation. It has thus been hypothesized that they may represent the semantic "building blocks" of episodic memories. In this talk I will present data from single unit recordings in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, parahippocampal cortex, and amygdala during paradigms involving object recognition and conscious perception as well as encoding of episodic memories in order to characterize the role of concept cells in these cognitive functions.

Using Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation to measure cognitive function in dementia

Fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) has emerged as a promising tool for assessing cognitive function in individuals with dementia. This technique leverages electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain responses to rapidly presented visual stimuli, offering a non-invasive and objective method for evaluating a range of cognitive functions. Unlike traditional cognitive assessments, FPVS does not rely on behavioural responses, making it particularly suitable for individuals with cognitive impairment. In this talk I will highlight a series of studies that have demonstrated its ability to detect subtle deficits in recognition memory, visual processing and attention in dementia patients using EEG in the lab, at home and in clinic. The method is quick, cost-effective, and scalable, utilizing widely available EEG technology. FPVS holds significant potential as a functional biomarker for early diagnosis and monitoring of dementia, paving the way for timely interventions and improved patient outcomes.

Understanding reward-guided learning using large-scale datasets

Understanding the neural mechanisms of reward-guided learning is a long-standing goal of computational neuroscience. Recent methodological innovations enable us to collect ever larger neural and behavioral datasets. This presents opportunities to achieve greater understanding of learning in the brain at scale, as well as methodological challenges. In the first part of the talk, I will discuss our recent insights into the mechanisms by which zebra finch songbirds learn to sing. Dopamine has been long thought to guide reward-based trial-and-error learning by encoding reward prediction errors. However, it is unknown whether the learning of natural behaviours, such as developmental vocal learning, occurs through dopamine-based reinforcement. Longitudinal recordings of dopamine and bird songs reveal that dopamine activity is indeed consistent with encoding a reward prediction error during naturalistic learning. In the second part of the talk, I will talk about recent work we are doing at DeepMind to develop tools for automatically discovering interpretable models of behavior directly from animal choice data. Our method, dubbed CogFunSearch, uses LLMs within an evolutionary search process in order to "discover" novel models in the form of Python programs that excel at accurately predicting animal behavior during reward-guided learning. The discovered programs reveal novel patterns of learning and choice behavior that update our understanding of how the brain solves reinforcement learning problems.

Harnessing Big Data in Neuroscience: From Mapping Brain Connectivity to Predicting Traumatic Brain Injury

Neuroscience is experiencing unprecedented growth in dataset size both within individual brains and across populations. Large-scale, multimodal datasets are transforming our understanding of brain structure and function, creating opportunities to address previously unexplored questions. However, managing this increasing data volume requires new training and technology approaches. Modern data technologies are reshaping neuroscience by enabling researchers to tackle complex questions within a Ph.D. or postdoctoral timeframe. I will discuss cloud-based platforms such as brainlife.io, that provide scalable, reproducible, and accessible computational infrastructure. Modern data technology can democratize neuroscience, accelerate discovery and foster scientific transparency and collaboration. Concrete examples will illustrate how these technologies can be applied to mapping brain connectivity, studying human learning and development, and developing predictive models for traumatic brain injury (TBI). By integrating cloud computing and scalable data-sharing frameworks, neuroscience can become more impactful, inclusive, and data-driven..

COSYNE 2025

The COSYNE 2025 conference was held in Montreal with post-conference workshops in Mont-Tremblant, continuing to provide a premier forum for computational and systems neuroscience. Attendees exchanged cutting-edge research in a single-track main meeting and in-depth specialized workshops, reflecting Cosyne’s mission to understand how neural systems function.

Bernstein Conference 2024

Each year the Bernstein Network invites the international computational neuroscience community to the annual Bernstein Conference for intensive scientific exchange. Bernstein Conference 2024, held in Frankfurt am Main, featured discussions, keynote lectures, and poster sessions, and has established itself as one of the most renowned conferences worldwide in this field.

FENS Forum 2024

Organised by FENS in partnership with the Austrian Neuroscience Association and the Hungarian Neuroscience Society, the FENS Forum 2024 will take place on 25–29 June 2024 in Vienna, Austria. The FENS Forum is Europe’s largest neuroscience congress, covering all areas of neuroscience from basic to translational research.

COSYNE 2023

The COSYNE 2023 conference provided an inclusive forum for exchanging experimental and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience, continuing the tradition of bringing together the computational neuroscience community. The main meeting was held in Montreal followed by post-conference workshops in Mont-Tremblant, fostering intensive discussions and collaboration.

Neuromatch 5

Neuromatch 5 (Neuromatch Conference 2022) was a fully virtual conference focused on computational neuroscience broadly construed, including machine learning work with explicit biological links. After four successful Neuromatch conferences, the fifth edition consolidated proven innovations from past events, featuring a series of talks hosted on Crowdcast and flash talk sessions (pre-recorded videos) with dedicated discussion times on Reddit.

COSYNE 2022

The annual Cosyne meeting provides an inclusive forum for the exchange of empirical and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience, in order to understand how neural systems function. The main meeting is single-track, with invited talks selected by the Executive Committee and additional talks and posters selected by the Program Committee based on submitted abstracts. The workshops feature in-depth discussion of current topics of interest in a small group setting.

Effective noninvasive neuronal waveform modulation with sustained and activity-dependent continuous-wave near-infrared laser stimulation

FENS Forum 2024

Psychedelic space of neuronal population activity: emerging and disappearing contrastive dimensions

Bernstein Conference 2024

Inhibitory columnar feedback neurons are required for peripheral visual processing

Bernstein Conference 2024

Excitatory and inhibitory neurons exhibit distinct roles for task learning, temporal scaling, and working memory in recurrent spiking neural network models of neocortex.

Bernstein Conference 2024

Open-source solutions for research data management in neuroscience collaborations

Bernstein Conference 2024

Information content in neuronal calcium spike trains: Entropy rate estimation based on empirical probabilities

Neuromatch 5

Enhancing learning through neuromodulation-aware spiking neural networks

Bernstein Conference 2024

Plastic Arbor: a modern simulation framework for synaptic plasticity – from single synapses to networks of morphological neurons

Bernstein Conference 2024

Exploring behavioral correlations with neuron activity through synaptic plasticity.

Bernstein Conference 2024

Neuronal Heterogeneity Enhances Sensory Integration and Processing

Bernstein Conference 2024

A new framework for modeling innate capabilities in network with diverse types of spiking neurons: Probabilistic Skeleton

Bernstein Conference 2024

Visual callosal neurons transmit different spatial frequency information originating from nasal and temporal retina

FENS Forum 2024

The role of multi-neuron temporal spiking patterns on stable encoding of natural movie presentations

Bernstein Conference 2024

Electrical synapses between layer 1 interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex

FENS Forum 2024

Extrasynaptic NMDARs activation by co-agonist glycine controls the occurrence of bursts in nigral dopamine neurons

FENS Forum 2024

Bisected graph matching improves automated pairing of bilaterally homologous neurons from connectomes

Neuromatch 5

Intelligence Offloading and the Neurosimulation of Developmental Agents

Neuromatch 5

Neurophysiological correlates of cognitive load in online learning for neurotypical and neurodivergent students

FENS Forum 2024

Co-Design of Analog Neuromorphic Systems and Cortical Motifs with Local Dendritic Learning Rules

Bernstein Conference 2024

Neuroprotective and antioxidant effects of oxotremorine‑M, a non‑selective muscarinic acetylcholine receptors agonist, in a cellular model of Alzheimer disease

FENS Forum 2024

Pyramidal Interneuron Next-Generation Neural Mass Model: Synaptic Properties and Stimulation Response

Bernstein Conference 2024

Engagement of basal amygdala-nucleus accumbens neurons in the processing of rewarding or aversive social stimuli

FENS Forum 2024

Cortex-wide decision circuits are shaped by distinct classes of excitatory pyramidal neurons

COSYNE 2022

Advancing neuroscience education without borders: make your training resources FAIR with INCF!

Neuromatch 5

Optimization techniques for machine learning based classification involving large-scale neuroscience datasets

Neuromatch 5

Presynaptic mechanisms underlying GABAB receptor-mediated heterosynaptic depression at hippocampal mossy fiber bouton to CA3 pyramidal neuron synapses

FENS Forum 2024

Is the cortical dynamics ergodic? A numerical study in partially-symmetric networks of spiking neurons

Bernstein Conference 2024

Cleo: a simulation testbed for bridging model and experiment in mesoscale neuroscience

Neuromatch 5

The predictive power of neurological factors for differentiated attention functions in children and adolescents with the genetic disorder neurofibromatosis type 1

FENS Forum 2024

Layer-specific control of cortical inhibition by NDNF interneurons

COSYNE 2023

VIP Inhibitory Neurons in the Visual Cortex Perform Two Types of Predictive Processing: Stimulus Specific & Non-specific

Neuromatch 5

Learning neuronal manifolds for interacting neuronal populations

Bernstein Conference 2024

Density-based Neural Decoding using Spike Localization for Neuropixels Recordings

COSYNE 2023

Semantic Embodiment: Decoding Action Words through Topographic Neuronal Representation with Brain-Constrained Network

Bernstein Conference 2024

The role of gap junctions and clustered connectivity in emergent synchronisation patterns of spiking inhibitory neuronal networks

Bernstein Conference 2024

Bottom-up approach to preprint peer-review: PCI Neuroscience

Neuromatch 5

Behavioral and Neuronal Correlates of Exploration and Goal-Directed Navigation

Bernstein Conference 2024

Microglia-neuron interaction: The role of CCL21 in sepsis-associated encephalopathy

FENS Forum 2024

Defining the Limits: Upper Bound of Non-Neurobiological Treatment Efficacy through Cognitive-Neural Network Alignment

Bernstein Conference 2024

Set-based Fitness Comparisons - Could Neuroscientists Benefit from Engineering Studies on Conceptual Design?

Bernstein Conference 2024