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Dorcas Muthoni PhD Fellowship - PhD in Information and Communication Technologies - UPF

Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Sep 12

📷PhD Position in Computational Neuroscience and AI, Moreno-Bote Lab, Barcelona.

1 fully funded PhD position is available. Deadline November 2025. See post below.

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Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Sep 11

www.upf.edu/web/phd-engi...
Dorcas Muthoni PhD Fellowship at UPF, for Female Researchers of African nationality only. If you hold a degree in Physics, Computer Science or Mathematics, please, apply to my comp neuro theory lab. Send me your CV and transcript of grades to my email.

www.upf.edu

The relationship between confidence and gaze-at-nothing oculomotor dynamics during decision-making

Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Jul 7

Do you "look at nothing" when making a decision?

Here we provide further evidence about the connection betwee gaze into nothing and decision confidence, revealing more on the sequential hidden dynamics of decisions

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

How does confidence relate to oculomotor dynamics during decision-making? Do oculomotor dynamics reflect deliberation and the buildup of confidence in the absence of visual stimuli? Here we examine th...

journals.plos.org

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Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Jun 3

I would not use any extrinsic reward function. Instead, I would use an intrinsic motivation.

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Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · May 7

Nice problem. If you had a perfect replica, then the answer is yes. But if you miss a single data point, then there will be divergence between predictions and reality. The only way to fill in the gap is to have a model of behavior, adding embodiment and a reason for the brain to exist.

Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Mar 10

Great work with @d-ferro.bsky.social‬ and Ben Hayden

Demetrio Ferro @d-ferro.bsky.social · Mar 10

Just posted a @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social preprint! 📝
Accumulating tokens towards a jackpot enhances decision speed and accuracy, as well as value encoding in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex 🧠. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thanks to @morenobote.bsky.social, @benhayden.bsky.social, and @upf.edu

Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Mar 7

Yes!

Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Mar 5

This position has already been filled. Thanks to all the applicants for making my choice tough.

Complex behavior from intrinsic motivation to occupy future action-state path space - Nature Communications

Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Mar 5

You can find relevant papers here
nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com/articles/s41...
openreview.net/forum?id=yXW...

Intelligent behavior of artificial agents and their design are usually considered as a reward maximization phenomenon, however, the reward function construction may be challenging. The authors introdu...

nature.com

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Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Mar 5

You can find relevant papers here
nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com/articles/s41...
openreview.net/forum?id=yXW...

Course philosophy Our goal is to teach advanced techniques in model-based analysis of behavior (humans and other animals) to cognitive and computational neuroscientists at PhD and early career levels...

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Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Mar 5

New open PhD position in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience in my lab.
We want to discover the basis of natural intelligence.
Please, spread the word, and apply if interested.
See more details below.

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Reposted by Rubén Moreno-Bote

alexhyafil.bsky.social @alexhyafil.bsky.social · Jan 30

Our Barcelona-based summer school, BAMB! (bambschool.org) just opened applications! Come join us: 15-24th July, to learn how to model behavioral data using RL, Bayesian, latent variable models, RNNs, DDMs & more! #BAMB2025

BAMB!

bambschool.org

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Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Dec 8

You can find relevant papers here
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
openreview.net/forum?id=yXW...
openreview.net/forum?id=mZH...

Complex behavior from intrinsic motivation to occupy future action-state path space - Nature Communications

Intelligent behavior of artificial agents and their design are usually considered as a reward maximization phenomenon, however, the reward function construction may be challenging. The authors introdu...

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Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Dec 8

Open PhD position in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience in my lab.
We want to discover the basis of natural intelligence.
Please, spread the word, and apply if interested.
See more details below.

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Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Dec 8

Done!

Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Dec 5

done!

Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Dec 5

sure!

Summer Workshop on the Dynamic Brain 2025

Reposted by Rubén Moreno-Bote

Alex van Meegen @avm.bsky.social · Dec 5

Would be great to be added. Thanks! Credentials: scholar.google.com/citations?us...

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Reposted by Rubén Moreno-Bote

Christoph Miehl @cmiehl.bsky.social · Dec 5

Sure! Eg, here is my latest with Brent Doiron and others using linear response theory in circuits with multiple inhibitory subtypes: elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

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Reposted by Rubén Moreno-Bote

Michael Buice @mabuice.bsky.social · Dec 5

Come to the San Juan Islands next summer to learn about some awesome data and hang out with a bunch of awesome scientists ... and me.

Allen Institute @alleninstitute.org · Dec 4

Summer camp for neuroscientists! 🌲🐋🧠

Applications are now open for our Summer Workshop on the Dynamic Brain in the gorgeous San Juan Islands. #SWDB2025

🧠✨ Learn more and apply by February 1, 2025: alleninstitute.org/events/summe...

#neuroskyence

The Summer Workshop on the Dynamic Brain is an intensive, project-based residential course with a focus on the neurobiology of sensory processing, coding, and neural population dynamics.

alleninstitute.org

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Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Dec 5

Dear Christoph, can you send me your most representative purely-theory paper, to be posted as well?

Representational drift as the consequence of ongoing memory storage

Reposted by Rubén Moreno-Bote

Licheng Zou @lichengzou.bsky.social · Dec 4

👋
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Memory systems with biologically constrained synapses have been the topic of intense theoretical study for over thirty years. Perhaps the most fundamental and far-reaching finding from this work is th...

www.biorxiv.org

Complex behavior from intrinsic motivation to occupy future action-state path space - Nature Communications

Rubén Moreno-Bote @morenobote.bsky.social · Dec 4

In the lab we have been working on this
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
In the cat-mouse example, you can see how goal-directed behavior is built on the fly, and transitions are observed between goals. Still we did not characterize the complexity of behavioral transitions, yet to be done.

Intelligent behavior of artificial agents and their design are usually considered as a reward maximization phenomenon, however, the reward function construction may be challenging. The authors introdu...