Dan Levenstein
@dlevenstein.bsky.social
Neuroscientist, in theory.
Studying sleep and navigation in 🧠s and 💻s.
Wu Tsai Investigator, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Yale.
An emergent property of a few billion neurons, their interactions with each other and the world over ~1 century.
Studying sleep and navigation in 🧠s and 💻s.
Wu Tsai Investigator, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Yale.
An emergent property of a few billion neurons, their interactions with each other and the world over ~1 century.
Pinned
Dan Levenstein
@dlevenstein.bsky.social
· Jun 23
Thrilled to announce I'll be starting my own neuro-theory lab, as an Assistant Professor at @yaleneuro.bsky.social @wutsaiyale.bsky.social this Fall!
My group will study offline learning in the sleeping brain: how neural activity self-organizes during sleep and the computations it performs. 🧵
My group will study offline learning in the sleeping brain: how neural activity self-organizes during sleep and the computations it performs. 🧵
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Y’all are reading this paper in the wrong way.
We love to trash dominant hypothesis, but we need to look for evidence against the manifold hypothesis elsewhere:
This elegant work doesn't show neural dynamics are high D, nor that we should stop using PCA
It’s quite the opposite!
(thread)
We love to trash dominant hypothesis, but we need to look for evidence against the manifold hypothesis elsewhere:
This elegant work doesn't show neural dynamics are high D, nor that we should stop using PCA
It’s quite the opposite!
(thread)
“Our findings challenge the conventional focus on low-dimensional coding subspaces as a sufficient framework for understanding neural computations, demonstrating that dimensions previously considered task-irrelevant and accounting for little variance can have a critical role in driving behavior.”
Neural dynamics outside task-coding dimensions drive decision trajectories through transient amplification
Most behaviors involve neural dynamics in high-dimensional activity spaces. A common approach is to extract dimensions that capture task-related variability, such as those separating stimuli or choice...
www.biorxiv.org
November 25, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Y’all are reading this paper in the wrong way.
We love to trash dominant hypothesis, but we need to look for evidence against the manifold hypothesis elsewhere:
This elegant work doesn't show neural dynamics are high D, nor that we should stop using PCA
It’s quite the opposite!
(thread)
We love to trash dominant hypothesis, but we need to look for evidence against the manifold hypothesis elsewhere:
This elegant work doesn't show neural dynamics are high D, nor that we should stop using PCA
It’s quite the opposite!
(thread)
congrats Ann! you're killing it :D
November 24, 2025 at 7:29 PM
congrats Ann! you're killing it :D
Ahhh this is great. I remember @repromancer.bsky.social taking about this when he was working on his EG paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Did not realize it came from Amari
Did not realize it came from Amari
www.biorxiv.org
November 24, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Ahhh this is great. I remember @repromancer.bsky.social taking about this when he was working on his EG paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Did not realize it came from Amari
Did not realize it came from Amari
Ahh good to know re: reproducibility.
Jascha actually came and presented the delay learning stuff here a few weeks ago, super cool! Made me think it’s time to get into training some spiking networks 😉
Jascha actually came and presented the delay learning stuff here a few weeks ago, super cool! Made me think it’s time to get into training some spiking networks 😉
November 24, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Ahh good to know re: reproducibility.
Jascha actually came and presented the delay learning stuff here a few weeks ago, super cool! Made me think it’s time to get into training some spiking networks 😉
Jascha actually came and presented the delay learning stuff here a few weeks ago, super cool! Made me think it’s time to get into training some spiking networks 😉
There are a small number of papers that I still think about regularly 10 years after reading them and this is one of them.
Izbikevich also had an extremely cool, wild, and thought-provoking model of how this might work that I feel never really got fully fleshed out.
www.izhikevich.org/publications...
www.izhikevich.org/publications...
www.izhikevich.org
November 24, 2025 at 1:54 PM
There are a small number of papers that I still think about regularly 10 years after reading them and this is one of them.
I’ve also always wondered how all these D’s relate - coding, communication, fractal, movement-related 😵💫
An interesting perspective on this from @lukesjulson.bsky.social and @eliezyer.bsky.social:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
An interesting perspective on this from @lukesjulson.bsky.social and @eliezyer.bsky.social:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Off-manifold coding in visual cortex revealed by sleep
Low-dimensional neural manifolds are controversial in part because it is unclear how to reconcile them with high-dimensional representations observed in areas such as primary visual cortex (V1). We ad...
www.biorxiv.org
November 23, 2025 at 10:00 PM
I’ve also always wondered how all these D’s relate - coding, communication, fractal, movement-related 😵💫
An interesting perspective on this from @lukesjulson.bsky.social and @eliezyer.bsky.social:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
An interesting perspective on this from @lukesjulson.bsky.social and @eliezyer.bsky.social:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1) This is a great idea.
2) I would be happy to mentor a project like this. If you want to do a project eg at the intersection of Philosophy of Science and NeuroAI, please feel free to reach out to discuss, or just put my name as a suggested mentor!
2) I would be happy to mentor a project like this. If you want to do a project eg at the intersection of Philosophy of Science and NeuroAI, please feel free to reach out to discuss, or just put my name as a suggested mentor!
🗣️ With the support of the @danafoundation.bsky.social, we are very excited to announce the Philosophy & Neuroscience Collaborative Mentorship Program! 🧠
For more details & submission requirements, visit: philandneuro.com/mentorship
(This is 1/2 announcements we will make over the next 1-2 weeks.)
For more details & submission requirements, visit: philandneuro.com/mentorship
(This is 1/2 announcements we will make over the next 1-2 weeks.)
November 23, 2025 at 7:12 PM
1) This is a great idea.
2) I would be happy to mentor a project like this. If you want to do a project eg at the intersection of Philosophy of Science and NeuroAI, please feel free to reach out to discuss, or just put my name as a suggested mentor!
2) I would be happy to mentor a project like this. If you want to do a project eg at the intersection of Philosophy of Science and NeuroAI, please feel free to reach out to discuss, or just put my name as a suggested mentor!
Could you recommend an “Amari to the rescue” paper to start with? Have been meaning to dig into his work.
November 23, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Could you recommend an “Amari to the rescue” paper to start with? Have been meaning to dig into his work.
During my PhD, I remember someone saying something to the effect of “really easy to wake an animal up with neural stimulation, really hard to put them to sleep”.
That was until Yang Dan’s lab took up the challenge 😂
That was until Yang Dan’s lab took up the challenge 😂
November 23, 2025 at 1:59 PM
During my PhD, I remember someone saying something to the effect of “really easy to wake an animal up with neural stimulation, really hard to put them to sleep”.
That was until Yang Dan’s lab took up the challenge 😂
That was until Yang Dan’s lab took up the challenge 😂
Might be wrong, but I think this has only been found in cortex?
Hunger goes a bit deeper and takes years of practice to suppress 🧘
Hunger goes a bit deeper and takes years of practice to suppress 🧘
Volitional control of single cortical neurons in a brain-machine interface
Volitional control of cortical activity is relevant for optimizing control signals for neuroprosthetic devices. We explored the control of firing rates of single cortical cells in two M. Nemestrina monkeys by providing visual feedback of neural ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
November 23, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Might be wrong, but I think this has only been found in cortex?
Hunger goes a bit deeper and takes years of practice to suppress 🧘
Hunger goes a bit deeper and takes years of practice to suppress 🧘
🔥🔥🔥from @ulisespereirao.bsky.social ^^^
November 23, 2025 at 1:39 PM
🔥🔥🔥from @ulisespereirao.bsky.social ^^^
“Our findings challenge the conventional focus on low-dimensional coding subspaces as a sufficient framework for understanding neural computations, demonstrating that dimensions previously considered task-irrelevant and accounting for little variance can have a critical role in driving behavior.”
Neural dynamics outside task-coding dimensions drive decision trajectories through transient amplification
Most behaviors involve neural dynamics in high-dimensional activity spaces. A common approach is to extract dimensions that capture task-related variability, such as those separating stimuli or choice...
www.biorxiv.org
November 23, 2025 at 1:38 PM
“Our findings challenge the conventional focus on low-dimensional coding subspaces as a sufficient framework for understanding neural computations, demonstrating that dimensions previously considered task-irrelevant and accounting for little variance can have a critical role in driving behavior.”
Cannot wait for AGI.
November 22, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Cannot wait for AGI.
At least we get to say it like “d-pip”, which has a nice ring to it.
November 21, 2025 at 12:38 AM
At least we get to say it like “d-pip”, which has a nice ring to it.
This is the obvious choice.
November 21, 2025 at 12:36 AM
This is the obvious choice.
BTSP v2.0: the re-TSP-ening
November 20, 2025 at 11:51 PM
BTSP v2.0: the re-TSP-ening
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Most neuroscientists would agree that the brain is far more sophisticated than ANNs - so why would we force tools and interpretations that are too trivial to explain ANNs today, much less the brain? We wouldn't.
November 20, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Most neuroscientists would agree that the brain is far more sophisticated than ANNs - so why would we force tools and interpretations that are too trivial to explain ANNs today, much less the brain? We wouldn't.
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
We're almost at the end of the year, and that means an end-of-year review! Send me your favorite NeuroAI papers of the year (preprints or published, late last year is fine too).
November 19, 2025 at 4:14 PM
We're almost at the end of the year, and that means an end-of-year review! Send me your favorite NeuroAI papers of the year (preprints or published, late last year is fine too).
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
What are the top 3 dream experiments you'd like neurophysiologists to do, that would help your modeling the most?
November 17, 2025 at 2:34 AM
What are the top 3 dream experiments you'd like neurophysiologists to do, that would help your modeling the most?
Since so many people are here for #sfn25 this week, maybe a good time to mention the algorithmic “For You” feed:
bsky.app/profile/did:...
which shows you posts that people who liked the same things as you liked 🫧📌
bsky.app/profile/did:...
which shows you posts that people who liked the same things as you liked 🫧📌
Welcome to the ✨For You✨ feed!
It finds people who liked the same posts as you, and shows you what else they've liked recently.
📌 Pin to add it to your top bar
❤️ Like the feed and repost to spread the goodness
It finds people who liked the same posts as you, and shows you what else they've liked recently.
📌 Pin to add it to your top bar
❤️ Like the feed and repost to spread the goodness
November 18, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Since so many people are here for #sfn25 this week, maybe a good time to mention the algorithmic “For You” feed:
bsky.app/profile/did:...
which shows you posts that people who liked the same things as you liked 🫧📌
bsky.app/profile/did:...
which shows you posts that people who liked the same things as you liked 🫧📌
Why if it isn’t Blake “waltzing in here, dropping hot takes, and leaving” Richards
November 15, 2025 at 5:08 AM
Why if it isn’t Blake “waltzing in here, dropping hot takes, and leaving” Richards
Will be presenting a poster on @apeyrache.bsky.social row, Tues AM, with an update our sequential predictive learning preprint:
-CA3-like (sparse lognormal) connectivity gives a hippocampus-like (orthogonalized) map
-non-spatial representation! splitters, lap/time cells, action plan…we got it all🤑
-CA3-like (sparse lognormal) connectivity gives a hippocampus-like (orthogonalized) map
-non-spatial representation! splitters, lap/time cells, action plan…we got it all🤑
TFW you land in San Diego and the bsky is hopping #sfn25
November 15, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Will be presenting a poster on @apeyrache.bsky.social row, Tues AM, with an update our sequential predictive learning preprint:
-CA3-like (sparse lognormal) connectivity gives a hippocampus-like (orthogonalized) map
-non-spatial representation! splitters, lap/time cells, action plan…we got it all🤑
-CA3-like (sparse lognormal) connectivity gives a hippocampus-like (orthogonalized) map
-non-spatial representation! splitters, lap/time cells, action plan…we got it all🤑
“and an otherwise normal life to lead”
November 15, 2025 at 4:53 AM
“and an otherwise normal life to lead”
HVC, which is short for HVC.
November 14, 2025 at 10:52 PM
HVC, which is short for HVC.