Friedemann Zenke
@fzenke.bsky.social
Computational neuroscientist at the FMI.
www.zenkelab.org
www.zenkelab.org
Pinned
1/6 New preprint 🚀 How does the cortex learn to represent things and how they move without reconstructing sensory stimuli? We developed a circuit-centric recurrent predictive learning (RPL) model based on JEPAs.
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Led by @atenagm.bsky.social @mshalvagal.bsky.social
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Led by @atenagm.bsky.social @mshalvagal.bsky.social
1/6 New preprint 🚀 How does the cortex learn to represent things and how they move without reconstructing sensory stimuli? We developed a circuit-centric recurrent predictive learning (RPL) model based on JEPAs.
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Led by @atenagm.bsky.social @mshalvagal.bsky.social
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Led by @atenagm.bsky.social @mshalvagal.bsky.social
November 27, 2025 at 8:24 AM
1/6 New preprint 🚀 How does the cortex learn to represent things and how they move without reconstructing sensory stimuli? We developed a circuit-centric recurrent predictive learning (RPL) model based on JEPAs.
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Led by @atenagm.bsky.social @mshalvagal.bsky.social
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Led by @atenagm.bsky.social @mshalvagal.bsky.social
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
Excited to see the paper fully published. It's an important milestone for training SNNs with exact gradients, replacing our earlier tricks of a "delay line augmentation" to capture temporal relationships. Delays can now be learnt alongside weights naturally. Amazing work @mbalazs98.bsky.social !
Our paper on event-based delay learning is now published! @neworderofjamie.bsky.social @drtnowotny.bsky.social
TL;DR: It’s now possible to train synaptic delays in large-scale spiking neural networks with high temporal precision—even in recurrent connections.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
TL;DR: It’s now possible to train synaptic delays in large-scale spiking neural networks with high temporal precision—even in recurrent connections.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Efficient event-based delay learning in spiking neural networks - Nature Communications
Inspired by how neurons in the brain communicate, Spiking Neural Networks are gaining attention as efficient models for solving spatiotemporal AI tasks. The authors introduce a training method for syn...
www.nature.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Excited to see the paper fully published. It's an important milestone for training SNNs with exact gradients, replacing our earlier tricks of a "delay line augmentation" to capture temporal relationships. Delays can now be learnt alongside weights naturally. Amazing work @mbalazs98.bsky.social !
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
Psst - neuromorphic folks. Did you know that you can solve the SHD dataset with 90% accuracy using only 22 kb of parameter memory by quantising weights and delays? Check out our preprint with @pengfei-sun.bsky.social and @danakarca.bsky.social, or read the TLDR below. 👇🤖🧠🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2510.27434
Exploiting heterogeneous delays for efficient computation in low-bit neural networks
Neural networks rely on learning synaptic weights. However, this overlooks other neural parameters that can also be learned and may be utilized by the brain. One such parameter is the delay: the brain...
arxiv.org
November 13, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Psst - neuromorphic folks. Did you know that you can solve the SHD dataset with 90% accuracy using only 22 kb of parameter memory by quantising weights and delays? Check out our preprint with @pengfei-sun.bsky.social and @danakarca.bsky.social, or read the TLDR below. 👇🤖🧠🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2510.27434
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
Spiking NN fans - the #SNUFA workshop (Nov 5-6) agenda is finalised and online now. Make sure to register (free) soon. (Note you can register for either day and come to both.)
Agenda: snufa.net/2025/
Registration: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/snufa-2025...
Thanks to all who voted on abstracts!
🤖🧠🧪
Agenda: snufa.net/2025/
Registration: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/snufa-2025...
Thanks to all who voted on abstracts!
🤖🧠🧪
SNUFA 2025
Spiking Neural networks as Universal Function Approximators
snufa.net
October 23, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Spiking NN fans - the #SNUFA workshop (Nov 5-6) agenda is finalised and online now. Make sure to register (free) soon. (Note you can register for either day and come to both.)
Agenda: snufa.net/2025/
Registration: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/snufa-2025...
Thanks to all who voted on abstracts!
🤖🧠🧪
Agenda: snufa.net/2025/
Registration: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/snufa-2025...
Thanks to all who voted on abstracts!
🤖🧠🧪
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
Message for participants of the #SNUFA 2025 spiking neural network workshop. We got almost 60 awesome abstract submissions, and we'd now like your help to select which ones should be offered talks. Follow the "abstract voting" link at snufa.net/2025/ to take part. It should take <15m. Thanks! ❤️
SNUFA 2025
Spiking Neural networks as Universal Function Approximators
snufa.net
October 1, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Message for participants of the #SNUFA 2025 spiking neural network workshop. We got almost 60 awesome abstract submissions, and we'd now like your help to select which ones should be offered talks. Follow the "abstract voting" link at snufa.net/2025/ to take part. It should take <15m. Thanks! ❤️
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
Interested in doing a Ph.D. to work on building models of the brain/behavior? Consider applying to graduate schools at CU Anschutz:
1. Neuroscience www.cuanschutz.edu/graduate-pro...
2. Bioengineering engineering.ucdenver.edu/bioengineeri...
You could work with several comp neuro PIs, including me.
1. Neuroscience www.cuanschutz.edu/graduate-pro...
2. Bioengineering engineering.ucdenver.edu/bioengineeri...
You could work with several comp neuro PIs, including me.
September 27, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Interested in doing a Ph.D. to work on building models of the brain/behavior? Consider applying to graduate schools at CU Anschutz:
1. Neuroscience www.cuanschutz.edu/graduate-pro...
2. Bioengineering engineering.ucdenver.edu/bioengineeri...
You could work with several comp neuro PIs, including me.
1. Neuroscience www.cuanschutz.edu/graduate-pro...
2. Bioengineering engineering.ucdenver.edu/bioengineeri...
You could work with several comp neuro PIs, including me.
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
I’m super excited to finally put my recent work with @behrenstimb.bsky.social on bioRxiv, where we develop a new mechanistic theory of how PFC structures adaptive behaviour using attractor dynamics in space and time!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 24, 2025 at 12:04 PM
I’m super excited to finally put my recent work with @behrenstimb.bsky.social on bioRxiv, where we develop a new mechanistic theory of how PFC structures adaptive behaviour using attractor dynamics in space and time!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Truly honored (and a little overwhelmed) to see our work featured in The Transmitter's "This Paper Changed My Life." Huge thanks to @neural-reckoning.org for the kind words - and to our amazing community that keeps pushing spiking neural network research forward 🙏
In our latest “This paper changed my life,” @neural-reckoning.org explains how @fzenke.bsky.social's 2019 paper, and its related coding tutorial SpyTorch, made it possible to apply modern machine learning to spiking neural networks.
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-c...
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-c...
This paper changed my life: Dan Goodman on a paper that reignited the field of spiking neural networks
Friedemann Zenke’s 2019 paper, and its related coding tutorial SpyTorch, made it possible to apply modern machine learning to spiking neural networks. The innovation reinvigorated the field.
www.thetransmitter.org
September 17, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Truly honored (and a little overwhelmed) to see our work featured in The Transmitter's "This Paper Changed My Life." Huge thanks to @neural-reckoning.org for the kind words - and to our amazing community that keeps pushing spiking neural network research forward 🙏
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
Submissions (short!) due for SNUFA spiking neural networks conference in <2 weeks! 🤖🧠🧪
forms.cloud.microsoft/e/XkZLavhaJe
More info at snufa.net/2025/
Note that we normally get around 700 participants and recordings go on YouTube and get 100s-1000s views.
Please repost.
forms.cloud.microsoft/e/XkZLavhaJe
More info at snufa.net/2025/
Note that we normally get around 700 participants and recordings go on YouTube and get 100s-1000s views.
Please repost.
SNUFA 2025
Spiking Neural networks as Universal Function Approximators
snufa.net
September 16, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Submissions (short!) due for SNUFA spiking neural networks conference in <2 weeks! 🤖🧠🧪
forms.cloud.microsoft/e/XkZLavhaJe
More info at snufa.net/2025/
Note that we normally get around 700 participants and recordings go on YouTube and get 100s-1000s views.
Please repost.
forms.cloud.microsoft/e/XkZLavhaJe
More info at snufa.net/2025/
Note that we normally get around 700 participants and recordings go on YouTube and get 100s-1000s views.
Please repost.
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
I am happy to finally share this preprint of my PhD project in @guillaumediss.bsky.social lab at the FMI in Basel.
We used ddPCA to map the genetic architecture of the entire human bZIP interaction network.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thanks to all our co-authors for the great collaboration!
We used ddPCA to map the genetic architecture of the entire human bZIP interaction network.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thanks to all our co-authors for the great collaboration!
The genetic architecture of the human bZIP family
Generative biology holds the promise to transform our ability to design and understand living systems by creating novel proteins, pathways, and organisms with tailored functions that address challenge...
www.biorxiv.org
August 25, 2025 at 3:30 PM
I am happy to finally share this preprint of my PhD project in @guillaumediss.bsky.social lab at the FMI in Basel.
We used ddPCA to map the genetic architecture of the entire human bZIP interaction network.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thanks to all our co-authors for the great collaboration!
We used ddPCA to map the genetic architecture of the entire human bZIP interaction network.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thanks to all our co-authors for the great collaboration!
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
Spiking neural networks people, this message is for you!
The annual SNUFA workshop is now open for abstract submission (deadline Sept 26) and (free) registration. This year's speakers include Elisabetta Chicca, Jason Eshraghian, Tomoki Fukai, Chengcheng Huang, and... you?
snufa.net/2025/
🤖🧠🧪
The annual SNUFA workshop is now open for abstract submission (deadline Sept 26) and (free) registration. This year's speakers include Elisabetta Chicca, Jason Eshraghian, Tomoki Fukai, Chengcheng Huang, and... you?
snufa.net/2025/
🤖🧠🧪
SNUFA 2025
Spiking Neural networks as Universal Function Approximators
snufa.net
August 7, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Spiking neural networks people, this message is for you!
The annual SNUFA workshop is now open for abstract submission (deadline Sept 26) and (free) registration. This year's speakers include Elisabetta Chicca, Jason Eshraghian, Tomoki Fukai, Chengcheng Huang, and... you?
snufa.net/2025/
🤖🧠🧪
The annual SNUFA workshop is now open for abstract submission (deadline Sept 26) and (free) registration. This year's speakers include Elisabetta Chicca, Jason Eshraghian, Tomoki Fukai, Chengcheng Huang, and... you?
snufa.net/2025/
🤖🧠🧪
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
We're hiring,, of interest to people in spiking neural networks and neuromorphic particularly. See below. 👇
Note the deadline for applications is very soon! Apologies for this but various admin necessities made it unavoidable.
Note the deadline for applications is very soon! Apologies for this but various admin necessities made it unavoidable.
Hiring a post-doc at Imperial in EEE. Broad in scope + flexible on topics: neural networks & new AI accelerators from a HW/SW co-design perspective!
w/ @neuralreckoning.bsky.social @achterbrain.bsky.social in Intelligent Systems and Networks group.
Plz share! 🚀: www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...
w/ @neuralreckoning.bsky.social @achterbrain.bsky.social in Intelligent Systems and Networks group.
Plz share! 🚀: www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...
Description
Please note that job descriptions are not exhaustive, and you may be asked to take on additional duties that align with the key responsibilities ment...
www.imperial.ac.uk
July 25, 2025 at 1:44 PM
We're hiring,, of interest to people in spiking neural networks and neuromorphic particularly. See below. 👇
Note the deadline for applications is very soon! Apologies for this but various admin necessities made it unavoidable.
Note the deadline for applications is very soon! Apologies for this but various admin necessities made it unavoidable.
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
Ditching months-long delays for fast, constructive feedback.
This interview with @solygamagda.bsky.social dives into the experience of publishing with eLife and what it could mean for a more open and efficient future in science.
This interview with @solygamagda.bsky.social dives into the experience of publishing with eLife and what it could mean for a more open and efficient future in science.
Publishing with eLife: “the future of science lies in greater transparency”
Neuroscientist Magdalena Solyga shares her latest study and her experience publishing with eLife.
buff.ly
July 21, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Ditching months-long delays for fast, constructive feedback.
This interview with @solygamagda.bsky.social dives into the experience of publishing with eLife and what it could mean for a more open and efficient future in science.
This interview with @solygamagda.bsky.social dives into the experience of publishing with eLife and what it could mean for a more open and efficient future in science.
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
There might be a bit of misconception here. What the paper very convincingly shows is that visual cortex does not compute global oddball prediction errors and does not receive any top-down predictions that could be used to compute such prediction errors.
July 14, 2025 at 3:44 PM
There might be a bit of misconception here. What the paper very convincingly shows is that visual cortex does not compute global oddball prediction errors and does not receive any top-down predictions that could be used to compute such prediction errors.
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
Got prov. approval for 2 major grants in Neuro-AI & Dynamical Systems Reconstruction, on learning & inference in non-stationary environments, out-of-domain generalization, and DS foundation models. To all AI/math/DS enthusiasts: Expect job announcements (PhD/PostDoc) soon! Feel free to get in touch.
July 13, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Got prov. approval for 2 major grants in Neuro-AI & Dynamical Systems Reconstruction, on learning & inference in non-stationary environments, out-of-domain generalization, and DS foundation models. To all AI/math/DS enthusiasts: Expect job announcements (PhD/PostDoc) soon! Feel free to get in touch.
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
Here is your last reminder that the application deadline for Imbizo.Africa is nearing quickly, the 1st of July, in fact tomorrow. Still the place where diversity is at its best in the world! Tell all who need to hear. #africa #neuro
#Imbizo - Simons Computational Neuroscience Imbizo - #Imbizo
Simons Computational Neuroscience Imbizo summer school in Cape Town, South Africa
Imbizo.Africa
June 30, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Here is your last reminder that the application deadline for Imbizo.Africa is nearing quickly, the 1st of July, in fact tomorrow. Still the place where diversity is at its best in the world! Tell all who need to hear. #africa #neuro
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
My latest Aronov lab paper is now published @Nature!
When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️
The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar
bit.ly/3HvWSum
When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️
The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar
bit.ly/3HvWSum
June 11, 2025 at 10:24 PM
My latest Aronov lab paper is now published @Nature!
When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️
The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar
bit.ly/3HvWSum
When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️
The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar
bit.ly/3HvWSum
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
How does in-context learning emerge in attention models during gradient descent training?
Sharing our new Spotlight paper @icmlconf.bsky.social: Training Dynamics of In-Context Learning in Linear Attention
arxiv.org/abs/2501.16265
Led by Yedi Zhang with @aaditya6284.bsky.social and Peter Latham
Sharing our new Spotlight paper @icmlconf.bsky.social: Training Dynamics of In-Context Learning in Linear Attention
arxiv.org/abs/2501.16265
Led by Yedi Zhang with @aaditya6284.bsky.social and Peter Latham
June 4, 2025 at 11:22 AM
How does in-context learning emerge in attention models during gradient descent training?
Sharing our new Spotlight paper @icmlconf.bsky.social: Training Dynamics of In-Context Learning in Linear Attention
arxiv.org/abs/2501.16265
Led by Yedi Zhang with @aaditya6284.bsky.social and Peter Latham
Sharing our new Spotlight paper @icmlconf.bsky.social: Training Dynamics of In-Context Learning in Linear Attention
arxiv.org/abs/2501.16265
Led by Yedi Zhang with @aaditya6284.bsky.social and Peter Latham
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
The deadline for the VIB.AI group leader positions is approaching - send in your CV and short research plan before 14th June to start your BioML research lab in Leuven or Ghent
We want to connect:
To link model builders with data generators.
To bring together scientists asking why cells behave the way they do, and others figuring out how to model that behavior.
If you're working on AI in biology, consider joining!
https://tinyurl.com/y35m6khy
To link model builders with data generators.
To bring together scientists asking why cells behave the way they do, and others figuring out how to model that behavior.
If you're working on AI in biology, consider joining!
https://tinyurl.com/y35m6khy
June 4, 2025 at 7:16 AM
The deadline for the VIB.AI group leader positions is approaching - send in your CV and short research plan before 14th June to start your BioML research lab in Leuven or Ghent
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
We just pushed “Memory by a 1000 rules” onto bioRxiv, where we use clever #ML to find #plasticity quadruplets (EE, EI, IE, II) that learn basic stability in spiking nets. Why is it cool? We find 1000s!! of solutions, and they don’t just stabilise. They #memorise! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Memory by a thousand rules: Automated discovery of functional multi-type plasticity rules reveals variety & degeneracy at the heart of learning
Synaptic plasticity is the basis of learning and memory, but the link between synaptic changes and neural function remains elusive. Here, we used automated search algorithms to obtain thousands of str...
www.biorxiv.org
June 2, 2025 at 6:50 PM
We just pushed “Memory by a 1000 rules” onto bioRxiv, where we use clever #ML to find #plasticity quadruplets (EE, EI, IE, II) that learn basic stability in spiking nets. Why is it cool? We find 1000s!! of solutions, and they don’t just stabilise. They #memorise! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
In a @elife.bsky.social study, FMI researchers show that memory storage may rely on dynamic interplay between excitatory and inhibitory neurons — challenging the idea of stable activity patterns in memory networks. www.fmi.ch/news-events/...
How brain networks balance learning and memory
FMI researchers have provided new insights into how the brain organizes and processes memories, thanks to a study that looks at the balance between excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Memory networks h...
www.fmi.ch
May 28, 2025 at 8:53 AM
In a @elife.bsky.social study, FMI researchers show that memory storage may rely on dynamic interplay between excitatory and inhibitory neurons — challenging the idea of stable activity patterns in memory networks. www.fmi.ch/news-events/...
1/6 Why does the brain maintain such precise excitatory-inhibitory balance?
Our new preprint explores a provocative idea: Small, targeted deviations from this balance may serve a purpose: to encode local error signals for learning.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
led by @jrbch.bsky.social
Our new preprint explores a provocative idea: Small, targeted deviations from this balance may serve a purpose: to encode local error signals for learning.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
led by @jrbch.bsky.social
May 27, 2025 at 7:49 AM
1/6 Why does the brain maintain such precise excitatory-inhibitory balance?
Our new preprint explores a provocative idea: Small, targeted deviations from this balance may serve a purpose: to encode local error signals for learning.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
led by @jrbch.bsky.social
Our new preprint explores a provocative idea: Small, targeted deviations from this balance may serve a purpose: to encode local error signals for learning.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
led by @jrbch.bsky.social
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
*** Come join us !! We are recruiting !! ***
How does the brain generate beliefs that go beyond direct experience? How do these mechanisms go awry in psychosis?
The Barron lab tinyurl.com/bdf4drjf @MRCBNDU @NDCNOxford are recruiting a new postdoc tinyurl.com/ut4vbwt4 to work in mouse models
How does the brain generate beliefs that go beyond direct experience? How do these mechanisms go awry in psychosis?
The Barron lab tinyurl.com/bdf4drjf @MRCBNDU @NDCNOxford are recruiting a new postdoc tinyurl.com/ut4vbwt4 to work in mouse models
Barron Group | mrcbndu
Our group investigates how cells and circuits in the brain work together to perform computations that support memory. Using a wide range of technical approaches, we investigate how these computations ...
tinyurl.com
May 13, 2025 at 11:01 AM
*** Come join us !! We are recruiting !! ***
How does the brain generate beliefs that go beyond direct experience? How do these mechanisms go awry in psychosis?
The Barron lab tinyurl.com/bdf4drjf @MRCBNDU @NDCNOxford are recruiting a new postdoc tinyurl.com/ut4vbwt4 to work in mouse models
How does the brain generate beliefs that go beyond direct experience? How do these mechanisms go awry in psychosis?
The Barron lab tinyurl.com/bdf4drjf @MRCBNDU @NDCNOxford are recruiting a new postdoc tinyurl.com/ut4vbwt4 to work in mouse models
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
Your opportunity to apply for the #LakeConference on Neural Coding & Dynamics is going to set sail soon! 🛥️
Apply by May 23 to join us for this intimate, interactive conference.
📆 Sep. 28 to Oct. 2
📍 Seattle, USA
🧠📈 All career stages welcomed
More info: alleninstitute.org/events/lake-...
Apply by May 23 to join us for this intimate, interactive conference.
📆 Sep. 28 to Oct. 2
📍 Seattle, USA
🧠📈 All career stages welcomed
More info: alleninstitute.org/events/lake-...
May 5, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Your opportunity to apply for the #LakeConference on Neural Coding & Dynamics is going to set sail soon! 🛥️
Apply by May 23 to join us for this intimate, interactive conference.
📆 Sep. 28 to Oct. 2
📍 Seattle, USA
🧠📈 All career stages welcomed
More info: alleninstitute.org/events/lake-...
Apply by May 23 to join us for this intimate, interactive conference.
📆 Sep. 28 to Oct. 2
📍 Seattle, USA
🧠📈 All career stages welcomed
More info: alleninstitute.org/events/lake-...
Reposted by Friedemann Zenke
I'm excited to share that the last chapter of my PhD thesis is now published in Nature! 🍾
What drives serotonin neurons? We think it's the expectation of future reward and --- critically --- how fast this expectation is increasing. 📈
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
1/6
What drives serotonin neurons? We think it's the expectation of future reward and --- critically --- how fast this expectation is increasing. 📈
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
1/6
A prospective code for value in the serotonin system - Nature
Merging ideas from reinforcement learning theory with recent insights into the filtering properties of the dorsal raphe nucleus, a unifying perspective is found explaining why serotonin neurons are ac...
doi.org
March 27, 2025 at 9:04 PM
I'm excited to share that the last chapter of my PhD thesis is now published in Nature! 🍾
What drives serotonin neurons? We think it's the expectation of future reward and --- critically --- how fast this expectation is increasing. 📈
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
1/6
What drives serotonin neurons? We think it's the expectation of future reward and --- critically --- how fast this expectation is increasing. 📈
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
1/6