Melissa Franch, PhD
@mfranch.bsky.social
Postdoc in the Hayden lab at Baylor College of Medicine studying neural computations of natural language & communication in humans. Sister to someone with autism. F32 NIDCD Fellow | Autism Research Institute funded | she/her. melissafranch.com
Pinned
Melissa Franch, PhD
@mfranch.bsky.social
· Feb 27
I am incredibly proud to share my first, first-author paper as a postdoc with @benhayden.bsky.social . How does the human hippocampus, known for encoding concepts, represent the meanings of words while listening to narrative speech?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
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)
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
Research statement for postdoc positions.
Any good resources on this? Samples people would be willing to share?
@neural-reckoning.org @kordinglab.bsky.social @gunnarblohm.bsky.social
Any good resources on this? Samples people would be willing to share?
@neural-reckoning.org @kordinglab.bsky.social @gunnarblohm.bsky.social
November 22, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Research statement for postdoc positions.
Any good resources on this? Samples people would be willing to share?
@neural-reckoning.org @kordinglab.bsky.social @gunnarblohm.bsky.social
Any good resources on this? Samples people would be willing to share?
@neural-reckoning.org @kordinglab.bsky.social @gunnarblohm.bsky.social
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
Another #CRAEwebinar booked in! February seems a long way away, but you might want to sign up now to hear from @natecaruana.bsky.social on how VR can help us understand and improve the social experiences of autistic people.
Virtual reality as a tool for supporting autistic people.
Exploring how VR can help us understand—and improve—the social experiences of autistic people.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Another #CRAEwebinar booked in! February seems a long way away, but you might want to sign up now to hear from @natecaruana.bsky.social on how VR can help us understand and improve the social experiences of autistic people.
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
Agreed! And I suspect we'll get there quicker if we all adopt an attitude of openness to heterodox ideas. Unfortunately, all too often in neuroscience whenever people have suggested ideas that are even a small step outside orthodoxy they're met with extreme hostility (I don't mean from you!).
November 24, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Agreed! And I suspect we'll get there quicker if we all adopt an attitude of openness to heterodox ideas. Unfortunately, all too often in neuroscience whenever people have suggested ideas that are even a small step outside orthodoxy they're met with extreme hostility (I don't mean from you!).
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
As I see it, we're facing similar problems in brain research, including the biggest mysteries like understanding depression. We have a sense of what depression is and some crude scales to measure it; the end goal is the equivalent of thermodynamics. How will we get there? Epistemic iteration! 🤞
November 24, 2025 at 4:04 PM
As I see it, we're facing similar problems in brain research, including the biggest mysteries like understanding depression. We have a sense of what depression is and some crude scales to measure it; the end goal is the equivalent of thermodynamics. How will we get there? Epistemic iteration! 🤞
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
@hhmi.org Summer Undergraduate Research Experience - #CechFellows named in honor of Prof Tom Cech
Deadline to apply: 12/22/2025
Spend 9 weeks in a paid, mentored biomedical research experience in an HHMI lab. See you next summer!!!
www.hhmi.org/programs/cec...
Deadline to apply: 12/22/2025
Spend 9 weeks in a paid, mentored biomedical research experience in an HHMI lab. See you next summer!!!
www.hhmi.org/programs/cec...
Summer Undergraduate Research Experience | HHMI
The Cech Fellows Program is a paid, nine-week summer research experience empowering the next generation of scientific leaders.
www.hhmi.org
November 22, 2025 at 4:15 PM
@hhmi.org Summer Undergraduate Research Experience - #CechFellows named in honor of Prof Tom Cech
Deadline to apply: 12/22/2025
Spend 9 weeks in a paid, mentored biomedical research experience in an HHMI lab. See you next summer!!!
www.hhmi.org/programs/cec...
Deadline to apply: 12/22/2025
Spend 9 weeks in a paid, mentored biomedical research experience in an HHMI lab. See you next summer!!!
www.hhmi.org/programs/cec...
Besides the awesome neuroscience I learned at HSN and @sfn.org, I was reminded of my incredible support system and the many inspiring women in neuroscience who currently guide and influence me! @nicolecrust.bsky.social @libertysays.bsky.social @storiesofwin.bsky.social to name a few.
November 21, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Besides the awesome neuroscience I learned at HSN and @sfn.org, I was reminded of my incredible support system and the many inspiring women in neuroscience who currently guide and influence me! @nicolecrust.bsky.social @libertysays.bsky.social @storiesofwin.bsky.social to name a few.
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
New “version of record” in @elife.bsky.social!
We recorded neurons in the thalamus and subthalamic nucleus of humans and found both sensory- and perception-selective neurons with two distinct latencies!
7-year project with @nfaivre.bsky.social + @foscobernasconi.bsky.social.
A short thread 👇
We recorded neurons in the thalamus and subthalamic nucleus of humans and found both sensory- and perception-selective neurons with two distinct latencies!
7-year project with @nfaivre.bsky.social + @foscobernasconi.bsky.social.
A short thread 👇
Subcortical correlates of consciousness with human single neuron recordings
Subcortical brain structures contain neurons encoding subjective reports of stimulus detection in human participants, suggesting a role for conscious perception.
elifesciences.org
June 1, 2025 at 4:35 PM
New “version of record” in @elife.bsky.social!
We recorded neurons in the thalamus and subthalamic nucleus of humans and found both sensory- and perception-selective neurons with two distinct latencies!
7-year project with @nfaivre.bsky.social + @foscobernasconi.bsky.social.
A short thread 👇
We recorded neurons in the thalamus and subthalamic nucleus of humans and found both sensory- and perception-selective neurons with two distinct latencies!
7-year project with @nfaivre.bsky.social + @foscobernasconi.bsky.social.
A short thread 👇
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
How is the semantic content of a movie processed by our brains? 🧠🎬
We decode characters, events, & other features and investigate how populations and single neurons represent movie features. Check my poster @sfn.org #sfn25!
Sat. Nov 15, 6:45-8:45pm, Hall E, poster S5
Wed. Nov 19, 9-10am, poster NN5
We decode characters, events, & other features and investigate how populations and single neurons represent movie features. Check my poster @sfn.org #sfn25!
Sat. Nov 15, 6:45-8:45pm, Hall E, poster S5
Wed. Nov 19, 9-10am, poster NN5
November 14, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
🚨Preprint: Semantic Tuning of Single Neurons in the Human Medial Temporal Lobe
1/8: How do human neurons encode meaning?
In this work, led by Katharina Karkowski, we recorded hundreds of human MTL neurons to study semantic coding in the human brain:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
1/8: How do human neurons encode meaning?
In this work, led by Katharina Karkowski, we recorded hundreds of human MTL neurons to study semantic coding in the human brain:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Semantic Tuning of Single Neurons in the Human Medial Temporal Lobe
The Medial Temporal Lobe (MTL) is key to human cognition, supporting memory, emotional processing, navigation, and semantic coding. Rare direct human MTL recordings revealed concept cells, which were ...
doi.org
October 27, 2025 at 3:32 PM
🚨Preprint: Semantic Tuning of Single Neurons in the Human Medial Temporal Lobe
1/8: How do human neurons encode meaning?
In this work, led by Katharina Karkowski, we recorded hundreds of human MTL neurons to study semantic coding in the human brain:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
1/8: How do human neurons encode meaning?
In this work, led by Katharina Karkowski, we recorded hundreds of human MTL neurons to study semantic coding in the human brain:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
My piece on brainfacts.org about human brain connectivity! www.brainfacts.org/in-the-lab/t...
November 17, 2025 at 11:48 PM
My piece on brainfacts.org about human brain connectivity! www.brainfacts.org/in-the-lab/t...
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
I’m very honored to be recognized by @thetransmitter.bsky.social as a Rising Star of Neuroscience!! If you’re at SfN, come learn more about my work on developmental plasticity of the auditory cortex with longitudinal 2P imaging thru postnatal development - I’m at O15 this (Monday) morning!!
November 17, 2025 at 3:28 PM
I’m very honored to be recognized by @thetransmitter.bsky.social as a Rising Star of Neuroscience!! If you’re at SfN, come learn more about my work on developmental plasticity of the auditory cortex with longitudinal 2P imaging thru postnatal development - I’m at O15 this (Monday) morning!!
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
1. New preprint resolving a conundrum in systems neuroscience with an AI scientist, and humans Reilly Tilbury, Dabin Kwon, @haydari.bsky.social, @jacobmratliff.bsky.social, @bio-emergent.bsky.social, @carandinilab.net, @kevinjmiller.bsky.social, @neurokim.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Characterizing neuronal population geometry with AI equation discovery
The visual cortex contains millions of neurons, whose combined activity forms a population code representing visual stimuli. There is, however, a discrepancy between our understanding of this code at ...
www.biorxiv.org
November 14, 2025 at 6:07 PM
1. New preprint resolving a conundrum in systems neuroscience with an AI scientist, and humans Reilly Tilbury, Dabin Kwon, @haydari.bsky.social, @jacobmratliff.bsky.social, @bio-emergent.bsky.social, @carandinilab.net, @kevinjmiller.bsky.social, @neurokim.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
What an absolute inspiration this morning was!!!! Thankful for all these amazing women in neuroscience
Thank you to all who joined us for our first in-person event! 💜 We hope you left feeling inspired and empowered!
#WomenInNeuroscience #StoriesOfWiN #SFN2025
#WomenInNeuroscience #StoriesOfWiN #SFN2025
November 15, 2025 at 11:22 PM
What an absolute inspiration this morning was!!!! Thankful for all these amazing women in neuroscience
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
New paper with @statsepi.bsky.social and @deevybee.bsky.social in which we show there's really no evidence for a link between the gut microbiome and autism www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Conceptual and methodological flaws undermine claims of a link between the gut microbiome and autism
Claims that the gut microbiome causally contributes to autism regularly appear in
the scientific literature and popular press. Mitchell et al. critically examine influential
studies underpinning these...
www.cell.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:10 PM
New paper with @statsepi.bsky.social and @deevybee.bsky.social in which we show there's really no evidence for a link between the gut microbiome and autism www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
Thrilled to share our new paper, out now in @natneuro.nature.com, uncovering how estradiol, the most potent estrogen, modulates reinforcement learning and reward prediction errors across biological levels. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#blueprint 1/7
#blueprint 1/7
Estrogen modulates reward prediction errors and reinforcement learning - Nature Neuroscience
Dopamine encoding of reward prediction errors naturally fluctuates over females’ reproductive cycles with estrogenic signaling due to reduced expression of dopamine reuptake proteins.
www.nature.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Thrilled to share our new paper, out now in @natneuro.nature.com, uncovering how estradiol, the most potent estrogen, modulates reinforcement learning and reward prediction errors across biological levels. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#blueprint 1/7
#blueprint 1/7
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
I rarely come on here or any social media, but wanted to share our latest preprint of large-scale human single neuron recordings during an auditory working memory task: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
I'm very grateful to our patients, my co-authors and the funders. And to anyone who reads it :-) 🧠📈🧵👇(1/5)
I'm very grateful to our patients, my co-authors and the funders. And to anyone who reads it :-) 🧠📈🧵👇(1/5)
Brain-wide single-neuron bases of working memory for sounds in humans
In order to understand the constantly changing acoustic world our brains must maintain elements of auditory scenes in memory. The neural mechanisms for this fundamental process remain unclear. Here, w...
doi.org
November 11, 2025 at 2:51 PM
I rarely come on here or any social media, but wanted to share our latest preprint of large-scale human single neuron recordings during an auditory working memory task: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
I'm very grateful to our patients, my co-authors and the funders. And to anyone who reads it :-) 🧠📈🧵👇(1/5)
I'm very grateful to our patients, my co-authors and the funders. And to anyone who reads it :-) 🧠📈🧵👇(1/5)
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
I really enjoyed having this conversation with Andrew Huberman @hubermanlab.com and I hope y'all find it interesting: youtu.be/tb6ApBIXr1k?...
How Your Thoughts Are Built & How You Can Shape Them | Dr. Jennifer Groh
YouTube video by Andrew Huberman
youtu.be
November 11, 2025 at 3:32 PM
I really enjoyed having this conversation with Andrew Huberman @hubermanlab.com and I hope y'all find it interesting: youtu.be/tb6ApBIXr1k?...
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
All manifolds are shapes, but not every shape is a manifold. www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-a-ma...
What Is a Manifold? | Quanta Magazine
In the mid-19th century, Bernhard Riemann conceived of a new way to think about mathematical spaces, providing the foundation for modern geometry and physics.
www.quantamagazine.org
November 10, 2025 at 4:31 PM
All manifolds are shapes, but not every shape is a manifold. www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-a-ma...
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
Online Now: Emotion and prediction errors: which ingredients matter?
Emotion and prediction errors: which ingredients matter?
Does including emotions improve reinforcement-learning models? A recent EEG study by Heffner and colleagues presents separate neural signatures for reward and emotion prediction errors. This advance invites questions about, and even holds clues to, which ingredients of emotion and prediction errors most improve reinforcement-learning models.
dlvr.it
October 22, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Online Now: Emotion and prediction errors: which ingredients matter?
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
We're excited to announce the official lineup for our in-person event! 🎉
There's one week left to sign up - registration closes Nov. 1st. You don't want to miss this!
#StoriesOfWiN #SfN #WomenInNeuroscience
There's one week left to sign up - registration closes Nov. 1st. You don't want to miss this!
#StoriesOfWiN #SfN #WomenInNeuroscience
October 27, 2025 at 1:51 PM
We're excited to announce the official lineup for our in-person event! 🎉
There's one week left to sign up - registration closes Nov. 1st. You don't want to miss this!
#StoriesOfWiN #SfN #WomenInNeuroscience
There's one week left to sign up - registration closes Nov. 1st. You don't want to miss this!
#StoriesOfWiN #SfN #WomenInNeuroscience
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
New Paper in Nature Communications!
We present exciting work on applying transfer learning on minimally invasive recordings to build scalable speech BCI for a more heterogeneous population. #iEEG #neuroskyence
Check it out : www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We present exciting work on applying transfer learning on minimally invasive recordings to build scalable speech BCI for a more heterogeneous population. #iEEG #neuroskyence
Check it out : www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Transfer learning via distributed brain recordings enables reliable speech decoding - Nature Communications
Speech brain-computer interfaces face challenges scaling across individuals with different brain organization. Using minimally invasive recordings from 25 patients, the authors developed transfer learning methods that enable robust speech decoding even with incomplete brain coverage.
www.nature.com
October 2, 2025 at 3:02 PM
New Paper in Nature Communications!
We present exciting work on applying transfer learning on minimally invasive recordings to build scalable speech BCI for a more heterogeneous population. #iEEG #neuroskyence
Check it out : www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We present exciting work on applying transfer learning on minimally invasive recordings to build scalable speech BCI for a more heterogeneous population. #iEEG #neuroskyence
Check it out : www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
🤖📈 How do LLMs use their depth?
Akshat Gupta led a fun project to find out! We leverage TunedLens (~linear decoding of tokens) to explore how LLMs' internal representations change from layer to layer.
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2510.18871
1/
Akshat Gupta led a fun project to find out! We leverage TunedLens (~linear decoding of tokens) to explore how LLMs' internal representations change from layer to layer.
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2510.18871
1/
October 23, 2025 at 4:17 PM
🤖📈 How do LLMs use their depth?
Akshat Gupta led a fun project to find out! We leverage TunedLens (~linear decoding of tokens) to explore how LLMs' internal representations change from layer to layer.
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2510.18871
1/
Akshat Gupta led a fun project to find out! We leverage TunedLens (~linear decoding of tokens) to explore how LLMs' internal representations change from layer to layer.
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2510.18871
1/
Reposted by Melissa Franch, PhD
I’m thrilled to share my postdoc work and the first paper from the McKinley Lab! 🎉
@karalmckinley.bsky.social
We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice.
We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵
@karalmckinley.bsky.social
We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice.
We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵
Induction of menstruation in mice reveals the regulation of menstrual shedding
During menstruation, an inner layer of the endometrium is selectively shed, while an outer, progenitor-containing layer is preserved to support repeated regeneration. Progress in understanding this co...
www.biorxiv.org
October 10, 2025 at 12:50 PM
I’m thrilled to share my postdoc work and the first paper from the McKinley Lab! 🎉
@karalmckinley.bsky.social
We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice.
We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵
@karalmckinley.bsky.social
We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice.
We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵