Rui Ponte Costa
@somnirons.bsky.social
Computational neuroscientist bringing machine and neural learning closer together [Oxford NeuroAI] @ox.ac.uk @oxforddpag.bsky.social 🇵🇹🇪🇺🇬🇧🌳
neuralml.github.io
www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/neuroai
neuralml.github.io
www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/neuroai
Pinned
Hippocampus supports multi-task reinforcement learning under partial observability - Nature Communications
Neural mechanisms underlying reinforcement learning in naturalistic environments are not fully understood. Here authors show that reinforcement learning (RL) agents with hippocampal-like recurrence, u...
www.nature.com
How does the brain find its way in realistic environments? 🧠 Using deep RL and neural data, we show that hippocampal-like networks support navigation, learning, and generalisation in partially observable environments—mirroring real animal behaviour. Now out:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroAI
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroAI
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
@kordinglab.bsky.social and I ran a summer school last year to help young profs (<5 yrs) in systems/comp neuro thrive.
compneurosci.com/Neuro4Pros/i...
It was great! Now we want to know if you'd be interested in participating if we did this again this year?
Let us know!
compneurosci.com/Neuro4Pros/i...
It was great! Now we want to know if you'd be interested in participating if we did this again this year?
Let us know!
Neuro4Pros summer school
Neuroscience Leadership Training
compneurosci.com
January 15, 2026 at 3:51 PM
@kordinglab.bsky.social and I ran a summer school last year to help young profs (<5 yrs) in systems/comp neuro thrive.
compneurosci.com/Neuro4Pros/i...
It was great! Now we want to know if you'd be interested in participating if we did this again this year?
Let us know!
compneurosci.com/Neuro4Pros/i...
It was great! Now we want to know if you'd be interested in participating if we did this again this year?
Let us know!
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Proud to have contributed to @jiaxuanqi.bsky.social's masterpiece out @nature.com! She shows that dopamine transients track the learned quality of song during juvenile learning and that dopamine release is driven not just by VTA firing, but by a local cholinergic mechanism! (1/x)
Dual neuromodulatory dynamics underlie birdsong learning - Nature
Dopamine release in the basal ganglia of the zebra finch is driven by neurons associated with reinforcement learning and by cholinergic signalling, and tracks performance quality during long-term lear...
www.nature.com
March 12, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Proud to have contributed to @jiaxuanqi.bsky.social's masterpiece out @nature.com! She shows that dopamine transients track the learned quality of song during juvenile learning and that dopamine release is driven not just by VTA firing, but by a local cholinergic mechanism! (1/x)
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Wanna compare dynamics across neural data, RNNs, or dynamical systems? We got a fast and furious method🏎️
The 1st preprint of my PhD 🥳 fast dynamical similarity analysis (fastDSA):
📜: arxiv.org/abs/2511.22828
💻: github.com/CMC-lab/fast...
I’ll be @cosynemeeting.bsky.social - happy to chat 😉
The 1st preprint of my PhD 🥳 fast dynamical similarity analysis (fastDSA):
📜: arxiv.org/abs/2511.22828
💻: github.com/CMC-lab/fast...
I’ll be @cosynemeeting.bsky.social - happy to chat 😉
January 8, 2026 at 4:08 PM
Wanna compare dynamics across neural data, RNNs, or dynamical systems? We got a fast and furious method🏎️
The 1st preprint of my PhD 🥳 fast dynamical similarity analysis (fastDSA):
📜: arxiv.org/abs/2511.22828
💻: github.com/CMC-lab/fast...
I’ll be @cosynemeeting.bsky.social - happy to chat 😉
The 1st preprint of my PhD 🥳 fast dynamical similarity analysis (fastDSA):
📜: arxiv.org/abs/2511.22828
💻: github.com/CMC-lab/fast...
I’ll be @cosynemeeting.bsky.social - happy to chat 😉
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
New paper led by wonder postdocs Francesca Greenstreet and @jessegeerts.bsky.social and @clopathlab.bsky.social trying to understand why –in the "what for" sense– there are multiple motor learning systems –supervised and RL-based– in the brain.
Check out Jesse's 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Check out Jesse's 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🧠 New year, new preprint!
Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
January 6, 2026 at 1:43 PM
New paper led by wonder postdocs Francesca Greenstreet and @jessegeerts.bsky.social and @clopathlab.bsky.social trying to understand why –in the "what for" sense– there are multiple motor learning systems –supervised and RL-based– in the brain.
Check out Jesse's 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Check out Jesse's 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Some exciting opportunity for NeuroAI research at Johns Hopkins!
Join us in advancing data science and AI research! The Johns Hopkins Data Science and AI Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is now accepting applications for the 2026–2027 academic year. Apply now! Deadline: Jan 23, 2026. Details and apply: apply.interfolio.com/179059
January 6, 2026 at 7:06 PM
Some exciting opportunity for NeuroAI research at Johns Hopkins!
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
New preprint. We show that in addition to reward prediction errors (RPEs), dorsal striatal dopamine signals encode sensory prediction errors (SPEs), the difference between sensory prior & observed stimulus. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Dorsal striatal dopamine integrates sensory and reward prediction errors to guide perceptual decisions
Perceptual decisions are shaped by expectations about sensory stimuli and rewards, learned through sensory and reward prediction errors. Dopamine is known to convey reward prediction errors that shape...
www.biorxiv.org
January 5, 2026 at 10:49 AM
New preprint. We show that in addition to reward prediction errors (RPEs), dorsal striatal dopamine signals encode sensory prediction errors (SPEs), the difference between sensory prior & observed stimulus. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Interested in the latest advances in neuroscience (neural dynamics and internal models) and how they can be leveraged to build smarter, adaptive AI?
➡️ My first real solo piece 🖤🫶 @natneuro.nature.com
rdcu.be/eWVmA
➡️ My first real solo piece 🖤🫶 @natneuro.nature.com
rdcu.be/eWVmA
Leveraging insights from neuroscience to build adaptive artificial intelligence
Nature Neuroscience - Adaptive intelligence envisions AI that, like animals, learns online, generalizes and adapts quickly. This Perspective reviews biological foundations, progress in AI and...
rdcu.be
December 31, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Interested in the latest advances in neuroscience (neural dynamics and internal models) and how they can be leveraged to build smarter, adaptive AI?
➡️ My first real solo piece 🖤🫶 @natneuro.nature.com
rdcu.be/eWVmA
➡️ My first real solo piece 🖤🫶 @natneuro.nature.com
rdcu.be/eWVmA
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Just published my review of neuroscience in 2025, on The Spike.
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
2025: A Review of the Year in Neuroscience
Enlightening the brain
medium.com
December 30, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Just published my review of neuroscience in 2025, on The Spike.
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
The 10th of these, would you believe?
This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Curious to hear from anyone who attended this workshop nenckiopenlab.org/why/
It explored questions like:
What motivates – and demotivates us – in our research?
How our overt motivations – ones that we speak about in public, in grant writing or science communication – relate to the real ones?
It explored questions like:
What motivates – and demotivates us – in our research?
How our overt motivations – ones that we speak about in public, in grant writing or science communication – relate to the real ones?
December 28, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Curious to hear from anyone who attended this workshop nenckiopenlab.org/why/
It explored questions like:
What motivates – and demotivates us – in our research?
How our overt motivations – ones that we speak about in public, in grant writing or science communication – relate to the real ones?
It explored questions like:
What motivates – and demotivates us – in our research?
How our overt motivations – ones that we speak about in public, in grant writing or science communication – relate to the real ones?
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
High impact, small size.
We welcome papers that address findings from a single set of experiments, or that are substantial enough to stand alone in 1,500 words or fewer.
Find out more: buff.ly/mVtikMw
We welcome papers that address findings from a single set of experiments, or that are substantial enough to stand alone in 1,500 words or fewer.
Find out more: buff.ly/mVtikMw
December 26, 2025 at 2:59 PM
High impact, small size.
We welcome papers that address findings from a single set of experiments, or that are substantial enough to stand alone in 1,500 words or fewer.
Find out more: buff.ly/mVtikMw
We welcome papers that address findings from a single set of experiments, or that are substantial enough to stand alone in 1,500 words or fewer.
Find out more: buff.ly/mVtikMw
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
1/X Excited to present this preprint on multi-tasking, with
@david-g-clark.bsky.social and Ashok Litwin-Kumar! Timely too, as “low-D manifold” has been trending again. (If you read thru the end, we escape Flatland and return to the glorious high-D world we deserve.) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
@david-g-clark.bsky.social and Ashok Litwin-Kumar! Timely too, as “low-D manifold” has been trending again. (If you read thru the end, we escape Flatland and return to the glorious high-D world we deserve.) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A theory of multi-task computation and task selection
Neural activity during the performance of a stereotyped behavioral task is often described as low-dimensional, occupying only a limited region in the space of all firing-rate patterns. This region has...
www.biorxiv.org
December 15, 2025 at 7:41 PM
1/X Excited to present this preprint on multi-tasking, with
@david-g-clark.bsky.social and Ashok Litwin-Kumar! Timely too, as “low-D manifold” has been trending again. (If you read thru the end, we escape Flatland and return to the glorious high-D world we deserve.) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
@david-g-clark.bsky.social and Ashok Litwin-Kumar! Timely too, as “low-D manifold” has been trending again. (If you read thru the end, we escape Flatland and return to the glorious high-D world we deserve.) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
🔬 We're hiring a Junior Group Leader for Data-Driven Digital Twins/System Models in medicine/life sciences at @uni_goettingen! Perfect opportunity for early-career researchers who want to:
- Lead their own research group
- Work at the intersection of AI, simulation, and biomedicine
- Lead their own research group
- Work at the intersection of AI, simulation, and biomedicine
December 19, 2025 at 8:02 AM
🔬 We're hiring a Junior Group Leader for Data-Driven Digital Twins/System Models in medicine/life sciences at @uni_goettingen! Perfect opportunity for early-career researchers who want to:
- Lead their own research group
- Work at the intersection of AI, simulation, and biomedicine
- Lead their own research group
- Work at the intersection of AI, simulation, and biomedicine
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Bichan Wu (@bichanw.bsky.social) & I wrote a tutorial paper on Reduced Rank Regression (RRR) — the statistical method underlying "communication subspaces" from Semedo et al 2019 — aimed at neuroscientists.
arxiv.org/abs/2512.12467
arxiv.org/abs/2512.12467
Reduced rank regression for neural communication: a tutorial for neuroscientists
Reduced rank regression (RRR) is a statistical method for finding a low-dimensional linear mapping between a set of high-dimensional inputs and outputs. In recent years, RRR has found numerous applica...
arxiv.org
December 17, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Bichan Wu (@bichanw.bsky.social) & I wrote a tutorial paper on Reduced Rank Regression (RRR) — the statistical method underlying "communication subspaces" from Semedo et al 2019 — aimed at neuroscientists.
arxiv.org/abs/2512.12467
arxiv.org/abs/2512.12467
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Spread the word: I'm looking to hire a postdoc to explore the concept of attention (as studied in psych/neuro, not the transformer mechanism) in large Vision-Language Models. More details here: lindsay-lab.github.io/2025/12/08/p...
#MLSky #neurojobs #compneuro
#MLSky #neurojobs #compneuro
Lindsay Lab - Postdoc Position
Artificial neural networks applied to psychology, neuroscience, and climate change
lindsay-lab.github.io
December 8, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Spread the word: I'm looking to hire a postdoc to explore the concept of attention (as studied in psych/neuro, not the transformer mechanism) in large Vision-Language Models. More details here: lindsay-lab.github.io/2025/12/08/p...
#MLSky #neurojobs #compneuro
#MLSky #neurojobs #compneuro
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Cortical glutamatergic and GABAergic inputs support learning-driven hippocampal stability | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Cortical glutamatergic and GABAergic inputs support learning-driven hippocampal stability
Flexibility and stability of neuronal ensembles are crucial features of brain function. Little is known about how these properties of local circuits are influenced by long-range inputs. We show, in mi...
www.science.org
December 12, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Cortical glutamatergic and GABAergic inputs support learning-driven hippocampal stability | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
It's happening! Canada launched two programs to recruit international researchers.
Canada Impact+ Research Chairs (1 million/yr for 8 yrs +)
Canada Impact+ Emerging Leaders.
I will do my best to facilitate the process for those interested. Hit me up.
www.canada.ca/en/impact-pl...
Canada Impact+ Research Chairs (1 million/yr for 8 yrs +)
Canada Impact+ Emerging Leaders.
I will do my best to facilitate the process for those interested. Hit me up.
www.canada.ca/en/impact-pl...
The Government of Canada introduces new programs for international researchers - Canada.ca
www.canada.ca
December 9, 2025 at 6:06 PM
It's happening! Canada launched two programs to recruit international researchers.
Canada Impact+ Research Chairs (1 million/yr for 8 yrs +)
Canada Impact+ Emerging Leaders.
I will do my best to facilitate the process for those interested. Hit me up.
www.canada.ca/en/impact-pl...
Canada Impact+ Research Chairs (1 million/yr for 8 yrs +)
Canada Impact+ Emerging Leaders.
I will do my best to facilitate the process for those interested. Hit me up.
www.canada.ca/en/impact-pl...
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Impact of demographic change in one image.
December 9, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Impact of demographic change in one image.
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
📣We have 2 open faculty positions for senior researchers in Neuroscience at Queen's University!
healthsci.queensu.ca/administrati...
1. a new Director for our Centre for Neuroscience Studies
2. a non-human primate NeuroAI researcher
Please share widely and reach out for questions!
healthsci.queensu.ca/administrati...
1. a new Director for our Centre for Neuroscience Studies
2. a non-human primate NeuroAI researcher
Please share widely and reach out for questions!
Administrative Opportunities
healthsci.queensu.ca
December 9, 2025 at 6:55 PM
📣We have 2 open faculty positions for senior researchers in Neuroscience at Queen's University!
healthsci.queensu.ca/administrati...
1. a new Director for our Centre for Neuroscience Studies
2. a non-human primate NeuroAI researcher
Please share widely and reach out for questions!
healthsci.queensu.ca/administrati...
1. a new Director for our Centre for Neuroscience Studies
2. a non-human primate NeuroAI researcher
Please share widely and reach out for questions!
@natneuro.nature.com wrote a very nice research highlighted of our paper
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Recurrence has it covered - Nature Neuroscience
Nature Neuroscience - Recurrence has it covered
www.nature.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:23 AM
@natneuro.nature.com wrote a very nice research highlighted of our paper
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
We are opening a FACULTY POSITION (tenure track, permanent) in the University of Cambridge at the interface of control and biology, interpreted broadly. Theorists and wet lab quantitative biologists with backgrounds in control, EE, applied math, ... apply by Jan 28!
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/univers...
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/univers...
University Assistant/Associate Professor in Control Theory and Systems Biology
Applications are invited for a University Assistant/Associate Professorship in the broad area of Control Theory and Systems Biology. The successful candidate will join the Control Group
www.cam.ac.uk
December 3, 2025 at 12:19 PM
We are opening a FACULTY POSITION (tenure track, permanent) in the University of Cambridge at the interface of control and biology, interpreted broadly. Theorists and wet lab quantitative biologists with backgrounds in control, EE, applied math, ... apply by Jan 28!
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/univers...
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/univers...
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
Finally got the job ad—looking for 2 PhD students to start spring next year:
www.gao-unit.com/join-us/
If comp neuro, ML, and AI4Neuro is your thing, or you just nerd out over brain recordings, apply!
I'm at neurips. DM me here / on the conference app or email if you want to meet 🏖️🌮
www.gao-unit.com/join-us/
If comp neuro, ML, and AI4Neuro is your thing, or you just nerd out over brain recordings, apply!
I'm at neurips. DM me here / on the conference app or email if you want to meet 🏖️🌮
December 3, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Finally got the job ad—looking for 2 PhD students to start spring next year:
www.gao-unit.com/join-us/
If comp neuro, ML, and AI4Neuro is your thing, or you just nerd out over brain recordings, apply!
I'm at neurips. DM me here / on the conference app or email if you want to meet 🏖️🌮
www.gao-unit.com/join-us/
If comp neuro, ML, and AI4Neuro is your thing, or you just nerd out over brain recordings, apply!
I'm at neurips. DM me here / on the conference app or email if you want to meet 🏖️🌮
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
It feels surreal, but my 3+ years at @bristoluni.bsky.social are finished. It was a wonderful experience, and I had great fortune in the students who chose to work with me, the mentors and colleagues (academic and professional services) I had.
December 2, 2025 at 3:59 PM
It feels surreal, but my 3+ years at @bristoluni.bsky.social are finished. It was a wonderful experience, and I had great fortune in the students who chose to work with me, the mentors and colleagues (academic and professional services) I had.
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
How I contributed to rejecting one of my favorite papers of all times, Yes, I teach it to students daily, and refer to it in lots of papers. Sorry. open.substack.com/pub/kording/...
How I contributed to rejecting one of my favorite papers of all time
I believe we should talk about the mistakes we make.
open.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:27 AM
How I contributed to rejecting one of my favorite papers of all times, Yes, I teach it to students daily, and refer to it in lots of papers. Sorry. open.substack.com/pub/kording/...
Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa
A remarkable journey of resilience and transformation, from the chaotic corridors of group homes to the halls of Columbia and Stanford, EMERGENCE is a coming-of-age tale where heartbreak and humor meet the scientific wonder of modern artificial intelligence.
🔗 Preorder: tinyurl.com/fzcxb5ea
🔗 Preorder: tinyurl.com/fzcxb5ea
November 17, 2025 at 6:08 PM
A remarkable journey of resilience and transformation, from the chaotic corridors of group homes to the halls of Columbia and Stanford, EMERGENCE is a coming-of-age tale where heartbreak and humor meet the scientific wonder of modern artificial intelligence.
🔗 Preorder: tinyurl.com/fzcxb5ea
🔗 Preorder: tinyurl.com/fzcxb5ea