Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Jul 4

OSNAP!

I received an NIH Outstanding Scholars in Neuroscience Award

This award makes my heart sing -- between college and PhD I spent a year researching at the NIMH, and loved every minute of the campus and community.

Feels full circle to be honored by NIMH post-PhD!

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Jun 16

Guide: barabasi.me/fellowships/

List: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

As always, DM or email with any questions!

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Jun 16

Recent PhD Grad, or planning on defending soon?

With current funding uncertainties, postdoc fellowships, often funded by private donations, can provide job stability in the coming years.

I put together a short guide and list of fellowships I applied to 👇

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Mar 27

Tragically beautiful article from @harvardmagazine.bsky.social about the absurdity of letting death machines into our cities, and how simple fixes can return "complete" streets to the people.

Amsterdam and Copenhagen transformed, what's stopping Boston?

www.harvardmagazine.com/2025/03/harv...

Making Roads Safer for Pedestrians and Cyclists | Harvard Magazine

Working to curb road deaths

www.harvardmagazine.com

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Mar 10

Breast Cancer:
nature.com/articles/d41...

Pregnancy and the Brain:
nature.com/articles/d41...

X Chromosome and the Brain:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Mar 10

In the vein of Women's History Month and International Women's Day, Nature published a number of fascinating women's health studies recently, including:

Hormone cycle's effect on breast cancer treatment.

Brain restructuring under pregnancy.

X chromosome + brain aging.

Links👇

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Reposted by Dániel Barabási

Sarthak Chandra @sarthakc.bsky.social · Feb 19

1/ Our paper appeared in @Nature today! www.nature.com/articles/s41... w/ Fiete Lab and @khonamikail.bsky.social .
Explains emergence of multiple grid cell modules, w/ excellent match to data! Novel mechanism for applying across vast systems from development to ecosystems. 🧵👇

Global modules robustly emerge from local interactions and smooth gradients - Nature

The principle of peak selection is described, by which local interactions and smooth gradients drive self-organization of discrete global modules.

www.nature.com

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Mar 5

Guide: barabasi.me/fellowships/
Fellowships: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Please DM me with fellowships I should add!

Barabási Dániel

barabasi.me

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Mar 5

Are you a PhD student thinking about PostDoc options?

Fellowships provide early independence, and some early deadlines are in spring and summer!

Check out my guide below for navigating the process, plus a curated fellowship list with deadlines, salaries & more.

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Mar 4

We call those the "Four Ss," but unfortunately the title got cut.

Also in the paper, the "Four Fs": Feeding, Fleeing, Fighting, and Mating.

Manoj Doss not exist @manojdoss.bsky.social · Mar 3

Sometimes fancy science-y words are unnecessary (from Nature Reviews Neuroscience www.nature.com/articles/s41...).

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Feb 27

Thanks @harvardmcb.bsky.social‬ for sharing this recap of our work!

Click through at the mcb.harvard link, or in my tweetorial below for full text access!

bsky.app/profile/did:...

Harvard_MCB @harvardmcb.bsky.social · Feb 26

Innate or Earned? Rethinking the Role of Activity in Brain Development #Science #SciPub #ResearchPublis 🧠 🧫🧪🧬 🤖 💡
www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n...
@bdanubius.bsky.social @neurovenki.bsky.social @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social @dulaclab.bsky.social
@naoshigeuchida.bsky.social

Innate or Earned? Rethinking the Role of Activity in Brain Development - Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology

Sixty years ago, Harvard scientists David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel famously showed that altering visual input in young cats irreversibly changed the organization of neurons in the visual […]

www.mcb.harvard.edu

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Feb 26

So while certain elements can be reused, and indeed on different timescales, in many cases the System Two learning is a quick realization, which can be seen in the neural dynamics, where System Three places the knowledge into the animal's repertoire through more extensive synaptic rewiring.

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Feb 26

Thanks for sharing!

I distinguish System Two and System Three as follows:

System Two, the Eureka Moment, can be implemented dynamically, e.g. a shift in attractor state, with a sprinkle of STDP.

But then System Three exists to "deepen the well", like with hippocampal replay.

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Reposted by Dániel Barabási

Denis Jabaudon @djabaudon.bsky.social · Feb 25

Interesting review on the acquisition of motor skills through (1) innate (2) opportunity-based and (3) systematic tuning processes. The framework is compelling although (2) and (3) may I think be the same process at different time scales.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Three systems of circuit formation: assembly, updating and tuning - Nature Reviews Neuroscience

In this Perspective, Barabási, Ferreira Castro and Engert challenge the notion that learning and plasticity primarily drive the assembly of neural circuits. They present a tripartite framework for how...

www.nature.com

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Feb 25

Thanks for sharing!!

For anyone interested in a quick recap, see our thread here: bsky.app/profile/bdan...

Cedric Boeckx @cedricboeckx.bsky.social · Feb 25

Very good Perspective piece by @bdanubius.bsky.social
and colleagues in @natrevneurosci.bsky.social
For nature-nurture fans: looking at neural circuit formation, and the role of development, learning + the complexities of the genotype-phenotype mappings
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Three systems of circuit formation: assembly, updating and tuning - Nature Reviews Neuroscience

In this Perspective, Barabási, Ferreira Castro and Engert challenge the notion that learning and plasticity primarily drive the assembly of neural circuits. They present a tripartite framework for how...

www.nature.com

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Feb 24

Encountering a paywall?

Read for free at this link: rdcu.be/ea4rd

Three systems of circuit formation: assembly, updating and tuning

Nature Reviews Neuroscience - In this Perspective, Barabási, Ferreira Castro and Engert challenge the notion that learning and plasticity primarily drive the assembly of neural circuits. They...

rdcu.be

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Feb 24

Takeaways:
• Most innate circuits (System One) are pre-coded genetically.
• “Learning” (System Two) can be shockingly rare but potent when it happens.
• Ongoing plasticity (System Three) is mostly to stabilize or fine-tune your existing wiring.

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Feb 24

But why do we think we learn?
• Human babies are born relatively immature → System One finishes outside the womb.
• Language/semantic memory makes us feel like everything is learned.
• AI hype around “learning from scratch” feeds the misconception that all brains do the same.

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Feb 24

In this vein, we separate circuit formation into three “systems,” each deployed at different times and contexts:
• System One: Developmental Maturation
• System Two: Eureka Moments
• System Three: Staying Tuned

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Feb 24

We resolve this nature–nurture conflict by proposing that:

(1) Critical knowledge for engaging the world is realized by development,

(2) Novel information isn’t strictly required for daily competence, and

(3) Plasticity mainly provides homeostatic feedback stabilization.

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Feb 24

However, this view conflicts with innate behaviors.

Many animals perform intricate problem-solving immediately after birth—well before experience could shape their connections (see our previous work: x.com/bdanubius/st...).

So how can circuits function so effectively so soon?

Dániel Barabási on X: "Nature over Nurture: with @GregorFPS and @EngertLab, we find that functional neuronal circuits emerge in the absence of developmental activity. Essentially, complex visuo-motor pathways mature even without activity-dependent refinement 🧵 https://t.co/UXERDqTciu" / X

Nature over Nurture: with @GregorFPS and @EngertLab, we find that functional neuronal circuits emerge in the absence of developmental activity. Essentially, complex visuo-motor pathways mature even without activity-dependent refinement 🧵 https://t.co/UXERDqTciu

x.com

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Feb 24

Dogmatically, circuits assembly has been split into two phases:

(1) predetermined, genetically driven coarse wiring of the nervous system.

(2) pruning and refinement through interactions with the environment, which is thought to fine-tune mission-critical neural connectivity.

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Feb 24

How much do we *really* learn?

In @natrevneurosci.bsky.social‬ with Florian Engert and
André Ferreira Castro, we address why most of you humans firmly believe that patterned activity plays a necessary and instructive role in shaping neural circuits.

Nature Reviews Neuroscience @natrevneuro.nature.com · Feb 24

Three systems of circuit formation: assembly, updating and tuning — a Perspective by Dániel L. Barabási, André Ferreira Castro & Florian Engert

@bdanubius.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Three systems of circuit formation: assembly, updating and tuning - Nature Reviews Neuroscience

In this Perspective, Barabási, Ferreira Castro and Engert challenge the notion that learning and plasticity primarily drive the assembly of neural circuits. They present a tripartite framework for how...

www.nature.com

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Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Feb 14

Mating proximity blinds threat perception

Valentine's Day themed paper: how a dopamine-governed filter during courtship turns off the serotonergic wave that would otherwise force them to abort and flee.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07890-3

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · Dec 15

🔥🔥🔥 Efficiency, resiliency tradeoff + behavioral reconfiguration of circuits provide clean interpretations of the multi-scale structure of brain activity 🔥🔥🔥

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