Benjamin Cowley
@benjocowley.bsky.social
280 followers 150 following 34 posts
Assistant Professor in computational neuroscience at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Think cortically, act neuronally. cowleygroup.cshl.edu
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Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
hannesmehrer.bsky.social
🧠 New preprint: we show that model-guided microstimulation can steer monkey visual behavior.

Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2510.03684

🧵
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
janelia-flyem.bsky.social
We're very proud to be releasing the complete male fly CNS connectome!

It's the product of a huge team effort here at Janelia in partnership with the Cambridge Fly Connectomics group (@jefferis.bsky.social and colleagues), plus invaluable collaborators.

More soon...
www.janelia.org/project-team...
Male CNS Connectome
A team of researchers has unveiled the complete connectome of a male fruit fly central nervous system —a seamless map of all the neurons in the brain and nerve cord of a single male fruit fly and the ...
www.janelia.org
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
mschrimpf.bsky.social
I've been arguing that #NeuroAI should model the brain in health *and* in disease -- very excited to share a first step from Melika Honarmand: inducing dyslexia in vision-language-models via targeted perturbations of visual-word-form units (analogous to human VWFA) 🧠🤖🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2509.24597
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
mbeyeler.bsky.social
👁️🧠 New preprint: We demonstrate the first data-driven neural control framework for a visual cortical implant in a blind human!

TL;DR Deep learning lets us synthesize efficient stimulation patterns that reliably evoke percepts, outperforming conventional calibration.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Diagram showing three ways to control brain activity with a visual prosthesis. The goal is to match a desired pattern of brain responses. One method uses a simple one-to-one mapping, another uses an inverse neural network, and a third uses gradient optimization. Each method produces a stimulation pattern, which is tested in both computer simulations and in the brain of a blind participant with an implant. The figure shows that the neural network and gradient methods reproduce the target brain activity more accurately than the simple mapping.
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
bryanlimy.bsky.social
We present our preprint on ViV1T, a transformer for dynamic mouse V1 response prediction. We reveal novel response properties and confirm them in vivo.

With @wulfdewolf.bsky.social, Danai Katsanevaki, @arnoonken.bsky.social, @rochefortlab.bsky.social.

Paper and code at the end of the thread!

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Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
mace-lab.bsky.social
Thrilled to share that our work is now published in Science! ✨

We found a preference for visual objects in the mouse spatial navigation system where they dynamically refine head-direction coding. In short, objects boost our inner compass! 🧭

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
mishaahrens.bsky.social
Preprint -
Excited to present WHOLISTIC, which extends the concept of whole-brain functional imaging to the entire body. Pioneering work by incredibly talented Virginia Ruetten @vmsruetten.bsky.social, this platform reveals whole-organism cellular dynamics in vivo.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
cosynemeeting.bsky.social
#Cosyne2026 is now open for business!

Show us what you got both for the main meeting & workshop proposals 🧠🥳🧠🥳🧠
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
robertrosenbaum.bsky.social
The University of Notre Dame is hiring 5 tenure or tenure-track professors in Neuroscience, including Computational Neuroscience, across 4 departments.

Come join me at ND! Feel free to reach out with any questions.

And please share!

apply.interfolio.com/173031
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
intlbrainlab.bsky.social
Two flagship papers from the International Brain Laboratory, now out in ‪@Nature.com‬:
🧠 Brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour: doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09235-0
🧠 Brain-wide representations of prior information in mouse decision-making: doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09226-1 +
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
thecullenlab.bsky.social
The Cullen and Charles Labs (Biomedical Engineering, JHU) are recruiting a postdoctoral fellow to join a multi-PI collaborative project developing a cerebellar neuroprosthesis to restore gait, tremor, and balance in cerebellar disorders. For details, see: thecullenlab.org/opportunities/
OPPORTUNITIES - Cullen Lab
thecullenlab.org
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
hhmijanelia.bsky.social
📢We're #hiring Group Leaders!

Apply to lead a lab at Janelia & advance biology using theory, computational modeling & machine learning.

🔹5-year renewable appointment
🔹Pioneer new tools & approaches
🔹Collaborate across disciplines

Apply by Nov. 4👉 https://janelia.link/groupleader
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
chrisjernigan.bsky.social
I am recruiting PhD students to join my lab at Wake Forest University Fall 2026. Current projects focus on the neurobiology, behavior, and development of identity processing in paper wasps. Contact me if interested. Deadline to apply is Dec. 15th 2025. Please share!
#PhDposition #PhD #wasplove
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
neurograce.bsky.social
ATTN🚨: I will be looking for PhD students through NYU's Center for Data Science PhD program this year. Applicants should have an interest in either NeuroAI (specifically biological attention or AI interpretability) or ML for Remote Sensing. Visit my lab website for more info: lindsay-lab.github.io
PhD in Data Science: Admissions Requirements | NYU CDS
Discover the PhD in Data Science requirements at NYU. Learn about deadlines, required degrees, coursework, and application details for Fall 2025 admissions.
cds.nyu.edu
benjocowley.bsky.social
The paper touches on many concepts --- Poisson GLM, Bayesian inference, information theory, sampling, and active learning.

My lab will be digging into the details of this paper and coding up its results this fall to build a strong foundation in these topics---and I hope other labs will follow suit!
benjocowley.bsky.social
This work has inspired my own research to use active learning to train AI models to predict neural responses and behavior in real closed-loop experiments.

Thanks to @natrevneuro.nature.com I added a commentary/hype piece!
benjocowley.bsky.social
Need to choose a paper for journal club?

One paper that molded my research direction was "Sequential optimal design of neurophysiology experiments." from Lewi, Butera, & Paninski in 2009.

The key idea is to let the model speak for itself by choosing its own stimuli in closed-loop experiments!
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
deanpospisil.bsky.social
Thrilled to join UIUC as Prof of
Computational Neuroscience! Lets figure the brain out before we're dead! Recruiting PhDs via CS, ECE & Psych. We study stats methods, mechanistic model inference (w/ connectomics), sensory coding & more. Reach out! [email protected]
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
antihebbiann.bsky.social
🍂 Applications are now open for our ML-for-Behavior 5-day course at Jackson Labs in Bar Harbor, ME.

Talks and hands-on workshops cover pose estimation, supervised/unsupervised behavior quantification, and downstream behavior analyses. Financial aid is available!

www.jax.org/education-an...
students in last year's advanced bootcamp on software development and version control view of the Highseas Conference Center where the course is held
Reposted by Benjamin Cowley
epfl-brainmind.bsky.social
Action potential 👉 3 faculty opportunities to join EPFL neuroscience 1. Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Neuroscience go.epfl.ch/neurofaculty, 2. Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Life Sciences Engineering, or 3. Associate Professor (tenured) in Life Sciences Engineering go.epfl.ch/LSEfaculty