Kanaka Rajan
@kanakarajanphd.bsky.social
Associate Professor at Harvard & Kempner Institute. Applying computational frameworks & machine learning to decode multi-scale neural processes. Marathoner. Rescue dog mom. https://www.rajanlab.com/
Congrats to Ann Huang for an excellent presentation at last week's @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social all-hands! 👏
Ann shared exciting updates about our InputDSA tool - more to come soon. Thrilled she had the chance to present to our engaged and supportive community.
Ann shared exciting updates about our InputDSA tool - more to come soon. Thrilled she had the chance to present to our engaged and supportive community.
October 16, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Congrats to Ann Huang for an excellent presentation at last week's @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social all-hands! 👏
Ann shared exciting updates about our InputDSA tool - more to come soon. Thrilled she had the chance to present to our engaged and supportive community.
Ann shared exciting updates about our InputDSA tool - more to come soon. Thrilled she had the chance to present to our engaged and supportive community.
(6/8) Combined with its prediction speed and steady improvement from longer recordings/more sessions, POCO shows enormous potential for usage in larger brains & real-time neurotechnologies like “neuro-foundation models” for brain-computer interfaces (BCI).
September 12, 2025 at 8:46 PM
(6/8) Combined with its prediction speed and steady improvement from longer recordings/more sessions, POCO shows enormous potential for usage in larger brains & real-time neurotechnologies like “neuro-foundation models” for brain-computer interfaces (BCI).
(4/8) Beyond neural predictions, POCO's learned unit embeddings independently reproduce brain region clustering without any anatomical labels.
That means at single-cell resolution across entire brains, POCO mimics biological organization purely from neural activity patterns ✨
That means at single-cell resolution across entire brains, POCO mimics biological organization purely from neural activity patterns ✨
September 12, 2025 at 8:33 PM
(4/8) Beyond neural predictions, POCO's learned unit embeddings independently reproduce brain region clustering without any anatomical labels.
That means at single-cell resolution across entire brains, POCO mimics biological organization purely from neural activity patterns ✨
That means at single-cell resolution across entire brains, POCO mimics biological organization purely from neural activity patterns ✨
(2/8) POCO was trained on spontaneous & task-specific behavior data from zebrafish, mice, & C. elegans. It combines a local forecaster with a population encoder capturing brain-wide patterns, so we track each neuron individually AND how the whole brain affects each cell 🧠
September 12, 2025 at 8:33 PM
(2/8) POCO was trained on spontaneous & task-specific behavior data from zebrafish, mice, & C. elegans. It combines a local forecaster with a population encoder capturing brain-wide patterns, so we track each neuron individually AND how the whole brain affects each cell 🧠
(1/8) New paper from our team!
Yu Duan & Hamza Chaudhry introduce POCO, a tool for predicting brain activity at the cellular & network level during spontaneous behavior.
Find out how we built POCO & how it changes neurobehavioral research 👇
arxiv.org/abs/2506.14957
Yu Duan & Hamza Chaudhry introduce POCO, a tool for predicting brain activity at the cellular & network level during spontaneous behavior.
Find out how we built POCO & how it changes neurobehavioral research 👇
arxiv.org/abs/2506.14957
September 12, 2025 at 8:33 PM
(1/8) New paper from our team!
Yu Duan & Hamza Chaudhry introduce POCO, a tool for predicting brain activity at the cellular & network level during spontaneous behavior.
Find out how we built POCO & how it changes neurobehavioral research 👇
arxiv.org/abs/2506.14957
Yu Duan & Hamza Chaudhry introduce POCO, a tool for predicting brain activity at the cellular & network level during spontaneous behavior.
Find out how we built POCO & how it changes neurobehavioral research 👇
arxiv.org/abs/2506.14957
Thanks for having me at @camp_course and the @iitmadras Brain Center during my visit to India this summer!🥭
It was lovely to be back home, and a pleasure to work with the young scientists there who are finding their path in computational neuroscience 🧠
It was lovely to be back home, and a pleasure to work with the young scientists there who are finding their path in computational neuroscience 🧠
September 9, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Thanks for having me at @camp_course and the @iitmadras Brain Center during my visit to India this summer!🥭
It was lovely to be back home, and a pleasure to work with the young scientists there who are finding their path in computational neuroscience 🧠
It was lovely to be back home, and a pleasure to work with the young scientists there who are finding their path in computational neuroscience 🧠
(5/7) Analyzing the trained agent reveals an interpretable neural GPS: past & future positions can be linearly decoded over long horizons from the agent’s ‘neural’ activity, and a lightweight “predict-its-own-position” signal sharpens its compass even further.
July 2, 2025 at 6:34 PM
(5/7) Analyzing the trained agent reveals an interpretable neural GPS: past & future positions can be linearly decoded over long horizons from the agent’s ‘neural’ activity, and a lightweight “predict-its-own-position” signal sharpens its compass even further.
(4/7) What we see is planning & recall over hundreds of timesteps!
After a quick wander, the agent switches from exploring to visiting patches from memory: revisiting food not seen for over 500-1000 steps, skirting predator zones & timing resource visits.
After a quick wander, the agent switches from exploring to visiting patches from memory: revisiting food not seen for over 500-1000 steps, skirting predator zones & timing resource visits.
July 2, 2025 at 6:34 PM
(4/7) What we see is planning & recall over hundreds of timesteps!
After a quick wander, the agent switches from exploring to visiting patches from memory: revisiting food not seen for over 500-1000 steps, skirting predator zones & timing resource visits.
After a quick wander, the agent switches from exploring to visiting patches from memory: revisiting food not seen for over 500-1000 steps, skirting predator zones & timing resource visits.
(3/7) For the agent’s “brain,” we used a lean recurrent network: 4096 units (<0.2% of the size of an ant brain), with only 10% connectivity & we let RL teach it what to do by trial & error.
July 2, 2025 at 6:34 PM
(3/7) For the agent’s “brain,” we used a lean recurrent network: 4096 units (<0.2% of the size of an ant brain), with only 10% connectivity & we let RL teach it what to do by trial & error.
(2/7) Introducing ForageWorld: Each session spawns a large arena with lakes, predators & food patches that deplete over time. The AI agent must juggle hunger, thirst & fatigue in this virtual space.
The agent can only "see" a small patch around itself, so no bird’s-eye view.
The agent can only "see" a small patch around itself, so no bird’s-eye view.
July 2, 2025 at 6:34 PM
(2/7) Introducing ForageWorld: Each session spawns a large arena with lakes, predators & food patches that deplete over time. The AI agent must juggle hunger, thirst & fatigue in this virtual space.
The agent can only "see" a small patch around itself, so no bird’s-eye view.
The agent can only "see" a small patch around itself, so no bird’s-eye view.
(1/7) New preprint from Rajan lab! 🧠🤖
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built
Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built
Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981
July 2, 2025 at 6:34 PM
(1/7) New preprint from Rajan lab! 🧠🤖
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built
Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built
Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981
New work incoming at #RLDM2025 🤖 🐟
While we look forward to sharing our research, I'm mindful that many colleagues, including the authors of our second abstract, can't attend due to funding & travel issues.
Read the extended abstracts: rldm.org/program-2025/ #neuroskyence
While we look forward to sharing our research, I'm mindful that many colleagues, including the authors of our second abstract, can't attend due to funding & travel issues.
Read the extended abstracts: rldm.org/program-2025/ #neuroskyence
June 12, 2025 at 4:48 PM
New work incoming at #RLDM2025 🤖 🐟
While we look forward to sharing our research, I'm mindful that many colleagues, including the authors of our second abstract, can't attend due to funding & travel issues.
Read the extended abstracts: rldm.org/program-2025/ #neuroskyence
While we look forward to sharing our research, I'm mindful that many colleagues, including the authors of our second abstract, can't attend due to funding & travel issues.
Read the extended abstracts: rldm.org/program-2025/ #neuroskyence
It was such a pleasure to host @kordinglab.bsky.social at @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social last week - thank you for joining us!
May 5, 2025 at 9:46 PM
It was such a pleasure to host @kordinglab.bsky.social at @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social last week - thank you for joining us!
Big day for the Rajan lab at @harvardmed.bsky.social Friday Seminar Series 🌟
@satpreetsingh.bsky.social & Siyan Zhou gave outstanding talks on collective behaviors in artificial fish schools & disordered attractors in mice. I’m so proud of their work! 🤖🧠
@satpreetsingh.bsky.social & Siyan Zhou gave outstanding talks on collective behaviors in artificial fish schools & disordered attractors in mice. I’m so proud of their work! 🤖🧠
May 2, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Big day for the Rajan lab at @harvardmed.bsky.social Friday Seminar Series 🌟
@satpreetsingh.bsky.social & Siyan Zhou gave outstanding talks on collective behaviors in artificial fish schools & disordered attractors in mice. I’m so proud of their work! 🤖🧠
@satpreetsingh.bsky.social & Siyan Zhou gave outstanding talks on collective behaviors in artificial fish schools & disordered attractors in mice. I’m so proud of their work! 🤖🧠
Headed to #Cosyne2025?
Don't miss this workshop led by Rajan lab postdocs @satpreetsingh.bsky.social, @chingfang.bsky.social & @gzmozd.bsky.social on how complex tasks, agent-based models & theory-experiment cross-talk help us study how the brain works 🧠🤖
#neuroskyence @cosynemeeting.bsky.social
Don't miss this workshop led by Rajan lab postdocs @satpreetsingh.bsky.social, @chingfang.bsky.social & @gzmozd.bsky.social on how complex tasks, agent-based models & theory-experiment cross-talk help us study how the brain works 🧠🤖
#neuroskyence @cosynemeeting.bsky.social
March 28, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Headed to #Cosyne2025?
Don't miss this workshop led by Rajan lab postdocs @satpreetsingh.bsky.social, @chingfang.bsky.social & @gzmozd.bsky.social on how complex tasks, agent-based models & theory-experiment cross-talk help us study how the brain works 🧠🤖
#neuroskyence @cosynemeeting.bsky.social
Don't miss this workshop led by Rajan lab postdocs @satpreetsingh.bsky.social, @chingfang.bsky.social & @gzmozd.bsky.social on how complex tasks, agent-based models & theory-experiment cross-talk help us study how the brain works 🧠🤖
#neuroskyence @cosynemeeting.bsky.social
Big showing from the Rajan Lab at @cosynemeeting.bsky.social!
We have posters on everything from multi-agent social foraging to neuromodulated neural networks. Catch us in Poster Sessions 2 & 3 🧠🤖
#Cosyne2025 #NeuroAI #CompSci #neuroskyence
We have posters on everything from multi-agent social foraging to neuromodulated neural networks. Catch us in Poster Sessions 2 & 3 🧠🤖
#Cosyne2025 #NeuroAI #CompSci #neuroskyence
March 28, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Big showing from the Rajan Lab at @cosynemeeting.bsky.social!
We have posters on everything from multi-agent social foraging to neuromodulated neural networks. Catch us in Poster Sessions 2 & 3 🧠🤖
#Cosyne2025 #NeuroAI #CompSci #neuroskyence
We have posters on everything from multi-agent social foraging to neuromodulated neural networks. Catch us in Poster Sessions 2 & 3 🧠🤖
#Cosyne2025 #NeuroAI #CompSci #neuroskyence
Attended my first @cziscience.bsky.social #Neuroscience 2025 Meeting 🧠
Grateful to speak alongside such amazing theorists, see old & new friends & connect across academia & industry
Shoutout to @bjmarlin.bsky.social, @muraronara.bsky.social , @erinmgibson.bsky.social & all these wonderful folks🌟
Grateful to speak alongside such amazing theorists, see old & new friends & connect across academia & industry
Shoutout to @bjmarlin.bsky.social, @muraronara.bsky.social , @erinmgibson.bsky.social & all these wonderful folks🌟
March 19, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Attended my first @cziscience.bsky.social #Neuroscience 2025 Meeting 🧠
Grateful to speak alongside such amazing theorists, see old & new friends & connect across academia & industry
Shoutout to @bjmarlin.bsky.social, @muraronara.bsky.social , @erinmgibson.bsky.social & all these wonderful folks🌟
Grateful to speak alongside such amazing theorists, see old & new friends & connect across academia & industry
Shoutout to @bjmarlin.bsky.social, @muraronara.bsky.social , @erinmgibson.bsky.social & all these wonderful folks🌟
Enjoyed sharing our work on electric fish with @dryohanjohn.bsky.social⚡🐟 Their electric "conversations" help us build models to discover neural mechanisms of social cognition. Work led by Sonja Johnson-Yu & @satpreetsingh.bsky.social with Nate Sawtell
kempnerinstitute.harvard.edu/news/what-el...
kempnerinstitute.harvard.edu/news/what-el...
February 14, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Enjoyed sharing our work on electric fish with @dryohanjohn.bsky.social⚡🐟 Their electric "conversations" help us build models to discover neural mechanisms of social cognition. Work led by Sonja Johnson-Yu & @satpreetsingh.bsky.social with Nate Sawtell
kempnerinstitute.harvard.edu/news/what-el...
kempnerinstitute.harvard.edu/news/what-el...
Tomorrow at 1pm in WCC 103 at SfN 2023 🧠🦑
I’ll share my story from engineering & physics to neuroscience, how computational models reveal novel mechanisms & make experimental predictions, and how neurocomics could help make my field more inclusive.
I’ll share my story from engineering & physics to neuroscience, how computational models reveal novel mechanisms & make experimental predictions, and how neurocomics could help make my field more inclusive.
November 11, 2023 at 3:40 PM
Tomorrow at 1pm in WCC 103 at SfN 2023 🧠🦑
I’ll share my story from engineering & physics to neuroscience, how computational models reveal novel mechanisms & make experimental predictions, and how neurocomics could help make my field more inclusive.
I’ll share my story from engineering & physics to neuroscience, how computational models reveal novel mechanisms & make experimental predictions, and how neurocomics could help make my field more inclusive.
Tomorrow at 3pm in Hall D at SfN 2023 ✨ SfNova with Ishmail Abdus-Saboor!
I’ll talk about how advances in #AI and large scale brain data will enable computational neuroscience to answer big questions about cognition – and what the Rajan lab has discovered already!
I’ll talk about how advances in #AI and large scale brain data will enable computational neuroscience to answer big questions about cognition – and what the Rajan lab has discovered already!
November 10, 2023 at 7:11 PM
Tomorrow at 3pm in Hall D at SfN 2023 ✨ SfNova with Ishmail Abdus-Saboor!
I’ll talk about how advances in #AI and large scale brain data will enable computational neuroscience to answer big questions about cognition – and what the Rajan lab has discovered already!
I’ll talk about how advances in #AI and large scale brain data will enable computational neuroscience to answer big questions about cognition – and what the Rajan lab has discovered already!
Looking forward to #SfN23 next month! I’ll be presenting in two sessions:
✨ SfNova (Sat. 11/11 @ 3pm w. Ishmail Abdus-Saboor)
🧠 Meet-the-Expert (Sun. 11/12 @ 1pm)
Learn more: www.sfn.org/meetings/neu...
✨ SfNova (Sat. 11/11 @ 3pm w. Ishmail Abdus-Saboor)
🧠 Meet-the-Expert (Sun. 11/12 @ 1pm)
Learn more: www.sfn.org/meetings/neu...
October 18, 2023 at 1:52 PM
Looking forward to #SfN23 next month! I’ll be presenting in two sessions:
✨ SfNova (Sat. 11/11 @ 3pm w. Ishmail Abdus-Saboor)
🧠 Meet-the-Expert (Sun. 11/12 @ 1pm)
Learn more: www.sfn.org/meetings/neu...
✨ SfNova (Sat. 11/11 @ 3pm w. Ishmail Abdus-Saboor)
🧠 Meet-the-Expert (Sun. 11/12 @ 1pm)
Learn more: www.sfn.org/meetings/neu...