Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Laura Grima

Eli Sennesh @elisennesh.bsky.social · 6d

We started our RL debate series!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0A0...

RL Debate Series: Eli "abolish the value function" Sennesh

YouTube video by Sensorimotor AI

www.youtube.com

1 3 8

Reposted by Laura Grima

Janelia FlyEM @janelia-flyem.bsky.social · 3d

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

2 31 67

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

You’re not the first person to point out that this is becoming a popular topic of investigation…! I have a lot of thoughts on why this is happening but to answer your question specifically we are broadly independent of (but interested in) those large-scale efforts

2

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

To end, I am very grateful for all of the people who contributed to any of this work at various stages - and of course in particular my co-authors/conference organizers @hannah-haberkern.bsky.social @adiraj95.bsky.social @maimmorimoto.bsky.social @neurorishika.bsky.social @emmavscholey.bsky.social

2

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

I wanted to share all of this firstly so that others know about these resources - but also as an example of how enjoyable it can be to deeply engage with the (neuro)scientific community in various ways. Together this really embodies (to me at least) why this work and career can be so fulfilling.

1 1

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

Plus, there's now a related conference organized by some wonderful people @unibirmingham.bsky.social in the UK, including @brainapps.bsky.social, @markdhumphries.bsky.social, and others. (Registration for this conference is still open until the 20th October!) uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...

Home - The Mechanistic Basis of Foraging

uobevents.eventsair.com

1 2 1

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

The conference brought together researchers from a wide range of backgrounds and was full of incredibly fruitful discussions. It also ultimately spurred us into writing a review as a way to bring together everything we had learned.

1 1

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

As things got back to 'normal' post-pandemic, the next logical step was to get everyone together in person. Thanks to the great conference organizing team @janeliaconf.bsky.social, we were able to host our 'mechanistic basis of foraging' conference in February of 2024 www.janelia.org/you-janelia/...

Bridging Diverse Perspectives on the Mechanistic Basis of Foraging

Organizers Laura Grima, Janelia Research Campus/HHMI Hannah Haberkern, University of Würzburg Rishika Mohanta, Rockefeller University Mai Morimoto, Queen Mary University of London Adithya

www.janelia.org

1 1

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

Our team grew, and the seminar series ended up spanning 16 episodes across 3 seasons, from 2021-2023. All episodes can be found on our YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/@futureoffor...

Future of Foraging Seminar Series

www.youtube.com

1 1

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks to the state of the world at the time, an online seminar series seemed a good start. So we, along with some of our friends at @champalimaudf.bsky.social, set up 'The Future of Foraging', kicking off with a great talk from Alex Kacelnik on "What is foraging?" www.youtube.com/watch?v=B44M...

S1E1 Alex Kacelnik - What is Foraging?

YouTube video by Future of Foraging Seminar Series

www.youtube.com

1 1

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

A little backstory on this one: sometime during the pandemic @hannah-haberkern.bsky.social and I were chatting in the servery at @hhmijanelia.bsky.social about how to encourage interactions between people working on foraging (+ neuroscience) across different species and perspectives... 1/n

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

Pleased to have this review out in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social. In it we discuss various aspects of the intersection between foraging behaviors and neuroscience, and offer some future directions: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Foraging as an ethological framework for neuroscience

The study of foraging is central to a renewed interest in naturalistic behavior in neuroscience. Applying a foraging framework grounded in behavioral …

www.sciencedirect.com

1 2 6

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

Congratulations Juan!

Reposted by Laura Grima

Mai Morimoto @maimmorimoto.bsky.social · 1d

Had a lot of fun co-writing to this review! Discussing #foraging through the lens of neuroscience.

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

Pleased to have this review out in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social. In it we discuss various aspects of the intersection between foraging behaviors and neuroscience, and offer some future directions: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Foraging as an ethological framework for neuroscience

The study of foraging is central to a renewed interest in naturalistic behavior in neuroscience. Applying a foraging framework grounded in behavioral …

www.sciencedirect.com

1 6

Reposted by Laura Grima

Emma Scholey @emmavscholey.bsky.social · 1d

If you want to hear about more like this, come join us at the University of Birmingham for ‘The Mechanistic Basis of Foraging’ conference. Registration closes 20th October!
uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...

Home - The Mechanistic Basis of Foraging

uobevents.eventsair.com

1

Reposted by Laura Grima

Emma Scholey @emmavscholey.bsky.social · 1d

Really excited to share a review I contributed to, out now in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social. We explore how foraging can offer a framework for studying brain and behaviour in natural contexts. It’s been a pleasure working with colleagues across species and disciplines on this. Check it out! 👇

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

Pleased to have this review out in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social. In it we discuss various aspects of the intersection between foraging behaviors and neuroscience, and offer some future directions: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Foraging as an ethological framework for neuroscience

The study of foraging is central to a renewed interest in naturalistic behavior in neuroscience. Applying a foraging framework grounded in behavioral …

www.sciencedirect.com

1 4 10

Reposted by Laura Grima

Hannah Haberkern @hannah-haberkern.bsky.social · 1d

Years ago @lauragrima.bsky.social talked about what a pity it is when scientists who work on #foraging miss out on fruitful interactions because they work with different animals. Together with collegues we started a virtual seminar series, which grew into a conference and now a review!

ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.

authors.elsevier.com

2 12 33

Reposted by Laura Grima

Adithya Rajagopalan @adiraj95.bsky.social · 1d

Inspired by discussions at several recent foraging-related seminar series and conferences, our review in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social explores an expanded role for foraging as a framework in neuroscience and discusses future directions for the field. Do check it out.

doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...

4 2

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

Very fun to write this with such great co-authors - @hannah-haberkern.bsky.social @maimmorimoto.bsky.social @maimmorimoto.bsky.social @adiraj95.bsky.social @emmavscholey.bsky.social and Rishika Mohanta.

1

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 1d

Pleased to have this review out in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social. In it we discuss various aspects of the intersection between foraging behaviors and neuroscience, and offer some future directions: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Foraging as an ethological framework for neuroscience

The study of foraging is central to a renewed interest in naturalistic behavior in neuroscience. Applying a foraging framework grounded in behavioral …

www.sciencedirect.com

2 13 42

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 6d

Registration closes in just 2 weeks! We’ve got a great line up of speakers, definitely not a conference to miss if you’re into interesting behavior…!

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · Jun 30

Super excited to announce a follow-up to the Janelia 'mechanistic basis of foraging' conference - this time held in Birmingham, UK! Join us from the 3rd - 5th November to discuss all things foraging: uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...

Homepage - The Mechanistic Basis of Foraging

uobevents.eventsair.com

3

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 8d

I’m rewatching The Office and the episode where Jim uses Pavlovian conditioning on Dwight literally just came on. How appropriate

2

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 8d

On a related note I will never not be convinced that a rodent version of the Crystal Maze wouldn’t be a good idea youtu.be/lbhnmwosgBo?...

Crystal Maze Contestant Gets Stuck on Planet

YouTube video by The Crystal Maze

youtu.be

1

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 8d

My favourite sentence to read in a sys neuro paper is “we designed a new task…” What strange little game have you given your rodents to play, eh? Are they pushing levers or pulling strings? Do they have to move things around, lick them? What clues do you give them - sights, sounds, smells? Such fun!

3 2 27

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 17d

Taking your example of attending vs orienting, agreed that experimental neuroscientists should do better at making explicit their assumptions re: behavior -> cognition transforms. I’m just worried that appealing to computational accounts in their place results in the same issue of assumptions…

1 8

Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 17d

Agreed this is an issue, but what if the computational ideas are wrong or if the experiment is designed to reveal computational principles? Defining eg attention as a specific computation a priori also seems problematic.

1 16