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Marino Pagan

@marinopagan.bsky.social

450 followers 300 following 34 posts

Group Leader at SIDB at the University of Edinburgh studying the neural mechanisms underlying flexible decision-making. SCGB postdoctoral fellow and SFARI BTI fellow. (he/him) https://www.marinopagan.com/pagan_lab/

www.marinopagan.com

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 21

1/7 Our paper on individual variability in decision-making is finally out in @nature.com! Inspired by the classic work by Mante and Sussillo, we trained many rats to solve context-dependent decision-making, and we found that different brains use different neural mechanisms to solve the same task!

Individual variability of neural computations underlying flexible decisions - Nature

Behavioural experiments to study decision-making in response to context-dependent accumulation of evidence provide testable models that are consistent with the heterogeneity in neural signatures among...

www.nature.com

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · May 21

Congratulations!

Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · May 19

My small tribute to one of my favourite papers ever

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · May 13

In our latest edition of “This paper changed my life,” @marinopagan.bsky.social reflects on a seminal paper that revealed the complexity of neural population dynamics and the power of recurrent neural networks.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-c...

Seminal study on the neural mechanisms of decision-making

Valerio Mante and David Sussillo’s study showed neuroscience the power of recurrent neural networks.

www.thetransmitter.org

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · May 19

No worries at all! I appreciate the additional context, and I agree it's very valuable for readers who might be unfamiliar with the literature. I am glad we had a chance to further clarify things 😀

Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · May 17

(3/3) When I talk about RNNs, the key innovation is the use of methods to find the network's fixed points and study the linearized dynamics, like in Sussillo & Barak, 2013. Also, I agree that others had already trained monkeys to do similar tasks, but the analyses are what made the difference here!

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · May 17

(2/3) In my opinion, this is different from using unsupervised methods like PCA (or even more refined methods like demixed PCA) and is more similar e.g. to the ideas of "potent" and "null" axes like in Kaufman et al., 2014.

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · May 17

(1/3) Hi @jbarbosa.org! The transmitter piece was meant for a broad audience so it was hard to describe in too much detail the novel aspects of Mante & Sussillo. When I talk about population dynamics, I refer to their use of targeted dimensionality reduction to find key axes in neural space.

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Reposted by Marino Pagan

Carlos Brody @carlosbrody.bsky.social · May 7

we're crowd-sourcing a searchable repository of tangible benefits stemming from federally-funded research. Come enjoy the great stories; or send in an idea; or volunteer to join the team.

publicusaresearchbenefits.com

please share and re-share so we get more great stories in there!

Searchable database of tangible benefits that federally-funded research gave us.

A crowd-sourced site. Health and Well-being. National Security. Prosperity.

publicusaresearchbenefits.com

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Apr 7

🚨 Deadline extended! 🚨

A few more days to apply for this PhD project in my lab - come to Edinburgh and study flexible decision-making with us!

Please share if you know someone who might be interested 🙂

Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain (SIDB) @sidb-edinburgh.bsky.social · Apr 4

Deadline of this PhD application has been extended to 10 APRIL! Find out more and apply here

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 28

We are hiring a PhD student to study the neural mechanisms underlying flexible decision-making and individual variability. Please apply and spread the word!

Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain (SIDB) @sidb-edinburgh.bsky.social · Mar 28

The Pagan lab is advertising for a 3.5 year fully funded PhD studentship to start in 2025 within SIDB at Edinburgh University, investigating the neural mechanism underlying flexible decision-making.

🗓️Deadline: 4 April 2024
👇Find out more and apply now:
sidb.org.uk/phds/study-o...

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 25

That sounds great!

Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 25

Thank you Nicole!

Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 25

Haha I wish we could work something out! Thank you for the nice words! 😀

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 24

I am hiring a PhD student in my lab in beautiful Edinburgh to keep investigating the neural mechanisms underlying flexible decision-making and individual variability.

Email or DM me with any questions, or let's chat at the CoSyNe Main Meeting next week!

Apply here: tinyurl.com/2cxr6nbg

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 21

Thank you very much @nicolecrust.bsky.social!!!

Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 21

7/7 Finally, we will be presenting a poster at @cosynemeeting.bsky.social in Montreal next week (Poster 1-061). I look forward to chatting about all this, and to present some new results about how rats and RNNs learn to solve flexible decision-making. Please come say hi! 😀

Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 21

6/7 In my lab @sidb-edinburgh.bsky.social in Edinburgh, we study the neural mechanisms underlying flexible decision-making, and we leverage rat models of neurodevelopmental disorders to study the link between genetic mutations and cognitive dysfunction. We are hiring! www.marinopagan.com/pagan_lab

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 21

5/7 What’s next? Using rats opens the door to the use of modern genetic and molecular tools available in rodents to study context-dependent evidence accumulation. It also offers an unique opportunity to study how genetic mutations can affect the neural circuits underlying flexible decision-making.

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 21

4/7 Infinite thanks to my wonderful postdoctoral Mentor, Carlos Brody, who was an inexhaustible source of guidance, wisdom and support! 🙏🙏🙏 Also very grateful to our fantastic collaborators, @sussillodavid.bsky.social , Valerio Mante, Mikio Aoi, @jpillowtime.bsky.social , and Vincent Tang.

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 21

3/7 Also, we found that recurrent neural networks (RNNs) can fail to capture the heterogeneity observed in biological brains. We introduce new methods to design RNNs that cover the full space of solutions, bridging the gap between artificial systems and the diversity seen in biological computation.

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 21

2/7 Most neuroscience research focuses on what is common across subjects, but individual differences can be large for tasks that allow many different internal solutions! Our work highlights the importance of characterizing individual variability when studying complex cognitive behaviours.

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Marino Pagan @marinopagan.bsky.social · Mar 21

Individual variability of neural computations underlying flexible decisions - Nature

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Marino Pagan

Princeton Neuroscience Institute @princetonneuro.bsky.social · Jan 21

A surprising variability in how rats process sounds, evaluate evidence, and make choices underscores the complexity of the brain’s decision-making process, finds a new study in @nature.com from the labs of PNI's Carlos Brody and @jpillowtime.bsky.social. pni.princeton.edu/news/2025/ne...

A new “hearing test” for rats reveals the brain’s hidden variability when making a decision

Simple choices can arise from diverse brain strategies, shedding light on the origins of individual variability

pni.princeton.edu

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Reposted by Marino Pagan

Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain (SIDB) @sidb-edinburgh.bsky.social · Jan 16

We are pleased to be partnering with The UKRI AI CDT in Biomedical Innovation at the School of Informatics (University of Edinburgh). These PhD projects have a strong translational focus and seek to develop & apply AI approaches to biomedical domains ✨.
Apply by 20 Jan www.ai4biomed.io/how-to-apply/

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Reposted by Marino Pagan

Paul Donlin-Asp @pdaphd.bsky.social · Jan 9

Thanks to our recent Wellcome funding- we're hiring a Postdoctoral Researcher to explore the mechanisms underlying synaptic RNA capture and selective local protein synthesis. This position has 5 years of funding. Please reach out if you have any questions!
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

We seek a motivated postdoctoral researcher to conduct primary research into how neurons transport mRNA to distal sites and use these mRNAs as substrates for local protein synthesis during synaptic pl...

elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com

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Reposted by Marino Pagan

Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain (SIDB) @sidb-edinburgh.bsky.social · Jan 14

There’s just under 2 weeks to apply for our PhD studentships! Join our dynamic community where we provide an annual stipend of £25K, plus tuition fees (inc. international) 🧠.

Apply by 26 January and start your journey with us: sidb.org.uk/phds/

@edinburghmedschool.bsky.social

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