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Small Brain Cognition Lab

@minibraincognition.bsky.social

180 followers 28 following 14 posts

We develop and use novel experimental and theoretical techniques and original ideas to study cognition and information processing in neural circuits: https://cognition.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/home

cognition.sites.sheffield.ac.uk

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Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Nov 28

Hello!
We are a group of scientists from the University of Sheffield excited about how the brain works, using flies & other insects as our models. 🧪🪰 Looking forward to sharing some of our work in the coming days!

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Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Sep 9

ASAB Interdisciplinary Workshop
Nature of Intelligence: Bridging Animal and Artificial Intelligence
sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

4-5 September 2025: Extraordinary meeting - many thanks to HaDi for organising, and to all the speakers and participants! See you all next year in Bristol!

Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Aug 22

Supplementary Video 3:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=twYk...

Synaptic High-Frequency Jumping: Ultrafast Fly Responses to Looming Stimuli

YouTube video by Centre for Cognition in Small Brains

www.youtube.com

Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Aug 22

Supplementary Video 2:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHlU...

Synaptic High-Frequency Jumping: Photoreceptor Microsaccades Drive Hyperacute Vision

YouTube video by Centre for Cognition in Small Brains

www.youtube.com

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Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Aug 22

Supplementary Video 1:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiJ4...

Synaptic High-Frequency Jumping: How Flies See the World in Milliseconds

YouTube video by Centre for Cognition in Small Brains

www.youtube.com

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Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Aug 22

Flies keep their vision razor-sharp even at top speed: we found their synapses “jump” into higher frequencies during saccades, wiping out delays and boosting acuity. This self-sharpening trick shows how brains sync perception with rapid behaviour.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Synaptic high-frequency jumping synchronises vision to high-speed behaviour

During high-speed behaviour, animals must predict, detect, process, and respond synchronously to rapid environmental changes, including those caused by their own movements. How neural systems achieve ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Small Brain Cognition Lab

HaDi MaBouDi @maboudi.bsky.social · Jul 18

Call for Abstracts Extended! 🌟
Join us this September in Sheffield for 'Nature of Intelligence: Bridging Animal & Artificial Intelligence', an ASAB Interdisciplinary Workshop.

@asab.org @sheffielduni.bsky.social
#ArtificialIntelligence #AnimalCognition #Neuroscience I #AcademicWorkshop #ASAB

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HaDi MaBouDi @maboudi.bsky.social · Jul 1

Our latest paper reveals how active vision via scanning dynamically refines spatiotemporal neural representations, enabling efficient pattern recognition in minimal systems.

A step forward in understanding embedded cognition & AI
www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/new-stu... #bee #ActiveVision #Neuromorphic

New study revealing bees' secret to super-efficient learning could revolutionise AI and robotics

A new discovery of how bees use their flight movements to facilitate remarkably accurate learning & recognition of complex visual patterns could mark a major change in how next-generation AI is develo...

www.sheffield.ac.uk

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Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Jul 1

Exciting paper from our lab out today:

New insights into how bees use flight movements—such as body, head, and eye wiggles—to actively support their brain’s pattern learning and recognition with remarkable accuracy could inspire advances in next-generation AI.

elifesciences.org/articles/89929

A neuromorphic model of active vision shows how spatiotemporal encoding in lobula neurons can aid pattern recognition in bees

Active vision dynamically refines spatiotemporal neural representations, optimising visual processing through scanning behaviour and non-associative learning, providing insights into efficient sensory...

elifesciences.org

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Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Jun 9

A new study submitted to BioRxiv:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Drosophila larval Odd neurons process innate and learned information to regulate chemotaxis behavior

Adaptive decision-making emerges from the integration of innate preferences and learned experiences to guide behavior. Using Drosophila larvae as a model, we investigated the neural circuitry underlyi...

doi.org

Reposted by Small Brain Cognition Lab

HaDi MaBouDi @maboudi.bsky.social · Apr 22

Announcing the ASAB Interdisciplinary Workshop:
Nature of Intelligence – Bridging Animal & Artificial Intelligence
📍 University of Sheffield, UK
📅 4–5 September 2025
📝 Abstracts due: 1 July
🔗 Register & learn more: sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...
#AnimalIntelligence #NeuroAI #BioRobotics
@asab.org

Nature of Intelligence

NIBAI-2025: Nature of Intelligence, Bridging Animal and Artificial Intelligence Workshop Dates: 📅 Date: 4–5 September 2025 📍 Venue: The Diamond Building, University of Sheffield, UK 📝 Registration De...

sites.google.com

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Dr Alice Bridges @adbridges.bsky.social · Mar 10

Our new preprint is live! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🐝🧪 “Bumblebee string pulling skill spreads between colonies under open diffusion conditions”! @procenko.bsky.social @minibraincognition.bsky.social @larschittka.bsky.social

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Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Mar 11

Two studies submitted to BioRxiv:
doi.org/10.1101/2023...
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

A neuromorphic model of active vision shows how spatiotemporal encoding in lobula neurons can aid pattern recognition in bees

Bees' remarkable visual learning abilities make them ideal for studying active information acquisition and representation. Here, we develop a biologically inspired model to examine how flight behaviou...

doi.org

Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Jan 3

"Theory of Morphodynamic Information Processing: Linking Sensing to Behaviour" out today in Vision Research: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
#VisionResearch #Morphodynamics #InformationProcessing #NeuralCoding

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

kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me

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Reposted by Small Brain Cognition Lab

Brian Klaas @brianklaas.bsky.social · Jan 1

This is amazing: it’s incredibly windy in the UK right now, so only about 10% of the National Grid is currently being powered by fossil fuels.

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Reposted by Small Brain Cognition Lab

Doll Face Psycho 🫘 @living-sigh.bsky.social · Dec 30

Plot twist 😱

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Reposted by Small Brain Cognition Lab

AkaSci @akasci.bsky.social · Dec 29

In 1676, Danish astronomer Ole Roemer (1644–1710) became the first person to measure the speed of light. He did so by timing eclipses of Io by Jupiter, which occurred later when earth was farther away from Jupiter than when it was closer.
www.amnh.org/learn-teach/...

Ole Roemer Profile: First to Measure the Speed of Light | AMNH

Before Ole Roemer's 1676 discovery, scientists assumed that light could not be measured.

www.amnh.org

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Reposted by Small Brain Cognition Lab

Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · Dec 25

'Before there was arXiv, there was Joanne Cohn (...) She started an informal exchange of string theory manuscripts that eventually became the arXiv preprint server, which has since revolutionized the way scientists share ideas and announce findings.'

pubs.aip.org/physicstoday...

Joanne Cohn and the email list that led to arXiv

A strong sense of community led an early-career string theorist to share preprints in a scientifically competitive environment.

pubs.aip.org

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Reposted by Small Brain Cognition Lab

Gonzalo de Polavieja @polavieja.bsky.social · Dec 19

Genesis: high quality generative Physics engine, genesis-embodied-ai.github.io

Genesis

genesis-embodied-ai.github.io

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Reposted by Small Brain Cognition Lab

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · Dec 13

If I cite a preprint, I am doing peer review. No editor needs to be involved. We don't need the high priests of Elsevier to sanctify this relationship.

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Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Dec 13

Exciting news! Our holistic approach to neural information, "Theory of Morphodynamic Information Processing: Linking Sensing to Behaviour," has been accepted for publication in Vision Research! 🎉 Dive deeper into the work with our extended version here: preprints.org/manuscript/202308.1210/v2.

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Reposted by Small Brain Cognition Lab

Prof Sarah-Jayne Blakemore @sjblakemore.bsky.social · Dec 12

I wrote an article about my dad's death, and how it affected my views on assisted dying

Free version of the article in the next post

Views are my own, not those of the institutions or academies I'm associated with

www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar...

What my dad’s death taught me about the assisted dying debate

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and her sisters knew their father, the neuroscientist Sir Colin Blakemore, had always planned to go to the Netherlands in the face of terminal motor neurone disease. But the real...

www.thetimes.com

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Reposted by Small Brain Cognition Lab

John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · Nov 18

Check out this fly boxing away a parasitic wasp who is trying to lay eggs in its abdomen.
I've watched a lot of fly behavior, but never seen anything like this. Makes you wonder how much we miss by studying lab organisms in isolation from their natural threats.
Vid from: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

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Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Dec 2

Video 2: Morphodynamic neural superposition in the fly eye (3/3) www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsYH...

How Photoreceptor Microsaccades SHIFT the Receptive Fields | Fruit fly

YouTube video by Centre for Cognition in Small Brains

www.youtube.com

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Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Dec 2

Video 1: Vision enhancement via mirror-symmetric photoreceptor microsaccades (2/3) www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3b9...

Photoreceptor Microsaccades across the Fly Eyes (GHS-DPP)

YouTube video by Centre for Cognition in Small Brains

www.youtube.com

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Small Brain Cognition Lab @minibraincognition.bsky.social · Dec 2

Two videos by devjoni.com showcasing our ongoing research into morphodynamic information processing (1/3)