Computational Neuroscientist
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npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg
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nprofile1qqsr9vf92c27npy08emrzj6xp5nl4k5klyzzdyxx96kmudwwws388mcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qg6l84e
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npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Show more details
Published at
2023-06-26T23:34:14+02:00 Event JSON
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"content": "{\"name\":\"Yohan John 🤖🧠\",\"about\":\"Computational Neuroscientist\\n\\nReseach Assistant Professor at Boston University\\n\\nI make biological neural network models of cognitive-emotional interaction in the limbic system. I'm also interested in philosophy of mind, emergence, and phenomenology. \\n\\nAlso, I sometimes dabble in mathematical concepts that are way over my head. :P\\n\\n__\\n\\nsearchable\",\"picture\":\"https://fediscience.org/system/accounts/avatars/109/315/950/194/289/703/original/4dc31f984777aa6a.png\",\"banner\":\"https://fediscience.org/system/accounts/headers/109/315/950/194/289/703/original/df3e60b8230e0aec.jpg\",\"nip05\":\"[email protected] \"}" ,
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Last Notes npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Neurofriends, do dendritic plateau potentials have a refractory period? npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Ages ago, my PhD thesis advisor described a computational neuroscience model as a mnemonic for remembering the empirical data. Some friends were a bit bothered by this seeming lack of ambition. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 "... even a full description of the microscopic components and their interactions may not facilitate the identification of when and where emergent phenomena may take place". npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Is there a negativity bias? And does social media make it worse? npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub13hn…fzrs npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Every once in a while I come across a behavioral task (typically in rodents or monkeys) that is far more interesting than the accompanying analysis of neural correlates. It would be nice to read a historical survey of task design: the ingenuity of task design seems underappreciated. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1w6d…ytvx npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Roko's decision theory won't save you. :P npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Revisiting the topic of Up and Down states in striatal spiny projection neurons after ages. Anyone have a good reference (or unpublished pet theory) on the functions they might enable for basal ganglia circuits? npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Good article on a very tricky subject: to what extent do our tentative attempts at classification enter into feedback loops with an individual's personality and sense of identity? npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 “Even a potato in a dark cellar has a certain low cunning about him which serves him in excellent stead. He knows perfectly well what he wants and how to get it." npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 “Even a potato in a dark cellar has a certain low cunning about him which serves him in excellent stead. He knows perfectly well what he wants and how to get it." npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 "Thus the CMB temperature fluctuations look like Chladni patterns resulting from a complicated three-dimensional drumhead that vibrated for 380 000 years." npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 I just finished "Death's End", the last book in Liu Cixin's 'Three Body Problem' series. I'll grant that there are plenty of flaws... but what a stunning achievement it is. As vast and inspiring (and cold!) as the cosmos itself. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 "... an author's failure to produce a readable book is not ipso facto a failure to produce a good book — the history of philosophy bears witness to this..." npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Today I was introduced to the Dempster-Shafer theory, and the broader notion of generalization of probability beyond single events to sets. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Great article on the elusive beauty in cricket batting technique. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 "And all that is now npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 I regularly come across (and commit) typos that suggest an incomplete process of syntactic metamorphosis. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1xkw…7jwu npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 I keep coming across "deflationary" accounts in philosophy. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Cooperative competition happens in so many ways. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1skv…aky3 @npub1ary…md4c @npub1qe8…4vky @npub19un…gacg npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1skv…aky3 npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub18j2…q9qz npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub18j2…q9qz npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1k92…lfa9 npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 How seriously should we take "levels" of reality? I mean the parcellation of the universe into, say, the the particle level, the chemical level, the cellular level, the organism, individual level, the social/ecological level etc? npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1skv…aky3 npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Semantic Goodhart's Law: as a descriptive concept becomes prescriptive, its meaning starts to blur and expand, eventually becoming an empty placeholder for "good". In advanced stages its valence flips and eliminativism arises. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Consciousness is a Wiener process: continuous everywhere but differentiable nowhere. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Artificial Neural Nets are becoming Rorschach tests for researchers: everyone gets to project the latest trillion-parameter model into their preferred low-dimensional blabberspace. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Peter Killeen on principles versus laws. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1kq0…8hsx @npub1xkw…7jwu npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1kq0…8hsx @npub1xkw…7jwu npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1xkw…7jwu npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1skv…aky3 npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1skv…aky3 npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 What do you think are the best critiques of the predictive processing framework in neuroscience? npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 "However, when similar flight paths are compared across conditions, the stability of the hippocampal code persists." npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 https://fediscience.org/system/media_attachments/files/111/789/140/549/076/257/original/40db8c2b66e7b642.jpg npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 It's been well over a year, but I still haven't fully processed that I am co-author of a theory paper suggesting that "psychedelics are analogous to cognitive laxatives." npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 In 2024, resolve to be suspicious of any overarching theory based on the optimization of an underconstrained scalar quantity. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Most models that implement neural competition seem to use inhibition to achieve competition among neurons/ensembles. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Buddhists are the anarchists of the soul, intent on dismantling loyalty to every mental State. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 "... to dematerialize the world ..." npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1s4k…j02h @npub19d9…f02p npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub19d9…f02p @npub1s4k…j02h npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1s4k…j02h npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 It seems very likely that similarities between real brains and artificial neural networks in performance and even feature-extraction have more to do with the shared data set and the presence of many free parameters than any structural or procedural commonality. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1qtk…xqrw npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 People often talk about the importance of context and constraint in biology. But these are also major factors in physics too. The "regimes" of condensed matter are essentially a form of context for the particles. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Apocryphal but still on-point decades later. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 "Assumptions are predictions." npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Very readable paper on a somewhat neglected but theoretically fascinating topic: eligibility traces. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Found a nice article on the origins of the normal distribution. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Key events in the discovery of inhibition. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 But we can't really congratulate ourselves for getting rid of the Brits, since very similar systems of exploitation are now domestic. Sainath points out how India has been accelerating its rate of dollar billionaire production while essentially waging war on farmers. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 He referred to estimates that in just 40 years (1880-1920) British imperialism lead to 100 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 excess deaths in India. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Sainath brought up the sorts of people who say "Well, at least the British imperialists weren't as bad as the Dutch or the French." npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 It was an exceptionally moving and inspirational talk. I was struggling (and failing) to hold back tears through most of it. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 "Independence was an event. Freedom is a 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴." npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1qtk…xqrw npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Went down a fun rabbithole on true random number generators. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 "However, computing with attractors generally limits the use of complex dynamical networks. Once the attractor (or its vicinity) is reached, the “dynamical” nature of the brain becomes irrelevant." npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1qtk…xqrw @npub1skv…aky3 npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1skv…aky3 npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1skv…aky3 @npub1qtk…xqrw npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1qtk…xqrw npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 " we provide neural evidence that energy landscapes predict decision consistency, which reflects decision confidence." npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 What a great passage. Hegel articulates the paradox of 'sense-certainty': sensory experience *feels* supremely true, but this truth is a kind of mirage. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 If your preferred theory makes it hard for you to communicate with large sections of your field, there's probably a major problem with your theory, at least in socially pragmatic terms. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 Historical forces are at work. Despite not being convinced by any anti-representation arguments, I find myself replacing 'represent' with 'mediate' wherever it fits. :P npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1qtk…xqrw npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 I get why we do this, but referring to brain regions as if they are singular — "the" amygdala, "the" hippocampus etc — creates a strange neglect of the fact that there are two: one in each hemisphere. npub1x2cj24s4axzg70nkx995vrf8ltdfd7gyy6gvvt4dhc6uuapzw0hst2jjtg Yohan John 🤖🧠 @npub1skv…aky3 @npub1t64…u4j0
