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jdcrawford.bsky.social
Doug Crawford
@jdcrawford.bsky.social
1.4K followers 690 following 480 posts
Distinguished Research Professor in Neuroscience; York Research Chair in Visuomotor Neuroscience; Director, Centre for Integrative and Applied Neuroscience; Founding Director: VISTA and Connected Minds Programs. 🍁
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Reposted by Doug Crawford
yorku-cian.bsky.social
Last Friday, we were pleased to welcome about 80 attendees to Dr. Jesse Gomez's seminar and the CIAN academic year kick-off reception. Thank you to everyone who joined us.
#Neuroscience
@jdcrawford.bsky.social
@jonathanamichaels.bsky.social
@connectedminds.bsky.social
October 9, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
cibaker.bsky.social
A new method for translating functional brain responses between species - Spatiotemporal Hyperalignment projects shared information into a common representational space

Led by @kbraunlich.bsky.social Marianne Duyck with @bevilconway.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Translating functional brain activity between humans and monkeys
Comparing brain responses across species is essential for identifying models of human cognition and testing theories of brain evolution, but differences in brain size, measurement techniques, and sign...
www.biorxiv.org
October 7, 2026 at 6:14 PM
jdcrawford.bsky.social
Applications open for a CANADA RESEARCH CHAIR IN NETWORK SCIENCE with @connectedminds.bsky.social at York University Toronto. See: www.yorku.ca/unit/vpf/wp-...
October 7, 2026 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
sciam.bsky.social
BREAKING: The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Georg Nagel and Peter Hegemann for their discovery of rhodopsin and optogenetics, the ability to control cells using light and genetics
2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to scientists behind optogenetics
Karl Deisseroth, George Nagel and Peter Hegemann developed optogenetics, which uses light and genetics to control individual cells
www.scientificamerican.com
October 5, 2026 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
earlkmiller.bsky.social
This is a two-fer: 1. IT cortex encodes not just what objects are, but also where they are. 2. Current AI does not work like IT cortex.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
#neuroscience
The macaque IT cortex but not current artificial vision networks encode object position in perceptually aligned coordinates
Yakubovskaya et al. show that motion adaptation shifts macaque IT population codes for object position in a direction that mirrors human perceptual mislocalization. Current feedforward, recurrent, and...
www.cell.com
October 3, 2026 at 8:24 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
marcoaqil.bsky.social
Graph neural fields can capture both the harmonic power spectrum of fMRI and the temporal power spectrum of MEG (and more). Now published (open-access) in Network Neuroscience: direct.mit.edu/netn/article...
October 4, 2026 at 4:48 AM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
apurvaratan.bsky.social
I also want to share an update from our topographic ANN work led by Haider Al Tahan (not on bsky!). What does adding topography actually do to a model’s internal representations? Does it make is more brain like? Let me tell you about TopoAudio! #neuroskyence #neuroscience #brain #neuroai
October 2, 2026 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
plosbiology.org
How do intrinsic timescales, which reflect the temporal window of neural processing, mature during development? This study by @goliashf.bsky.social @ted-satterthwaite.bsky.social &co identifies a hierarchical trajectory, from sensorimotor to association cortices.
🧪 #NeuroSky
plos.io/46RzqRG
Developmental patterns of intrinsic timescale. (a) Average timescale increases during development in youth (b) Age effects quantified as partial R2 are depicted across the cortex, displaying a heterogeneous spatial distribution. (c) Age effects on intrinsic timescale were compared to the S–A axis, identifying a hierarchical pattern of developmental patterns in intrinsic timescale along the S–A axis. The results demonstrate that intrinsic timescale in association regions increases during development in youth while it remains relatively stable in sensorimotor regions.
October 2, 2026 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
ariellevine.bsky.social
Reminder that the abstract deadline for the Pre-SfN Motor symposium is October 5!

Please use this link (forms.gle/Czs4S6NP8vxB...) to register and submit abstracts.
October 1, 2026 at 4:04 AM
jdcrawford.bsky.social
goliashf.bsky.social Golia Shafiei @goliashf.bsky.social · 9d
So excited that our work is now published in PLOS Biology!! 🎉

Check out the final version here: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

And for a bit more context and what we found, here’s our earlier thread: bsky.app/profile/goli...
plosbiology.org PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 10d
How do intrinsic timescales, which reflect the temporal window of neural processing, mature during development? This study by @goliashf.bsky.social @ted-satterthwaite.bsky.social &co identifies a hierarchical trajectory, from sensorimotor to association cortices.
🧪 #NeuroSky
plos.io/46RzqRG
October 1, 2026 at 3:13 AM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
danclab.bsky.social
Our multilayer MEG paper is out today in Nature Communications: depth-resolved laminar inference in humans 🧠#neuroskyence
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Multilayer MEG source modelling enables depth-resolved laminar inference in humans - Nature Communications
Researchers developed a multilayer MEG framework that estimates activity across cortical depth non-invasively. Simulations and three human datasets show when reliable laminar inference is possible, en...
www.nature.com
September 30, 2026 at 9:29 AM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
neurocircuits.bsky.social
📢 To everyone on the job market who has a vision for neuroscience applied to biomedical applications & technological innovation:

The Duke Department of Biomedical Engineering announces a tenure-track faculty job search in neural engineering, broadly defined!

academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32784
View of Duke Chapel looking up a quiet street framed by colorful autumn foliage
September 26, 2026 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
connectedminds.bsky.social
Two from our Connected Minds community named Brain Canada Future Leaders! Drs. @jonathanamichaels.bsky.social and Fucile each receive $100,000 to advance brain research on predictive motor control and preterm infant brain injury detection, respectively.Among 26 Future Leaders nationwide. Read more:
Brain Canada Names 2025 Future Leaders Cohort | 26 Researchers Funded
Brain Canada announces this year’s Future Leaders cohort – 26 early-career researchers receiving $100,000 each to advance brain and mental health research across Canada
braincanada.ca
September 25, 2026 at 11:35 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
rezashadmehr.bsky.social
Faculty position opening in computational neuroscience at Duke University.
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32697
September 22, 2026 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
yorku-cian.bsky.social
We are hosting the first CIAN seminar of the year on Oct 2nd (note the new time!).
#neuroscience
@jdcrawford.bsky.social
@connectedmindslab.bsky.social
@yorkuniversity.bsky.social
@jonathanamichaels.bsky.social
September 15, 2026 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
abdoljabbari.bsky.social
Our new paper!
Neuron-type-specific Contributions to Dynamic Coding during Flexible Sensorimotor Decisions in Frontoparietal Cortex
Now out in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience @jocn.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1162/jocn...
September 23, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
erinlrich.bsky.social
Hey, we’ve been studying mnemonic chunking in🐒!

With @fkchiang89.bsky.social
Here’s the rundown:
🧵

www.cell.com/current-biol...
Compression as a neural mechanism of mnemonic chunking in prefrontal cortex
Chiang and Rich show that macaques spontaneously chunk spatial targets in a self-ordered working memory task. dlPFC neurons compress chunked targets into lower-dimensional representations that are shi...
www.cell.com
September 2, 2026 at 9:53 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
shilling.bsky.social
Weird Al teaches us about the brain! @bwjones.bsky.social
youtu.be/J6ILiEuUvM0?...
The Brain Song – “Weird Al” Yankovic
YouTube video by alyankovic
youtu.be
September 2, 2026 at 11:31 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
afni-pt.bsky.social
Have you ever felt like something was missing from your #fmri results? Have you been worried about potential reproducibility issues?

Well, this new @natmethods.nature.com article with 40+ coauthors shows how the simple change to transparent thresholding helps both. Go Figure!

rdcu.be/B4tikBETdQZa
A comparison of old and new thresholding approaches for fMRI data. The newer, transparent thresholding allows for interpreting context, more complete modeling, a reduction of biases and an increase in meaningful content. This all leads to more accurate interpretations and improved reproducibility evaluations.
August 31, 2026 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
initself.bsky.social
Are brains and artificial neural networks converging onto universal representations?

There is a seductive idea making the rounds in NeuroAI / machine learning: train systems well enough, and they all converge on the same representation of reality (i.e. a unique world model).

We have thoughts™

1/n
The Umwelt Representation Hypothesis: rethinking Universality
Recent studies reveal striking representational alignment between artificial neural networks (ANNs) and biological brains, leading to proposals that all sufficiently capable systems converge on univer...
www.cell.com
August 28, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
plosbiology.org
Brain regions coordinate their activity to support adaptive responses based on stimulus relevance. This study characterizes #auditory and prefrontal coordination in context- and behavior-dependent sound processing, consistent with a #predictiveCoding framework.
🧪 #AcademicSky
plos.io/4wSBXWe
State-dependent auditory–prefrontal dynamics during novelty detection. Schematic summary of the main findings. During standard repetition, prediction-/repetition-related activity (P, blue) was associated with low-frequency GC-defined interactions between AC and PFC, mainly around the ~2-Hz/delta range. These interactions were weak during passive listening and stronger during active task engagement. During deviant processing, prediction-error-/deviance-related activity (PE, red) was associated with frequency-specific bidirectional GC-defined interactions. Under passive listening, AC → PFC interactions were detectable mainly in theta/alpha bands, with limited beta-band PFC → AC patterns. Under active task engagement, AC → PFC interactions were more prominent in theta/alpha and conventional gamma bands, whereas PFC → AC interactions were more evident in the theta range. Dashed arrows indicate weak or limited GC-defined interactions, and solid arrows indicate stronger or more consistent interactions. AC, auditory cortex; PFC, sampled lateral prefrontal cortex; δ, delta; θ, theta; α, alpha; β, beta; γ, conventional gamma band.
August 29, 2026 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
hritz.bsky.social
Our task-switching paper is now out at Current Biology!

www.cell.com/current-biol...

We find that that our brains reset to a task-neutral state between trials, providing flexibility when the upcoming task is uncertain.

RNNs also learn this strategy, but only when trained to switch tasks.
schematic of how a brain might reset to a neutral state between trials
August 27, 2026 at 3:39 PM
jdcrawford.bsky.social
Fulfilled a childhood dream today: played hooky from work to get cozy with a Tiger I, Tiger 2, Panther, and many, many more at rhe British Tank Museum.
August 27, 2026 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
mark-j-wagner.bsky.social
How the cerebellum separates related contexts—now out in Nature! Martha Garcia-Garcia led this tour de force, with theory from @somnirons.bsky.social & Michał Wójcik. Martha is on the faculty market, and I could not recommend her more highly. My lab is also recruiting! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
August 26, 2026 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Doug Crawford
martinhebart.bsky.social
I have been meaning to write a post about a preprint that I'm pretty excited about:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

In neuroscience we often assume that we can learn something general about “the brain” using different species. But is this true?

Do monkeys even see the world the way we do?
On the left, an image of a rhesus macaque looking towards its left, and on the right, an AI-generated zoomed-out rendering of a human in the same pose. Both are looking.
August 24, 2026 at 3:12 PM