iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Bogdan Petre

Sam Nastase @samnastase.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

We’re recruiting a full-time lab manager to join the Shared Minds Lab at USC! This will be a great opportunity for someone who wants to get hands-on experience with research before starting a PhD program in psychology or neuroscience. More below:

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Bogdan Petre @bogpetre.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Brain-machine interfaces are better when decoding exploits the intrinsic manifold geometry of brain activity, by @elbusch.bsky.social et al. Translates electrophys work (sadtler 2014 Nat Neuro) to humans, bridging fields (sys and cog neuro) that need far more crosstalk. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

nature.com

Human learning of noninvasive brain–computer interfaces via manifold geometry - Nature Neuroscience

Busch et al. use nonlinear neural manifolds to help humans gain rapid control over a noninvasive brain–computer interface, allowing them to learn how to play a video game with real-time fMRI neurofeed...

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Bogdan Petre @bogpetre.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Interesting work on low dimensionality of higher order neural representations in PFC.

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Reposted by Bogdan Petre

tor @torwager.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Really delighted to get copies of our new book, Elements of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. A labor of love over the past 10 years, along with @fmristats. Available for pre-order: mitpress.mit.edu/978026204504...

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Bogdan Petre @bogpetre.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Good summary of the state of our understanding of representational drift. Personally interested in it as a solution to catastrophic forgetting in artificial neural nets. Hasn’t been fully established or profiled in humans yet either, raising an interesting possible direction for future work.

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Reposted by Bogdan Petre

Josh Johansen @jojolab.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

I’m very sad to share that Howard Fields has died. He made seminal discoveries in pain modulation, placebo, and addiction. He was also a wonderful mentor and friend who taught me how to think about the brain and the joy of scientific discovery. www.iasp-pain.org/publications...

iasp-pain.org

In Memory of Howard L. Fields - International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)

IASP is deeply saddened to hear of the recent death of Honorary IASP Member, Prof Howard Fields, and we offer our condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. We are […]

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Reposted by Bogdan Petre

Tim Behrens @behrenstimb.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

This is the May cover of NN but it has already been debunked on biorxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Such a clear statement about the ridiculous pace of publishing (not just NN).

biorxiv.org

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Bogdan Petre @bogpetre.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Backprop in artificial neural networks (ANNs) is famously biologically implausible. This paper hints at an alternative solution to the credit assignment problem: spatial segregation along cortical dendrites instead of feed fwd v. err feedback type temporal segregation. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Vectorized instructive signals in cortical dendrites - Nature

Mice learning a neurofeedback brain–computer interface task show neuron-specific teaching signals in cortical dendrites, consistent with a vectorized solution for credit assignment in the brain.

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Bogdan Petre @bogpetre.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Brain maps differ between people, but whether encoded information also differs depends on where you look. In some regions different layouts encode the same information, and representations converge like in artificial neural networks (ANNs). New preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

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Bogdan Petre @bogpetre.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Some billionaire recently advocated against introspection (tinyurl.com/y2rkty43), claiming it was a modern invention. Reminds me of a paper claiming introspection may be culturally contingent, and rises and falls with social cataclysms like world wars (tinyurl.com/4yttw84s). Fun read.

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Reposted by Bogdan Petre

Mick Bonner @mickbonner.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Dimensionality reduction may be the wrong approach to understanding neural representations. Our new paper shows that across human visual cortex, dimensionality is unbounded and scales with dataset size—we show this across nearly four orders of magnitude. journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

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Bogdan Petre @bogpetre.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

www.economist.com/finance-and-... There is no substitute for American scientific investment. Since 1945, when Vannevar Bush convinced Truman of the merits of public research funding, only Russia and China have even tried to compete. If the USG stops funding science, the global economy will feel it.

economist.com

America’s scientific prowess is a huge global subsidy

And it is now under threat

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Reposted by Bogdan Petre

Étienne Vachon-Presseau @evp82.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Our new @NatureHumBehav paper shows why we need a holistic pain biomarker framework. ML on blood tests, brain/bone imaging & genetics predicts clinical diagnoses but falls short on subjective pain. Adding psychosocial (mood, sleep, stress) boosts both. shorturl.at/vxxeO

shorturl.at

Biological markers and psychosocial factors predict chronic pain conditions - Nature Human Behaviour

Fillingim et al. show that biological and psychosocial factors jointly predict conditions associated with chronic pain.

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Bogdan Petre @bogpetre.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

“A 25 percent reduction in public R&D spending would reduce GDP by … [an effect] comparable to the decline in GDP during the Great Recession.” tinyurl.com/vweadewh Meanwhile the government is proposing a 44% cut to the NIH www.science.org/content/arti...

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Bogdan Petre @bogpetre.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Good article touching all key points succinctly. “U.S. government … research and development has accounted for at least 1/5 of total factor productivity growth in the U.S. business sector … a greater return than than private R & D has produced.” www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

foreignaffairs.com

America’s Coming Brain Drain

Trump’s war on universities could kill U.S. innovation.

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