Sign in

Dan Levenstein

@dlevenstein.bsky.social
4.4K followers 1.4K following 1.5K posts

Neuroscientist, in theory. Studying sleep and navigation in 🧠s and 💻s. Wu Tsai Investigator, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Yale. An emergent property of a few billion neurons, their interactions with each other and the world over ~1 century.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 28/09/2026
this is an extremely cool and useful information visualization
0176
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
🔥 open.spotify.com/album/3nUwuI...
open.spotify.com
Ahmad Jamal At The Pershing: But Not For Me - Album by Ahmad Jamal Trio | Spotify
Ahmad Jamal Trio · album · 1958 · 8 songs
2100
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I kinda get why people hate on fussy philosophical stuff, but on the other hand don't you think we live in a time where it'd be especially helpful to have rigorous conversations about things like personhood, meaning in life, the point of art, the point of pure mathematics, & operationalizing ethics?
2849041
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
AI went rogue and deleted my homework.
2181
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Timothy O'Leary @timothyoleary.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Also see this classic essay by Jeremy Gunawardena: www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/...
molbiolcell.org
Biology is more theoretical than physics | Molecular Biology of the Cell
The word “theory” is used in at least two senses—to denote a body of widely accepted laws or principles, as in “Darwinian theory” or “quantum theory,” and to suggest a speculative hypothesis, often re...
0172
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
There’s a Ted Chiang story where AI has a parallel AI-only scientific literature. In that case, AI was doing all the real science and humans were left to pick up the scraps and try to understand what they could… Not sure if I’d prefer that or slopfest.
1130
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who roll their eyes every time they see the phrase "load-bearing", and those who don't use Claude.
5200
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Never thought I’d be one of those “What I can’t build, I don’t understand” people, but here we are.
1161
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Shahab Bakhtiari @shahabbakht.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I’ve been thinking… now that AI is taking on groundbreaking, award-winning problems across science, what are those equivalent problems in #neuroscience? What would one of these models actually have to do to leave us all in awe? 🧠🤖
3101
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Ashley Juavinett, PhD @ashleyjuavinett.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
If there are any PhD hopefuls on here, I wanted to share a few thoughts on your timeline for the upcoming admissions cycle, with apps due starting mid-November. What should you be doing right now? ✔️ Generating a list of schools ✔️ Reaching out to possible recommenders 🧵!
33924
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The superposition of these two studies — both incredible — reflect a snapshot of "one big thing" systems neuroscience has yet to resolve. In mice: 1. Task-related signals are everywhere. 2. Absent large swaths of "everywhere," suprisingly sophisticated learning & behavior remains.
Post by Enny van Beest, "Brainwide representation of navigation"Post by Jieyu Zheng, "How fast can mice learn complex mazes?"
1011838
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Gj @huihongli.bsky.social giving the first external lab poster at the @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social workshop yesterday 👏
0191
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Really enjoyed this conversation with @braininspired.bsky.social!
1526
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Came up with the term “fundable-grant-shaped object” and I’m gonna call that a win for today.
070
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Yale Neuroscience is hiring another computational neuroscience position this year! Please share with anyone who might be interested, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the position, or growing neuro-AI community at Yale/WTI!
14324
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Blake Richards @tyrellturing.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
We were actually discussing this at a workshop earlier this year. In particular: The dynamics of BTSP actually seem to potentially be counter to a gradient descent mechanism, and more in line with hashing.
2131
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Super excited to be teaching a lecture on computational models of memory at this @neurosas.bsky.social course this Fall. It's not too late to apply to join us in Venice!
0261
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Interesting to think of how to pay for the cost of algorithms that work for you and not for advertisers.
360
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Cian O'Donnell @cianodonnell.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I gave a talk in our ISRC CN3 summer school yesterday on computational modelling of learning and memory, at the end I threw in a list of what I consider the big open questions in the the theory of learning in neural circuits. What did I miss??
Slide with title text "Open directions in theory of learning in neural circuits". List of points:
- Does the brain learn by gradient descent? If so, how?
- How are memories stable if synaptic strengths − and brain representations − fluctuate over time?
- How do brains learn continually over a lifetime?
- How do brains learn so efficiently? (In terms of energy, data, wiring constraints)
- Why are synapses so molecularly complex, compared to ANN weights?
5639
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
If you’re interested to do an interdisciplinary co-mentored, field transition, or open ended theory/computation postdoc at WTI, please get in touch!
0259
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
If you’re interested to do an interdisciplinary co-mentored, field transition, or open ended theory/computation postdoc at WTI, please get in touch!
0259
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Greedling @greedling1729.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
"Imagine a flashy spaceship lands in your backyard. The door opens and you are invited to investigate everything to see what you can learn. The technology is clearly millions of years beyond what we can make. This is biology." jsomers.net/i-should-hav...
jsomers.net
jsomers.net | I should have loved biology
In biology class, biology wasn't presented as a quest for the secrets of life. The textbooks wrung out the questing.
031
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
🤤🍔
2110
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Postdocs - come talk at Yale!
0216
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Of course for the lab's first year at SfN we get hazed with the Wednesday afternoon timeslot 🥲
090
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Sunday is for hidden gems. open.spotify.com/album/6jRvDp...
open.spotify.com
Shades Of Blue: Madlib Invades Blue Note - Album by Madlib | Spotify
Madlib · album · 2003 · 16 songs
0130
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Things my wife sends me en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
en.wikipedia.org
List of animal sounds - Wikipedia
0160
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Planning the first ever hippocampus GRC to overlap with cosyne was a choice 😿
290
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Timothy O'Leary @timothyoleary.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
I think the difficulty of understanding feedback loops underlies many big debates in science: Origin of life: "genes first" vs "metabolism first" (neither, it's a feedback loop) Development: "nature vs nurture" (neither, it's a feedback loop) Neuroscience: "brain vs behaviour" (you guessed it!)
43810
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Just discovered this gem of a final paragraph in Rumelhart, Hinton, and Williams 1986. Same energy.
081
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
This is why I’ve gone from “never want to touch a spiking network again” to “excited to do the kinds of things I always wanted to do with spiking networks” in the span of 5 years.
1202
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
They’re Made out of Meat
2101
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Dan Goodman @neural-reckoning.org · 15/07/2026
So asking "is the brain a computer" is not helpful. Symbolic computation is sometimes a useful way of thinking about a brain feature, and sometimes not. And that's it. We really can stop talking about it now. I'm going to regret this. I know it.
2625
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
When we talk about the current demolishing of NSF, we think a lot about the loss of research and scientific progress (which are of course very important). But in its founding documents, NSF was also set up to be an equalizer.
Higher education in this country is largely for those who have the means. If
those who have the means coincided entirely with those persons who have the
talent we should not be squandering a part of our higher education on those
undeserving of it, nor neglecting great talent among those who fail to attend
college for economic reasons. There are talented individuals in every segment
of the population, but with few exceptions those without the means of buying
higher education go without it. Here is a tremendous waste of the greatest
resource of a nation—the intelligence of its citizens.
If ability, and not the circumstance of family fortune, is made to deter-
mine who shall receive higher education in science, then we shall be as-
sured of constantly improving quality at every level of scientific activity.

Quoted from "The Endless Frontier"
1255
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
This was in part because of the experience of doing science itself (and even getting to contribute an observation to the Minor Planet Circular!), but also because of what one of the graduate students said during one of those classroom days: "you get paid to do a PhD".
1122
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
A good experiment-theory collaboration takes _________. Wrong answers only.
781
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Cian O'Donnell @cianodonnell.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
(apart from the important point that if we let AI do all our thinking, we are doomed) generally speaking this is why I have come to view presentations and paper writing as *doing science*, just as much as lab work or running computer simulations or whatever. Communication and discussion are central
28217
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Your plots are the plot of your paper’s story
0130
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Caswell Barry @caswell.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Really excited about this work with the awesome Will de Cothi & @shipleysj.bsky.social, out in Nature Reviews Neuroscience. We propose acetylcholine is an analogue of dopamine — tracking not reward prediction errors but state-transition prediction errors. doi.org/10.1038/s41583-026-01058-w
25425
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
These models were not built to explain the brain. But treating them as model organisms that we can perturb and evolve will move us closer to truly understanding the brain’s mechanics, writes @mtoneva.bsky.social. #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/artificial-i...
thetransmitter.org
Transforming AI models into useful model organisms
These models were not built to explain the brain. Treating them as model organisms that we can evolve will move us closer to understanding the brain.
1114
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Brian DePasquale @briandepasquale.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Thanks! Completely agree. Safe knife skills become even more important when you start using chainsaws.
021
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Fishmunculous. 🐟🧵
171
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
The most important step in designing a ML model is coming up with the name. For example, if your model name includes the string "(ours)", it seems to get way better performance on benchmarks. Someone should study the mechanism behind this.
1180
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
One of the things I'm low key excited about getting married next weekend is that I'll never have to deal with Zola dot com ever again. Also all the other things, but that will be an unexpected bonus.
2170
Reposted by Dan Levenstein
Samuel Le Meur-Diebolt @sdiebolt.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Interesting article on something I think is very relevant to open science: several teams analyzed the same ephys dataset and got quite different answers. Not because the analyses were bad, but because this kind of work involves many analysis choices, and those choices can change the result.
11910
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
This is now enshrined in our dog's vet records, and that's kind of adorable.
050
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Stupid niche meme my brain decided to come up with.
090
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
What drives scientific discovery? Wrong answers only.
891
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Is the computer a computer?
1141
Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
First lab posters! 🤯
1584