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Emerson Harkin

@efharkin.bsky.social
163 followers 95 following 61 posts

Computational neuroscience post doc interested in serotonin | Dayan lab @mpicybernetics.bsky.social | 🇨🇦 in 🇩🇪

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Emerson Harkin @efharkin.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Dopamine neurons are heterogeneous, but their diffuse axons are homogenizing. What does this mean for RL models? Stop by poster 362 at #FENS2026 this morning to find out! "Multi-timescale reward prediction learning dynamics with entangled connectivity between the striatum and the dopamine system."
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Emerson Harkin @efharkin.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
As Feynman once said, "What I cannot create in Javascript, I do not understand." I still don't understand the dopamine field, but I learned more than I expected from this project, and I hope you will too. 3/3
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Emerson Harkin @efharkin.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
The site includes a timeline of landmark papers, interactive versions of important models, and a glossary to help disambiguate the seven hundred definitions of RPE. 2/3
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Emerson Harkin @efharkin.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Just in time for the start of next week's Braitenberg 100 symposium, I'm excited to share "Dopamine: From prediction to error," a site I built to better understand where the dopamine RPE hypothesis came from and where it might be headed. efharkin.com/s/dopamine-h... 1/3
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Emerson Harkin @efharkin.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Sometimes negative results are also beautiful.
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Emerson Harkin @efharkin.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Our key idea: We haven't been looking at these responses the right way. Serotonin neurons aren't (only) activated by current reward, they're (mainly) activated by changing expectations of reward in the future! We call this a prospective code for value. 4/6
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Emerson Harkin @efharkin.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Already read the pre-print? doi.org/10.1101/2023... Come hear about our new re-analysis of a free reward consumption experiment from the Minmin Luo lab, and how heterogeneous discounting might fit in! 2/3
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Emerson Harkin @efharkin.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
What makes serotonin neurons tick? Stop by #COSYNE2025 poster 1-116 on Thursday to hear about how an energy-efficient code for value explains the in vivo responses of serotonin neurons to rewards and punishments. 1/3
Teaser for COSYNE2025 poster titled "A prospective code for value in the serotonin system".
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