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Jacob Zavatone-Veth

@jzv.bsky.social
730 followers 412 following 30 posts

Theoretical neuroscientist. Currently a Harvard Junior Fellow; moving to @rockefeller.edu in January 2027. jzv.io

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Reposted by Jacob Zavatone-Veth
David G. Clark @david-g-clark.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
This September, I will join the @flatironinstitute.org Center for Computational Neuroscience as a Group Leader, where I will launch the High-Dimensional Dynamics & Computation Group. Information for postdocs and grad students is forthcoming. I am grateful to my mentors who made this possible!
Exterior view of the Flatiron Institute in Manhattan
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Reza Shadmehr @rezashadmehr.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
If an action results in error, each neuron requires an individualized teaching signal that guides change in its output. This is the credit assignment problem of learning. Are there neurons in the brain that can compute such a sophisticated teaching signal? Yes. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Climbing fibers encode the gradient of a loss function for the cerebellum
Neurons in the brain are often many synapses away from motoneurons, yet if a movement results in error, each distant neuron needs a teacher that considers its specific contribution to production of th...
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John Pearson @jmxpearson.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
🚨We’re moving! 🚨 Starting this fall, my lab will be moving to the Center for Neural Science at NYU and the Center for Computational Neuroscience at the @flatironinstitute.org. 1/
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Jan Drugowitsch @jdrugowitsch.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
🚨 Big news 🚨 After 10 years at Harvard, my lab is moving to Barcelona in Spring 2027 to join @cbc-upf.bsky.social and the Department of Engineering at @upf.edu. 1/4
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John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
My department, Neurobiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington (nbio.uw.edu), is hiring a new tenure-track Assistant Professor, application deadline 09/30/26. It's a broad search — molecular to organismal, all of neuroscience/physiology/biophysics welcome. apply.interfolio.com/187735
NBIO department logo
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Alexander van Meegen @avm.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Interested in multitasking RNNs from a theory perspective? Check out this preprint with the amazing @lpezon.bsky.social. TLDR: A low-rank / latent space approach to @lndriscoll.bsky.social & @sussillodavid.bsky.social style shared components. And a story starring solution space degeneracy.
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Thanks Alex!
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Thanks Alex!
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Many thanks, Catherine! Looking forward to what's to come in the next years
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Thanks, Cengiz, for making those great years possible, and for all of your mentorship through them! With @frostedblakess.bsky.social also decamping for UT feels like a bit of an end of an era - here's to more collaborations to come!
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Thanks Nacho!
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Thanks Dima!
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Thanks Shubhendu! Looking forward to it
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Thanks Kenji!
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Thanks Alex! Likewise looking forward
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Thanks Venki!
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Thanks David!
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Reposted by Jacob Zavatone-Veth
Malcolm Campbell @malcolmgcampbell.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Excited to share that I’ll be joining Columbia's Zuckerman Institute as an assistant professor of neuroscience, starting in September! 🧵
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Tagging a second round of collaborators: @david-g-clark.bsky.social @krotov.bsky.social @binxuwang.bsky.social @chenjiang01.bsky.social @mattyizhenghe.bsky.social Juan Carlos Fernández del Castillo (and yet again many more)
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Thanks David - also many thanks for great collaborations! Looking forward to more to come in New York
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
If you're interested in doing theory work in New York, I will be recruiting for multiple graduate student and postdoctoral positions; please get in touch if interested (at jzavatoneveth@rockefeller.edu), and stay tuned for an official posting.
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Many thanks are due to my mentors and collaborators, including @cpehlevan.bsky.social, @neurovenki.bsky.social, Damon Clark, @dulaclab.bsky.social, @paulmasset.bsky.social, @frostedblakess.bsky.social, @canatara.bsky.social, Alex Atanasov, Farhad Pashakhanloo, @siddjakes.bsky.social, and many others
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Tremendously excited to announce that I will be joining @rockefeller.edu as an Assistant Professor and Head of Lab starting in January 2027! My group will be broadly focused on theoretical neuroscience, and mathematical problems in neural computation in the large.
Rockefeller campus image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rockefeller_University_Campus_aerial_2.jpg, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
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John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Spontaneous problem-solving in bumble bees. Amazing work by the bees who were put in these puzzling situations by @akshayebhambore.bsky.social in the lab of @olliloukola.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Evolution seems to have repeatedly converged on a similar architecture in the early olfactory system of many animals. We offer an efficient-coding framework to understand this. Out in @pnas.org now! Led by @jzv.bsky.social, driven by Juan Carlos, + help from Farhad. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Harvard_MCB @harvardmcb.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Why Evolution Keeps Returning to the Same Solution for Smell 🧠 🧪🧬 #AcademicSky #higherEd www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @neurovenki.bsky.social @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social @pnas.org @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social @jzv.bsky.social @rachellegaudet.bsky.social @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social
mcb.harvard.edu
Why Evolution Keeps Returning to the Same Solution for Smell - Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology
Why do animals as different as insects and mammals process smells in nearly the same way? A new theoretical study published in PNAS takes on this question by […]
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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
🧠👃A new study by #KempnerInstitute associate faculty member Venkatesh Murthy & collaborators shows that maximizing information recreates an olfactory design shared by multiple species. Out now in @pnas.org: bit.ly/4uQ6Omw @neurovenki.bsky.social @jzv.bsky.social #neuroscience
bit.ly
New AI-based Framework Could Explain Why Evolution Gave So Many Species the Same Smell Circuit - Kempner Institute
Why do the smell circuits of flies, mice, and humans look so remarkably alike? A new study from Harvard researchers offers a possible explanation: this shared design may be the […]
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Alexander van Meegen @avm.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Travelling to COSYNE seems to be the perfect opportunity to announce that I started my own lab at RWTH Aachen University earlier this year, funded by NRW's Ministry of Culture and Science through its Return Program. If you are at COSYNE and want to chat please reach out!
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
If you're at #cosyne2026 in Lisbon, come check out Juan Carlos Fernández del Castillo's poster 1-007 tonight, based on our paper on efficient coding in olfaction (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...)!
biorxiv.org
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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
NEW: #Kempner researchers develop a mean-field theory of task-trained RNNs that bridges random and learned connectivity—and find macaque motor cortex is best captured by an intermediate, task-specific recurrent structure. Read the blog post 👇 🔗 bit.ly/47f3Ldl
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David G. Clark @david-g-clark.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
I am totally pumped about this new work . "Task-trained RNNs" are a powerful and influential framework in neuroscience, but have lacked a firm theoretical footing. This work provides one, and makes direct contact with the classical theory of random RNNs: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Indeed, that's a typo - a regrettable artefact of changing z-transform notation. Thanks for catching it!
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Dima Rinberg @dimarinberg.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
How do past sensory experiences prepare us for new ones? Our new paper tackles this long-standing question, revealing a role for activity sequences in the olfactory bulb. Excited to share our work led by @jonvgill.bsky.social with Mursel Karadas & Shy Shoham www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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adamezracohen.bsky.social @adamezracohen.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
What is the computational role of dendritic excitations? Byung Hun Lee and team mapped voltage dynamics throughout the dendritic trees of CA1 pyramidal neurons in mice navigating in virtual reality. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Andrew Straw @andrewstraw.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Have you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too! preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵 Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/9
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Paul Masset @paulmasset.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
First paper from the lab! We propose a model that separates estimation of odor concentration and presence and map it on olfactory bulb circuits Led by @chenjiang01.bsky.social and @mattyizhenghe.bsky.social joint work with @jzv.bsky.social and with @neurovenki.bsky.social @cpehlevan.bsky.social
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Happy to see this long-in-the-making collaboration with @paulmasset.bsky.social out on bioRxiv!
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bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Simultaneous detection and estimation in olfactory sensing www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
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David G. Clark @david-g-clark.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Now in PRX: Theory linking connectivity structure to collective activity in nonlinear RNNs! For neuro fans: conn. structure can be invisible in single neurons but shape pop. activity For low-rank RNN fans: a theory of rank=O(N) For physics fans: fluctuations around DMFT saddle⇒dimension of activity
journals.aps.org
Connectivity Structure and Dynamics of Nonlinear Recurrent Neural Networks
The structure of brain connectivity predicts collective neural activity, with a small number of connectivity features determining activity dimensionality, linking circuit architecture to network-level...
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Paul Gribble 🇨🇦 @gribblelab.org · 05/09/2025
This week's sensorimotor superlab reading list is out superlab.ca/posts/2025-09-05-list30… @andpru.bsky.social @diedrichsenjorn.bsky.social @gribblelab.org #neuroskyence #psychscisky #Sensorimotor
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
...it's now published, as part of a special issue organized by Harvard neuro colleagues Takao Hensch and Kenny Blum: www.frontiersin.org/journals/neu... (2/2)
frontiersin.org
Frontiers | Summary statistics of learning link changing neural representations to behavior
How can we make sense of large-scale recordings of neural activity across learning? Theories of neural network learning with their origins in statistical phy...
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Since I'm back on BlueSky - with @frostedblakess.bsky.social and @cpehlevan.bsky.social we wrote a brief perspective on how ideas about summary statistics from the statistical physics of learning could potentially help inform neural data analysis... (1/2)
frontiersin.org
Frontiers | Summary statistics of learning link changing neural representations to behavior
How can we make sense of large-scale recordings of neural activity across learning? Theories of neural network learning with their origins in statistical phy...
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Jacob Zavatone-Veth @jzv.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Happy to see this collaboration with @neurovenki.bsky.social out - featuring great work by Juan Carlos!
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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Excited to share new computational work, led by @jzv.bsky.social, driven by Juan Carlos Fernandez del Castillo + contribution from Farhad Pashakanloo. We recover 3 core motifs in the olfactory system of evolutionarily distant animals using a biophysically-grounded model + efficient coding ideas!
biorxiv.org
Convergent motifs of early olfactory processing are recapitulated by layer-wise efficient coding
The architecture of early olfactory processing is a striking example of convergent evolution. Typically, a panel of broadly tuned receptors is selectively expressed in sensory neurons (each neuron exp...
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Siddharth Jayakumar @siddjakes.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Excited to share our latest!! Thanks to everyone involved especially @neurovenki.bsky.social!
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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Thrilled to share this work, long time in the making! Carried through creatively by @siddjakes.bsky.social after initial design & piloting by @trackingskills.bsky.social, with help from @trackingactions.bsky.social. Modeling in collaboration with Massimo Vergassola & Nicola Rigolli.
biorxiv.org
Mice navigate scent trails using predictive policies
Animals actively sense their environment to extract features of interest to guide behaviors. For mammals, odors are prominent environmental features which are sampled by active modulation of sniffing ...
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Paul Masset @paulmasset.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Our work with Pablo Tano, @hyunggoo-kim.bsky.social Athar Malik, Alexandre Pouget and @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social exploring how dopamine neurons could enable multi-timescale reinforcement learning in the brain is out in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Multi-timescale reinforcement learning in the brain - Nature
Individual dopaminergic neurons encode future rewards over distinct temporal horizons.
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Paul Masset @paulmasset.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Don't miss our #Cosyne2025 poster (3-128) 'Simultaneous detection and mapping in the olfactory bulb' proposing a new computational role for mitral and tufted cells in the olfactory bulb with Matthew He, @chenjiang01.bsky.social @neurovenki.bsky.social @cpehlevan.bsky.social @jzv.bsky.social
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