iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Thanks a lot! Glad you find it interesting!

Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

8/n This work would not have been possible without many hours of discussions with the amazing Albert Compte and the fantastic @jbarbosa.org, the great collaboration with Matt Smith and the hard work from Akash Umakantha and Ryan Williamson. For more details, check out the article or message me!😊

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

7/n But why is this useful? Let's think in terms of hard drives: If you have enough space (below capacity), a redundant backup is useful. However, if you run out of space, you'd prioritize new information over backups. Similarly, it can be useful for hemispheres to flexibly adapt to storage demands!

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

6/n We tested whether we could observe this shift in human behavior in a multi-item task. Indeed, memories were more distracted by items in the same hemifield at high loads, but not at low loads, consistent with a flexible storage strategy that adapts to changing cognitive demands.

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

5/n This got us thinking: If redundant hemispheres can be independently activated, could they shift between being “redundant” and “specialized”? When we pushed the model to capacity (with weak stimulus lateralization), we indeed observed a shift towards hemispheric specialization.

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

4/n We implemented a two-area, redundant attractor network and replicated the findings. The model further predicted that history effects (serial dependence) can remain private in each area if hemispheres are independently activated. A finding that we replicated in the data.

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

3/n We analyzed simultaneous bilateral recordings in macaque PFC and found that both hemispheres stored items simultaneously and equally guided behavioral errors. At the same time, errors were only weakly correlated across hemispheres. Overall, this suggested redundant, weakly coupled hemispheres.

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

2/n Recent evidence repeatedly suggests two opposing models of hemispheric organization: A "specialized" model where each hemisphere mostly stores contralateral information and a "redundant" one, where both hemispheres store information across the full visual field. But how can both things be true?

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Our paper "Redundant prefrontal hemispheres adapt storage strategy to working memory demands" is finally out in Nature Communications! We combined bilateral PFC recordings, modeling and human data to ask: How do the hemispheres work together to store information?1/n www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Redundant prefrontal hemispheres adapt storage strategy to working memory demands - Nature Communications

Neural mechanisms underlying spatial working memory are not fully understood. In this manuscript, simultaneous bilateral monkey recordings and attractor networks show how weakly coupled, redundant pre...

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Balma Serrano Porcar @balmaserrano.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

I am very excited to share my first preprint🎉 The pandemic kicked off strongly during the first year of my PhD, and I had to stop the behavioral experiments when mice were starting to understand the task. At the BCB Lab, this showed us that training automation could be a real game changer (🧵1/10)

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Anne Urai @anne-urai.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Fresh out: a short review article where I give an overview of different ways that across-trial temporal structure is helpful in understanding cognitive models of decision-making osf.io/preprints/ps...

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Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 18/02/2025

For everyone voting in Germany this Sunday: Check out this thread to learn about the different political parties' positions on science communication

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Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

UPDATE: It's happening now. German police entered the new venue to break up our meeting with Francesca Albanese and Amnesty International. The miss no chance to prove that totalitarianism is back in Germany even before the AfD has won gvt

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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

This Cybertruck did not crash. It made a heartfelt and perhaps ill-advised gesture that, in the moment, might have been misinterpreted as a crash, but we should not rush to judgement.

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Thank you so much, Seán! It's been a long time in the making but finally getting somewhere!

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Joao Barbosa @jbarbosa.org · 20/01/2025

Thanks to the yield of U arrays, we were able for the 1st time AFAIK to average across neurons (not trials) and see memory bumps on single trials. Look at this 😍 Not the focus of the work but it taps into an open debate on the neural mech. of WM cf @cconstan.bsky.social @earlkmiller.bsky.social

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

🗯️Taken together, this shows that prefrontal hemispheres can adjust to varying task demands with a simple underlying architecture! If you're interested in more details, check out the preprint or send me a message! Also a HUGE shout-out to everyone involved.It's been (and will continue) fun!🎉 END/🧵

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Well... turns out REDUNDANT hemispheres can also replicate this effect!! So it seems that redundant, weakly connected hemispheres can provide increased precision (redundancy) when WM demands are low and increased capacity (weak connections) when WM demands are high. 7/🧵

media.tenor.com

a man is making a funny face while holding his finger to his head .

ALT: a man is making a funny face while holding his finger to his head .

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

When inputs were slightly lateralized, the model showed that each hemisphere stores the stronger contra- over a weaker ipsilateral input when WM capacity is reached. Remember from 2/ where I said the bilateral field advantage was seen as evidence for non-redundant, independent hemispheres?? 6/🧵

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

This got us thinking: This model can represent the same memory redundantly, but also maintains history drift privately, allowing for private and shared memories. What does this mean when multiple items need to be remembered?🤔 5/🧵

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

we modeled two redundant spiking bump attractor networks with inter-area connections and replicated the data if connections were tuned and weak. Furthermore, 🖥️model + 🐒data were in agreement that weak connections lead to private history attraction (serial dependence) in each hemisphere. 4/🧵

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

We first found that both hemispheres stored (bump-like FR in the figure) and guided behavior for the full visual field suggesting redundant hemispheres. Additionally, neural traces were only weakly correlated across hemispheres suggesting weak coordination between hemispheres... 3/🧵

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

How do prefrontal hemispheres support continuous spatial WM when visual inputs come strongly lateralized?🤔 Previous studies suggest: 1️⃣ Independent hemispheres:Larger capacity across hemifields (bilateral field advantage)? 2️⃣ Redundant hemispheres:Unilateral opto-disruption doesn’t impair behavior?2/🧵

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

🚨Excited to share my first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social🚨 with the amazing Smith lab, @jbarbosa.org and Albert Compte who made this work possible. We show that 🐒prefrontal hemispheres combine redundancy (for precision) & weak connections (for capacity) for supporting spatial working memory (WM). 1/🧵

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bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Redundant, weakly connected prefrontal hemispheres balance precision and capacity in spatial working memory www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…

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Joao Barbosa @jbarbosa.org · 19/01/2025

Thrilled to share my first co-last author paper 🥹 Lead by the amazing @mtschiersch.bsky.social 👸, we investigate how both 🐒PFC interact during working memory. Her work sheds light into WM mechanisms by reconciling previous contradictions. Tune in for 🐒WM, serial dependence and attractor models

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

good luck! Tagesschau says they are sceptical it will even arrive at all... but fingers crossed!

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

German's living abroad, we've got until the 2nd of February to register for the elections but it might still be tight that our votes count in the end. Anyways... better safe than sorry, so register at your last Meldestelle:)

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Andreas Geiger @andreasgeiger.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Excited to share that today our paper recommender platform www.scholar-inbox.com has reached 20k users! We hope to reach 100k by the end of the year.. Lots of new features are being worked on currently and rolled out soon.

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Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 16/01/2025

About 5 weeks between now and German parliamentary elections. And I'm seeing the exact same dynamics here that recently murdered what was left of US democracy. 3 things to watch out for: 1/5

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Joao Barbosa @jbarbosa.org · 12/01/2025

Check our latest in which we leverage shape metrics to compare neural geometry across regions, sessions or subjects and how their differences predict behavior. w/ Nejatbakhsh, Duong, @sarah-harvey.bsky.social, Brincat, @siegellab.bsky.social, @earlkmiller.bsky.social & @itsneuronal.bsky.social

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Spanish Revolution @spanishrevolution.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

🌍 El 1% más rico devora “su parte” del planeta en solo 10 días spanishrevolution.net/el-1-mas-rico… Un análisis sobre cómo el 1% más rico contribuye al colapso climático sin asumir las consecuencias, mientras el resto lucha por sobrevivir.

spanishrevolution.net

El 1% más rico devora "su parte" del planeta en solo 10 días

Mientras la mayoría lucha por sobrevivir, los más privilegiados aceleran el colapso climático sin pagar las consecuencias.

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Dorothy Bishop @deevybee.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Wow, just wow. V different approach reveals numerous problems in Scientific Reports - cf deevybee.blogspot.com/2024/10/an-o... I do hope @springernature.bsky.social will start to publish reviewer reports and editor info as we suggested

deevybee.blogspot.com

An open letter regarding Scientific Reports

16th October 2024 to: Mr Chris Graf Research Integrity Director, Springer Nature and Chair Elect of the World Conference...

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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

A reminder to the Germans living abroad: It's time to register to vote for the next elections. You just need to send this document to your last Meldestelle so they can send you the voting equipment when it's time:) www.bundeswahlleiterin.de/mitteilungen...

bundeswahlleiterin.de

Bundestagswahl 2025: Antragsformular für Deutsche im Ausland - Die Bundeswahlleiterin

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Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · 02/12/2024

Would you like to see @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social add a share to blue sky button?! I know I would! Share this post to let @richardsever.bsky.social @erictopol.bsky.social and others at bioarxiv know!

A screenshot of a paper on bioarxiv illustrating the lack of blue sky share button!

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Scientist Rebellion @scientistrebellion.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

"This will make it likely that the limit of 1.5C will be surpass in this century". In Germany, scientists are publicly reading the @ipcc.bsky.social AR6 synthesis report at @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social . You can contact your local group to organize a reading.

A scientist in a labcoat reading the IPCC report

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Joao Barbosa @jbarbosa.org · 22/11/2024

Since no one did it, here is a list of people doing research on working memory. The list is admittedly biased (based on the people I follow), so please help: don't hesitate to let me know of someone missing. I will happily follow and add them to the list! Please RT🙏 go.bsky.app/8ZsVgMo

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