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Paul Masset

@paulmasset.bsky.social
4K followers 1.2K following 41 posts

Assistant Professor, McGill University | Associate Academic Member, Mila - Quebec AI Institute | Neuroscience and AI, learning and inference, dopamine and cognition massetlab.org

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Reposted by Paul Masset
W. Brent Derry @wbderry.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Faculty position at the University of Toronto 👇 jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...
jobs.utoronto.ca
Assistant Professor - Systems Neurophysiology
Assistant Professor - Systems Neurophysiology
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Sandra Romero Pinto @sromeropinto.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Happy to have this finally out! TL;DR: The evolution of beliefs over time can be formulated as a dynamical system, and OFC neural activity appears to implement this system with its own dynamics. These emerge without explicit supervision—when animals learn to predict value in simple Pavlovian tasks
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Mitchell Ostrow @neurostrow.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Very excited to announce our most recent paper! TL;DR we made our prior work on comparing dynamics (DSA) much faster and generalizable to diverse data domains and problem settings (1/)
biorxiv.org
A metric for comparing complex systems by their dynamics
Comparisons are fundamental to science: experiment against model, one organism against another, a system against itself across time. Because many systems, from brains to climate, are characterized by ...
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Steve Fleming @smfleming.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
📖 New review out today in @natrevneuro.nature.com: Towards an integrative neuroscience of metacognition 🧠🧪 Full-text link to the paper is here: rdcu.be/9YK3mF7dYhFa
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Jeremiah Cohen @jeremiahycohen.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Happy to share the version of record of our locus coeruleus paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Prior thread on some of our discoveries in this study: bsky.app/profile/jere...
nature.com
Topographic structure and function of locus coeruleus noradrenaline neurons - Nature
Dorsal and ventral noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus form topographic subpopulations whose projection patterns and activity encode choice switching, reward-prediction errors and disregard o...
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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Faculty Job Alert 📣! The Life Sciences Departments in Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences seek to recruit a tenure-track professor whose research is at the interface of AI and life sciences, from methodological developments to AI-enabled discovery. Please spread the word!
academicpositions.harvard.edu
Tenure-Track Professor in Life Science and AI
The Life Sciences Departments in Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences seek to recruit a tenure-track professor whose research is at the interface of AI and life sciences, from methodological developme...
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Anna Weinberg @annaweinberg.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
📣 *Two* tenure-track Assistant Prof jobs in @mcgillpsych.bsky.social! 🧠 Developmental Psychology 🧩 Child Clinical Psychology Great colleagues/department, strong interdisciplinary ties (MUHC, The Neuro), in a city worth moving for. Apply within 40 days—please spread the word! Links in thread:
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COSYNE @cosynemeeting.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
📢Have work to share with the computational and systems neuroscience community? Abstract submissions for #COSYNE2027 are now open. Deadline: 18 October 2026, 11:59 p.m. AoE Submit your abstract: www.cosyne.org/abstracts-su... #Neuroscience
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Reyes-Lamothe lab @reyes-lab.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
We’re hiring! The Biology department at McGill is hiring a tenure-track professor in Quantitative Cell Biology. We’re looking for an outstanding researcher and educator to join our community. Deadline: October 9 Info & application: mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/McGill_Caree... Please share!
mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com
Assistant Professor in Quantitative Cell Biology - Department of Biology
Please refer to the How to Apply for a Job (for External Candidates) job aid for instructions on how to apply. If you are an active McGill employee (ie: currently in an active contract or position at ...
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Dan Goodman @neural-reckoning.org · 03/09/2026
#SpikingNeuralNetwork people - this year's SNUFA workshop is live! Talks by: ⭐ Eugene Izhikevich ⭐ @giuliadangelo.bsky.social ⭐ Mihai Petrovici ⭐ Susanne Schreiber Submit your abstracts by Sept 25th. Registration is open! More info at: snufa.net/2026/ cc @fzenke.bsky.social @albada.bsky.social
Picture of the SNUFA spiky hedgehog
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Arkarup Banerjee @arkarupbanerjee.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Apply to be our colleague 👇🏽
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Lauren Burgeno @laurenburgeno.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
🚨 New Walton × Bogacz Collab Preprint! POV: dopamine refuses to have just one job.🧠 DLS dopamine carries distinct reward AND action prediction errors — parallel teaching signals that could support value learning and habit formation. Enjoyed working with Yuhao, Juan Carlos, et al. on this one!
doi.org
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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
This work is now published in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social! Thanks to co-authors H McCalmon, G Cai, C Tsibouris, @noehamou.bsky.social, J Hoskins, F Pashakhanloo, @sueyeonchung.bsky.social and V Kapoor.
cell.com
Sparse input representations explain odor discrimination in complex, concentration-varying mixtures
Detecting a target odor against complex backgrounds requires separating signal from interference. McCalmon et al. show that discrimination performance depends on target odor concentration but not back...
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Vincent Breton-Provencher @handle.invalid · 17/08/2026
Happy to share this new paper from the lab. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Region-specific weighting of sensory intensity and reward prediction error by dopamine signals
Growing evidence shows that dopamine signaling is diverse, with dopaminergic neurons responding to rewarding and aversive stimuli. Here, we hypothesiz…
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Jeremy Day @daylab.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Very cool paper systematically characterizing dopamine neuron development and striatal arborization in the mouse brain. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Single-neuron resolution mapping of dopaminergic connectivity across development, adulthood, and degeneration
Individual midbrain dopamine (mDA) neurons exhibit complex morphologies, a feature that may underlie their different functions and disease vulnerabili…
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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Our paper on olfactory evidence accumulation is now officially published with the final clean version! With @luxorboero.bsky.social, Hao Wu, @josephdzak.bsky.social, @paulmasset.bsky.social, Farhad Pashakhanloo, @siddjakes.bsky.social, @btolooshams.bsky.social & Demba Ba.
nature.com
Perception and neural representation of intermittent odor stimuli in mice - Nature Communications
Animals navigate odor plumes by exploiting dynamic and intermittent cues. Here, the authors show that mice can discriminate among different fluctuating odor signals, and characterize their neural enco...
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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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Rui Ponte Costa @somnirons.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Our latest story is finally in preprint! 🧠✨ How does the brain solve the (hierarchical) credit assignment problem efficiently? Cell-type-specific cortical feedback holds the key, closely approximating backprop. Paper: doi.org/10.64898/202...
doi.org
Cell-type-specific cortical feedback coordinates hierarchical credit assignment
Learning is thought to arise from synaptic modifications embedded in brain-wide circuits, yet how such circuits coordinate plasticity to support complex behaviour is not known. Inspired by deep learni...
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Caswell Barry @caswell.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Job klaxon 📣 UCL is hiring two NeuroAI / computational neuroscience specialists (Lecturer or Associate Prof) — a big part of the new NeuroAI centre we're growing in Biosciences. Do consider applying if it's relevant to you. JD & details: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRX021 Happy to take questions.
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Monosov Lab @monosovlab.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
New beautiful normative/theory paper from Ethan Bromberg-Martin with Josh Merel Why are we curious? What is the origin of our non instrumental seeming information preference? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Why do we seek information about the future? On the origins of subjective value without instrumental value
Why do we want to know the future? Humans and many animals pay for information to predict uncertain rewards, even when they cannot control them. The reason for this conserved yet seemingly paradoxical...
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Mark D Humphries @markdhumphries.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
A huge thank you to the GNT’s founders, Boris Gutkin and Sophie Deneve, and its co-leads over the years, Christian Machens, Srdjan Ostojic, and Alex Cayco Gajic. Here’s to another 20 years!
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Arkarup Banerjee @arkarupbanerjee.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Really excited to see this in print!
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Friedemann Zenke @fzenke.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
1/7 New paper accepted as ICML spotlight arxiv.org/abs/2605.03517! We unify self-supervised learning (SSL) algorithms (e.g., contrastive, VICReg, stopgrad) via latent distribution matching (LDM), which matches an induced latent distribution to an explicit latent model.
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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Our work on the perception of intermittent odor stimuli out in @natcomms.nature.com! Led by @luxorboero.bsky.social & former grad student Hao Wu; key contributions from @btolooshams.bsky.social, @siddjakes.bsky.social, @paulmasset.bsky.social, @josephdzak.bsky.social, Farhad Pashakhanloo, Demba Ba.
nature.com
Perception and neural representation of intermittent odor stimuli in mice - Nature Communications
Animals navigate odor plumes by exploiting dynamic and intermittent cues. Here, the authors show that mice can discriminate among different fluctuating odor signals, and characterize their neural enco...
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Dima Rinberg @dimarinberg.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
When it comes to sensory processing, cortex should not get all the credit... In olfaction, a key challenge is identifying odors regardless of concentration. Our new paper in @natneuro.nature.com shows how the olfactory bulb performs this crucial computation before signals even reach the cortex.
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Jeremiah Cohen @jeremiahycohen.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Delighted to share our discoveries about one of the brain's neurotransmitter systems: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Together with colleagues at the @alleninstitute.org, we have learned a lot about a tiny cluster of neurons in the brainstem locus coeruleus (LC) that releases norepinephrine (NE). 1
biorxiv.org
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IVADO @ivado.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
🌐 IVADO’s largest research mission to the US: a delegation of around 30 AI researchers strengthened collaborations with @princeton.edu, @columbiauniversity.bsky.social , @newyorkuniversity.bsky.social, and @cornelltech.bsky.social. #Research #Innovation #Collaboration #R3AI
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Constantinople lab @constantinoplelab.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Thrilled to share our new paper, which shows that the relative timing of cholinergic and dopamine release dynamically gates whether dopamine acts as an RPE for in vivo plasticity and reinforcement learning. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Acetylcholine demixes heterogeneous dopamine signals for learning and moving
Nature Neuroscience - Jang et al. measured dopamine and acetylcholine release in the striatum of rats performing a decision-making task and found that the relative timing of cholinergic and...
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Alex Williams @itsneuronal.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Cosyne invited me to give a long tutorial (4 hours!) on methods to quantify differences high-d neural recordings across animals, brain regions, deep neural nets, etc. The recording is up on youtube. I hope it inspires more research on this fundamental topic! www.youtube.com/watch?v=n44x...
youtube.com
Cosyne 2026 - Cosyne Tutorial: Comparative Analysis of Neural Population Codes
YouTube video by Cosyne Talks
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Paul Masset @paulmasset.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
The lab will be presenting two posters at #cosyne2026 #cosyne26 on dopamine-based distributed RL and hippocampal coding from a population-geometry perspective! @zijingwu.bsky.social @chenjiang01.bsky.social #compneurosky #neuroskyence
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Matt Perich @mattperich.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
New paper hot off the (pre-)press! We dig into the evolutionary origins of neural computations for behavioral control across mice, monkeys, and humans: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6.... As our lab's first foray into comparative analysis of neural dynamics, I’m super excited about this work! 1/18
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Canadian Association for Neuroscience @canacn.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Read CAN President Douglas Zochodne's letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney highlighting the importance of Neuroscience research and the CIHR Project Grant shortfalls. can-acn.org/read-our-let...
can-acn.org
Read our letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney – Canadian Association for Neuroscience
Canadian Association for Neuroscience
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Dinu F Albeanu @dinanthos.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Join us at TENSS 2026 to open black boxes, explain how things/brains work and debate the impact (or lack or it) of various new technologies on understanding of the brain and on society. tenss.ro Apply by: March 15th!
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Taylor W. Killian @twkillian.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
We're thrilled to share that the Call for Workshops for this year's @rl-conference.bsky.social is now live! As Workshop co-chair (alongside the wonderful Raksha Kumaraswamy and @claireve.bsky.social) we are looking forward to seeing the proposals for workshops that we receive. LINK IN NEXT POST
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Adrien Peyrache @apeyrache.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
New paper alert! 🚨 We found that the brain's compass is remarkably stable at two scales 1️⃣ the system maintains its internal organization for weeks 2️⃣ It "remembers" its orientation for weeks, even after a single visit This may be key to how the brain aligns its other maps. Paper: rdcu.be/e3waP
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SueYeon Chung @sueyeonchung.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Our paper is out in @natneuro.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s41... We develop a geometric theory of how neural populations support generalization across many tasks. @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social @flatironinstitute.org @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social 1/14
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Joao Barbosa @jbarbosa.org · 27/01/2026
Postdoc position in Paris: come help develop new generation human brain computer interfaces ⚡🧠💻 Interested? Contact me if you have experience with machine learning (e.g. simulation-based inference, RL, generative/diffusion models) or dynamical systems. See below for + details and retweet 🙏
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Jean-Baptiste André @jbaptistandre.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
1/ 📢 Come study cognitive science in Paris! The Master’s program in Cognitive Science at @ENS_ULM, @psl_univ, and @EHESS_fr is now accepting applications for the next academic year. 🗓 Deadline: February 24, 2026 💻 Apply here: master-cognitive-science.ens.psl.eu/en/applicati...
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Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Preprints of pandemic potential - new historical piece from me on the history of bioRxiv/medRxiv, their role in the pandemic, and the way forward. 1/n journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
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Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
12 out of 10 stars. would recommend
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Mark Brandon @markbrandonlab.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
I’m very happy to share the latest from my lab published in @Nature Hippocampal neurons that initially encode reward shift their tuning over the course of days to precede or predict reward. Full text here: rdcu.be/eY5nh
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Sam Gershman @gershbrain.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world: gershmanlab.com/textbook.html It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class. My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
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Guillaume Lajoie @glajoie.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
When we learn complex tasks, we chunk them into sub-tasks that our brains orchestrate into action sequences. How we do this is not entirely understood. This work explores how to learn and internally control temporally abstracted sub-tasks in RL/AI with sequence models. arxiv.org/abs/2512.20605
arxiv.org
Emergent temporal abstractions in autoregressive models enable hierarchical reinforcement learning
Large-scale autoregressive models pretrained on next-token prediction and finetuned with reinforcement learning (RL) have achieved unprecedented success on many problem domains. During RL, these model...
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Jesse Geerts @jessegeerts.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
🧠 New year, new preprint! Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Richard Gast @rgast.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
At the Bernstein Conference 2024, Jeremie Lefebvre and I organized a workshop on the computational consequences of neural heterogeneity. Now, slightly more than a year later, we funneled the emerging discussions into a perspective piece: www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
cell.com
How heterogeneity shapes dynamics and computation in the brain
No two neurons are the same, yet models often treat neural populations as pools of identical and interchangeable elements. Here, Dahmen et al. highlight recent theoretical advances that reveal the imp...
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Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
The RLC call for papers is out! A last minute bit of excitement before the holidays. Come join us at the conference every RL researcher complains about missing
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McGill University @handle.invalid · 18/12/2025
McGill is recruiting top-tier researchers working abroad through the federally funded Canada Impact+ Research Chairs program, addressing global and national challenges. The first round is due in early 2026. Learn more and submit your candidacy: mcgill.ca/x/5Zh
McGill’s Arts Building on campus, featuring its stone façade and green dome, with the McGill flag raised and autumn foliage surrounding the building.
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Andrew Pruszynski @andpru.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
If you're (1) into nhp neurophysiology and/or biological motor control, (2) a foreign big shot and (3) interested in moving here, please reach out -- this new program looks extremely attractive (min. $8M over 8y)! www.uwo.ca/research/can...
uwo.ca
Canada-Impact-Plus - Research - Western University
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Karim Jerbi @karimjerbi.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Montreal AI & Neuroscience 2025 started this morning! 🧠X🤖 www.main2025.org #MAIN2025 #NeuroAI #Neuroscience #AI
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The Viking (Gunnar Blohm) @gunnarblohm.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
📣We have 2 open faculty positions for senior researchers in Neuroscience at Queen's University! healthsci.queensu.ca/administrati... 1. a new Director for our Centre for Neuroscience Studies 2. a non-human primate NeuroAI researcher Please share widely and reach out for questions!
healthsci.queensu.ca
Administrative Opportunities
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