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Ryan Smith

@rssmith.bsky.social
433 followers 218 following 70 posts

Associate Professor at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research. My lab focuses on computational neuroscience and psychiatry, emotion-cognition interactions, prospective planning, exploration, and interoception.

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Ryan Smith @rssmith.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Congratulations to Ko-Ping Chou and Navid Hakimi on their new paper doing a formal, extensive empirical comparison of reinforcement learning and active inference in fitting/explaining behavior on a 3-armed bandit task in transdiagnostic and healthy samples (authors.elsevier.com/c/1nboy53nb3...).
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Ruofan Ma @maruofan.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Very delightful to see on my hunt for better ways to model interoception. @rssmith.bsky.social #CPC2026
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Ryan Smith @rssmith.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
This is a new paper testing Bayesian computational mechanisms of improvements in cardiac interoception due to a training program developed by @sarahgarf.bsky.social and colleagues. Led by a very talented grad student @chatrins.bsky.social (www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...)
sciencedirect.com
A hierarchical Bayesian model reveals increased precision weighting for afferent cardiac signals, and reduced anxiety, as a function of interoceptive training
Interoceptive interventions offer a promising avenue for improving mental health conditions, which commonly feature bodily or interoceptive symptoms. …
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Ryan Smith @rssmith.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Congrats to Navid on his new paper in Molecular Psychiatry! Computational modeling found that learning rates and uncertainty sensitivity could distinguish between affective disorders and substance use disorders. Forgetting rate was instead affected transdiagnostically. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Computational mechanisms of learning and forgetting differentiate affective and substance use disorders - Molecular Psychiatry
Molecular Psychiatry - Computational mechanisms of learning and forgetting differentiate affective and substance use disorders
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Andreea Diaconescu @cognemo.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
We’re bringing computational psychiatry to #ACNP2026 Our panel shows how RL, DDMs, active inference, and neural models can unpack symptom heterogeneity across anxiety, psychosis, ADHD, depression, and suicide risk-moving beyond diagnoses to mechanisms. @acnporg.bsky.social #ComputationalPsychiatry
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Humanities & Social Sciences @hss.springernature.com · 22/12/2025
🧠📈 How can computational models help decode interoception in #MentalHealth? This chapter explores how sensing the body’s internal signals links to psychiatric disorders— how computational psychiatry may unlock new treatment targets. bit.ly/4p8wjLE @rssmith.bsky.social @mpwpaulus.bsky.social
Perceptual Dysregulation in Psychiatric Nosology
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LuvLifts @weluvmike.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
This is ‘Really’ FUTURISTIC!! #MentalHealth I would be Soo ‘Honored’ to Help in anyway EvenIF ‘That way’ is By SHARING these Advancements!!! @rssmith.bsky.social @mpwpaulus.bsky.social
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Center for Computational Psychiatry @sinaiccp.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
📣We are excited to welcome @rssmith.bsky.social for our next CCP Speaker Series talk! Join us TODAY, November 21st, at 1pm EDT Register HERE for the Zoom Link 👉https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfA-SAlxM8jP0D9V-tu_fMEK_SeFzhN7HrnG9lrBM8V3UInGA/viewform?usp=header
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Franziska Knolle @franziskaknolle.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Very excited to be attending #IWAI2025 in Montreal🍁 organised by David Benrimoh!! already heard some great talks by @rssmith.bsky.social and team 🧠💡
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Sahib Khalsa @skhalsa.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Even after recovery, relapse is heartbreakingly common in anorexia nervosa. Could the answer lie in the gut’s hidden signals? 🧵
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Ryan Smith @rssmith.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Big congrats to Marishka on this. I know how much time and effort went into it. Really happy to see it out! For those interested, she replicated prior longitudinal results using an approach-avoidance conflict task and showed how model parameters afforded out-of-sample clinical prediction.
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Ryan Smith @rssmith.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
Agreed. The video examples are super interesting. I wish the questions were asked in a more controlled way, but I can’t fault for some limitations of this rarely possible type of work. It seemed quite somatic and abrupt. No spontaneous descriptions of emotion proper either. Only when given a word.
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Communications Psychology @commspsychol.nature.com · 10/06/2025
Computational modeling revealed that individuals with methamphetamine use disorder show reduced information-seeking and slower belief updating when trying to maximize long-term reward. @torutakahashi.bsky.social @rssmith.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s44...
nature.com
Individuals with methamphetamine use disorder show reduced directed exploration and learning rates independent of an aversive interoceptive state induction - Communications Psychology
Computational modeling revealed that individuals with methamphetamine use disorder show reduced information-seeking and slower belief-updating when trying to maximize long-term reward. This might crea...
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Ryan Smith @rssmith.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Congratulations to @torutakahashi.bsky.social and Carter Goldman on their newly published paper! This paper shows that individuals with methamphetamine use disorder show reduced directed exploration and slower dynamic learning rates in both high/low anxiety states www.nature.com/articles/s44...
nature.com
Individuals with methamphetamine use disorder show reduced directed exploration and learning rates independent of an aversive interoceptive state induction - Communications Psychology
Computational modeling revealed that individuals with methamphetamine use disorder show reduced information-seeking and slower belief-updating when trying to maximize long-term reward. This might crea...
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Nadine Dijkstra @nadinedijkstra.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
I am so excited to share that our paper 'A neural basis for distinguishing imagination from reality' is now published in @cp-neuron.bsky.social! 🧠✨ See thread below! doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
doi.org
Redirecting
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Jon Roiser @jonroiser.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
this is excellent - congratulations! In particular nice to see the very robust basic pruning behavioural effect replicate in this version of the task (originally designed for the scanner). It seems that pruning may end up being more relevant to SUD than MDD, @docqhuys.bsky.social!
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Quentin Huys @docqhuys.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Thank you @clairelavalley.bsky.social and @rssmith.bsky.social. Striking to see aversive pruning altered in people with methamphetamine use, particularly given the results in depression (dx.doi.org/10.1017/S003...).
dx.doi.org
A comparison of ‘pruning’ during multi-step planning in depressed and healthy individuals | Psychological Medicine | Cambridge Core
A comparison of ‘pruning’ during multi-step planning in depressed and healthy individuals - Volume 52 Issue 16
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Ryan Smith @rssmith.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
Huge congrats to @clairelavalley.bsky.social on this new paper. www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Results show that methamphetamine users show a specific deficit in model-based planning, in which they fail to simulate plans with large short-term losses (elevated aversive pruning). Brief thread below!
nature.com
Computational mechanisms underlying multi-step planning deficits in methamphetamine use disorder - Translational Psychiatry
Translational Psychiatry - Computational mechanisms underlying multi-step planning deficits in methamphetamine use disorder
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Ryan Smith @rssmith.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Congratulations to co-first author @clairelavalley.bsky.social on validating this new performance-based measure of social emotion regulation ability: emotionandpsychopathology.org/journal/arti... In psychopathology, this may be crucial for maintaining social support. We hope others find it useful!
emotionandpsychopathology.org
The Inter-Personal Affect Regulation Test (IPART): Development and Validation of a Performance-Based Assessment of the Ability to Improve the Emotions of Others | Journal of Emotion and Psyc...
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Ryan Smith @rssmith.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Very excited to congratulate Ning Li and @clairelavalley.bsky.social on their new paper published in Molecular Psychiatry. "Directed exploration is reduced by an aversive interoceptive state induction in healthy individuals but not in those with affective disorders" (nature.com/articles/s41...) 🧵👇
nature.com
Directed exploration is reduced by an aversive interoceptive state induction in healthy individuals but not in those with affective disorders - Molecular Psychiatry
Molecular Psychiatry - Directed exploration is reduced by an aversive interoceptive state induction in healthy individuals but not in those with affective disorders
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Julie Charlton @juliecharlton.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Out today in PNAS! We asked how Bayesian inference is implemented in macaque prefrontal cortex www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Bayesian inference by visuomotor neurons in the prefrontal cortex | PNAS
Perceptual judgments of the environment emerge from the concerted activity of neural populations in decision-making areas downstream of the sensory...
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Ryan Smith @rssmith.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Reinforcement Learning and Active Inference are two frameworks used in computational psychiatry, but these are rarely directly compared empirically. In this new article, we aimed to compare these in a more systematic manner by fitting each to multiple datasets: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
A Systematic Empirical Comparison of Active Inference and Reinforcement Learning Models in Accounting for Decision-Making Under Uncertainty
Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Active Inference (AInf) are related computational frameworks for modeling learning and choice under uncertainty. However, differ
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Charles Verdonk @ch-verdonk.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
I'm excited to attend the #ECNP Workshop on Applied Neuroscience and present our findings on markers of abnormal gastrointestinal interoception predicting relapse in anorexia nervosa. Catch Poster P107 on Thursday, March 20, & my oral presentation on Friday, March 21, at 9:10 AM
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Ryan Smith @rssmith.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Congrats to Marishka Mehta on her new chapter! She did a great job summarizing the current state of the field and important future directions. link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... "Computational Approaches for Uncovering Interoceptive Mechanisms in Psychiatric Disorders and Their Biological Basis"
link.springer.com
Computational Approaches for Uncovering Interoceptive Mechanisms in Psychiatric Disorders and Their Biological Basis
Interoception, the process of detecting, perceiving, and interpreting signals from within the body, is essential for physiological regulation and adaptive behavior. A growing body of research undersco...
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Ryan Smith @rssmith.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Excited to congratulate Marishka Mehta on her new preprint (www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...) combining modeling, machine learning, and longitudinal clinical data. "Computational Mechanisms of Approach-Avoidance Conflict Predictively Differentiate Between Affective and Substance Use Disorders"
medrxiv.org
Computational Mechanisms of Approach-Avoidance Conflict Predictively Differentiate Between Affective and Substance Use Disorders
Psychiatric disorders are highly heterogeneous and often co-morbid, posing specific challenges for effective treatment. Recently, computational modeling has emerged as a promising approach for charact...
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Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · 10/01/2025
@rssmith.bsky.social and I are working on a symposium proposal on interoceptive and embodied computational psychiatry for this - do let us know if you would like to join as we have open slots. Focus is on quantification and intervention.
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Quentin Huys @docqhuys.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Poster submissions for the Computational Psychiatry Conference 2025 in Tübingen are now open. Deadline is 7th February. Symposium submissions are open until 15th January. www.cpconf.org. Please RB.
cpconf.org
Computational Psychiatry Conference
Tübingen, Germany (July 14-16, 2025)
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Katerina Fotopoulou @katerinafoto.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
I could not find a body representation starter pack so I made one! Please message if you want to join. I know I missed excellent scientists, philosophers and clinicians out there go.bsky.app/EAmckAo
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Ido Aizenbud @idoai.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
Human cortical pyramidal neurons are larger, with more elaborate branching, and distinct nonlinear biophysical properties compared to rat cortical pyramidal neurons. Are they more functionally complex? Could that boost the human brain’s computational power? and is that what makes us human? (1/11)
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Ryan Smith @rssmith.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
Just switching over to Bluesky now. Looking forward to good discussions and finding out about new papers again!
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