iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Thank you! And unfortunately we won’t be able to record it.

Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

Excited to share our #Cosyne2026 workshop "Efficient coding in the modern age" w/ @s-azeglio.bsky.social & Pietro Zamberlan! We'll discuss how the efficient coding framework extends to dynamic and context dependent settings, and how it fails. For more info see shorturl.at/QmN60 See you there!

shorturl.at

ECMA @ CoSyNe

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Reposted by Sonica Saraf

Jacob Miller @neurojacob.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Presenting on contingency representations in PFC during WM on Saturday at SfN! Featuring fMRI and multi-area RNN modeling from my time with John Murray 🤓 And, recruiting a PhD student for Fall ‘26 in my new lab at U-Miami! Check us out here, and feel free to reach out: jam-lab.org (apps due 12/1)

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Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

TLDR: We link the distribution of tuning properties to representational geometry and readout for perceptual tasks. Different types of tuning diversity reshape population codes in distinct — and beneficial — ways.

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Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Tuning diversity is a mechanism for enhancing population representational efficiency while respecting these constraints.

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Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Of course, the geometry could change in this way for other reasons — such as increasing the number of neurons or their firing rates. But metabolic constraints prevent arbitrarily high amplitudes, bandwidths, and numbers of neurons.

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Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

BUT, amplitude diversity helps discrimination more, while bandwidth diversity helps identification more. Because of their distinct impacts on geometry, the two types of diversity affect different perceptual tasks more.

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Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

These geometric changes increase the population’s coding efficiency for two types of perceptual tasks: Discrimination and identification

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Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Intuitively: – Amplitude diversity helps the population use more of its firing rate range – Bandwidth diversity lets it exploit more dimensions in firing rate space

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Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

We focus on two types of diversity: amplitude (height) and bandwidth (width) of tuning curves. Each shapes geometry differently. Amp Div: expands distances between the centers of representations for different stimuli BW Div: decorrelates the centers

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Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

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Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Tuning diversity is a mechanism for enhancing population representational efficiency while respecting these constraints.

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Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

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Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

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Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

These geometric changes increase the population’s coding efficiency for two types of perceptual tasks: Discrimination and identification

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Sonica Saraf @sonicasaraf.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

In many brain areas, neuronal tuning is heterogeneous. But how does this diversity help behavior? We show how tuning diversity shapes representational geometry and boosts coding efficiency for perception in our new preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (w/ @sueyeonchung.bsky.social&Tony Movshon)

biorxiv.org

Variations in neuronal selectivity create efficient representational geometries for perception

Our visual capabilities depend on neural response properties in visual areas of our brains. Neurons exhibit a wide variety of selective response properties, but the reasons for this diversity are unkn...

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bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Variations in neuronal selectivity create efficient representational geometries for perception www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…

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Reposted by Sonica Saraf

Jenelle Feather @jfeather.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Already feeling #cosyne2025 withdrawal? Apply to the Flatiron Institute Junior Theoretical Neuroscience Workshop! Applications due April 14th jtnworkshop2025.flatironinstitute.org

jtnworkshop2025.flatironinstitute.org

JTN - 2025

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