SchottdorfLab
@schottdorflab.bsky.social
We are a quantitative behavioral neuroscience lab at the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at the University of Delaware. http://www.schottdorflab.com PI: Manuel Schottdorf
Pinned
SchottdorfLab
@schottdorflab.bsky.social
· Nov 24
Have you ever wondered how and why learning abstract things can literally change how we see the world? We'll start digging into this beginning Jan 1 2025 at @udelaware.bsky.social's department of Psychological & Brain Sciences! More infos on schottdorflab.com
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
Our work with @pawa-pawa.bsky.social is out in Nature Machine Intelligence! The choice of activation function affects the representations, dynamics, and circuit solutions that emerge in RNNs trained on cognitive tasks. Activation matters!
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
October 24, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Our work with @pawa-pawa.bsky.social is out in Nature Machine Intelligence! The choice of activation function affects the representations, dynamics, and circuit solutions that emerge in RNNs trained on cognitive tasks. Activation matters!
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
Excited to share more widely: I am starting the Dorkenwald Lab at MIT (McGovern Institute + BCS) in January 2026. We study the organizational principles of neuronal circuits using connectomics.
And we are hiring postdocs & tech associates! dorkenwaldlab.com/join
And we are hiring postdocs & tech associates! dorkenwaldlab.com/join
MIT’s McGovern Institute and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences welcome new faculty member Sven Dorkenwald - MIT McGovern Institute
The McGovern Institute and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences are pleased to announce the appointment of Sven Dorkenwald as an assistant professor starting in January 2026. A trailblazer i...
mcgovern.mit.edu
October 15, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Excited to share more widely: I am starting the Dorkenwald Lab at MIT (McGovern Institute + BCS) in January 2026. We study the organizational principles of neuronal circuits using connectomics.
And we are hiring postdocs & tech associates! dorkenwaldlab.com/join
And we are hiring postdocs & tech associates! dorkenwaldlab.com/join
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
Even colleagues who should know better are claiming that we are halting animal research. No, we're not. Now this NYT opinion piece appears (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o... You can't just move everything to cell culture, organoids, and computers. Even this NYT piece admits that. 1/3
October 9, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Even colleagues who should know better are claiming that we are halting animal research. No, we're not. Now this NYT opinion piece appears (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o... You can't just move everything to cell culture, organoids, and computers. Even this NYT piece admits that. 1/3
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
🚨Our NeurIPS 2025 competition Mouse vs. AI is LIVE!
We combine a visual navigation task + large-scale mouse neural data to test what makes visual RL agents robust and brain-like.
Top teams: featured at NeurIPS + co-author our summary paper. Join the challenge!
Whitepaper: arxiv.org/abs/2509.14446
We combine a visual navigation task + large-scale mouse neural data to test what makes visual RL agents robust and brain-like.
Top teams: featured at NeurIPS + co-author our summary paper. Join the challenge!
Whitepaper: arxiv.org/abs/2509.14446
Mouse vs. AI: A Neuroethological Benchmark for Visual Robustness and Neural Alignment
Visual robustness under real-world conditions remains a critical bottleneck for modern reinforcement learning agents. In contrast, biological systems such as mice show remarkable resilience to environ...
arxiv.org
September 22, 2025 at 11:13 PM
🚨Our NeurIPS 2025 competition Mouse vs. AI is LIVE!
We combine a visual navigation task + large-scale mouse neural data to test what makes visual RL agents robust and brain-like.
Top teams: featured at NeurIPS + co-author our summary paper. Join the challenge!
Whitepaper: arxiv.org/abs/2509.14446
We combine a visual navigation task + large-scale mouse neural data to test what makes visual RL agents robust and brain-like.
Top teams: featured at NeurIPS + co-author our summary paper. Join the challenge!
Whitepaper: arxiv.org/abs/2509.14446
From the popular series "Figures that look like Kraftwerk Albums". Fig. 3 in Georgopoulos et al. Science 1986. Contributions of individual neurons to a shared coding direction in state space — pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3749885/
October 3, 2025 at 1:38 PM
From the popular series "Figures that look like Kraftwerk Albums". Fig. 3 in Georgopoulos et al. Science 1986. Contributions of individual neurons to a shared coding direction in state space — pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3749885/
Using calcium imaging with single cell resolution across brain areas while mice solve two VR navigation problems, we discovered that neural manifolds can change in size based on working memory demands! Check out Mika Diamanti's amazing work: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Working memory expands shared task representations in cortex
Cognition is thought to emerge from the flexible organization of neural activity, yet how this organization reconfigures across behaviors varying in cognitive load remains unclear. We investigated how...
www.biorxiv.org
October 1, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Using calcium imaging with single cell resolution across brain areas while mice solve two VR navigation problems, we discovered that neural manifolds can change in size based on working memory demands! Check out Mika Diamanti's amazing work: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
Working memory expands shared task representations in cortex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.29.679345v1
September 30, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Working memory expands shared task representations in cortex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.29.679345v1
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
How does the brain decide? 🧠
Our new @nature.com paper shows that neural activity switches from an 'evidence gathering' to a 'commitment' state at a precise moment we call nTc.
After nTc, new evidence is ignored, revealing a neural marker for the instant when the mind is made up.
rdcu.be/eGUrv
Our new @nature.com paper shows that neural activity switches from an 'evidence gathering' to a 'commitment' state at a precise moment we call nTc.
After nTc, new evidence is ignored, revealing a neural marker for the instant when the mind is made up.
rdcu.be/eGUrv
Transitions in dynamical regime and neural mode during perceptual decisions - Nature
Simultaneous recordings were made of hundreds of neurons in the rat frontal cortex and striatum, showing that decision commitment involves a rapid, coordinated transition in dynamical regime and neura...
www.nature.com
September 17, 2025 at 8:12 PM
How does the brain decide? 🧠
Our new @nature.com paper shows that neural activity switches from an 'evidence gathering' to a 'commitment' state at a precise moment we call nTc.
After nTc, new evidence is ignored, revealing a neural marker for the instant when the mind is made up.
rdcu.be/eGUrv
Our new @nature.com paper shows that neural activity switches from an 'evidence gathering' to a 'commitment' state at a precise moment we call nTc.
After nTc, new evidence is ignored, revealing a neural marker for the instant when the mind is made up.
rdcu.be/eGUrv
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
Thrilled that our new review "Motor Working Memory" is now in press at TiCS!
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
@cellpress.bsky.social
By me +
Hanna Hillman
We argue that a dedicated research program on 'working memory for movements' is long overdue
Link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lmMX4sIRv...
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
@cellpress.bsky.social
By me +
Hanna Hillman
We argue that a dedicated research program on 'working memory for movements' is long overdue
Link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lmMX4sIRv...
September 15, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Thrilled that our new review "Motor Working Memory" is now in press at TiCS!
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
@cellpress.bsky.social
By me +
Hanna Hillman
We argue that a dedicated research program on 'working memory for movements' is long overdue
Link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lmMX4sIRv...
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
@cellpress.bsky.social
By me +
Hanna Hillman
We argue that a dedicated research program on 'working memory for movements' is long overdue
Link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lmMX4sIRv...
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
(1/8) New paper from our team!
Yu Duan & Hamza Chaudhry introduce POCO, a tool for predicting brain activity at the cellular & network level during spontaneous behavior.
Find out how we built POCO & how it changes neurobehavioral research 👇
arxiv.org/abs/2506.14957
Yu Duan & Hamza Chaudhry introduce POCO, a tool for predicting brain activity at the cellular & network level during spontaneous behavior.
Find out how we built POCO & how it changes neurobehavioral research 👇
arxiv.org/abs/2506.14957
September 12, 2025 at 8:33 PM
(1/8) New paper from our team!
Yu Duan & Hamza Chaudhry introduce POCO, a tool for predicting brain activity at the cellular & network level during spontaneous behavior.
Find out how we built POCO & how it changes neurobehavioral research 👇
arxiv.org/abs/2506.14957
Yu Duan & Hamza Chaudhry introduce POCO, a tool for predicting brain activity at the cellular & network level during spontaneous behavior.
Find out how we built POCO & how it changes neurobehavioral research 👇
arxiv.org/abs/2506.14957
Our latest project find shared representations while controlling for confounds is out www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Check @s-michelmann.bsky.social 's thread for the executive summary. Code in python and matlab: github.com/s-michelmann... — Now is play time 👨💻
| bioRxiv
bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution
www.biorxiv.org
September 5, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Our latest project find shared representations while controlling for confounds is out www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Check @s-michelmann.bsky.social 's thread for the executive summary. Code in python and matlab: github.com/s-michelmann... — Now is play time 👨💻
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
🚀Excited to share our project: Canonical Representational Mapping for Cognitive Neuroscience. @schottdorflab.bsky.social and I propose a novel multivariate method to isolate neural representations aligned with specific cognitive hypotheses 🧵https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.01.673485v1
September 5, 2025 at 4:18 PM
🚀Excited to share our project: Canonical Representational Mapping for Cognitive Neuroscience. @schottdorflab.bsky.social and I propose a novel multivariate method to isolate neural representations aligned with specific cognitive hypotheses 🧵https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.01.673485v1
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
Wonder what kind of innovations publicly funded science has generated? Look no further than the device you may be reading this post on! Touchscreens started as a NSF funded thesis project at the University of Delaware. Learn more at:
publicusaresearchbenefits.com/examples/202...
publicusaresearchbenefits.com/examples/202...
Touchscreens
An NSF-funded graduate fellowship changed smartphones all over the world
publicusaresearchbenefits.com
May 21, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Wonder what kind of innovations publicly funded science has generated? Look no further than the device you may be reading this post on! Touchscreens started as a NSF funded thesis project at the University of Delaware. Learn more at:
publicusaresearchbenefits.com/examples/202...
publicusaresearchbenefits.com/examples/202...
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
we're crowd-sourcing a searchable repository of tangible benefits stemming from federally-funded research. Come enjoy the great stories; or send in an idea; or volunteer to join the team.
publicusaresearchbenefits.com
please re-post so we get more great stories in there!
publicusaresearchbenefits.com
please re-post so we get more great stories in there!
Searchable database of tangible benefits that federally-funded research gave us.
A crowd-sourced site. Health and Well-being. National Security. Prosperity.
publicusaresearchbenefits.com
May 24, 2025 at 2:46 AM
we're crowd-sourcing a searchable repository of tangible benefits stemming from federally-funded research. Come enjoy the great stories; or send in an idea; or volunteer to join the team.
publicusaresearchbenefits.com
please re-post so we get more great stories in there!
publicusaresearchbenefits.com
please re-post so we get more great stories in there!
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
Big showing from the Rajan Lab at @cosynemeeting.bsky.social!
We have posters on everything from multi-agent social foraging to neuromodulated neural networks. Catch us in Poster Sessions 2 & 3 🧠🤖
#Cosyne2025 #NeuroAI #CompSci #neuroskyence
We have posters on everything from multi-agent social foraging to neuromodulated neural networks. Catch us in Poster Sessions 2 & 3 🧠🤖
#Cosyne2025 #NeuroAI #CompSci #neuroskyence
March 28, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Big showing from the Rajan Lab at @cosynemeeting.bsky.social!
We have posters on everything from multi-agent social foraging to neuromodulated neural networks. Catch us in Poster Sessions 2 & 3 🧠🤖
#Cosyne2025 #NeuroAI #CompSci #neuroskyence
We have posters on everything from multi-agent social foraging to neuromodulated neural networks. Catch us in Poster Sessions 2 & 3 🧠🤖
#Cosyne2025 #NeuroAI #CompSci #neuroskyence
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
New opinion paper in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social with Dan Bendor, where we argue that rodent studies provide only marginal support for the idea that replay supports real-time decisions (e.g. planning). Fictive learning and memory tagging are more consistent w/evidence. www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
Awake replay: off the clock but on the job
Hippocampal replay is widely thought to support two key cognitive functions: online
decision-making and offline memory consolidation. In this review, we take a closer
look at the hypothesized link bet...
www.cell.com
March 27, 2025 at 3:19 PM
New opinion paper in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social with Dan Bendor, where we argue that rodent studies provide only marginal support for the idea that replay supports real-time decisions (e.g. planning). Fictive learning and memory tagging are more consistent w/evidence. www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
Scientific data and independence are at risk: We need to work with community-driven services and university libraries to create new multi-country organizations that are resilient to political interference.
By @neuralreckoning.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/policy/scien...
By @neuralreckoning.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/policy/scien...
Science must step away from nationally managed infrastructure
Scientific data and independence are at risk. We need to work with community-driven services and university libraries to create new multi-country organizations that are resilient to political…
www.thetransmitter.org
February 20, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Scientific data and independence are at risk: We need to work with community-driven services and university libraries to create new multi-country organizations that are resilient to political interference.
By @neuralreckoning.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/policy/scien...
By @neuralreckoning.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/policy/scien...
Do you want to build your own two photon microscope for in vivo imaging? We have made our design open: With complete building instructions, bill of materials, CAD designs — and even the optics simulations. Now peer reviewed: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
February 16, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Do you want to build your own two photon microscope for in vivo imaging? We have made our design open: With complete building instructions, bill of materials, CAD designs — and even the optics simulations. Now peer reviewed: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
How to guide a micropipette into mouse hippocampus using two-photon microscopy - great protocol paper by Kevin Gonzalez and the Losonczy Lab: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
February 13, 2025 at 10:52 PM
How to guide a micropipette into mouse hippocampus using two-photon microscopy - great protocol paper by Kevin Gonzalez and the Losonczy Lab: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
Read more: www.janelia.org/news/mapmaki...
Mapmaking in the mind: new research details how the brain builds mental maps of the world
To see how cognitive maps form in the brain, researchers used a Janelia-designed, high-resolution microscope with a large field of view to image neural activity in thousands of neurons in the
www.janelia.org
February 13, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Read more: www.janelia.org/news/mapmaki...
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
(1/5) Excited to share my work with @engeltatiana.bsky.social , out now in Nat Neuro! We show that RNNs use low-d latent circuit mechanisms for cognitive tasks. We find that context-dependent decisions in both RNNs and PFC arise from latent inhibitory mechanisms. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Latent circuit inference from heterogeneous neural responses during cognitive tasks - Nature Neuroscience
The latent circuit model identifies low-dimensional mechanisms of task execution from heterogenous neural responses. This approach reveals a latent inhibitory mechanism for context-dependent decisions...
www.nature.com
February 12, 2025 at 6:16 PM
(1/5) Excited to share my work with @engeltatiana.bsky.social , out now in Nat Neuro! We show that RNNs use low-d latent circuit mechanisms for cognitive tasks. We find that context-dependent decisions in both RNNs and PFC arise from latent inhibitory mechanisms. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
Cool experimental design by @simwieg.bsky.social's lab with optogenetics + calcium imaging: how place cells in CA1 are affected by stimulation of contralateral CA3. They observe less an induction of place fields but somewhat random shifts of existing place fields: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
January 31, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Cool experimental design by @simwieg.bsky.social's lab with optogenetics + calcium imaging: how place cells in CA1 are affected by stimulation of contralateral CA3. They observe less an induction of place fields but somewhat random shifts of existing place fields: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
This is legit - the organizers (including unions) are organizing. When I ask those in the know what we can do that will actually matter, the answer includes collective action of this type.
I'm joining @nancykanwisher.bsky.social and all the others for this Thurs 3p ET effort. I hope you do too!
I'm joining @nancykanwisher.bsky.social and all the others for this Thurs 3p ET effort. I hope you do too!
Academic workers across the country are organizing to call on our congressional representatives on Thursday, 1/30, at 3pm ET / 12pm PT to demand these restrictions be lifted immediately.
There will be a training over zoom at the beginning of the event.
Join us!
form.jotform.com/250226137228...
There will be a training over zoom at the beginning of the event.
Join us!
form.jotform.com/250226137228...
Join researchers across the country in fighting restrictions on the NIH
Please click the link to complete this form.
form.jotform.com
January 28, 2025 at 11:15 AM
This is legit - the organizers (including unions) are organizing. When I ask those in the know what we can do that will actually matter, the answer includes collective action of this type.
I'm joining @nancykanwisher.bsky.social and all the others for this Thurs 3p ET effort. I hope you do too!
I'm joining @nancykanwisher.bsky.social and all the others for this Thurs 3p ET effort. I hope you do too!
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
With the death of Twitter is the loss of years of cool papers. Let's start again #NeuroSkyence! What paper are you most proud of? This isn't my biggest or most cited, but the one I 🥰 most: www.jneurosci.org/content/35/8.... I found a type of gamma in CA1 that didn't involve PV baskets or PYRs 🤓
January 20, 2025 at 8:20 AM
With the death of Twitter is the loss of years of cool papers. Let's start again #NeuroSkyence! What paper are you most proud of? This isn't my biggest or most cited, but the one I 🥰 most: www.jneurosci.org/content/35/8.... I found a type of gamma in CA1 that didn't involve PV baskets or PYRs 🤓
Reposted by SchottdorfLab
Let's see if bluesky = 2016NeuroTwitter:
Two-Photon optophys people: Are you using a denoising step in your pipelines? If yes which?
Two-Photon optophys people: Are you using a denoising step in your pipelines? If yes which?
January 8, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Let's see if bluesky = 2016NeuroTwitter:
Two-Photon optophys people: Are you using a denoising step in your pipelines? If yes which?
Two-Photon optophys people: Are you using a denoising step in your pipelines? If yes which?