Tim Behrens

OK If we are moving to Bluesky I am rescuing my favourite ever twitter thread (Jan 2019). The renamed: Bluesky-sized history of neuroscience (biased by my interests)

Please repost: The Sensorimotor Superlab (with @andpru.bsky.social , @gribblelab.org) is now accepting applications for MSc and PhD students for the Fall 2027. Deadline:December 5th. Application instructions: www.diedrichsenlab.org www.pruszynskilab.com gribblelab.org Join our awesome team!

Simultaneous awake replay of multiple spatial representations www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

World models are central to intelligence - but how do we actually use them to behave flexibly? We review emerging findings on how the PFC’s inner dynamics translate structured knowledge into action. osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵 1/15

New review about computations in PFC, led by two deep thinkers, @melgaby.bsky.social and @kristorpjensen.bsky.social, with contributions from many more. Discussing the implications of a bunch of new exciting recent PFC findings for how we think about PFC computations.

Codex takes no prisoners when reporting effect sizes…

When part of an object is hidden, your brain fills in the gaps. Could planning work in a similar way? @kristorpjensen.bsky.social @behrenstimb.bsky.social et. al. propose a ‘spacetime attractor’ model of how the prefrontal cortex plans. Paper: elifesciences.org/articles/109... Blog:

I used to worry that this would keep growing forever, but it seems to have asymptoted. There is hope for those on the upward trajectory!

These are going to be so good!!

Best place to do neuroscience in the world.

I wanted to highlight the work of Alison Comrie et al. that recently came out in Neuron and I don’t think it is getting enough attention: paper: cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(26)00674-4 #neuroskyence

I once went to the Vatican with some fellow scientists to debate free will with some cardinals, even meeting the pope (Benedict). It seemed to me that the Catholic Church doesn’t even believe non-human animals are conscious (“have a soul”) so they have a very high bar!

We’re excited to introduce Karla Miller, Ph.D., the 2027 Lauterbur Lecturer! Join us in Vancouver for the 2027 ISMRM & ISMRT Annual Meeting & Exhibition. LEARN MORE: https://ow.ly/JzSi50ZMNaX #ISMRM2027 #ISMRM #ISMRT #MRI #MagneticResonance #Radiology #MedicalImaging #MRTechnologists #Radiographer

elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

If I were reviewing it, it would have got a "Landmark" :)

Such beautiful experimental logic to test some of the most important ideas about basic cortical processing.

This is a really really beautiful thing. One of my favourite papers of the year. elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

elifesciences.org/articles/109...

elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

🚨Update: Our analysis of global APC expenditure has now been expanded to cover more publishers (7 -> 14) and more years (2019-2025). We estimate $15B in APCs paid over seven years, $3.7B in 2025 alone. Elsevier crosses the $1B threshold by itself in 2025. arxiv.org/abs/2608.16322 #ScholComm

Reverse engineering neural circuits - @wiringthebrain.bsky.social talks to @behrenstimb.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/computationa...

Confused about all this talk of compositionality in neuroscience? Read our new perspective www.nature.com/articles/s41... with authors Reidar Riveland and Alex Pouget.

My favourite paper of 2026.

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social talks to Timothy Behrens @behrenstimb.bsky.social about which neural systems the field has genuinely cracked. #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/computationa...

This was a fun chat about getting to mechanisms in cognition…

An absolutely beautiful thing.

Have @ukri.org published the reasoning behind this decision? It seems like such an extraordinary decision on the surface that surely it should be defended in public. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is a spectacular paper

The postdoc position in our lab closes 20 July - get applying! :)

New perspective paper from our lab: “The hippocampus as a generative model” out now !! royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article... The traditional view of the hippocampus is that it creates a cognitive map. Here we extend this view to conceptualise the hippocampus as a “generative model”.

This is one of my favourite things. Direct replication of MEG and fMRI findings in intracranial recordings and a demonstration that cortical representations update in the right direction around hippocampal ripples.

For a long time I felt like there was a hesitation in neuroscience to ascribe anything like a planning function to the various "replay" events we see in the hippocampus, but I think this is rapidly changing. Here's another new entry in human epilepsy patients: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧠📈 🧪

It wouldn’t be FENS if there wasn’t some sort of clash - definitely check out awesome work by @aryabhomick.bsky.social in Friday morning’s poster session tracking learning dynamics of abstract task structure in the PFC as well as evidence for complex hierarchical learning in rodents!

Same session contains this exciting new work from friends: Athena Apostolelli @sandra-neuro.bsky.social @mathiassablemeyer.bsky.social and @behrenstimb.bsky.social showing PFC learning dynamics in a spontaneously emerging type of abstraction behaviour in mice

#FENS2026 poster alert: "Combining flexible electrode recordings with two-photon imaging to investigate brain-wide network coupling" Come to our poster PS01-07AM-375 on Tuesday morning to chat with Linus Meienberg and me, how we use ultra-flexible electrodes together with optical recordings.

Is spatial navigation innate 🧠? Using #NeuroPixels we show that the #torus 🍩 underlying the #GridCell map exists already on day 10 in rats — before pups open eyes and ears and before they start upright walking. 🧵1:4 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Ever wondered how the hippocampal cognitive map is read-out? @changmin-yu.bsky.social @zilong-ji.bsky.social with Jake & John, show that, during navigation, theta sweeps indicate remembered goal-directions (cf. current/next movements or perceptual targets) 1/2 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

PSA for trainees cold emailing with interest in joining a lab: Be careful about your use of LLMs in writing these emails!! It is now *extremely* common to get emails with a bizarrely-detailed, clearly-LLM take on a paper finding or with specific phrases pulled from the lab website. Don’t do this!

How does the human brain extract abstract structure from experience? We show that sensory-independent relational representations emerge in mPFC over several days. Work with @mgarvert.bsky.social and @behrenstimb.bsky.social now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Slightly surprised that @kordinglab.bsky.social are still printing their simulations out on paper to be honest.

This paper is an absolutely beautiful combination of a deep set of cognitive ideas, a super creative task, a surprisingly impressive behaviour, and an elegant modelling framework. One of my favourite things in the last year.