Nima Dehghani
Computational neuroscience, Physics of Complex Systems, Bio-Inspired Intelligence, Foundations of Physical Computing
compneuro.mit.edu/home
- "Silence, too, becomes part of a legacy. Why are you silent?" An open letter to @barackobama.bsky.social @obamafoundation.bsky.social examining U.S. principles, Iran, & the consequences of silence. A policy-focused appeal grounded in the legacy of Obama's Cairo speech. youtube.com/watch?v=x0m3...
- Open Letter to President Macron regarding France's hesitation in designating IRGC as a terrorist organization. youtu.be/BBZCZFmisqg?...
- #DANDI #NWB #Sfn2025 Come and see the ecosystem of Open Data in Neurophysiology (DANDI archive & NWB)....there is a whole bunch of tutorials and demos. See 👇 @dandiarchive.org @nwb.org
- Come hear about state-driven neural complexity today #SfN25 PP13 - "Deep cortical layer stimulation reveals state-dependent changes in neural excitability" Poster Session 1-5 pm Computational Approaches & Experimental Analyses I

- Have been out of soc media for a while. Did you miss me? Back & giving a talk today at ME Sys Neuro satellite before @sfn.org Dichotomous dynamics of hippocampal and lateral septum oscillations: state-dependent topology and directional causality during Sleep and wakefulness
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- "Superintelligence" has arrived 😂 So this thing won gold in the international math olympiad and yet can't pass the simplest notion of 2nd grade math? lol...this is more like "reasoning" but "without understanding the subject that you are reasoning about"
- The review/perspective piece @wbialek.bsky.social traces the roots of the 2024 NobelPrize back to Hinton & Hopfield, highlighting their foundational contributions to neural networks. It explores the evolution of AI, considers its future through the lens of physics. journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...
- Both submitted work accepted @sfn.org "Deep cortical layer stimulation reveals state-dependent changes in neural excitability" “Parametric Stimuli Reveal Functional Subcircuits in Visual Cortex” Though I am concerned that given the news on travel restrictions we may have a low attendance.

- Friends, colleagues, I will be in NYC (Flatiron Institute) from Mon-Thu. Ping me if you want to meet up

- Reposted by Nima DehghaniExcited to share my PhD paper! In it, we use targeted 2-photon optogenetic stimulation to determine how V1 activity is read-out in a detection task. We found that network influence, not visual coding properties, predicted the impact of ensembles on behavior - contradicting our expectations (1/5).
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- Cool 👇
- The extortion continues.... unbelievable.
- It looks like all NSF/NIH grants to UCLA (including mine and all fundamental neuroscience grants) have been suspended. www.science.org/content/arti...
- Reposted by Nima Dehghani🚨New paper🚨 Neural manifolds went from a niche-y word to an ubiquitous term in systems neuro thanks to many interesting findings across fields. But like with any emerging term, people use it very differently. Here, we clarify our take on the term, and review key findings & challenges rdcu.be/ex8hW
- Thanks for sharing these @wbialek.bsky.social See Les Houches "Ambitions for theory in physics of life" (notes from Bill Bialek)👇
- The summer schools at Les Houches are a magnificent tradition. I was honored to lecture there in 2023, and my notes now are published as "Ambitions for theory in the physics of life." #physics #physicsoflife scipost.org/SciPostPhysL...
- Two new additions to the library: "Renormalization" by the great Phil Nelson & "Theoretical Neuroscience" by none other than XJ Wang! @xjwang.bsky.social thanks for the much needed missing textbook.
- Oh hey I was reading about him yesterday! What an absolutely cool person! Tommy Poggio on Werner Richardt (founder of Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics @mpicybernetics.bsky.social ) dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/ha...
- 👇
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- Oh hey Tim and Gaute, fav duo :) looking forward to this I will try. If I immediately die, it is your fault Tim @tpvogels.bsky.social and you will owe me a drink !
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- Hosting @lmprida.bsky.social , Liset who gave an update insightful talk "Illuminating the cellular basis of hippocampal cognitive maps."
- @lmprida.bsky.social Looking forward to @lmprida.bsky.social Liset's talk tomorrow "Illuminating the cellular basis of hippocampal cognitive maps" bcs.mit.edu/events/speci...
- listen to XJ Wang Fantastic discussion—his perspective feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s refreshing to hear someone who isn’t confined to framing everything in terms of “cognitive tasks,” but instead views them as conduits for exploring the dynamical systems underpinning cortical function.
- @lmprida.bsky.social Looking forward to @lmprida.bsky.social Liset's talk tomorrow "Illuminating the cellular basis of hippocampal cognitive maps" bcs.mit.edu/events/speci...
- Reposted by Nima DehghaniDo you study neural systems with feedback at different temporal-, spatial-, hierarchical-, data-, or computational- scales? Have you submitted your abstract to the "Neurocybernetics at Scale" symposium? Due to multiple requests, new abstract submission deadline is 18 July! #AI4Science #cybernetics
- Back in the US from a tour of science in Europe. Ok, where were we? Oh I see... from the official account of the White House 😂 @theonion.com go to bed! We don't need you anymore
- Come to my "Last Talk" of my "Italian tour" this afternoon at #CNS2025 "State-Dependent Dynamics: A Lens through Entropy, Coupling and Topology" We have a fantastic group of speakers and will have a panel discussion in the evening sched.co/1z9OG.
- Part IV of my "Italian tour" #CNS2025 Florence, come to the @CNSorg workshop Jul 9th that I am organizing w Andre (Peterson). We have invited great speakers. "Theoretical and experimental approaches towards understanding brain state transitions" sched.co/1z9OG
- Join us for great talks & discussions #CNS2025 Florence, come to the @CNSorg workshop , happening now! "Theoretical and experimental approaches towards understanding brain state transitions" sched.co/1z9OG
- Part IV of my "Italian tour" #CNS2025 Florence, come to the @CNSorg workshop Jul 9th that I am organizing w Andre (Peterson). We have invited great speakers. "Theoretical and experimental approaches towards understanding brain state transitions" sched.co/1z9OG
- Part IV of my "Italian tour" #CNS2025 Florence, come to the @CNSorg workshop Jul 9th that I am organizing w Andre (Peterson). We have invited great speakers. "Theoretical and experimental approaches towards understanding brain state transitions" sched.co/1z9OG
- Part III of my "Italian tour" Happily blessed by master Leonardo presenting posters P63: State-Dependent Topology and Directional Causality During Sleep and Wakefulness P64: Anatomically and Functionally Constrained Bio-Inspired Recurrent Neural Networks Outperform Traditional RNN Models
- Part III of my "Italian tour", #CNS2025 Florence Posters - P63: casuality, state-dependence, Sharp-Wave Ripples, Hippocampus-Coretx - P64: Neuro-Inspired Network, connectomics, Ca Imaging, Cortex The posters are located right under the nose of master Leonardo who gave his blessing
- Part III of my "Italian tour", #CNS2025 Florence Posters - P63: casuality, state-dependence, Sharp-Wave Ripples, Hippocampus-Coretx - P64: Neuro-Inspired Network, connectomics, Ca Imaging, Cortex The posters are located right under the nose of master Leonardo who gave his blessing
- Part II of my "Italian tour" Arrived in Trieste Tomorrow, I will be giving a talk at ICTP @ictpnews QLS Seminar - "A Complex Systems Physics Framework for Cortical States: From E/I Balance to Emergent Oscillations" indico.ictp.it/event/11070
- When Adriatic gives you the best Renormalization-Inspired "coarse graining" example for a talk on Excitation/Inhibition and Emergent Oscillation !!!! Now heading to Florence for #CNS2025 , part III & IV of my "Italian (Neurophysics)Tour"...
- Part II of my "Italian tour" Arrived in Trieste Tomorrow, I will be giving a talk at ICTP @ictpnews QLS Seminar - "A Complex Systems Physics Framework for Cortical States: From E/I Balance to Emergent Oscillations" indico.ictp.it/event/11070
- Reposted by Nima DehghaniThe full ruling explaining why NIH grant cuts are illegal came out today. It's just as blistering as the judge's oral remarks. And it uncovers fresh details in DOGE's role orchestrating the cuts — and on the cuts at Columbia. Here are my top highlights from the 103-page ruling. 🧵
- Part II of my "Italian tour" Arrived in Trieste Tomorrow, I will be giving a talk at ICTP @ictpnews QLS Seminar - "A Complex Systems Physics Framework for Cortical States: From E/I Balance to Emergent Oscillations" indico.ictp.it/event/11070
- My "Italian tour" begins (giving 5 presentations in 10 days), I will talk about "Symmetry's Edge: Multiscale Dynamics of Excitation and Inhibition" in StatPhys29 satellite "Collective Here is the zoom link unipd.zoom.us/j/89751980137 Fantastic program! liphlab.github.io/NeuroStatPhy...
- My "Italian tour" begins (giving 5 presentations in 10 days), I will talk about "Symmetry's Edge: Multiscale Dynamics of Excitation and Inhibition" in StatPhys29 satellite "Collective Here is the zoom link unipd.zoom.us/j/89751980137 Fantastic program! liphlab.github.io/NeuroStatPhy...
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- Looking forward to reading this @chriswlynn.bsky.social : arxiv.org/abs/2506.01909
- Congratulations Dan! @dlevenstein.bsky.social Wonderful! Go work w Dan if you are looking for a PhD/postdoc position.
- Thrilled to announce I'll be starting my own neuro-theory lab, as an Assistant Professor at @yaleneuro.bsky.social @wutsaiyale.bsky.social this Fall! My group will study offline learning in the sleeping brain: how neural activity self-organizes during sleep and the computations it performs. 🧵
- Reposted by Nima Dehghanihanging out with strangers in a campus pub should be considered part of the serious process of thinking
- interesting work from Paul @paulmasset.bsky.social and @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social see the commentary: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
- Our work with Pablo Tano, @hyunggoo-kim.bsky.social Athar Malik, Alexandre Pouget and @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social exploring how dopamine neurons could enable multi-timescale reinforcement learning in the brain is out in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Nice!
- Impossible to focus on sci given what is going on, worried for relatives, friends & students in Iran, yet hoping that they soon be free. Looking forward to this, & must put together my talk: "Collective Dynamics & Information Processing in Neural Systems" liphlab.github.io/NeuroStatPhys_…
- 📢Another announcement (sorry for long absence): #CNS2025 Florence, come to the @CNSorg workshop Jul 9th that I am organizing w Andre. We have invited great speakers. "Theoretical and experimental approaches towards understanding brain state transitions" sched.co/1z9OG
- Here is another, a new paper that I finished a few weeks ago but hadn't a chance to announce it. 'Rethinking Physical Complexity in the Data-Driven Era' introduces a unified framework for statistical, algorithmic, and dynamical complexity measures. 📜1/n arxiv.org/html/2505.07...
- Due to personal issue, I have not had a chance to make some annoucements on work...here is an extended/revised version. I am very happy with this now "Symmetry’s Edge in Multiscale Cortical Dynamics" This work reveals fundamental organizing principles 1/n arxiv.org/html/2306.11...
- Fully revised version out in the open ODIN: Open Data In Neurophysiology: Advancements, Solutions & Challenges arxiv.org/abs/2407.00976
- Reposted by Nima DehghaniOut now in @nathumbehav.nature.com: Cuts to NIH funding will impact the economy and employment nationwide. We visualize these losses and advocate for a theory-driven approach to communicating local, self-relevant impact. w/ @joshuasweitz.bsky.social + SCIMaP team: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Nima DehghaniV cool work
- Happy to share the latest version of our work on compositional maps in hippocampus with Jo Warren, @jcrwhittington.bsky.social, @behrenstimb.bsky.social. We propose hippocampus constructs maps from cortical building blocks in replay – now with empirical support! www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/9
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- Reposted by Nima DehghaniNew pre-print reviewing time-series analysis methods based on information theory, with an aim to be accessible, and with a broad focus on applications in neuroimaging. Congratulations @anniegbryant.bsky.social
- Info theory offers powerful measures for capturing complexity & interaction among elements of a complex system, like the brain! 🧠 Here's our new unified reference for key info-theoretic time series measures ft. 📊 visuals, ➗equations, & 💬descriptions: arxiv.org/abs/2505.13080
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- The dark matter of the brain, astrocytes, get 3 back to back papers coverage. To see what we proposed as part of the frame for bio-inspired intelligence see 👇 Bio-inspired AI: Integrating Biological Complexity into Artificial Intelligence arxiv.org/abs/2411.15243
- Astrocytes have long been conceived as passive support player cells in the brain. But today @science.org (via 3 reports) they got a big upgrade for their active role in neuromodulation and control of brain function www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...