Rui Ponte Costa
Computational neuroscientist bringing machine and neural learning closer together [Oxford NeuroAI] @ox.ac.uk @oxforddpag.bsky.social 🇵🇹🇪🇺🇬🇧🌳
neuralml.github.io
www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/neuroai
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaDeadline in 3 days (Thursday 5th) to apply for a PhD with me and @ktsetsos.bsky.social at Trinity College Dublin in Cognitive Computational Neuroscience / neuro-AI. Please share!
- 🎓Fully-funded PhD studentship in Computational Cognitive Neuroscience!!! Join @seanfw.bsky.social and myself at @tcddublin.bsky.social for a PhD at the intersection of cutting-edge cognitive neuroscience (OPM-MEG) and neuro-AI. 🗓 Deadline: 5 Feb 2026 #neurojobs #neuroscience #compneuro
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaPostdoc position in Paris: come help develop new generation human brain computer interfaces ⚡🧠💻 Interested? Contact me if you have experience with machine learning (e.g. simulation-based inference, RL, generative/diffusion models) or dynamical systems. See below for + details and retweet 🙏
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaShould you go to academia or industry for research in AI or cognitive science? It's the most common question I get asked by PhD students, and I've written up some of my thoughts on the answer, as an epilogue to my research-focused series on these fields: infinitefaculty.substack.com/p/on-researc...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaAt @elife.bsky.social you can now include explainer videos with every figure. Like going to a seminar while you engage with the paper. First example here elifesciences.org/articles/106... Click the arrows next to each figure to get a video of @mathiassablemeyer.bsky.social explaining it for you!
- Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa@kordinglab.bsky.social and I ran a summer school last year to help young profs (<5 yrs) in systems/comp neuro thrive. compneurosci.com/Neuro4Pros/i... It was great! Now we want to know if you'd be interested in participating if we did this again this year? Let us know!
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaProud to have contributed to @jiaxuanqi.bsky.social's masterpiece out @nature.com! She shows that dopamine transients track the learned quality of song during juvenile learning and that dopamine release is driven not just by VTA firing, but by a local cholinergic mechanism! (1/x)
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaWanna compare dynamics across neural data, RNNs, or dynamical systems? We got a fast and furious method🏎️ The 1st preprint of my PhD 🥳 fast dynamical similarity analysis (fastDSA): 📜: arxiv.org/abs/2511.22828 💻: github.com/CMC-lab/fast... I’ll be @cosynemeeting.bsky.social - happy to chat 😉
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaNew paper led by wonder postdocs Francesca Greenstreet and @jessegeerts.bsky.social and @clopathlab.bsky.social trying to understand why –in the "what for" sense– there are multiple motor learning systems –supervised and RL-based– in the brain. Check out Jesse's 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- 🧠 New year, new preprint! Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaSome exciting opportunity for NeuroAI research at Johns Hopkins!
- Join us in advancing data science and AI research! The Johns Hopkins Data Science and AI Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is now accepting applications for the 2026–2027 academic year. Apply now! Deadline: Jan 23, 2026. Details and apply: apply.interfolio.com/179059
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaNew preprint. We show that in addition to reward prediction errors (RPEs), dorsal striatal dopamine signals encode sensory prediction errors (SPEs), the difference between sensory prior & observed stimulus. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaInterested in the latest advances in neuroscience (neural dynamics and internal models) and how they can be leveraged to build smarter, adaptive AI? ➡️ My first real solo piece 🖤🫶 @natneuro.nature.com rdcu.be/eWVmA
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaJust published my review of neuroscience in 2025, on The Spike. The 10th of these, would you believe? This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more Enjoy! medium.com/the-spike/20...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaCurious to hear from anyone who attended this workshop nenckiopenlab.org/why/ It explored questions like: What motivates – and demotivates us – in our research? How our overt motivations – ones that we speak about in public, in grant writing or science communication – relate to the real ones?
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaHigh impact, small size. We welcome papers that address findings from a single set of experiments, or that are substantial enough to stand alone in 1,500 words or fewer. Find out more: buff.ly/mVtikMw
- Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa1/X Excited to present this preprint on multi-tasking, with @david-g-clark.bsky.social and Ashok Litwin-Kumar! Timely too, as “low-D manifold” has been trending again. (If you read thru the end, we escape Flatland and return to the glorious high-D world we deserve.) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa🔬 We're hiring a Junior Group Leader for Data-Driven Digital Twins/System Models in medicine/life sciences at @uni_goettingen! Perfect opportunity for early-career researchers who want to: - Lead their own research group - Work at the intersection of AI, simulation, and biomedicine
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaBichan Wu (@bichanw.bsky.social) & I wrote a tutorial paper on Reduced Rank Regression (RRR) — the statistical method underlying "communication subspaces" from Semedo et al 2019 — aimed at neuroscientists. arxiv.org/abs/2512.12467
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaSpread the word: I'm looking to hire a postdoc to explore the concept of attention (as studied in psych/neuro, not the transformer mechanism) in large Vision-Language Models. More details here: lindsay-lab.github.io/2025/12/08/p... #MLSky #neurojobs #compneuro
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaCortical glutamatergic and GABAergic inputs support learning-driven hippocampal stability | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaIt's happening! Canada launched two programs to recruit international researchers. Canada Impact+ Research Chairs (1 million/yr for 8 yrs +) Canada Impact+ Emerging Leaders. I will do my best to facilitate the process for those interested. Hit me up. www.canada.ca/en/impact-pl...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaImpact of demographic change in one image.
- Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa📣We have 2 open faculty positions for senior researchers in Neuroscience at Queen's University! healthsci.queensu.ca/administrati... 1. a new Director for our Centre for Neuroscience Studies 2. a non-human primate NeuroAI researcher Please share widely and reach out for questions!
- @natneuro.nature.com wrote a very nice research highlighted of our paper www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaWe are opening a FACULTY POSITION (tenure track, permanent) in the University of Cambridge at the interface of control and biology, interpreted broadly. Theorists and wet lab quantitative biologists with backgrounds in control, EE, applied math, ... apply by Jan 28! www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/univers...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaFinally got the job ad—looking for 2 PhD students to start spring next year: www.gao-unit.com/join-us/ If comp neuro, ML, and AI4Neuro is your thing, or you just nerd out over brain recordings, apply! I'm at neurips. DM me here / on the conference app or email if you want to meet 🏖️🌮
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaIt feels surreal, but my 3+ years at @bristoluni.bsky.social are finished. It was a wonderful experience, and I had great fortune in the students who chose to work with me, the mentors and colleagues (academic and professional services) I had.
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaHow I contributed to rejecting one of my favorite papers of all times, Yes, I teach it to students daily, and refer to it in lots of papers. Sorry. open.substack.com/pub/kording/...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaA remarkable journey of resilience and transformation, from the chaotic corridors of group homes to the halls of Columbia and Stanford, EMERGENCE is a coming-of-age tale where heartbreak and humor meet the scientific wonder of modern artificial intelligence. 🔗 Preorder: tinyurl.com/fzcxb5ea
- A beautiful summary of our paper! Thank you @neurosock.bsky.social
- The hippocampus is not a library, it is a simulation engine. HPC is known for storing maps of the environment but not so known for generating planned trajectories. This paper proposes that recurrence in CA3 is crucial for planning. A🧵with my toy model and notes: #neuroskyence #compneuro #NeuroAI
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaBrains have many pathways / subnetworks but which principles underlie their formation? In our #NeurIPS paper lead by Jack Cook we identify biologically relevant inductive biases that create pathways in brain-like Mixture-of-Experts models🧵 #neuroskyence #compneuro #neuroAI arxiv.org/abs/2506.02813
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaIn next #BrAInWorldsJournalClub, denizkumral.bsky.social presents the work of @dabalpedamonti.bsky.social, @mohintasamia.bsky.social & @somnirons.bsky.social in Nat Commun 2025: doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64591-9 ✨Join @ilka-diester.bsky.social & @mschoenauer.bsky.social for an inspiring discussion💡
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaAre you looking to do independent research related to machine learning and/or data science? Want to get some teaching experience too? Apply to be a faculty fellow at the Center for Data Science at New York University! Positions are for two years. apply.interfolio.com/174686
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaDelighted to see this finally out: rdcu.be/eO9oW We tested whether brief striatal dopamine release events influence the vigor of skilled movements. Despite popular belief, we did not find any evidence linking rapid dopamine dynamics to motor vigor on a moment-by-moment basis.
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaApply to become a CSHL-Simons Fellow in Neuroscience! Run your own lab, pursue bold ideas, join a highly collaborative community! All areas including experimental or computational neuro, including NeuroAI & systems PhD required; ≤~1 yr postdoc www.cshl.edu/about-us/car...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa1/N How do neural dynamics in motor cortex interact with those in subcortical networks to flexibly control movement? I’m beyond thrilled to share our work on this problem, led by Eric Kirk @eric-kirk.bsky.social with help from Kangjia Cai! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaMultiple BBSRC funded PhD projects available via SWBio with Paul Chadderton looking at cerebellum bpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.bristo... with Denize Atan, Zaf Bashir Marc Goodfellow & Mike Ashby bpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.bristo... Please get in touch if you are interested in either project.
- Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa🚨Job alert🚨 The lab has up to *3 postdoc openings* for comp systems neuroscientists interested in describing and manipulating neural population dynamics mediating behaviour This is part of a collaborative ARIA grant "4D precision control of cortical dynamics" euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/383909
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaInterested in #neuroscience + #AI and looking for a PhD position? I can support your application @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social ✅ Check your eligibility (below) ✅ Contact me (DM or email) UK nationals: www.imperial.ac.uk/life-science... Otherwise: www.imperial.ac.uk/study/fees-a...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaProud to share our manifesto - with a vision and concrete steps towards just sustainability transitions in Dutch academia! With @rogierk.bsky.social, De Jonge Akademie, Green Young Academy www.dejongeakademie.nl/en/news/3148...
- How does the brain find its way in realistic environments? 🧠 Using deep RL and neural data, we show that hippocampal-like networks support navigation, learning, and generalisation in partially observable environments—mirroring real animal behaviour. Now out: www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroAI
- Led by @dabalpedamonti.bsky.social @mohintasamia.bsky.social in collaboration with Hugo Malagon-Vina and Stephane Ciocchi.
- A cool summary of our paper!
- A core function of cortex is predicting what happens next given the world's state. This recent paper from Oxford shows how cortical layers may use a delay trick to learn to predict. A simple illustration can explain the idea. A🧵with my toy model and notes: #neuroskyence #compneuro #NeuroAI
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaA core function of cortex is predicting what happens next given the world's state. This recent paper from Oxford shows how cortical layers may use a delay trick to learn to predict. A simple illustration can explain the idea. A🧵with my toy model and notes: #neuroskyence #compneuro #NeuroAI
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaApply to the new CSHL grad program in BioAI/neuroAI! (Masters degree or equivalent required in a quantitative area such as computer science, physics, mathematics, or engineering) www.cshl.edu/phd-program/...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaApplications open for postdoc fellowships at the @epfl-ai-center.bsky.social, deadline Nov 3. www.epfl.ch/research/fun.... Great opportunity to work with our world class faculty; the fellowship is set up for collaboration between multiple labs, including my #NeuroAI group 🤖🧠🧪
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaA study led by Cina Aghamohammadi is now out in @natcomms.nature.com! We developed a mathematical framework for partitioning spiking variability, which revealed that spiking irregularity is nearly invariant for each neuron and decreases along the cortical hierarchy. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaCome do a postdoc at the Wu Tsai Institute! WTI fellows have freedom to work with anyone at the institute, and preference is given to applicants who want to work on interdisciplinary projects with multiple faculty mentors. If you’re interested to work with me, please reach out!
- 📣 Calling experimental, computational, or theoretical researchers! WTI's Postdoc Fellowships application is now open, offering a competitive salary, structured mentorship, world-class facilities + more: wti.yale.edu/initiatives/... Apply by November 10: apply.interfolio.com/174525 #KnowTogether
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaMichael X Cohen on why he left academia/neuroscience. mikexcohen.substack.com/p/why-i-left...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaCome be our colleague at EPFL! Several open calls for positions 🧪🧠🤖 * Neuroscience www.epfl.ch/about/workin... (deadline Oct 1) * Life Science Engineering www.epfl.ch/about/workin... * CS general call www.epfl.ch/about/workin... * Learning Sciences www.epfl.ch/about/workin...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaA rather 'unique' paper from our lab is online in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social now. Unique in the sense that I don't think anyone else will be rushing to optotag cortical interneurons in the early postnatal brain... because it is nigh on impossible! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaInterested in doing a Ph.D. to work on building models of the brain/behavior? Consider applying to graduate schools at CU Anschutz: 1. Neuroscience www.cuanschutz.edu/graduate-pro... 2. Bioengineering engineering.ucdenver.edu/bioengineeri... You could work with several comp neuro PIs, including me.
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaHow is valence computed in the brain? Check out our new preprint about a single cell that integrates excitatory and inhibitory input across modalities according to valence and impacts behavioral decisions. An exciting collaboration across many labs. Enjoy reading! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte CostaLooking for a PhD next year? Want to come and work on the next generation of OPM-MEG/EEG biomarkers in computational psychiatry? Apply for our MRC iCase studentship with @mkflugge.bsky.social, collabs with @lilweb.bsky.social + industrial placement at P1Vital: www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/gradua...
- Reposted by Rui Ponte Costa#Cosyne2026 is now open for business! Show us what you got both for the main meeting & workshop proposals 🧠🥳🧠🥳🧠
