VarunWadia

1/10 Very excited to announce that my thesis project is now a preprint! We present the first detailed study of mental imagery in human ventral temporal cortex, bringing together the interests of @doristsao and @UeliRutishauser. biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

10/10 As always, thank you to the fantastic clinical team at @CedarsSinai @NeurosciencesCS, and all my colleagues at @Caltech @CaltechN @ChenInstitute @UCBerkeleyNeuro who gave me helpful advice along the way, my mentors @doristsao and @UeliRutishauser for guidance, and of course to all our patients who make this scientific endeavor possible.

9/10 These results are a strong addition to a growing body of evidence that the human brain possesses a generative model, capable of synthesizing detailed sensory content from an abstract semantic representation (i.e. verbal command). Generative models have captured societal imagination with their remarkable capabilities namely self-supervised learning, inference under ambiguity, object-based attention, etc., so to reveal a neural substrate for these capacities in ourselves paves the way to understanding things like artistic creative processes and even the representations of single episodic memories that have so far remained out of reach.

1/10 Very excited to announce that my thesis project is now a preprint! We present the first detailed study of mental imagery in human ventral temporal cortex, bringing together the interests of @doristsao and @UeliRutishauser. biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

(1/16) Excited to share new work on the neural code for memories of familiar faces in macaque IT and perirhinal cortex, led by Liang She w/ @Yuelin_Shi and collaborators Marcus Benna @NeuroTheoryUCSD and @StefanoFusi2. biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Out now: human STN role in action selection and cancellation; single-neuron correlate of hyperdirect pathway cancellation signals anatomically segregated from action selection neurons. @ClaytonPMosher @drpouratian @mahsamalek @NeurosciencesCS @CaltechN cell.com/neuron/fulltex…

Our take on neural architectures for flexibly constructing subjective values as a function of sensory & high-level features. Works for novel stimuli or familiar stimuli never experienced in a context. With colleagues Kiyohito Iigaya & John O’Doherty. psyarxiv.com/9uvqp

Recently published work from the lab of Doris Tsao shows that the brain contains a two-dimensional map of cells representing different objects. ow.ly/FTKy50BiCsh

I’m delighted to announce the winner of the scholarship, @ghezae_isaias from UCSB. His early experience with injustice has taken him on a thrilling intellectual path. Read his inspiring story & share in his joy of discovery, borne of pain @BlackInNeuro dropbox.com/s/up01duhl3xjd…

@SamHarrisOrg @niubi @mcgregorrichard

“Part of me wishes I could say that my experience was unique. But the truth is that intellectual curiosity—let alone risk-taking—is now a liability at The Times.” @nytimes please do better.

As we search for unifying principles that underlie deeply complex phenomena, modern science necessitates large collaborative efforts. Glad to see that India is making a concerted effort to bring it's scientists together!

Your move, @Caltech.

Congratulations @Antihebbiann!!