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JNS 2025 Satellite Symposium: Connecting Digital Brains Across the World: July 23, 2025, Niigata & Online

by Kenji Doya

We are organizing a Satellite Symposium of Japan Neuroscience Society meeting "Connecting Digital Brains Across the World” on July 23, 2025 at Toki Messe, Niigata, Japan: https://digitalbrainproject.github.io/home/JNS2025satellite.html On-site and online participation is free, not requiring a registration for the JNS main conference, but requires pre-registration from the above web site by July 18, 2025. Following short presentations, we will discuss what is a digital brain, how to build it, and how to use it. We welcome participants from wide fields including experimental/computational neuroscience and NeuroAI. Invited Speakers: Viktor Jirsa (Institut de Neurosciences des Systemes, France) Virtual Brain Twins for medicine Shinya Ito (Allen Institute, USA) Deep-learning-assisted simulation of a cortical circuit: integrating anatomy, physiology, and function Franco Pestilli (University of Texas at Austin, USA) Putting big data and AI to good use in neuroscience Sacha van Albada (Jülich Research Centre, Germany) Toward more standardized brain modeling to break the complexity barrier Saori Tanaka (ATR, Japan) A Brain Data Platform for the Digital Brain: Current Status and Future Directions Jason Ritt (Brown University, USA) Standardized Neuroscience Data Formats and Non-Standardized Scientists Charissa Poon (RIKEN CBS, Japan) A 3D transcriptomic and connectivity atlas of the adult marmoset brain Michael Denker (Jülich Research Centre, Germany) Kanso, Kaizen, Code: Three thoughts on finding Ikigai of digital brain science infrastructure Takuya Isomura (RIKEN CBS, Japan) Reverse engineering of generative models for predicting learning Organizers: Kenji Doya (OIST), Carlos Gutierrez (Softbank/OIST), Takuya Isomura (RIKEN CBS), Ken Nakae (Fukui University), Saori Tanaka (NAIST/ATR), Yukako Yamane (OIST) ---- Kenji Doya <doya(a)oist.jp> Neural Computation Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University 1919-1 Tancha, Onna, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan Phone: +81-98-966-8594; Fax: +81-98-966-2891 https://groups.oist.jp/ncu CAUTION: This email originated from outside the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

July 14, 2025

Open PhD position in project SHIFT: A Shift towards Dynamic Perception Analysis with Continuous Psychophysics

by Constantin Rothkopf

We have a fully funded open PhD position in the lab of Constantin Rothkopf (https://www.pip.tu-darmstadt.de/) at the Centre for Cognitive Science @ TU Darmstadt in a joint DFG-AEI project in collaboration with Joan López-Moliner (U. Barcelona) on continuous psychophysics. This exciting new experimental paradigm abandons the rigid trial structure involving binary responses and replaces it with continuous behavioral adjustments to dynamic stimuli: Bonnen, K., Burge, J., Yates, J., Pillow, J., & Cormack, L. K. (2015). Continuous psychophysics: Target-tracking to measure visual sensitivity. Journal of vision, 15(3), 14-14. https://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2301260 Together with a computational analysis framework based on Bayesian inverse optimal control it is possible to not only recover the perceptual sensitivity but additionally estimate participants’ action variability, internal behavioral costs, and subjective beliefs about the experimental stimulus dynamics: Straub, D., & Rothkopf, C. A. (2022). Putting perception into action with inverse optimal control for continuous psychophysics. Elife, 11, e76635. https://elifesciences.org/articles/76635 In SHIFT, we want to validate, refine, and extend our analysis method for continuous psychophysics. Our group is part of the Centre for Cognitive Science (http://www.cogsci.tu-darmstadt.de/) and the AI Center at TU Darmstadt, which are home to an internationally outstanding group of PIs and junior researchers working in the areas of computational cognitive science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. We are part of several research consortia including two recently awarded Excellence Clusters (The Adaptive Mind & Reasonable AI), we are part of the Simons Collaboration on Ecological Neuroscience, and engage in multiple fruitful research collaborations. The lab has state of the art equipment for eye and body tracking, VR, naturalistic task monitoring, psychophysics and access to one of the most generous computing infrastructures in Germany. We foster an inclusive, supportive, and collaborative environment driven by scientific curiosity and mutual respect and we maintain close interactions with other research groups including joint lab meetings. Applicants may have a background in cognitive science, computer science, neuroscience, psychology, engineering, or related fields. Don’t hesitate to contact me informally for more details if you have any questions. Please send an application including a CV, a two page cover letter explaining your research interests, motivation for joining the project, and contact information for 2-3 references in a single pdf file. Please include "SHIFT" in the subject of your mail. Applications will be reviewed on a continuing basis. The Frankfurt-Darmstadt metropolitan area is located in the heart of Europe and is one of the most international regions in Germany with a diverse community and rich culture repeatedly earning high rankings in worldwide surveys of quality of living. Frankfurt recently reached 7th place worldwide in a ranking of attractiveness by the Economist and Darmstadt has repeatedly ranked among the top innovation driving cities in Germany. All the best, Constantin Rothkopf -- Prof. Constantin A. Rothkopf, PhD Technical University of Darmstadt, Alexanderstr. 10, 64283 Darmstadt phone: +49 6151 16-23367 https://tu-darmstadt.zoom-x.de/my/crothkopf Psychology of Information Processing Group https://www.pip.tu-darmstadt.de/ Centre for Cognitive Science http://www.cogsci.tu-darmstadt.de/ Hessian Center for Artificial Intelligence https://hessian.ai/ Institute of Psychology https://www.psychologie.tu-darmstadt.de/

July 14, 2025

Opportunity in Maastricht for a professor in computational neuroscience or AI in biology

by Jolivet, Renaud (MACSBIO)

The Dutch government has announced a scheme to attract excellent faculty from abroad (https://www.nu.nl/wetenschap/6362102/miljoenenfonds-om-wetenschappers-naar-…) My department (Systems Biology and Bioinformatics) already has 3 computational neuroscientists and one ERC Synergy Grant. We are interested in attracting one more faculty member. If you are already established and would like to move to Maastricht, please reach out to me ASAP. Renaud — Prof. Dr. Renaud B. Jolivet, FISC André Mischke YAE Prize for Science and Policy 2023 and MCAA Career Award 2022 Chair of Neural Engineering and Computation, MaCSBio, Maastricht University User Team Leader, ISOLDE, CERN ERA Forum Stakeholder Representative, European Commission Chair of the Science and Technology Committee, EBRAINS Polymath Fellow, GCSP +41798302129 (mobile) ‭+31433881741 (office)‬ r.jolivet(a)maastrichtuniversity.nl <mailto:renaud.jolivet@unige.ch> twitter.com/RenaudJolivet <https://twitter.com/RenaudJolivet> linkedin.com/in/renaud-jolivet-63b5534 <http://linkedin.com/in/renaud-jolivet-63b5534> scholar.google.ch/citations?user=9Ozwv7EAAAAJ <http://scholar.google.ch/citations?user=9Ozwv7EAAAAJ>

July 14, 2025

Call for Papers & Demos – NeurIPS 2025 Workshop on Foundation Models for the Brain and Body

by Nanda Harishankar Krishna

Hi everyone, We are organizing a workshop on “Foundation Models for the Brain and Body <https://brainbodyfm-workshop.github.io/>” at NeurIPS 2025. The workshop brings together researchers at the interface of biosignals and machine learning. We invite submissions of short papers on novel research in neuroscience, biosignal analysis, and machine learning, with a focus on foundation models and representation learning for neural, physiological, and behavioral data. We also invite interactive demo proposals that showcase novel methods, devices, or applications. We broadly define biosignals as any temporal signal directly or indirectly generated by the brain or body. This includes neural recordings (e.g., EEG, MEG, multi-electrode arrays), physiological signals (e.g., heart rate, respiration), and behavioral signals (e.g., pose extracted from video, gaze). Submissions may focus on methods, applications, or theoretical insights that enhance our understanding of neural and physiological signals in humans and animals. We particularly encourage submissions aligned with foundation model research: models that demonstrate scalability, generalization across tasks, subjects, or modalities. Relevant topics Include, but are not limited to: - Large-scale pretraining on neural or physiological signals - Scaling laws for biosignal foundation models - Brain-computer interfaces and neural decoding - Self-supervised learning for biosignals - Transfer learning across recording modalities - Wearable technology and real-world deployment - Cross-subject and cross-task generalization - Multimodal integration of biosignals - Robust models for noisy biosignal data - Applications to health and clinical diagnosis - Interpretability of biosignal representations - Few-shot, zero-shot, and continual learning in biosignal contexts - Synthetic data generation and augmentation for biosignals - Open datasets, benchmarks, and reproducible evaluation pipelines - Human-AI collaboration for signal interpretation and labeling - Modeling behavioral signals (e.g., pose, gaze) Important Dates - Paper Submission Deadline: August 22, 2025 (AoE) on OpenReview <https://openreview.net/group?id=NeurIPS.cc/2025/Workshop/BrainBodyFM> - Author Notification: September 22, 2025 (AoE) - Workshop Date: To be held during NeurIPS 2025 We have a great lineup of keynote speakers: - Hubert Banville, Meta - Juan Helen Zhou, National University of Singapore - Cuntai Guan, Nanyang Technological University - Guillermo Sapiro, Apple, Princeton University - Eva Dyer, University of Pennsylvania For more details, check out our website: https://brainbodyfm-workshop.github.io/ Best regards, Nanda H Krishna, on behalf of the organizers

July 11, 2025

School of Ideas in Neuroscience 2025, Warsaw, Sept 8-13

by Mateusz Kostecki

Hello! We are thrilled to announce the *School of Ideas in Neuroscience 2025*! How is knowledge in neuroscience accumulated? How can we make sense of the terabytes of empirical data collected every day? In our everyday work, we often forget that every scientific endeavor is embedded within a broader theoretical framework. At the same time, most courses and workshops in neuroscience focus on experimental techniques, providing us with more tools to gather more data—but rarely teaching us how to develop *ideas* and integrate our research with existing knowledge. We believe that theoretical thinking and idea development are skills that can be trained, just like learning new methodologies or data analysis tools. At our school, we aim to teach participants how to think theoretically—to collect data that makes sense and to make sense of the data collected. Come to Warsaw to discuss the most exciting *theories and ideas* with neuroscientists and philosophers! We provide beautiful surroundings, a great atmosphere, and plenty of time to talk and think together. The School will take place in *Warsaw, September 8–13, 2025*. The fee is *EUR 700*, but we offer *fee waivers* and *travel grants*. For more information and to apply, please visit: https://nenckiopenlab.org/the-school-of-ideas-in-neuroscience/school-of-ide… Best regards, The School of Ideas Team -- --- Mateusz Kostecki PhD Student Knapska Laboratory Nencki Institute 02-093 Warsaw, Pasteura 3, Poland https://twitter.com/mtkostecki https://evolvingbehavior.blog/

July 10, 2025

Research Fellow / Postdoc positions in Complex Networks and Brain Dynamics – Ref. 2025/21

by Jaroslav Hlinka

Research Fellow / Postdoc positions in Complex Networks and Brain Dynamics – Ref. 2025/21 We are looking for new team members to join the Complex Networks and Brain Dynamics group <http://cobra.cs.cas.cz/>to work on its interdisciplinary projects. The group is part of the Department of Complex Systems, Institute of Computer Science of the Czech Academy of Sciences - based in Prague, Czech Republic,https://www.cs.cas.cz/ <https://www.cs.cas.cz/>. We focus on the development and application of methods of analysis and modelling of real-world complex networked systems, with particular interest in the structure and dynamics of human brain function. Our main research areas are neuroimaging data analysis (fMRI & EEG, iEEG, anatomical and diffusion MRI), brain dynamics modelling, causality and information flow inference, nonlinearity and nonstationarity, graph theory, machine learning and multivariate statistics; with applications in neuroscience(epilepsy, schizophrenia, depression; and spontaneous dynamics of healthy brain), climate research, economics and general communication networks. More information about the group at Complex Networks and Brain Dynamics group <https://cobra.cs.cas.cz/> site. We offera full-time position with the following benefits: * Flexible working conditions including negotiable part time contract. * Monthly gross salary: 54 – 72 thousand CZK based on qualifications and experience. * Additional bonuses depending on performance. * Travel funding for conferences and research stays. * Five weeks of paid vacation on top of public holidays; social and health care insurance; child care facilities in the Institute’s building; highly attractive and safe location (Prague). * No teaching duties. We encourage you to apply, if you: * Hold a Ph.D. (Ph.D. student/Research Assistant positions available as well, see informal inquiries contact). * Have strong mathematical, statistical, data analysis, and/or machine learning skills. * Are a curious, self-motivated, hard-working, team-spirited researcher. * Are fluent in English. * Your prior experience with time series and network analysis is advantageous, but not required. Conditions of the contract: * Contract is for 3 -36 months duration. * Positions are available immediately or upon agreement. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, until filled. To apply, submit your application to jobs(a)cs.cas.cz <http://jobs@cs.cas.cz>and include: 1. Curriculum Vitae with a list of publications. 2. Ideally two letters of recommendation, sent by the referees directly to jobs(a)cs.cas.cz <http://jobs@cs.cas.cz>. 3. The Ref. No. 2025/21. 4. Cover letter in which you describe your motivation and qualifications for the position. For informal inquiries feel free to contact the group leader Ing. Mgr. Jaroslav Hlinka, Ph.D. <https://www.cs.cas.cz/staff/hlinka/en>: hlinka(a)cs.cas.cz -- Jaroslav Hlinka Head of the Department of Complex Systems Deputy Director, Institute of Computer Science Czech Academy of Sciences Pod Vodarenskou vezi 2 Prague 8, 182 00, Czech Republic Tel: (+420) 26605 3808 E-mail: hlinka(a)cs.cas.cz Web: http://www.cs.cas.cz/hlinka/ Complex Networks and Brain Dynamics Group (COBRA): http://cobra.cs.cas.cz Brain Dynamics consortium project (BRADY): https://brady.cs.cas.cz/

July 6, 2025

Max Planck Group Leader positions at Biological Cybernetics

by Peter Dayan

Max Planck Research Group Leaders at the MPI for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany. The aim of the MPI for Biological Cybernetics is to understand normal and dysfunctional information processing in the brains of humans and animals. We use experimental, theoretical and computational methods to elucidate the characteristics and implementations of the cascades of plastic and recurrent interactions that transform sensory data into perceptions, interoceptions, memories, appropriate choices of actions, and external and internal motor output. We are richly multidisciplinary, have excellent facilities for neuroimaging in humans and capacity for work in animal model systems. We have close links with neighbouring Max Planck Institutes and the University of Tuebingen that cover systems neuroscience, machine learning, and beyond. The working language of the Institute is English. We seek to recruit two independent research groups working in relevant areas and collaborating with each other, departments at the Institute and beyond. Funding covers a set-up package, the position of the group leader (equivalent to a German W2 professorship), one post-doctoral and one or two PhD student fellowships, a technician, secretarial support, plus consumables. It lasts in the first instance for 6 years, with the possibility of a merit-based extension for 3 further years. We seek talented candidates with successful track records who are interested in coming to build a Max Planck Research Group in this environment. Applications should include a CV, a list of publications, summaries of scientific achievements and research plans, and the names and contact details of three referees. Applications should be sent in PDF format no later than 15th August 2025 to: kyb-application(a)tuebingen.mpg.de Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an on-site interview on 11th November 2025. The Institute and the Max Planck Society seek to enhance the proportion of women in areas where they are underrepresented, and they are therefore specially encouraged to apply. The Max Planck Society aims to hire more disabled people, and applications from them are also most welcome. Informal inquiries can be addressed to Peter Dayan via: kyb-inquiry(a)tuebingen.mpg.de The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft is an independent, non-profit research organization that primarily promotes and supports basic research. The society currently operates over 80 institutes and research facilities with more than 23,400 employees, including 4,400 scientists.

July 4, 2025

Systems Vision Science Symposium (Aug. 20-22) – Program available

by Pavlovic, Maria

<https://summerschool.lizhaoping.org/contributions-for-symposium/> Systems Vision Science Symposium - <https://summerschool.lizhaoping.org/contributions-for-symposium/> Aug. 20-22, 2025 in Tübingen, Germany The program is now available here: <https://summerschool.lizhaoping.org/contributions-for-symposium/> https://summerschool.lizhaoping.org/contributions-for-symposium/ Space is limited to 100 attendants <https://summerschool.lizhaoping.org/contributions-for-symposium/> registration to the symposium is accepted until space is filled! -------------------------------- We are pleased to announce our symposium's keynote speaker: Tadashi Isa. Invited speakers of the Systems Vision Science Summer School and Symposium include: Marco Bertamini, David Brainard, Peter Dayan, Andrea van Doorn, Roland Fleming, Pascal Fries, Wilson S Geisler, Robbe Goris, Sheng He, Tadashi Isa, Tomas Knapen, Jan Koenderink, Laurence Maloney, Keith May, Marcello Rosa, Jonathan Victor, Li Zhaoping. -------------------------------- We invite you to participate in the symposium. The symposium is in the general topic of Systems Vision Science, which promotes the combination of computational, behavioral, and neuroscience methods to discover functions and algorithms for vision in various brain regions and their implementations in neural circuits. To maximize exchanges during the symposium, each poster will be displayed throughout the symposium, which includes four poster sessions (two daytime sessions and two evening sessions), in a venue next to the lecture hall and coffee breaks to give enough time for discussions, networking and knowledge exchange. -------------------------------- Please direct inquiries to <mailto:svs.summerschool@tue.mpg.de> svs.summerschool(a)tue.mpg.de <https://summerschool.lizhaoping.org/> https://summerschool.lizhaoping.org/ -------------------------------- Organizing team: Li Zhaoping Maria Pavlovic Vladislav Aksiotis Junhao Liang Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics University of Tuebingen

July 3, 2025

CNS*2025 workshop "Bridging Complexity and Abstraction: Large-Scale Mechanistic Models of Brain Circuits from Biophysically Detailed to Simplified Representations", 9th July 14:00 to 17:30

by Srikanth Ramaswamy

July 2, 2025

BabyBench Competition Announcement

by Jochen Triesch

Dear colleagues, We are thrilled to announce the official start of the first BabyBench Competition featured at the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) 2025! The topic of this first edition will be how infants discover their own bodies. Can you help the multimodal infant model MIMo learn two typical infant behaviors: self touch and hand regard? What is BabyBench? BabyBench is a Multimodal Benchmark of Infant Behaviors for Developmental Artificial Intelligence. The goal of the competition is to devise learning algorithms that allow MIMo to obtain important milestones of cognitive development. We provide the embodiment, the simulation environments, and the evaluation metrics; all you need is to implement your ideas. Are you up for the challenge? Important dates • Submission deadline: September 1, 2025 • Winner announcement at ICDL: September 19, 2025 Why Participate? • Low Entry Barrier: Get started quickly using our pre-defined, user-friendly simulation environment. Whether you're a seasoned researcher or a curious newcomer, the BabyBench platform is designed to let you focus on modeling, not engineering. • The winner will receive a €150 prize sponsored by the IEEE RAS TC Cognitive Robotics. • All finalists will receive a certificate at the IEEE ICDL. • Contribute to the Developmental AI community! For more information visit https://babybench.github.io/2025 Main contact point: Francisco Lopez (fcomlop(a)gmail.com) Feel free to forward this to anyone who might be interested! Warm regards, The BabyBench 2025 Organizing Team Francisco M. López (Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies) Valentin Marcel (Czech Technical University in Prague) Xavier Hinaut (INRIA Bordeaux) Jochen Triesch (Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies) Matej Hoffmann (Czech Technical University in Prague)

July 2, 2025