Emerson F. Harkin

Computational neuroscience post-doc trying to figure out serotonin | he/him

[Emerson F. Harkin @efharkin_]

What do you get when you combine RL and predictive coding? The in vivo activity patterns of serotonin neurons.

Excited to share a new theory and analysis to back it up! https://t.co/P6iYZClUGA

With @NeuroNaud and @JCBeique in collab with @grossmancooper & @JeremiahYCohen.

🧵

[Emerson F. Harkin @efharkin_]

😎

[Nature Portfolio @NaturePortfolio]

A study in @NatureComms identifies a neural circuit in mice that transmits cool sensation from the skin to the brain, revealing a dedicated pathway for detecting innocuous cool temperatures. https://t.co/TCfI0uFuM1

[Emerson F. Harkin @efharkin_]

@guido_meijer Congrats on this very cool work! Exciting to see it out as a preprint.

[Guido Meijer @guido_meijer]

🚨Pre-print alert🚨

We stimulated serotonin while doing large-scale Neuropixel recordings across the mouse brain. We found widespread modulation of neural activity, but no effect on the choices of the mouse🐭

How is this possible? Strap in! (1/9) 👇🧵

https://t.co/nPMXEE8vPd

[Emerson F. Harkin @efharkin_]

After living in Germany for a year, this article made me laugh out loud. The director of my research institute here once told me that in a slow year, he physically signs ~1200 documents.

https://t.co/v3E6lwGS2s

[Emerson F. Harkin @efharkin_]

@KordingLab @shansiddiqi My thinking on causal inference is really influenced by Andrew Gelman's writing. In short, if we see that X and Y are correlated and the only plausible reason is that X causes Y, then we can infer causality. This is typical of randomized experiments, but not exclusive to them.

[monosov_lab @MonosovLab]

At JHU, our team will work on the circuit / algorithmic basis of intelligence & cognition, with attention to their malfunction in disease. We are looking for new team members with experience in circuit neuroscience, biology, or machine intelligence. Please DM if u are interested.

[Ahmed El Hady @zamakany]

If you are around in Berlin May 13th , come attend my talk at The Bernstein Center for computational neuroscience lecture hall May 13th at 4 pm . All details here : https://t.co/ppPWC4vKqP

Thank you @liviadehoz and @SFB1315 for the invitation .

[Decision Neuroscience and Neuroeconomics Papers @decisionneurop]

Dopamine in the tail of the striatum facilitates avoidance in threat–reward conflicts https://t.co/PPWCw8bCRw

[Richard Naud @NeuroNaud]

I'm always impressed when I read an article about work I was involved in that summarizes better than what I feel capable of :
https://t.co/1dg0mj5Gx0

[Richard Naud @NeuroNaud]

What are serotonin neurons trying to tell the brain? Our work on the question has been so much fun (@JCBeique , @JermiahYCohen, @grossmancooper ). Check out @efharkin_ 's exciting paper
https://t.co/B4N4trwXvb

https://t.co/762ODzWcT0

[Emerson F. Harkin @efharkin_]

@OhUrbanity I've never felt so conflicted about the man. He's clearly bursting with pride for the auto industry... Maybe if he channels that energy into this trade spat he'll forget about bike lanes for a while.

[Emerson F. Harkin @efharkin_]

Already read the pre-print? https://t.co/P6iYZClUGA

Come hear about our new re-analysis of a free reward consumption experiment from the Minmin Luo lab, and how heterogeneous discounting might fit in! 2/2

[Emerson F. Harkin @efharkin_]

What makes serotonin neurons tick?

Stop by #COSYNE2025 poster 1-116 on Thursday to hear about how an energy-efficient code for value explains the in vivo responses of serotonin neurons to rewards and punishments. 1/2

[Richard Naud @NeuroNaud]

Exciting new development for burstprop algorithms

[Rui Ponte Costa @somnirons]

Our paper on how the cerebellum learns to drive cortical dynamics for rapid task learning, switching and consolidation is now out in @NatureComms
https://t.co/b5z4iqKjoM

[Justin O'Hare @JustinKOHare]

The Dendrites GRC/S is a consistently fantastic meeting - highly recommend!

[Timothy O'Leary @Timothy0Leary]

Apropos of never ending discussions about whether ANNs are "good" models of the nervous system, here is a slide I present to masters students showing a network that is found in motor control circuits *across phyla* (that's pretty ubiquitous!) I ask them to guess what it does...

[Laura Driscoll @lndriscoll]

If you want to do a postdoc w me (or generally do theory at Allen/UW) apply for this!

It’s a pretty independent postdoc position for people with a quantitative background, and pays well (104K)! 

Due date is Dec 16th. Here’s the link to apply. https://t.co/1kjYJhWQdZ

[Emerson F. Harkin @efharkin_]

New blog post about asymmetric learning rates in reward learning. What do they do and why?

Slower learning for negative RPEs causes slower learning when the environment gets worse (duh!) but also causes an optimism bias when rewards are random. 🤔

https://t.co/71ImGoUhdM

[Emerson F. Harkin @efharkin_]

@dlevenstein Every model is wrong, but some are useful...