🧠 New preprint by Greenstreet, Geerts, Gallego, and Clopath on #MotorLearning across #cortex, #cerebellum, and #BasalGanglia.

Key idea: supervised learning builds a low-dimensional action embedding, and #ReinforcementLearning operates directly in this structured space. This explains generalization, interference, and striatal similarity patterns as geometric consequences, not add-ons.

🌍 https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.19.695526

#Neuroscience #CompNeuro #RL

Songbird connectomics, from my colleague Joergen Kornfeld:
https://www.songbird-connectomics.org/

Includes the first connectome of basal ganglia.

Three key papers:

"The songbird basal ganglia connectome", Rother et al. 2025 (Kornfeld lab)
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.25.684569v1

"An anatomical substrate of credit assignment in reinforcement learning", Kornfeld et al. 2025 (with Michael Fee as senior author)
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.18.954354v2

"Songbird connectome reveals tunnelling of migratory neurons in the adult striatum", Shvedov et al. 2025 (B.B. Scott's lab)
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.24.684388v1

#neuroscience #connectomics #ZebraFinch #songbirds #BasalGanglia

Something I always wondered about people with #tourettes and #ticdisorders:

We're almost always empaths.

The part of our brain - the #prefrontalcortex - responsible for #empathy is slightly larger than usual while the part of our brain in our #basalganglia regulating motor planning/control, has faulty neuro-pathways and shrunken parts.

More connections to the PFC as an adaptation, resulting in glitchy motor controls but perhaps very deep emotions.

#writing #mentalhealth #neuroscience

How Brain Circuits Influence Mood, Behavior, and Social Skills

#BrainCircuits #Neuroscience #MentalHealth #BrainNetworks #EmotionAndDecision #DefaultModeNetwork #BasalGanglia #LimbicSystem #Neurobiology #CognitiveScience

https://youtube.com/shorts/OQ_sy3WfFG8?feature=share

Reward, Resistance, and Responsibility: The Brain’s Circuitry of Motivation and Control

#BrainCircuits #Neuroscience #DecisionMaking #BasalGanglia #Dopamine #Neocortex #Amygdala #Learning #Motivation #Addiction #NeuroscienceExplained #BrainScience #NeuralPathways #MindAndBehavior

https://youtube.com/shorts/OKum-FvYwHU?feature=share

Exploring the Mind-Body Connection: How Awareness Transforms Motor Skills

#MotorBehavior #MindfulMovement #BodyAwareness #Neuroscience #Balance #Posture #MotorSkills #BasalGanglia #Somatosensory #Hyperlordosis #SelfExpression #OculoMotor #HealthyLiving #MovementMatters #DanceThroughLife

https://youtube.com/shorts/p0fket_qLr4?feature=share