Apurva Ratan Murty
@apurvaratan
Neuroscientist. Assistant Professor of Cognition and Brain Science @GeorgiaTech Prev: Postdoc @MIT, PhD @iiscbangalore
Very proud to share our @iclr_conf paper: TopoNets! High-performing vision and language models with brain-like topography! Expertly led by grad student @mayukh091 and @MainakDeb19! A brief thread..
Send us an application if you're interest in a postdoc with us to work on the human neuroscience of brain body interactions and motivated behavior in psychiatric disorders!
Please RT! We're hiring a postdoc to work with me and @sankar_alagapan on an exciting interdisciplinary project in human neuroscience and brain-body interactions underlying effortful behavior in health and mood disorders. siplab.gatech.edu/postdoc_ad_202…
Our paper is now accepted at Neural Networks! This work builds on our previous threads, updated with deeper analyses. We revisit brain-to-image reconstruction using NSD + diffusion models—and ask: do they really reconstruct what we perceive? Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.neun… 🧵1/12
Recent studies have shown photorealistic reconstructions from fMRI data using CLIP/diffusion models and the NSD dataset (Left). We evaluated the methods on the Deeprecon dataset (Shen+ 2017/19) with added annotations, but found the results not so impressive ( Right).
Can we precisely and noninvasively modulate deep brain activity just by riding the natural visual feed? 👁️🧠 In our new preprint, we use brain models to craft subtle image changes that steer deep neural populations in primate IT cortex. Just pixels. 📝arxiv.org/abs/2506.05633
Can't make it to Amsterdam for CCN2025? Join a local meetup! Watch the livestream with colleagues at institutions worldwide. On our website we host a map with existing meetups near you & you can also register to host your own! 📍 View meetups & register: 2025.ccneuro.org/local-meetups/
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MIT Mentor: @Nancy_Kanwisher (center) has guided more than 70 PhD students + postdocs during her career, including @ev_fedorenko (left), @JoshHMcDermott (center) + @Rebecca_Saxe (right), who are now her colleagues at the McGovern Institute. Learn more: indd.adobe.com/view/dce9d2fc-…
#VSS2025 Tomorrow in Talk Room 2 at 9.15AM. @mayukh091 will be presenting our work on TopoNets! You can read more about this work at toponets.github.io.

Come listen to Beh Lahner talk about the MOSAIC dataset! Mosaic has no train-test leakage and is large enough to train brain models directly from these data. Joint work with @AudeOliva’s lab

Catch @mayukh091 and @MainakDeb19 at #ICLR2025 where they will be presenting their Spotlight paper on Vision and Language topographic models (TopoNets)
Come check out our Spotlight paper - TopoNets at #ICLR2025! DM me if you're interested in discussing structured LLMs, vision models and brain-inspired algorithms in Singapore! 24 Apr 3:00pm-5:30pm - Hall 3 + Hall 2B #58 Website: toponets.github.io
In a study now out in @eLife, @GeorginJacob @PramodRT9 and I have some exciting results: a novel computation that helps the brain solve disparate visual tasks, a novel brain region that performs this computation....what's not to like?! Read on.... 1/n elifesciences.org/articles/93033
In case it's of interest, here are links to the technical details behind each topic: 1. NeuroAgents research program: tinyurl.com/yc48bnz4 & talk here: youtube.com/watch?v=9_7mQu… 2. NeuroAI Turing Test (with @jenellefeather, @meenakshik93, and @apurvaratan):…
As a long-time fan of @pgmid's "Brain Inspired" podcast, it was an honor to be invited on to talk about NeuroAgents, our update to the Turing Test, and AI safety at the end. Coincidentally recorded on my birthday, no less! Check it out here 👇
In this “Brain Inspired” episode, @aran_nayebi joins @pgmid to discuss his reverse-engineering approach to build autonomous artificial-intelligence agents. thetransmitter.org/brain-inspired…
Considering a PhD in neuroscience? See what IIT Kanpur has to offer. Join an online interaction with the faculty on 3rd April at 7 pm using this link: teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/…
A big shout-out to all the Neuroscience enthusiasts out there in the student community! The IITK-Neuroscience community is hosting their first open-house on 3rd April online!
Long-overdue thread on our latest work using the IBL data to reveal the shared organizational principles of the neural code in the cortex. A systematic analysis of categoricality 🧱 and dimensionality 📐 of the neural code across 40+ regions. doi.org/10.1101/2024.1… 👇 1/n
Incredible opportunity. Apply now!
Our language neuroscience lab (evlab.mit.edu) is looking for a new lab manager/FT RA to start in the summer. Apply here: tinyurl.com/3r346k66 We'll start reviewing apps in early Mar. (Unfortunately, MIT does not sponsor visas for these positions, but OPT works.)
🔥 TopoNets: High performing vision and language models with brain-like topography 🔗 ift.tt/li14Oj3 Quick share #HackerNews via IFTTT 👤 Posted by mayukhdeb on January 30, 2025 at 09:58PM 💡 Article URL: arxiv.org/abs/2501.16396 Comments URL: …
Also check out this other tweeprint by @MainakDeb19!
Unlike the brain, most ANNs lack any kind of organization of units🧠 In our paper (ICLR 2025) with @mayukh091 @apurvaratan, we present TopoLoss, a simple, scalable way to add brain-like topography to AI models with minimal performance loss🧵 toponets.github.io