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Scientist interested in all aspects of brain and behavior. Loves to talk math and data. Professor of Biology at University of Washington, Seattle. Mom of 2 epsilons; paints in watercolor here, there, and anywhere. lab website www.bingbrunton.com/people

Bing Wen Brunton

1mo

Run, don’t walk, to your closest local preprint server to see our latest 3D tracking results! I’m still tickled that our results show flies don’t exactly walk, they “ground run” everywhere. I bet they also talk fast and suffer no fools.

I got to nerd out with @seanmcarroll.bsky.social last week 😎

1mo

Bing Wen Brunton

A new preprint shows that deep learning can make a fly walk realistically using a worm’s brain — exposing a fundamental problem with how connectome models are being built and sold to investors. By @natmesanash.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...

2mo

We tracked mice in space! This video shows our estimate of their self-induced centripetal force during circling in 3D 👩‍🚀 Preprint thread below 👇

for the cpg curious, we made this video to explain the project www.youtube.com/watch?v=twAZ...

The sphinx, with a worm’s brain and a fly’s body, illustrates the potential pitfalls of using deep-learning techniques to model biological processes.

www.thetransmitter.org

Cool new work from @dudman.bsky.social and @fluketc.bsky.social Reward magnitude determines reinforcement learning efficiency: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

‘Digital sphinx’ raises questions about connectome models

Revision of @sarahpugly.bsky.social's 🪰 walking CPG preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Major updates: → motor rhythms replicate across 4 connectomes (incl. 2 new full-CNS datasets) → robust across all 6 legs → new analyses of the CPG motif show it's an outlier in the VNC → improved code docs

Researchers have long searched for the neural circuit underlying locomotion. Now they’ve found it in flies. By @natmesanash.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...

Mindscape 352 | Bing Brunton @bingbrunton.bsky.social on Connecting the Connectome to the Body. #MindscapePodcast www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026...

New preprint: Whole-body 3D kinematics of freely behaving 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑎 New tech from @blobology.bsky.social & others at @hhmijanelia.bsky.social, which @ispizua.bsky.social and @elliottabe.bsky.social used to gain insight into 3D structure of locomotion & courtship www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

1mo

23d

1mo

Video

The Transmitter

YouTube video by Bing Wen Brunton

www.youtube.com

Standard animal learning studies minimize individual reward magnitudes to maximize the repetitions of reinforced behaviors. We investigated how reward magnitude influences initial learning across five...

Connectome simulations identify a central pattern generator circuit for fly walking

Reward magnitude determines reinforcement learning efficiency

www.science.org

The neuronal circuit controlling repetitive locomotion patterns in any animal has been a mystery until now.

www.thetransmitter.org

Long-sought walking circuit found in fruit flies

The Transmitter

Talmo Pereira

John Tuthill

Jibran Khokhar

Sean Carroll

1/ New preprint! 🧪With @talmo.bsky.social and team, we used deep learning on archival NASA video of mice on the ISS. Turns out mice in microgravity become tiny acrobats: huddling to sleep, doing backflips, even briefly generating their own ~1g. #SpaceBiology #OpenScience #NASA #SLEAP

1mo

www.biorxiv.org

Amelia Eisch 🧪🧠👩‍🔬 🐁