How 'Neural' is a Neural Foundation Model?

Johannes Bertram, Luciano Dyballa, T Anderson Keller, Savik Kinger, Steven W Zucker

Abstract readPreprint

In one paragraph

Article in ArXiv, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

0citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Johannes BertramUniversity of Tubingen, Germany.

Luciano DyballaSchool of Science & Technology, IE University, Madrid, Spain.

T Anderson KellerThe Kempner Institute for Natural and Artificial Intelligence, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA.

Savik KingerDepartment of Computer Science, Yale, New Haven CT, USA.

Steven W ZuckerDepartment of Computer Science, Yale, New Haven CT, USA.

Funding

Elucidating Novel Features of Visual Processing and Physiological Connectivity from Retina to Primary Visual CortexR01EY031059 · NEI · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI Gregory Darin Field, Alexander C Huk · 2020 to 2026

$4.7M

NEI NIH HHS R01 EY031059

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Foundation models have shown remarkable success in fitting biological visual systems; however, their black-box nature inherently limits their utility for understanding brain function. Here, we peek inside a SOTA foundation model of neural activity (Wang et al., 2025) as a physiologist might, characterizing each 'neuron' based on its temporal response properties to parametric stimuli. We analyze how different stimuli are represented in neural activity space by building

Identifiers

PMID41647214

PMCPMC12869402

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.