Although stress can be considered as an ongoing process that helps an organism to cope with present and future challenges, when it is too intense or uncontrollable, it can lead to adverse consequences for physical and mental health. Social stress specifically, is a highly prevalent traumatic experience, present in multiple contexts, such as war, bullying and interpersonal violence, and it has been linked with increased risk for major depression and anxiety disorders. Nevertheless, not all individuals exposed to strong stressful events develop psychopathology, with the mechanisms of resilience and vulnerability being still under investigation. During this talk, I will identify key gaps in our knowledge about stress vulnerability and I will present our recent data from our contextual fear learning protocol based on social defeat stress in mice.

The Oldenburg lab combines optics, multiphoton optogenetics, calcium imaging, and computation to understand the motor system. The overall goal of the Oldenburg Lab is to understand the causal relationship between neural activity and motor actions. We use advanced optical techniques such as multiphoton holographic optogenetics to control neural activity with an incredible degree of precision, writing complex patterns of activity to distributed groups of cells. Only by writing activity into the brain at the scale in which it naturally occurs (individual neurons firing distinct patterns of action potentials) can we test theories of what population activity means. We read out the effects of these precise manipulations locally with calcium imaging, in neighboring brain regions with electrophysiology, and at the 'whole animal level' through changes in behavior. We are looking for curious motivated, and talented people with a wide range of skill sets to join our group at all levels from Technician to Postdoc.

Dr. Yao Chen’s Laboratory in the Department of Neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine is seeking a highly motivated and intellectually curious individual for a full-time research technician position. Our laboratory conducts basic research to understand how dynamics of molecular signals contribute to neuromodulator actions and sleep functions. We employ a wide variety of techniques ex vivo and in vivo, including advanced microscopy, electrophysiology, molecular biology, and behavior analysis. This position assists with the technical aspects of studies and experiments, including documentation and preparation of materials.

Postdoctoral position in Human Visual Psychophysics with fMRI/MRI, (m/f/d) (TVöD-Bund E13, 100%) The Department of Sensory and Sensorimotor Systems (PI Prof. Li Zhaoping) at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and at the University of Tübingen is currently looking for highly skilled and motivated individuals to work on projects aimed towards understanding visual attentional and perceptual processes using fMRI/MRI. The framework and motivation of the projects can be found at: https://www.lizhaoping.org/zhaoping/AGZL_HumanVisual.html. The projects can involve, for example, visual search tasks, stereo vision tasks, visual illusions, and will be discussed during the application process. fMRI/MRI technology can be used in combination with other methods such as eye tracking, TMS and/or EEG methodologies, and other related methods as necessary. The postdoc will be working closely with the principal investigator and other members of Zhaoping's team when needed. Responsibilities: • Conduct and participate in research projects such as lab and equipment set up, data collection, data analysis, writing reports and papers, and presenting at scientific conferences. • Participate in routine laboratory operations, such as planning and preparations for experiments, lab maintenance and lab procedures. • Coordinate with the PI and other team members for strategies and project planning. • Coordinate with the PI and other team members for project planning, and in supervision of student projects or teaching assistance for university courses in our field. Who we are: We use a multidisciplinary approach to investigate sensory and sensory-motor transforms in the brain (www.lizhaoping.org). Our approaches consist of both theoretical and experimental techniques including human psychophysics, fMRI imaging, EEG/ERP, and computational modelling. One part of our group is located in the University, in the Centre for Integrative Neurosciences (CIN), and the other part is in the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biological Cybernetics as the Department for Sensory and Sensorimotor Systems. You will have the opportunity to learn other skills in our multidisciplinary group and benefit from interactions with our colleagues in the university, at MPI, as well as internationally. This job opening is for the CIN or the MPI working group. The position (salary level TVöD-Bund E13, 100%) is for a duration of two years. Extension or a permanent contract after two years is possible depending on situations. We seek to raise the number of women in research and teaching and therefore urge qualified women to apply. Disabled persons will be preferred in case of equal qualification. Your application: The position is available immediately and will be open until filled. Preference will be given to applications received by March 19th, 2023. We look forward to receiving your application that includes (1) a cover letter, including a statement on roughly when you would like to start this position, (2) a motivation statement, (3) a CV, (4) names and contact details of three people for references, (5) if you have them, transcripts from your past and current education listing the courses taken and their grades, (6) if you have them, please also include copies of your degree certificates, (7) you may include a pdf file of your best publication(s), or other documents and information that you think could strengthen your application. Please use pdf files for these documents (and you may combine them into a single pdf file) and send to jobs.li@tuebingen.mpg.de, where also informal inquiries can be addressed. Please note that applications without complete information in (1)-(4) will not be considered, unless the cover letter includes an explanation and/or information about when the needed materials will be supplied. For further opportunities in our group, please visit https://www.lizhaoping.org/jobs.html

My team is looking for a person who will continue our current research on brain plasticity in deaf individuals. This work uses natural stimuli, for example, in our last experiment, we used half-hour animated movie without dialogue (“The triplets of Belleville”). We offer a possibility to work on a PhD using this novel and exciting research technique (see Hasson et al., Projections, 2008; Baldassano et al.., 2017) in a strong, international scientific team. The research will be a continuation of our previous work on mechanisms of brain plasticity in deaf individuals (Bola et al., 2017, Zimmermann et al., 2021). We plan to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The project will be carried out in cooperation with the team of prof. Christopher Baldassano (Columbia University, NYC, www.dpmlab.org/), the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology PAN In Warsaw (prof. Artur Marchewka, lobi.nencki.gov.pl/) and with the Research Laboratory on Polish Sign Language on University of Warsaw (team of prof. Piotr Tomaszewski).

Sleep expert with a Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience, Psychology, Biomedical Engineering or similar.

The PhD in Medical Sciences: The University of Nicosia Medical School offers the degree PhD in Medical Sciences. The degree is awarded to students who successfully complete an independent research programme that breaks new ground in the chosen field of study. The PhD programme aspires to empower students to become independent researchers, thus advancing innovation and development. The Research Project: We are currently inviting application through a competitive process for high calibre candidates to apply for one PhD Scholarship in the field of Neuroscience. The successful candidate will enrol on the PhD programme in Medical Sciences and will work under the Supervision of Prof Avgis Hadjipapas, Professor for Neuroscience and Research Methods at the University of Nicosia Medical School. The project is based on an international collaboration between the University of Nicosia Medical School, (UN) the University Maastricht University Medical Center (MUMC), Maastricht University (MU) and McGill University (McGill U). The project predominantly involves data-analysis (signal processing), which means that a large part of the project can be conducted remotely. Project Description: Title of research project: Characterization of circadian rhythm modulations in intracranial EEG and their relationship to seizure onsets in focal epilepsy Background, rationale and objectives: Epilepsy affects roughly 1% of the population, and about a third of patients have unpredictable seizures which cannot be adequately controlled with medication (Kuhlmann et al., 2018). Therefore, better understanding of seizure generation and improving seizure predictability are central goals in epilepsy research to prevent seizures from occurring. Recent investigations by our own (Mitsis et al., 2020) and other groups (Leguia et al., 2021) have shown that seizure onsets exhibit a tight correlation to certain phases of circadian rhythms, which leads to improved seizure predictability. However, our previous work (Mitsis et al., 2020) only utilized surface EEG. In this project, and based on a collaboration formed between the University of Nicosia Medical School (UN), Maastricht University Medical Center (MUMC), Maastricht University (MU), and McGill University (McGill U), we will address this question by examining intracranial recordings provided by the MUMC partner, obtained directly from the area of the suspected epileptogenic focus. We will first characterize in detail the circadian variation of signal parameters extracted from the intracranial EEG. We will then examine whether seizure onsets are phase coupled (correlated) to these circadian modulations. This will inform both important pathophysiological questions in terms of the extent of the functional seizure generating network. Further, analysis of this correlation at the level of individual patient recordings will inform the feasibility of seizure forecasting informed by circadian rhythms. Successful candidates will benefit from interacting with an international and interdisciplinary consortium of neuroscientists, neurologists and engineers throughout the duration of the project. References Karoly, P.J., Ung, H., Grayden, D.B., Kuhlmann, L., Leyde, K., Cook, M.J., Freestone, D.R., 2017. The circadian profile of epilepsy improves seizure forecasting. Brain 140, 2169–2182. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awx173 Kuhlmann, L., Lehnertz, K., Richardson, M.P., Schelter, B., Zaveri, H.P., 2018. Seizure prediction — ready for a new era. Nat. Rev. Neurol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-018-0055-2 Leguia, M.G., Andrzejak, R.G., Rummel, C., Fan, J.M., Mirro, E.A., Tcheng, T.K., Rao, V.R., Baud, M.O., 2021. Seizure Cycles in Focal Epilepsy. JAMA Neurol. In press, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2020.5370 Mitsis, G.D., Anastasiadou, M.N., Christodoulakis, M., Papathanasiou, E.S., Papacostas, S.S., Hadjipapas, A., 2020. Functional brain networks of patients with epilepsy exhibit pronounced multiscale periodicities, which correlate with seizure onset. Hum. Brain Mapp. hbm.24930. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24930 The Scholarship: The Scholarship will have a duration of three to four years and will cover: • The tuition fees for the PhD programme which are €13,500 in total for the first 3 years and €1,500 for year 4. • A monthly stipend of €1,000 for the duration of three to four years. Application for the PhD Scholarship: Candidates should submit an online application through this link and upload the following supporting documents: • A cover letter clearly stating that they apply for the PhD Scholarship in the field of Neuroscience for the PhD Research Project ‘Characterization of circadian rhythm modulations in intracranial EEG and their relationship to seizure onsets in focal epilepsy.’ • Copies of the applicant’s qualifications/degree(s) – the application can be assessed with scanned copies, but certified true copies must be provided if the candidate is successful and prior to enrolment on the PhD programme. • Copies of the applicant’s transcript(s) - the application can be assessed with scanned copies, but certified true copies must be provided if the candidate is successful and prior to enrolment on the PhD programme. • Proof of English language proficiency such as IELTS with a score of 7 overall and with a minimum score of 7 in writing or TOEFL iBT with a score of 94 overall and a minimum score of 27 in Writing. Other internationally recognized English language qualifications might be considered upon review. Students from the UK, Ireland USA, Canada (from English speaking provinces), Australia and New Zealand are exempt from the English language requirement. • Two reference letters, of which at least one should be from an academic. • A full Curriculum Vitae (CV). Applications should be submitted by Friday, July 29, 2022 at 5pm. Only fully completed applications, containing all necessary supporting documents will be reviewed. Only candidates who are shortlisted will be contacted and invited to an interview.

The Behnia Lab, is seeking to hire a Postdoctoral Research Scientist to assist with studies on how our brains see the world around us. The overarching goal of the lab is to define the processing steps that transform light signals in photoreceptors into feature of a visual scene such as color or direction of motion. For a given visual feature, we aim to describe not only the underlying mathematic operations (algorithms) that govern a transformation, but also the neural circuits that implement these. We make extensive use of connectomics data, as well as the abundant genetic tools available in fruit flies, and collaborate extensively with theorist to build biologically constrained models of perception. We are also interested in understanding how different internal/environmental states or other sensory systems influence the visual perception and how multisensory representations are used for higher cognitive functions such as learning and navigation. We invite to you review our website for more details about our work: http://behnialab.neuroscience.columbia.edu. Example projects include: 1/ A multidisciplinary collaboration with the laboratory of Ashok Litwin-Kumar at the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, aimed at defining circuit mechanisms underlying multisensory learning, 2/ Investigating the role of neuromodulatory systems in color processing. Please contact Rudy Behnia directly at rb3161@columbia.edu for more details. The Behnia lab is part of the Columbia University’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute (the Zuckerman Institute) brings together world-class researchers from varied scientific disciplines to explore aspects of mind and brain, through the exchange of ideas and active collaboration. The Zuckerman Institute’s home, the Jerome L. Greene Science Center is a state-of-the-art facility on Columbia’s Manhattanville campus. Situated in the heart of Manhattan in New York City, the Zuckerman Institute houses over 50 laboratories employing a broad range of interdisciplinary approaches to transform our understanding of the mind and brain. In this highly collaborative environment, experimental, computational, and theoretical labs work together to gain critical insights into how the brain develops, performs, endures and recovers. The Zuckerman Institute provides multiple levels of support for postdoctoral researchers (https://zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/postdocs). The Postdoc Program provides postdocs with an enriched research environment to advance their scientific training and support their professional growth. This includes frameworks to build a professional network of mentors and peers, through the personal board of advisors, as well as leadership opportunities, workshops and opportunities for public engagement. The Behnia lab strives to provide a supportive environment where creativity, independence, work/life balance are valued. We are strong advocates of diversity, equality, inclusion and belonging. We encourage application from applicants from diverse backgrounds.

The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the top ranked institutions in the country and ranks as one of the best places to work. The School of Psychology and Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience in the College of Sciences invites applications for a full-time, non-tenure-track Academic Professional faculty position, which is a Teaching Faculty and Academic Advisor position, beginning July 1st 2022 (earlier start possible). The successful candidate will join a vibrant group of faculty with interests in brain, cognition, behavior and (neuro)technology as well as innovative pedagogy and research in those fields. The Academic Professional faculty member will be primarily responsible for teaching courses in the undergraduate neuroscience curriculum. Additional duties include academic advising, course development, and program assessment. The position provides opportunities for program and professional development, as well as for promotion through the non-tenured faculty track. Preference will be given to applicants who are well prepared to teach neuroscience and who have strong background in quantitative and computational methods. The applicant must have a PhD in neuroscience, psychology or a related discipline and experience with teaching undergraduate neuroscience and/or psychology-related coursework. Applicants should provide a letter of intent, curriculum vita, teaching statement, and the names and contact information for two references. Applications can be submitted electronically in PDF format to (applicant portal). Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Georgia Tech is a top-ranked public research university situated in the heart of Atlanta, a diverse and vibrant city with great economic and cultural strengths. The Institute is a member of the University System of Georgia, the Georgia Research Alliance, and the Association of American Universities. Georgia Tech prides itself on its technology resources, collaborations, high-quality student body, and its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Georgia Tech is an equal education/employment opportunity institution dedicated to building a diverse community. We strongly encourage applications from women, underrepresented minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans. Georgia Tech has policies to promote a healthy work-life balance and is aware that attracting faculty may require meeting the needs of two careers.

The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the top ranked institutions in the country and ranks as one of the best places to work. The School of Psychology and Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience in the College of Sciences invites applications for a full-time, non-tenure-track Academic Professional faculty position, which is a Teaching Faculty and Academic Advisor position, beginning July 1st 2022 (earlier start possible). The successful candidate will join a vibrant group of faculty with interests in brain, cognition, behavior and (neuro)technology as well as innovative pedagogy and research in those fields. The Academic Professional faculty member will be primarily responsible for teaching courses in the undergraduate neuroscience curriculum. Additional duties include academic advising, course development, and program assessment. The position provides opportunities for program and professional development, as well as for promotion through the non-tenured faculty track. Preference will be given to applicants who are well prepared to teach neuroscience and who have strong background in quantitative and computational methods. The applicant must have a PhD in neuroscience, psychology or a related discipline and experience with teaching undergraduate neuroscience and/or psychology-related coursework. Applicants should provide a letter of intent, curriculum vita, teaching statement, and the names and contact information for two references. Applications can be submitted electronically in PDF format to (applicant portal). Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Georgia Tech is a top-ranked public research university situated in the heart of Atlanta, a diverse and vibrant city with great economic and cultural strengths. The Institute is a member of the University System of Georgia, the Georgia Research Alliance, and the Association of American Universities. Georgia Tech prides itself on its technology resources, collaborations, high-quality student body, and its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Georgia Tech is an equal education/employment opportunity institution dedicated to building a diverse community. We strongly encourage applications from women, underrepresented minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans. Georgia Tech has policies to promote a healthy work-life balance and is aware that attracting faculty may require meeting the needs of two careers.

The Varela lab is expanding, and we are excited to announce a new postdoctoral position to grow our current team in the Psychology Department at Florida State University (https://varelalab.create.fsu.edu/). Start date flexible within 2024. 1-2 years with possibility of extension. About us: The Varela Laboratory is dedicated to understanding the neural underpinnings of learning and memory in rodents, with a strong focus on investigating the role of the thalamus in sleep-dependent memory consolidation. We employ a wide array of cutting-edge neuroscience techniques, including electrode recordings in freely behaving rodents, closed-loop brain activity manipulations, optogenetics, and computational approaches. *** What you get *** • Work on exciting and impactful projects aimed at understanding the role of higher-order thalamic circuits in learning and memory. • Develop research skills utilizing state-of-the-art techniques in systems, behavioral and computational neuroscience. • Receive mentorship within a supportive lab environment situated in a large, multidisciplinary department spanning work in neuroscience and psychology (https://psychology.fsu.edu/).

Traditionally, touch is associated with exteroception and is rarely considered a relevant sensory cue for controlling movements in space, unlike vision. We developed a technique to isolate and measure tactile involvement in controlling sliding finger movements over a surface. Young adults traced a 2D shape with their index finger under direct or mirror-reversed visual feedback to create a conflict between visual and somatosensory inputs. In this context, increased reliance on somatosensory input compromises movement accuracy. Based on the hypothesis that tactile cues contribute to guiding hand movements when in contact with a surface, we predicted poorer performance when the participants traced with their bare finger compared to when their tactile sensation was dampened by a smooth, rigid finger splint. The results supported this prediction. EEG source analyses revealed smaller current in the source-localized somatosensory cortex during sensory conflict when the finger directly touched the surface. This finding supports the hypothesis that, in response to mirror-reversed visual feedback, the central nervous system selectively gated task-irrelevant somatosensory inputs, thereby mitigating, though not entirely resolving, the visuo-somatosensory conflict. Together, our results emphasize touch’s involvement in movement control over a surface, challenging the notion that vision predominantly governs goal-directed hand or finger movements.

Over the last 20 years, neuroimaging and electrophysiology techniques have become central to understanding the mechanisms that accompany loss and recovery of consciousness. Much of this research is performed in the context of healthy individuals with neurotypical brain dynamics. Yet, a true understanding of how consciousness emerges from the joint action of neurons has to account for how severely pathological brains, often showing phenotypes typical of unconsciousness, can nonetheless generate a subjective viewpoint. In this presentation, I will start from the context of Disorders of Consciousness and will discuss recent work aimed at finding generalizable signatures of consciousness that are reliable across a spectrum of brain electrophysiological phenotypes focusing in particular on the notion of edge-of-chaos criticality.

Predictive processing offers a unifying view of neural computation, proposing that brains continuously anticipate sensory input and update internal models based on prediction errors. In this talk, I will present converging evidence for the computational mechanisms underlying this framework across human neuroscience and deep neural networks. I will begin with recent work showing that large-scale distributed prediction-error encoding in the human brain directly predicts how sensory representations reorganize through predictive learning. I will then turn to PredNet, a popular predictive coding inspired deep network that has been widely used to model real-world biological vision systems. Using dynamic stimuli generated with our Spatiotemporal Style Transfer algorithm, we demonstrate that PredNet relies primarily on low-level spatiotemporal structure and remains insensitive to high-level content, revealing limits in its generalization capacity. Finally, I will discuss new recurrent vision models that integrate top-down feedback connections with intrinsic neural variability, uncovering a dual mechanism for robust sensory coding in which neural variability decorrelates unit responses, while top-down feedback stabilizes network dynamics. Together, these results outline how prediction error signaling and top-down feedback pathways shape adaptive sensory processing in biological and artificial systems.

The Nature versus Nurture debate has generally been considered from the lens of genome versus experience dichotomy and has dominated our thinking about behavioral individuality and personality traits. In contrast, the role of nonheritable noise during brain development in behavioral variation is understudied. Using the Drosophila melanogaster visual system, I will discuss our efforts to dissect how individuality in circuit wiring emerges during development, and how that helps generate individual behavioral variation.

Accurate perception of the environment is a constructive process that requires integration of external bottom-up sensory signals with internally-generated top-down information reflecting past experiences and current aims. Decades of work have elucidated how sensory neocortex processes physical stimulus features. In contrast, examining how memory-related-top-down information is encoded and integrated with bottom-up signals has long been challenging. Here, I will discuss our recent work pinpointing the outermost layer 1 of neocortex as a central hotspot for processing of experience-dependent top-down information threat during perception, one of the most fundamentally important forms of sensation.

Thalamic networks, at the core of thalamocortical and thalamosubcortical communications, underlie processes of perception, attention, memory, emotions, and the sleep-wake cycle, and are disrupted in mental disorders, including schizophrenia and autism. However, the underlying mechanisms of pathology are unknown. I will present novel evidence on key organizational principles, structural, and molecular features of thalamocortical networks, as well as critical thalamic pathway interactions that are likely affected in disorders. This data can facilitate modeling typical and abnormal brain function and can provide the foundation to understand heterogeneous disruption of these networks in sleep disorders, attention deficits, and cognitive and affective impairments in schizophrenia and autism, with important implications for the design of targeted therapeutic interventions

The cortex comprises many neuronal types, which can be distinguished by their transcriptomes: the sets of genes they express. Little is known about the in vivo activity of these cell types, particularly as regards the structure of their spike trains, which might provide clues to cortical circuit function. To address this question, we used Neuropixels electrodes to record layer 5 excitatory populations in mouse V1, then transcriptomically identified the recorded cell types. To do so, we performed a subsequent recording of the same cells using 2-photon (2p) calcium imaging, identifying neurons between the two recording modalities by fingerprinting their responses to a “zebra noise” stimulus and estimating the path of the electrode through the 2p stack with a probabilistic method. We then cut brain slices and performed in situ transcriptomics to localize ~300 genes using coppaFISH3d, a new open source method, and aligned the transcriptomic data to the 2p stack. Analysis of the data is ongoing, and suggests substantial differences in spike time coordination between ET and IT neurons, as well as between transcriptomic subtypes of both these excitatory types.

Functional connectomics reveals general wiring rule in mouse visual cortex

The COSYNE 2025 conference was held in Montreal with post-conference workshops in Mont-Tremblant, continuing to provide a premier forum for computational and systems neuroscience. Attendees exchanged cutting-edge research in a single-track main meeting and in-depth specialized workshops, reflecting Cosyne’s mission to understand how neural systems function:contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6}:contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}.

Each year the Bernstein Network invites the international computational neuroscience community to the annual Bernstein Conference for intensive scientific exchange:contentReference[oaicite:8]{index=8}. Bernstein Conference 2024, held in Frankfurt am Main, featured discussions, keynote lectures, and poster sessions, and has established itself as one of the most renowned conferences worldwide in this field:contentReference[oaicite:9]{index=9}:contentReference[oaicite:10]{index=10}.

Compelling evidence supports that exploiting both patient-derived and animal models is pivotal to reach a better understanding of Parkinson’s disease (PD) (DOI:10.1002/mds.28387). However, working with in vivo models can be challenging as most of them only partially reproduce the pathology at advanced age.We recently developed a novel zebrafish transgenic (tg) line expressing human full-length alpha-synuclein (aSyn) with an N-terminal mCherry tag named Tg(elavl3:mCherry-hsa.SNCA) which exhibit a series of PD-like features already in the larval stage. At 5 days-post-fertilization (dpf), Tg(elavl3:mCherry-hsa.SNCA embryos showed a significant reduction of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-immunopositive neurons and displayed high molecular weight pSer129-aSyn, a marker of mature aggregates, that was absent in controls. Moreover, the Tg(elavl3:mCherry-hsa.SNCA) larvae at 5 dpf exhibited an altered motility response to dark-light conditions, compared to controls. Collectively, these findings supports that Tg(elavl3:mCherry-hsa.SNCA) zebrafish larvae represent a promising complementary model for advanced microscopy studies, including fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM), functional assays and super-resolution microscopy to investigate aSyn function and aggregation in the synapse in vivo. Still, this novel zebrafish line appears suitable to test the efficacy of aSyn-targeted therapies by large screening analysis.

Anxiety, a heightened state of arousal and negative affect, is an adaptive response essential for increasing awareness of potential threats in the environment. Research on the mechanisms leading to the pathological development of this response is crucial. The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is recognized as a key brain region for encoding information related to salient stimuli, and in recent years, has been attributed a novel role as a threat encoder and coordinator of defensive behaviors. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) actively mediates responses to uncertainty in the environment, and is at the interface between cognitive and autonomic systems to promote appropriate behavioral strategies. BNST dysfunction may, thus, lead to a sustained state of hypervigilance to unpredictability, a hallmark of anxiety disorders. In this work, we investigated the functional role of the VTA as an upstream regulator of BNST activity, combining anatomical, functional, and behavioral approaches. We hypothesized that VTA neuronal transmission in the BNST promotes innate defensive behaviors related to uncertainty, with an exacerbated co-activity generating anxious behavior. Our results demonstrate that distinct VTA cell subtypes project directly to multiple BNST subdivisions, establishing a functional connection by exciting BNST cell populations. This excitation translates into cell-type specific behaviors upon optical manipulation, including rewarding and anxiety-like behaviors. Further in vivo exploration of this microcircuit will enable us to elucidate its role in the development and maintenance of anxiety-like states.

The dynamic role of neuroinflammation in diverse neurological disorders is still poorly characterized but could represent a promising avenue for therapeutic interventions. Here we aimed at characterizing brain-wide response of microglia to ischemic stroke in mouse. Microglia, the frontline responders to ischemic stroke, is known to exhibit diverse morphology and gene expression in response to diverse stimuli and depending on tissue context, yet how their activation signature propagates across the brain in response to local stroke has remained unknown. Here we established a whole-brain three-dimensional (3D) mRNA imaging method to map changes in microglia activation in the context of other injury associated changes. Brains from female and male mice were subjected to permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (pMCAO), and labelled for diverse microglia (i.e. Iba1, Hexb) and vascular markers (CD31, SM22a) at mRNA and protein level. Following tissue clearing, intact brains were visualized using light-sheet fluorescent microscopy. We show local accumulation of activated microglia and rearrangement of cerebral vasculature at the stroke site 7 days after occlusion. Stroke led to propagation of the inflammatory signal to distant brain regions, indicating broad effects that are not confined to the lesioned area. This study introduces a novel 3D imaging platform to track microglia activation during disease progression and could be utilized in preclinical pharmacological research.

Anxiety and mood disorders significantly impact individual well-being and societal health, highlighting the need for a thorough understanding of their risk factors. While early life stress is widely recognized as a risk factor for multiple psychiatric conditions, the neurobiological mechanisms driving these effects are yet to be fully understood.In this collaborative study, we investigated the long-lasting consequences of developmental stress on adult brain function, increasing susceptibility to the aforementioned disorders.To investigate the long-lasting consequences of developmental stress, we administered corticosterone injections to pregnant mice from gestational days 11 to 15 and subjected their offspring to limited bedding and nesting conditions during the early postnatal period (days 2-9). Both female and male adult offspring showed increased depressive- and anxiety-like behavior such as impaired social interaction, lack of motivation, and increased impulsivity. To investigate the neural correlates of these developmental-stress induced deficits, we performed whole-brain cFos mapping following the social interaction test. For this, we used a semi automated pipeline (https://biop.github.io/ijp-imagetoatlas/), recently developed in collaboration with N. Chiarrutini (Biop, EPFL).Interestingly, developmentally stressed male offspring displayed augmented brain activity in the isocortex, thalamus and striatum with respect to the control group, while female offspring exhibited a more heterogeneous pattern of brain activation. Functional connectome analysis further confirmed that developmental stress affects the adult brain networks recruited upon social interactions. Recognizing these sex-dependent responses emphasizes the necessity of incorporating both sexes in pre-clinical studies, providing insights for more effective treatment strategies.

Speech perception degrades in background noise, which is primarily caused by an inability to identify the consonants. In this study, we aim to determine how different consonants are represented in the spiking patterns of auditory nerve fibers and how these representations are affected when presented in speech-shaped background noise.Single-unit auditory nerve fiber recordings were collected from fourteen normal-hearing young-adult gerbils, using glass electrodes. Three different naturally-spoken vowel-consonant-vowel constructs were presented in quiet and in background noise at 5 dB SNR, imitating a realistic communication situation. Previous behavioral studies in gerbils using the same stimuli revealed that discrimination between consonants was significantly compromised at this SNR.The nasal consonant /m/ was represented by a rate and a temporal code that differed significantly from the rate and temporal profiles of responses to /b/ and /t/. Background noise eliminated these rate differences, while the temporal code during /m/ remained significantly different compared to /b/ and /t/. Neurograms revealed a sharp peak in discharge rate across a broad frequency range for the plosive consonants /b/ and /t/. This, however disappeared with background noise due to rate saturation.In summary, the consonants were encoded differently by the spiking patterns of the auditory nerve, and background noise thus also degraded these codes differentially. Our results suggest that the behavioral difficulties to discriminate these consonants in background noise originate peripherally.

The prevalence of memory deficits among epilepsy patients is approximately 50%, reported as a major factor affecting the quality of life. In particular, individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy are increasingly identified with a deficit termed Accelerated Long-Term Forgetting. Monitoring and treatment of these deficits require efficient automated tools for repeated probing of memory functions with or without concurrent recording of the brain activities. We used a classic verbal memory free recall paradigm, in which subjects recall out-loud words after a distractor, assessing performance by transcribing and detecting correctly recalled words from subjects' vocalizations. Annotating the exact beginning and end of the vocalizations is crucial for memory-related brain activity analysis. Traditional approaches utilizing manual marking and labeling all vocalizations in the task is laborious, time-consuming, and prone to human error, especially in case of large datasets. To overcome these limitations we developed an automated transcription interface. Our interface is based on Whisper, fine-tuned with the CommonVoice dataset to ensure accurate transcription across various linguistic contexts, such as Polish or Czech. We assessed transcription accuracy with Word Error Rate (WER), achieving promising results with WER of 6.9% for the Polish and 9% for the Czech languages. The interface's performance, in speed and accuracy of word detection and annotation, surpassed standard manual transcription. These findings demonstrate robust and efficient transcription accuracy achieved for a set of challenging Slavic languages. Such automated transcription interfaces have a potential to streamline data preprocessing and thus enhance biomedical research and technologies for human computer interfaces.

Neural oscillations have been associated with different functions and disorders of the brain. Recently, the non-sinusoidal waveform of oscillations has gained interest as a biomarker for neurological and psychiatric diseases, and as an indicator of underlying network physiology. However, waveform analysis in the time domain has been limited to dominant neuronal oscillations and by pre-selection of waveform features. Here, we contribute a novel Fourier-series waveform analysis that is noise resistant and provides a complete description of waveforms. We applied Fourier-based waveform analysis to human cortical oscillations recorded using magnetoencephalography (MEG). This approach allowed us to robustly dissociate multiple spectrally and spatially overlapping cortical rhythms across theta, alpha and beta frequency ranges in the human brain. Fourier-based waveform analysis is a powerful new tool to identify and distinguish neuronal rhythms, and to study their spectral fingerprints in health and disease.

Vaccinia-related kinase 2 (VRK2) VRK2 is one of the serine/threonine kinases that was originally identified in highly proliferative cells such as thymocytes and fetal liver cells. GWAS studies were reported that VRK2 was related molecule with neuropsychiatric diseases. And in vitro studies reported that VRK2 plays an important role in cell division and cell cycle regulation. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism and physiological function of VRK2 on the central nervous systems in vivo. In this study, we established vrk2 deficient (VRK2 KO) zebrafish and found that VRK2 KO body size and brain size were not change compare with their control zebrafish (WT). And we performed a series of behavior tests such as a novel tank diving test, mirror test, and social preference test. In the behavior, we observed that the aggressive behavior was significantly enhanced in female VRK2 KO on the mirror test, and abnormal behavior was observed in the social preference test. Additionally, we measured neurotransmitter to investigate mechanism of these malbehavior, VRK2 KO female zebrafish showed low gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) content in the brain. GABA related to neuronal dendrites and spines pruning. Therefore, we analyzed the formation of neuronal dendrites and spines in the forebrain area using Golgi staining. We found a high density of neuronal dendrites in VRK2KO female zebrafish when compared with WT. These results suggest that VRK2 is a tight relationship with alteration of the morphology of nerve dendrites in the forebrain. That cause the malbehavior on female zebrafish.

Ischemic stroke results from neural tissue death due to a decrease in blood supply, and is a major cause of death and motor disabilities worldwide. Although it is established that the tissue immediately surrounding the stroke core undergoes spontaneous functional reorganization, partially taking over lost functionality, the role of the healthy contralesional cortex remains unclear. Adaptions in neuronal activity on the contralesional side have been reported both in humans and in rodent stroke models, but it remains elusive whether such modifications represent spontaneous functional re-mapping rather than maladaptive changes.To investigate this question, we developed a reach-to-grasp task, in which mice manipulate a joystick with their preferred forelimb to receive a reward. Expert mice received a large photothrombotic stroke to the contralateral sensorimotor cortex, followed by weekly assessment of grasping function. We show that the lesion produces impairments in the fine motor control, leading to reduced task performance and changes in forelimb trajectories. Additionally, we observe spontaneous – albeit limited - motor recovery following the stroke.We performed bilateral widefield calcium imaging of cortical activity in mice expressing GCaMP6f under the Thy1 promoter. Simultaneously, we recorded both forelimbs and orofacial movements using high-speed cameras to characterize changes in cortical activity representing skilled forelimb movements, while controlling for correlated behavior. Using GLMs, we fitted behavioral variables to neuronal activity. We observe post-stroke changes in the contralesional representation of both the healthy and impaired limb, and find that the extent of change correlated with the severity of the motor impairment.

Some animals use the strategy, known as hibernation, to survive harsh environments, such as extreme thermal challenges and food scarcity, by reducing metabolism and core body temperature. Recent work has shown that activation of Qrfp neurons in the preoptic area of the hypothalamus (POA) can induce a hibernation-like state in non-hibernators such as mice, termed Q-neuron-induced hypothermia and hypometabolism (QIH) (Takahashi et al., Nature, 2020). During QIH, the mice show hypothermia with low systemic oxygen consumption. Interestingly, they show immobile behaviours, such as hibernation and anesthesia, in which the animal typically loses its sensation. However, it is unclear how the sensory perception is regulated during QIH. In this study, we performed the in vivo calcium imaging to identify the cell type-specific manipulations in the somatosensory cortex in response to tactile stimulation while mice were awake, anaesthetized or under QIH induced by using DREADD to chemogenetically activate the Qrfp neurons. We found that the QIH mice were able to respond to the hind paw pinch, just as they did when they were awake, suggesting that mice stay tune to the external stimulus while they are under low energy demand. In vivo calcium imaging combined with cell type-specific promotor-driven expression of the calcium indicator revealed that cells in the somatosensory cortex have heterogeneous response to the hind paw pinch. In particularly,astrocytes were more activated during the QIH recording than during the awake recording. These results show that the mice utilize a unique strategy to process the sensory information during QIH.

Organised by FENS in partnership with the Austrian Neuroscience Association and the Hungarian Neuroscience Society, the FENS Forum 2024 will take place on 25–29 June 2024 in Vienna, Austria:contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}. The FENS Forum is Europe’s largest neuroscience congress, covering all areas of neuroscience from basic to translational research:contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}.

The COSYNE 2023 conference provided an inclusive forum for exchanging experimental and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience, continuing the tradition of bringing together the computational neuroscience community:contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}. The main meeting was held in Montreal followed by post-conference workshops in Mont-Tremblant, fostering intensive discussions and collaboration.

Neuromatch 5 (Neuromatch Conference 2022) was a fully virtual conference focused on computational neuroscience broadly construed, including machine learning work with explicit biological links:contentReference[oaicite:11]{index=11}. After four successful Neuromatch conferences, the fifth edition consolidated proven innovations from past events, featuring a series of talks hosted on Crowdcast and flash talk sessions (pre-recorded videos) with dedicated discussion times on Reddit:contentReference[oaicite:12]{index=12}.

The annual Cosyne meeting provides an inclusive forum for the exchange of empirical and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience, in order to understand how neural systems function:contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}. The main meeting is single-track, with invited talks selected by the Executive Committee and additional talks and posters selected by the Program Committee based on submitted abstracts:contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}. The workshops feature in-depth discussion of current topics of interest in a small group setting:contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}.