NEW Tue Aug 7: good news, case growth is slowing in the DC area. • new plot: shows the estimated doubling time for each day; heavy line is smoothed* version. There's a clear upward trend. • the doubling time numbers, 6.6-7.7, are good news. • w/ Hannah Goldbach /1

This is appalling.

Simulations predict a paradoxical effect that should be revealed by patterned stimulation of the cortex. Sanzeni and Histed explain more elifesciences.org/articles/56234…

Our work showing cortex is well-described by inhibition-stabilized network (ISN) models, with some diffs from the preprint, is now out in @elife. Short thread. Collaborative effort w/ Nicolas Brunel, Alessandro Sanzeni, B Akitake, Hannah Goldbach /1 elifesciences.org/articles/54875

Interested in a PhD in Neuroscience and/ or Cognitive Science?! The NACS program is an interdisciplinary program spanning multiple departments and neighboring federal agencies. Applications are due November 17th. For more information, check out: nacs.umd.edu/landing/Prospe…

now with video! the neural subnetworks you see in this behaving animal are a new discovery and a big clue about how these distributed, growing nerve nets wire up and function. Powerful transgenic neuroscience tools open the door for lots of new biology! congrats to Brady et al.!

Y'all muthafuckas know: A thread:

Are you (or someone you know) looking to gain some neuroscience research experience (or just like working in the lab)? The Caras Lab is looking to hire a lab technician! Fun people and cool tools! See our lab website for details or DM me for more info! Please share widely!!

Are you interested in pursuing graduate studies in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science? Dr. Gard (@gard_arianna) is hosting an info session May 2nd about the NACS Program and undergraduate research opportunities. RSVP at the link below:

Amplified cortical neural responses as animals learn to use novel activity patterns biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh… #biorxiv_neursci

Single cell optogenetics reveals attenuation-by-suppression in visual cortical neurons biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh… #biorxiv_neursci

We have two posters at this meeting - From Paul LaFosse who has characterized neural activation functions (#neuroai #AI) in real neurons in awake animals. And from Ciana Deveau, Zhishang Zhou who have a new theory for recurrent connections in sensory ctx: sequence amplification.

Sharing new preprint from our lab: bioRxiv Neuroscience. Led by Paul LaFosse, we show neurons in the awake🧠can filter out inputs: attenuation-by-suppression. Also: real neurons’ activation function share features w/ #ai systems (eg ChatGPT). #neuroscience Comments welcome! 1/15

Details of House-proposed cuts for 2024 fiscal yr: NIH 6.2% ⬇️ Including: NIGMS 2.6% ⬇️ NCI 2.9% ⬇️ NIAID 22.9% !!⬇️ ascb.org/science-policy… Worried? Call/email your House rep to let them know! The Senate budget included 2.4% ⬆️ for NIH, far preferable.

🧠🚨: Our latest paper is out today in Neuron! Led by Jonathan O'Rawe, we show salt-and-pepper excitation& suppression in mouse V1 arises from purely exc opto input. That means the excit-excit recurrent connections in cortex change how neurons respond to input. 1/3

New work with Agostina Palmigiano, Tuan Nguyen, Ken Miller, and Nicolas Brunel at Neuron : Unveiling the Mechanisms Behind Reshuffling Visual Responses via Optogenetic Stimulation in Mice and Monkeys 🐭🐒 (thread follows) cell.com/neuron/fulltex…

Tough times in the world right now, but will share this: If you're attending SFN in DC this wknd, we have 2 posters on Sat I'm excited about. Paul LaFosse is presenting work on activation functions in cortical neurons,& Ciana Deveau on cortical recurrent nets 'doing sequences.'1/2

New preprint, on 'sequence filtering'. Led by Ciana Deveau, Z Zhou. We see this as a key step forw on how cortex works. All cortical areas have dense exc-exc recurrent connectivity. What do these connections do, esp in sensory ctx? Our data say: they do dynamics/time. 1/4

Sign the petition to ask UMD do everything in their power to support our colleague's return, and mitigate the professional and financial harm done by this injustice: forms.gle/6HZ7PWtkSc74zU…

The cortex is filled with excitatory local synapses, but we know little about their role in brain function. New experimental tools, along with ideas from artificial intelligence, are poised to change that. By Mark Histed-🧠 Lab thetransmitter.org/neural-network…