Astrocytes do so much more than any of us thought - they even communicate among specific brain regions across hemispheres!
The journey to this paper spanned nearly a decade, but I'm most excited to see what everyone else does with the tools we've built. There's so much for all of us to explore!
Excited to share our new J Neurosci paper showing how subcortical inputs are routed through ventromedial (VM) thalamus to layer 1 interneurons in the medial PFC, all done by my graduate student Sanne Casello:
sannemcasello.bsky.social
www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
University of Utah Health Campus at sunset. Image courtesy of the University of Utah.
📢📢 My lab at @utah.edu is officially open and I'm RECRUITING — especially techs/specialists and postdocs! Our research focuses on the neurobiology of interoception and learning & memory using tools from systems/comp neuro. Please share! 🧠🏔️🏜️
Apply/more info: zimmerman-lab.org#positions
First preprint from the lab! Using intracellular recordings & analysis of 2-photon imaging data, we show that spiking & neuromodulatory input during experience drive a reorganization of visuomotor inputs in V1 layer 2/3 neurons, consistent with enhanced visuomotor cancellation - bioRxiv link below.
Who are we? The truth is, it shouldn’t even matter that Alex was a peaceful and upstanding citizen behaving exactly how Americans should act. We were a nation of laws. A people governed by self-determination and overseen by facts and reason, equally applied. That was our greatness. Who are we now?
A figure from our preprint showing ABR data as a line plot for sounds from the left and right at different sound levels.
1/4 New preprint! We designed an open-source system for auditory brainstem response (ABR), a research & clinical auditory test. Costs $400 to build (vs $10K to buy a proprietary one) and works great! All open-source if you want to make one for your lab or classroom. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Excited to see this amazing work out! Congrats!
Super excited to share the first part of my thesis work!
Perhaps how you might be able to both recognize someone’s voice *and* understand what they’re saying, we find that both social identity and vocalization category can be decoded from gerbil auditory cortex activity👂🧠
tinyurl.com/4fba6wk4
Big week! First neural recordings in the new lab and first common nighthawk photos
A new preprint from our lab with @zelechowski.bsky.social & @georgkeller.bsky.social !
Using wireless EEG + VR, we recorded visuomotor mismatch responses in freely moving humans.
Huge thanks to all participants, Keller Lab members and FMI facilities!
Read more: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thrilled to share our new Adesnik lab paper!!
Using holography in excitatory & inhibitory neurons, we reveal how a single cortical circuit can both complete and cancel predictable sensory activity, sharpening representations
📄www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08....
🧵
The lab is growing! Our team is seeking talented scientists to study flexible sensory processing. We design freely-moving and head-fixed acoustic behaviors alongside acute and wireless neural recordings. PD and grad roles available
Please help spread the word 🙏🧠🎵🐭
neurojobs.sfn.org/job/38911/po...
It’s finally happening 🥹 save the date for our very first in-person event!! Fill out our interest form if you’ll be in SD for #sfn25 or otherwise, or fill it out even if you won’t be able to make it - we’re also gathering interest in a virtual streaming option!! Stay tuned for more details to come!!
Team parenting
I’ve had a tough time getting a camera on Great Crested Flycatchers in good lighting - until today when I found a nesting pair at Bent of the River Sanctuary.
Great idea! I’m recruiting postdocs in auditory systems neuroscience at UConn!
A job ad, in this economy?That’s right! We’re looking for talented postdocs to join our growing team studying flexible sensory processing in the auditory system and beyond. Check out the ad or www.audettelab.com to learn more about our exciting directions!
neurojobs.sfn.org/job/38911/po...
Congrats Chris!
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
Cutting $20 billion to NIH over 25 years may save $500 billion on paper, but it’d end up costing $8.2 trillion in lost human health.
But NIH isn't the only thing being cut. The budget also slashes all NSF-funded science by 73 percent. NASA faces “the biggest single-year cut to NASA in history."
New preprint, w/ @predictivebrain.bsky.social !
we've found that visual cortex, even when just viewing natural scenes, predicts *higher-level* visual features
The aligns with developments in ML, but challenges some assumptions about early sensory cortex
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
The White House has relied on researchers’ unfamiliarity with political fights... what is required is to pull up stakes from those channels the White House has already shattered and move to the field of mass public opinion ... to meet them on ground where a decisive victory is possible.
Can confirm that my NSF grant "How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them" was cancelled today because it is "not in alignment with current NSF priorities" Shocking that understanding how people are misled by false information is now a forbidden topic. Our work will continue but at a smaller scale
(Plz repost)
I’ve been receiving some good news lately and will be hiring at all levels to expand the lab. Please get in contact if you are interested in reinforcement learning, neural plasticity, neural circuit dynamics, and/or hearing rehabilitation.
pierre.apostolides @ umich .edu
Tyvm
Proud to have been a small part of this massive undertaking! This project brought together an array of expertise and perspectives to connect our knowledge of predictive processing in the brain.
Now there's a memorable stat!
"Colleges and universities are among America’s most competitive international exporters. In dollar terms, last year, the United States sold more educational services to the rest of the world than it sold in natural gas and coal combined."
wapo.st/3EvzMCI
Excited to share my latest work just out in @pnas.org! This NIH MOSAIC K99-funded project identifies a top-down cortical circuit—from cingulate to auditory cortex—that supports auditory perceptual performance in challenging listening conditions: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
How should you combine sensory inputs with your internal predictions? Well, use uncertainty directly computed by your prediction-error circuits. Cool? Check out our Nat. Com. paper with Loreen Hertäg and @k47h4.bsky.social . www.nature.com/articles/s41...
cosyne 2025 talk: Projection-specific cortical processing of vocalizations, Friday 3/28 5:15
Who’s at #COSYNE2025 ? Excited to present my postdoc work on projection-specific and multi-area auditory processing of (mouse) baby cries on Friday:
"A terrified young student, snatched off the street by a masked police force taken thousands of miles across the country without anyone knowing. It is as flatly authoritarian as anything we have ever seen in this country," says @chrislhayes.bsky.social on Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk's detention.
