Reward-driven emergence of auditory pattern encoding in the primate motor system The ability to anticipate rhythmic patterns is fundamental to human experience, enabling music appreciation, speech comprehension, and dancing in sync to music. How the brain learns to use acoustic information to guide motor behavior remains a key question whose neural underpinnings and evolutionary origins are debated, especially in non-human primates. To understand how brain areas involved in motor control naively respond to predictable tone patterns, we recorded large single neuron populations across primary somatosensory (S1), primary motor (M1), dorsal premotor (PMd), supplementary motor (SMA), pre-supplementary motor (preSMA) cortices, globus pallidus interna (GPi), and medial geniculate body (MGB) of a rhesus monkey. During passive listening (Experiment 1) with a reward only at the end of each trial, primarily the MGB, not motor areas, responded to the auditory tone patterns, ruling out the spontaneous entrainment of motor activity to auditory patterns. Almost all areas robustly

While humans spontaneously dance to a beat, the evolutionary origins of this ability remain debated. Behavioral work has shown that primates can move to auditory rhythms after training.

Our question was: How does this association emerge in the brain?

www.biorxiv.org/content/10....

Dr. Carla Shatz — Stories of WiN studies how early neural activity sculpts developing brain circuits and informs our understanding of neuroplasticity and neurodegenerative disease.

We're excited to share our next profile! Dr. Carla Shatz is a pioneering neuroscientist whose work reveals how early neural activity sculpts developing brain circuits & informs our understanding of neuroplasticity & neurodegenerative disease. Learn more below!

www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...

So sorry for your loss =(

Sensory expectations shape neural population dynamics in motor circuits Nature - Experiments with human volunteers and macaques show that expectations produced by probabilistic cueing of future sensory inputs shape motor circuit dynamics in order to increase the...

Thrilled that our paper is out today in Nature!
www.nature.com/articles/s4...

Sosa Lab

The Sosa Lab website is now live!
www.sosaneurolab.com

We will be seeking a postdoctoral researcher to join the growing team! If you are a rodent neuroscientist and interested in doing systems neuro work in the mountains 🏔️, please check out the "Join" page.

A deep learning pipeline for accurate and automated restoration, segmentation, and quantification of dendritic spines Garcia et al. present RESPAN, a pipeline that enables automated dendritic spine analysis through seamless integration of deep learning image restoration and segmentation capabilities with comprehensiv...

Excited to highlight a new paper from my graduate student Sergio Bernal Garcia who, together withLuke Hammond, developed RESPAN, a new deep-learning pipeline automating the segmentation of neuronal morphology and dendritic spines from fluorescent microscopy images:
www.cell.com/cell-reports...

🚨Our preprint is online!🚨

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How do #dopamine neurons perform the key calculations in reinforcement #learning?

Read on to find out more! 🧵

Amazing work! Congrats Malcolm! 🔥

CRISPR activation for SCN2A-related neurodevelopmental disorders Nature - Using SCN2A haploinsufficiency as a proof-of-concept, upregulation of the existing functional gene copy through CRISPR activation was able to rescue neurological-associated phenotypes in...

SCN2A loss is strongly linked to neurodevelopmental delays and, at times, seizure. In an amazing collaboration with @nadavahituv.bsky.social, led by Serena Tamura, Andrew Nelson, and Perry Spratt, we leveraged CRISPR activator approaches to rescue this loss.

rdcu.be/eGU0W

Excited to share our new paper!

✨Natural habitat and wild behaviors of the dwarf cuttlefish, Ascarosepion bandense✨

tinyurl.com/bdew5x3s

Our first cuttlefish expedition - diving in the dark to observe our cuttlefish in the wild...

Check out the paper & new expedition tool on Cuttlebase.org 🧠

How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest to Alter the Past Buy How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest to Alter the Past on Amazon.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders

Good morning everyone!
So, I wrote a book (!!) and it’s coming out November 4th in physical and audiobook form. It’s called *How to Change a Memory*

www.amazon.com/How-Change-M...

Our latest profile is here! Dr. Suelyn Koerich studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying Alzheimers Disease. Learn more at the link below!

www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...

#StoriesOfWiN #WomenInNeuroscience

Similar destabilization of neural dynamics under different general anesthetics Different classes of anesthetics can induce unconsciousness despite acting through distinct biological mechanisms. This raises the possibility that they produce a convergent effect on the dynamics or ...

New results! Similar destabilization of neural dynamics under different general anesthetics
Different anesthetics induce unconsciousness through distinct mechanisms, but cortical destabilization may be their common effect.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#neuroscience

And congrats to fellow recipient @fleabrained.bsky.social! Amazing and impactful work! 🔥

Back at you Christian!

Honored to receive this recognition from the @grassfoundation.bsky.social . Shoutout to all the giant stars that have pulled / pull me up, including @ruimcosta.bsky.social + Darcy Peterka. And here's to working hard to pull up the neuroscientists of tomorrow!

A very special 150th episode - I got to interview the one-and-only Eve Marder! Check it out to learn more about her life and science, and highly recommend listening to the interview to hear her many fabulous stories and her words of wisdom, my personal favorite being about how she found her ‘voice’

Exciting news!! I’m joining the tenure-track faculty at University of Colorado Boulder this fall as an Assistant Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience!

The Sosa Lab will study how memory is shaped by cognitive and physiological demands, including during pregnancy and the postpartum period. 🧵

Heck yes Mari congrats!! 🔥🔥

Distinct synaptic plasticity rules operate across dendritic compartments in vivo during learning Synaptic plasticity underlies learning by modifying specific synaptic inputs to reshape neural activity and behavior. However, the rules governing which synapses will undergo different forms of plasti...

Our new paper is out in Science.

What is the synaptic plasticity rule in the brain, we asked. It turns out there are multiple, even within individual neurons.

Congrats Jake!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Save the date! Join us in Seville, Spain May 17 - 21 2026 for the next Dopamine meeting. More details to come.

dopaminesociety.org

Amazing! 🔥

The preliminary program for the 2026 Basal Ganglia Gordon Research Conference is up! www.grc.org/basal-gangli...

Super excited about this program and to move the meeting to Europe for the first time - come join us in Tuscany!

Finally an article focused on these grant losses that scientists from underrepresented backgrounds EARNED, including my own grant (MOSAIC K99/R00). Generations of scientists from these groups will disappear. Will those with less to lose and from more privileged backgrounds advocate for us?

New preprint out! We developed a behavioural platform for the kinematic analysis of skilled whole body behaviour. Very fun collaboration with Christopher Black, @liamebrowne.bsky.social and Rob Brownstone.

Our first look at midbrain PAG’s role in singing mouse vocal control. When near each other, these mice produce two divergent vocal modes. Same circuits for USVs and Songs—or different ones? Bets were made..some of us bought beers for others! Led by @xmikezheng20.bsky.social & Clifford Harpole. 👇🏽

Dr. Aqilah McCane — Stories of WiN studies models of alcohol use disorder and the consequences of adolescent alcohol exposure on development and aging

Our latest profile is here! Dr. Aqilah McCane (@drbediya.bsky.social) studies models of alcohol use disorder and the consequences of adolescent alcohol exposure on development and aging. Follow the link below to learn more! 🧠

www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...

#StoriesOfWiN #WomenInNeuroscience

Of mice and macaques...

Differences in local regulation of dopamine release in the striatum of macaques and mice. Macaque dopamine is regulated more by GABA than by acetylcholine, compared to that of mice.

And what about humans?

www.jneurosci.org/content/45/1...

Five Columbia Faculty Members Named Sloan Research Fellows They were recognized for contributions to chemistry, computer science, economics, neuroscience, and physics.

Congratulations to our own Vikram Gadagkar, one of five @columbiauniversity.bsky.social faculty named @sloanfoundation.bsky.social Research Fellows! 👏

news.columbia.edu/news/five-co...

#brain #learning #socialbehavior

When the environment tells me when to stop responding to earn reward

Feedback cues that signal termination of an action sequence promote habitual responding via a dopamine-mediated credit assignment mechanism

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...