Tiny, transparent, and now charted! Our brain atlas of adult Danionella cerebrum includes >200 annotated regions, 29 whole-brain in situs, and male/female reference volumes – openly available, versioned and extendable. Work by @nkadobyansky.bsky.social and team.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

First whole-brain recording of social sound processing in a vertebrate. Surprises start in the hindbrain; thalamus gates conspecific calls; male and female brains diverge downstream. Work by @joerghenninger.bsky.social, @mh123.bsky.social sky.social and team. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Predatory aggression evolved through adaptations to noradrenergic circuits - Nature Noradrenergic circuits support and balance aggressive behavioural states in predatory nematodes, distinguish predatory from non-predatory nematode species and are associated with the evolution of comp...

Why do some worms graze on bacteria while others hunt and kill?
Our study, published today in Nature, reveals how predatory aggression evolved in nematodes.
Led by @gunizgozeeren.bsky.social and @leoboeger.bsky.social across the @jameslightfoot.bsky.social and @monikakscholz.bsky.social labs.

Plastic landmark anchoring in zebrafish compass neurons Nature - Using two-photon microscopy with a panoramic virtual reality setup, how head direction cells in larval zebrafish integrate visual landmarks and optic flow to track orientation is revealed.

1/6: New publication from the lab: “Plastic landmark anchoring in zebrafish compass neurons” by Ryosuke Tanaka (@ryosuketanaka.bsky.social) and Ruben is available here:
rdcu.be/eX1L4

The project studies how the hippocampal CA1 integrates olfactory and spatial information for goal-directed navigation. The position is a 3-year DFG-funded PhD (TV-L E13, 65%) starting April 2026, jointly supervised by Prof. Tobias Ackels at University Hospital Bonn and Dr. Oliver Barnstedt at the European Neuroscience Institute Göttingen. The project uses dual-colour miniscope calcium imaging, optogenetics, and behavioural experiments in freely moving mice. Application deadline is 31 January 2026, with applications sent by email.

PhD position in systems neuroscience!

Excited to start a new DFG-funded project together with @obarnstedt.bsky.social to study olfactory–spatial coding in CA1.
🔬 Dual-colour miniscope Ca2+ imaging
🐭 Freely moving behaviour & optogenetics
⏳ Start: April 2026 | Deadline: 31.01.2026

More info below ⬇️

Method of the Year 2025: electron microscopy-based connectomics - Nature Methods A large network of interconnected neurons serves as the basis of brain function and of behavior. Methodological advances have enabled the reconstruction of large-scale and even whole-brain connectomes...

Our Method of the Year 2025 is...drumroll please...EM-based connectomics!!

Our Editorial introduces our choice and highlights six Comments and other related content in this special issue. Please join us in celebrating EM-based connectomics! 🎉🧠🔬

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our new paper showcasing molecular connectomics with pan-expansion microscopy is out in @natbiotech.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This wonderful collaboration with @bewersdorflab.bsky.social was led by Ons M'Saad (now founder/CEO of Panluminate) and @allisonphysics.bsky.social. (1/5)

PhD position in Neuroscience Reveal the neuronal populations underlying innate fear responses using whole-brain imaging of neuronal activity and gene expression in larval zebrafish!

PhD position on fear response in zebrafish in a new and exciting lab working with Dr. Emmanuel Marquez Legorreta. He's a great scientist and super nice guy, I highly recommend him

www.uu.nl/en/organisat...

yay! looking forward to having you around in lab!

Come to MPINB! @mpinb.mpg.de

Thanks Misha for the shout-out!
It has been a truly mind-opening journey. WHOLISTIC is one step towards whole-organism neuroscience and a true physiological observatory - with extensions on the way! I am continually amazed by what the data reveals - so much remains to be discovered and mined.

Flyer advertising the BonnBrain Conference 2026, "From Genes to Circuits and Behavior".

Application is open! Come join us and our fantastic line-up of speakers next year in March in Bonn!

🚨 PhD alert! IMPRS brain & behavior in Bonn just opened their calls for applications. Great PhD funding opportunities. Check it out! PS- I just joined their faculty, meaning you could do a rotation in my lab or even a PhD with me on spider sleep 🙃 Apply! 🚨

It was a good experience to step back and briefly take stock of the amazing progress in connectomics since I started working on this stuff (20 years ago!)

thanks as well to @natrevneuro.nature.com for the constructive editorial interactions.

Open Call for Expressions of Interest in Max Planck Directorships: Expressions of interest can be submitted until 31 October 2025.

Director at Max Planck - a unique position! The Open Call for Expressions of Interest in Max Planck Directorships is open now and can be submitted by the 31st of October 2025. ➡️ mpg.de/directors - Please share the Open Call among potential candidates.

Comparative connectomics of two distantly related nematode species reveals patterns of nervous system evolution Understanding the evolution of the bilaterian brain requires a detailed exploration of the precise nature of cellular and subcellular differences between related species. We undertook an electron micr...

Happy to share our publication - Comparative connectomics of two distantly related nematode species reveals patterns of nervous system evolution www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Recurrent connectivity supports carbon dioxide sensitivity in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes The mosquito Aedes aegypti′s human host-seeking behavior depends on the integration of multiple sensory cues. One of these cues, carbon dioxide (CO2), gates odorant and heat pathways and activates hos...

New preprint from @darbly.bsky.social‬ @briandepasquale.bsky.social‬ and my labs! If you love (or hate) mosquitoes, have a look:

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

We used TEM to describe the circuitry used for CO2 detection by mosquitoes. As usual with mosquitoes, nothing is as expected! 🌬️🦟

@natrevneuro.nature.com just published a beautiful cover for the issue that includes the recent review on analogies in the visual system of vertebrates and invertebrates (@ryosuketanaka.bsky.social). Read it here doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Science and Art, what could be better?

Brains in Miniature: Evolution, Foraging, and Open Science with Monika Scholz Neurovoyagers: Exploring the Minds Behind Neuroscience · Episode

🚀 New Neurovoyagers episode just dropped!
It's been such a great time chatting with ‪@monikakscholz.bsky.social about worms, neural bottlenecks, open science, and the joy of building stuff that works 🧠🔧
🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/1r2a...

Are you interested in visual systems? How are they similar or different across species? Read the review by Ryosuke @ryosuketanaka.bsky.social and Ruben published today in @natrevneuro.nature.com. It is available here: rdcu.be/enlpC

So great to see this in print! Congratulations to Johannes and team!

Algorithmic dissection of optic flow memory in larval zebrafish www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04....

Come join the Briggman lab in beautiful Bonn to work with a menagerie of animals: axolotls, anableps, danionella, zebrafish, xenopus tropicalus and more! Also, the institute is dog-friendly and sits on a dog park! 🐶

Wow! Congratulations!!

1/3

Starting this summer, and after 11 wonderful years in Munich, the Portugues Lab will be starting a new adventure at the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior (NBB) (nbb.cornell.edu) at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

A modular multi-color fluorescence microscope for simultaneous tracking of cellular activity and behavior www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04....

Danionella fishes - Nature Methods Miniature, transparent Danionella fishes, which are among the smallest living adult vertebrates, allow investigation of general principles of brain-wide neural circuits and evolutionary and developmen...

#Danionella in the creature column www.nature.com/articles/s41...