The odor limonene feeding into a neural network to predict the odor.

Can we predict what a molecule smells like from its structure? A new exchange in @ChemSenses debates this question. 🧪 @kingfunk.bsky.social

My main gripe with the alphafold example is how it shows you need decades and decades of high quality data, well structured, open and accessible to train a model -- and yet they always gloss over it and pretend it's just AI and magic. No, we need to continuously invest in real data and FAIR data.

A microbiome-derived olfactory signal regulates inter-male aggression and social dominance in mice Cichy et al. show that trimethylamine (TMA), a gut microbiome-derived metabolite, activates the receptor TAAR5 in the main olfactory system to regulate aggression and social dominance in male mice. Th...

Happy to share the latest from the lab! A microbiome-generated metabolite affects male-male aggression and social dominance in mice via the main olfactory system. Gut-Nose-Behavior.

www.cell.com/current-biol...

@jhennig.bsky.social has shown that dopamine exerts a real-time effect on conditioned responding, beyond its role in learning:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Another indication that dopamine is more than a learning signal!

A joint effort with @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social and @mhburrell.bsky.social.

Thanks Mary Beth!!!!

Thanks so much, Ben!

Thanks so much, Ardem - excited to be in such great company!

Excited to raise a glass with you!!!

Prefrontal cortex encodes behavior states decoupled from motor execution By tracking the natural actions of freely moving rats, Välikangas et al. show that prefrontal cortex encodes abstract behavioral states rather than low-level physical aspects of movement. Prefrontal a...

This work plays nicely with a really cool paper just out from our friend @jonwhitlock.bsky.social ; together these papers argue that spontaneous behavior conceptually is organized as a series of self-assigned tasks, rather than being random movement or reflexive.
www.cell.com/cell-reports...

GitHub - dattalab/state-moseq Contribute to dattalab/state-moseq development by creating an account on GitHub.

In principle, any sequence of behavioral labels can be modeled using shMoSeq (not just MoSeq syllables), and so we think the method could work in any situation where behavior is organized hierarchically. Check out the code and docs here: github.com/dattalab/sta...

Unlike PFC, motor areas like dorsolateral striatum preferentially encodes syllables and kinematics rather than states. Furthermore lesions to PFC - but not striatum - alter which states a mouse uses, suggesting a causal role in high-order structuring of self-directed behavior.

One reason we think shMoSeq states are task related is because they dominate activity in prefrontal cortex…and the variables represented in PFC during spontaneous behavior reflect the ongoing importance of each self-selected goal.

graph illustrating how syllables and distances are not tied deterministically to a particular state

Critically, states are not defined by the expression of a particular syllable or by a specific level of proximity to an object or conspecific; rather, they are specific sequences of syllables that are enriched when mice engage with an affordance or self-assigned task

graphs illustrating that when particular affordances are present, different behavioral states emerge

When we look at what mice are doing during each state, each appears to capture a distinct goal-oriented behavior, e.g. navigating along a wall or investigating an object, suggesting that mice organize spontaneous behavior around tasks and goals.

To explore this possibility, Caleb created a new method called shMoSeq (state hierarchical Motion Sequencing) that identifies higher-order behavioral states lasting seconds-to-minutes. Each state is defined by a particular pattern of low-level syllable usage.

One way to answer this question is by looking for higher-order structure in behavior, which we have traditionally captured as brief action motifs called “syllables”. We wondered whether mice switch from one long-term pattern of syllable use to another during spontaneous behavior.

Of course, we can make mice express specific actions and pursue explicit goals if we tell them to in a task. But what happens when mice are left to their own devices? Do they still organize their behavior around specific (self-initiated) goals?

Spontaneous behavior is a succession of self-directed tasks Weinreb et al. reveal a hierarchy of timescales in mouse behavior, including low-level syllables and high-level behavioral states. States and syllables are encoded in different brain areas. Prefrontal...

Have you ever wondered why mice do what they do when they are free to do whatever they want? Check out our latest (and this slightly delayed thread about our recent paper, led by Caleb Weinreb and friends...) www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

🧵 New preprint led by @bingbrunton.bsky.social, @elliottabe.bsky.social, @lawrencehu.bsky.social

We gave a worm brain control of a fly body and it walked

What did we learn? Nothing, other than deep reinforcement learning is effective

We call it the digital sphinx

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Warm congratulations to The Brain Prize winners 2026, Professor David Ginty and Professor Patrik Ernfors, for their pioneering work on how the nervous system detects and processes touch and pain.

Karolinska Institutet
HHMI

#Neuroscience #BrainPrize2026

@annaryba.bsky.social's paper on the neural underpinnings of intraspecific behavioral variation is now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social

Highly recommend! -> Paper identifies neural substrate for variation in promiscuity among Drosophila melanogaster strains🧪

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Monitoring gene expression in the brain with a simple blood test?

In collaboration with @jerzyszablowski.bsky.social & his lab we figured out how to do it nonhuman primates using noninvasive neuroengineering of synthetic serum markers.

nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Meet the neuroscientist running for Congress Sam Wang, a neuroscientist running for the U.S. House of Representatives, has been interested in “fixing bugs in democracy” for decades.

I spoke with Laura Schenkman at The Transmitter about my candidacy for the House!

Going from the lab to public life is a huge transition. From a lifetime of research to biotech to democracy to running for office, here’s the story of one scientist: www.thetransmitter.org/policy/is-th...

A pilot in a submersible vehicle collecting sediments samples in 30 meters of water looking for Asgards (microbial relatives of eukaryotes)

One of the biggest questions in biology is how complex cells evolved about 2 billion years ago. Here's my new story on how scientists are solving the mystery of eukaryotes like us. Gift link: nyti.ms/4qMbo22

Thrilled to finally share this work! 🧠🔊

Using a new reinforcement-free task we show mice (like humans) extract abstract structure from sound (unsupervised) & dCA1 is causally required by building factorised, orthogonal subspaces of abstract rules.

Led by Dammy Onih!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New paper alert! 🚨

We found that the brain's compass is remarkably stable at two scales

1️⃣ the system maintains its internal organization for weeks
2️⃣ It "remembers" its orientation for weeks, even after a single visit

This may be key to how the brain aligns its other maps.

Paper: rdcu.be/e3waP

New preprint from our group (collaboration with @sueyeonchung.bsky.social) showing that discriminating odor components within a complex mixture is constrained by neural sensitivity rather than background interference - likely due to sparse representations at the front end.

Thanks for your kind words! We know this interpretation is a bit provocative, but we are excited for the conversation.

Literally in transit at HK airport now and there are tons of water fountains….with cups!

#20Years20Stories Collection
1️⃣9️⃣ Defining moments with @megancarey.bsky.social
Megan Carey’s story tells us about big dreams and big ideas that came true.
📝 Full story: www.fchampalimaud.org/news/intangi...
🔗 Collection: www.fchampalimaud.org/20-years-20-...