This is intriguing and it models (among other things) an experiment we carried out back in 2004.
Uncertainty underlies geometric effects on navigation and grid-cell tuning, Kang et al., preprint.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Very much on board with this. Uncertainty also predicts grid expansion in novel environments — where uncertainty is transiently high — extending the framework beyond the geometric distortions they cover here. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.30.526278
How can we build better experiment-theory collaborations in neuroscience?
We're hosting a series of 6 in-person, interactive workshops to discuss this.
Come along!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/understand...
This was so much fun - a great initiative. I’d encourage anyone within striking distance to go to the rest of the series
This looks interesting… a unifying account of replay as context-driven memory reactivation. Reframes hippocampal replay not as a distinct phenomenon, but as a natural consequence of memory retrieval under changing context. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.22.533833
Feel just a bit more optimistic suddenly
"Humanity's next great voyage begins" #Artemis
Our paper is out today!!! (not an April fool's day joke) Congrats to authors @azulsilva.bsky.social, @belalima-paiva.bsky.social, Ele Pronier, and mostly to the amazing scientist and human being who led this project @facuumm.bsky.social
#neuroskyence #hippocampus
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join the UCL People and Nature Lab and @batconservation.bsky.social on 15 April, 5pm – 8.30pm, for a screening of The Invisible Mammal followed by a bat walk in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and then bat-themed drinks at a local pub.
Register: www.ucl.ac.uk/life-science...
#BatAppreciationDay
Really exciting human data from Staresina & team: ripples orchestrate single-neuron reactivation during sleep, driving memory consolidation. Direct evidence hippocampal replay supports episodic memory in humans.
https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.27.714528
Great papers in spatial neuro this week. Csicsvari's group: hippocampal place fields stabilise during learning while mPFC stays flexible. Giocomo's lab: CA1-subiculum topography actively shapes boundary coding & corner cells.
doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.27.714523
doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.24.714092
Seems important!
Really interesting work from the Leutgeb & Bloodgood labs: NPAS4 — an activity-dependent transcription factor regulating inhibitory synapses — is crucial for place field precision and theta phase precession. Knock it out and the spatial code degrades. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.22.713468
This is really interesting. A more positive spin would be that we’re really not that different to each other. Note log scale
Well done Pip - more good news!
This is amazing and so so so very well deserved for a brilliant scientist, inspirational leader, and all round great person. Well done Barbara!
UCL student shop selling UCaLe for £5.50
UCL: sells its own beer. Also UCL: sells it for more on campus than online. The economists among us have questions.
I am very much here for this level of shade (it's almost dead salmon fMRI level)
Also I'm assuming these beers will be provided free at all official @ucl.ac.uk meetings from now on?
Clearly should learn to attach images properly first time round!
UCaLe beer can - Anspach and Hobday Bermondsey Pale Ale for UCL's 200th anniversary
UCL now has its own beer — UCaLe. 3.4% ABV, which is roughly the percentage of my week I get to spend on actual research. Still, excellent pun. 🍺 anspachandhobday.com/shop/ucale
Great place to work!
A cautionary tale...!
Really cool modelling paper: ultraslow MEC oscillations drift grid fields, messing up path integration but generating new spatial memories in the process. A feature, not a bug? https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.13.711323
Simultaneous place cell and head direction cell recordings during cue conflict — Knierim's lab in Current Biology. Path integration recalibrates in coordination during locomotion but diverges during head-scanning immobility. Really nice experiment. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.02.031
Nice to see @caswell.bsky.social featured in this UCL post.
… though I really need to learn to keep my head still while I’m talking.
Ha ha. Great to see this out. It’s a very cool study.
A person seated next to a transparent human head model with a visible brain. They are in a room with a countertop and equipment. Text on the left reads about the Royal Society Industry Fellowships, encouraging applications by 1 April 2026.
There's still time to apply for the Royal Society Industry Fellowships, which allows talented scientists and engineers to move between industry and academia to foster the exchange of knowledge and support collaboration. Find out more:
#RSGrants
https://royalsociety.org/grants/industry-fellowships/
