reposting with non-transparent figure backgrounds!

Correlation matrix of LC axonal projections

reposting with non-transparent figure backgrounds!

Check out the rest of the manuscript to see how the LC's anatomical connectivity beautifully corresponds to transcriptomic and functional structure!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Finally, with the effort invested in these reconstructions, it's important that the data live beyond an individual project. We've created a portal for perusing, visualizing, and downloading our single neuron morphologies, and we'll upload reconstructions from future projects here as well.

We went to great lengths (pun intended) to make this work as reproducible as possible. Data is stored on public S3 buckets, and all of the figure panels can be re-generated via CodeOcean capsules (mine is linked in this post). You can also find our analysis code on Github: github.com/AllenNeuralD...

What about fine-scale projection structure? We looked at co-innervation along the cortical surface. Axons seemed to sample areas near to one another in space - but we didn't see compelling evidence for spatially distant "functional specificity". We compared to cerebellum as well (see supplement).

LC axons color coded by dorsal/ventral soma position.

Projection targets were related to the position of the soma within LC. Dorsal neurons were more likely to project to the forebrain, while ventral neurons projected to hindbrain and spinal cord. Coloring axons by soma position beautifully highlights this relationship!

Axonal length correlation matrix

How do these LC neurons wire in space? Individual neurons have diverse projections, but clear structure emerges across the population. Length in forebrain areas is correlated, and anticorrelated with length in the hindbrain. Cerebellum and midbrain were mostly uncorrelated with forebrain & hindbrain

Scatterplot of axon length vs branch count

LC neurons are long, and branch relatively little. Compared to 1200+ neurons from the MouseLight database, LC neurons had significantly fewer branches per cm of length. For this reason, we chose to quantify connectivity via axonal length in a brain region (though axon terminus counts look similar).

Mouse brain with three example LC neuron reconstructions.

This was a hard-won dataset, with our tracers reconstructing over 37 meters(!) of LC axons. The average neuron took about 48 hours to trace, and the entire dataset represents >250 days of continuous tracing effort (more to come in the future about machine learning work to speed reconstructions).

Check out our latest work on the structure and function of locus coeruleus (LC)! My own contribution to this project was investigating the anatomical projections of individually reconstructed LC neurons from our ExA-SPIM pipeline (see: elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...). A few more notes:

All the more reason to be excited by the latest generation of glutamate indicators:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Using our bee-tracking drone, we discovered that honey bees 🐝 have highly precise and individual routes. Now published at @currentbiology.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

Retinal waves are known to be important for proper wiring at the retina's downstream targets: but their role in the development of microcircuits -within the retina itself- is less understood. Some nice work on this topic by @miah-pitcher.bsky.social!

Nine subcortical/cerebellar atlases included in the subcortex_visualization Python package (and subcortexVisualizationR package in R). The atlases are depicted in two-dimensional vector graphic format.

The extended version of my thesis procrastination project/subcortex visualization package is out now in both Python and R, now that I’ve graduated 🤠 This figure shows the 9 atlases included (and counting)!

Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Website: anniegbryant.github.io/subcortex_vi...

We've got a great lineup of speakers for our Thalamocortical Interactions GRS! Only a few spots remaining for poster presenters - apply soon!

What is the computational role of dendritic excitations? Byung Hun Lee and team mapped voltage dynamics throughout the dendritic trees of CA1 pyramidal neurons in mice navigating in virtual reality. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We’re hiring! Join the Sivyer Lab at The University of Sydney as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Neurodegeneration within the Snow Vision Accelerator, a $50M initiative tackling glaucoma and optic nerve disease. iPSCs, electrophysiology, drug discovery, and gene therapy.

i think people are just upset about the chiefs

S-cone-specific circuitry in the outer plexiform layer of a cone-dominant mammal | PNAS In the vertebrate retina, short wavelength-sensitive S-cones and their downstream interneurons play unique roles in both image forming and non-imag...

Extremely proud to share our publication on S-cone circuitry in the ground squirrel, newly available this week in PNAS. We've been staring at these reconstructions for a long time, and I'm excited for others to see the results. 1/n

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Come check out my poster this morning (FF9) to learn about thalamic innervation of frontal cortex! We've got a lot of cool data for ya #sfn2025 #sfn25

Our lab is looking for a postdoc! We have interesting projects and cutting-edge techniques such as Neuropixels Opto, Light Beads Microscopy and more. We would be delighted to receive your application. Deadline is 25 November 2025. More info here:
www.ucl.ac.uk/cortexlab/po...

10 days left to be considered for a speaking slot at the Thalamocortical Interactions GRS!

If you're a trainee at the NIH and unable to submit an application due to furlough, shoot me a DM and we'll figure something out.

Can’t always trust everyone. Drop your ballot in an official drop box, not in someone’s hands.

To find your nearest drop box, visit: www.sos.wa.gov/elections/vo...

Intrinsic dendritic integration features of prefrontal layer 5 pyramidal cell subclasses Prefrontal cortex (PFC) is an associative center in the brain and integrates various inputs to support cognition. Layer 5 pyramidal cells are themselves associative centers, as their dendrites span al...

Fresh off the press! @selinsch.bsky.social discovered some really cool features of mouse frontal cortex pyramidal cells that co-vary with dopamine receptor expression. D3R+ cells appear very responsive to AP bursts, producing Ca transients across dendritic arbors.

www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...

well deserved!

YEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHH, Teresa!!!

How FlyWire is redefining Drosophila research, one year in Nine Drosophila researchers share how the connectome transformed the field and what additional new tools they would like to see.

To celebrate the first anniversary of the release of FlyWire, we asked nine neuroscientists to share how they are using connectome data in their research and what they hope is in store for the future of fly connectomics.

By @franciscorr25.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

bit.ly/3Wx5nt3

A Seattle scientist won a Nobel Prize. She thought the call was spam Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.

A huge congrats to Seattle scientist Mary E. Brunkow for winning the Nobel Prize in medicine!

This is exactly the kind of groundbreaking work that we should be leading on — and it’s exactly why I’ll continue to fight Trump’s cuts to the NIH and research.

www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

Exploring the correspondence between gene expression and thalamic nuclei using the THALMANAC resource The thalamus connects the sensory organs and major subcortical brain regions with the neocortex. The thalamus has long been divided into multiple discrete nuclei, based on cytoarchitecture, histochemi...

Check out our resource for navigating and analyzing spatial transcriptomics data in the thalamus, which we fondly call "the THALMANAC" (𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐋amus 𝐌ERFISH 𝐀𝐍alysis and 𝐀𝐂cess), now live on bioRxiv:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...