Multi-timescale reinforcement learning in the brain - Nature Individual dopaminergic neurons encode future rewards over distinct temporal horizons.

Our work with Pablo Tano, @hyunggoo-kim.bsky.social Athar Malik, Alexandre Pouget and @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social exploring how dopamine neurons could enable multi-timescale reinforcement learning in the brain is out in @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

My laboratory at Université Laval in Québec City, Canada, is looking for a postdoc to study how neuromodulatory systems impact cortical processing during foraging behavior. This fully-funded position offers a collaborative environment in a great city. More info👇

can-acn.org/postdoctoral...

Thanks! We are working on a functional reason as a follow up. More to be announced eventually!

System-wide dissociation of reward and aversive dopaminergic signals Dopamine is central to reinforcement learning, classically linked to reward prediction error signaling. However, recent findings suggest a more complex picture, with dopamine neurons responding to ave...

First pre-print from the lab: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Together with @macshine.bsky.social & @elimuller.bsky.social we have a cool interdisciplinary project on compositional cognition, and we’re looking for a PhD student.

More details here www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
DM or email any questions
Please RT or pass on to interested students. Thanks!

I honestly think LLMs are very useful tools, but this kinda shit shows the real danger with these models:

Stupid people with important roles will use them for purposes they are not well suited for.

Bidirectional emotional regulation through prefrontal innervation of the locus coeruleus - Molecular Psychiatry Molecular Psychiatry - Bidirectional emotional regulation through prefrontal innervation of the locus coeruleus

Check out a new lab paper from Mayumi Watanabe's thesis work showing how different subregions of medial prefrontal cortex differentially regulate extinction of aversive memories through projections to the locus-coeruleus-noradrenaline system:
doi.org/10.1038/s413...

Excited to present the latest from the lab out today in Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex.... See Thread! 1/8

Congratulations!!!

A Neuropixels Opto probe with 3 blue emitters and 3 red emitters lighting up in succession, with corresponding neural activity in different layers of the cortex.

Neuropixels and Optogenetics are delighted to announce the birth of

Neuropixels Opto

Combining high-resolution electrophysiology and optogenetics

Today in bioRxiv

960 sites, 28 emitters, 2 colors

By Lakunina, @karolinazsocha.bsky.social, Ladd, et al

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

(1/2)

A man jumping, under the words "Make Time For Joy"

Reminder: They're trying to demoralize you, and they're doing a great job of it. Part of resisting is making time for joy despite the attempts to make you feel this is not the time for it. Love your people. Dig the art that speaks to you. Go to the places where life flows into you. You deserve joy.

The first paper from the lab! What started as a simple comparison between zebrafish lines turned into an analysis of sensorimotor development in zebrafish larvae: doi.org/10.1016/j.bb...

Neuroscience methods - YouTube Nanocourse: Approaches to Study Neural Circuits This course was taught by Anita Autry, Tiago Gonçalves, and Luke Sjulson at Albert Einstein College of Medici...

Neuroscience students asked us to teach a PRACTICAL course on experimental methods, and it is now on YouTube!

Please like and repost to help us get the word out!

www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Lecture 1: Signals and data acquisition
Focusing on hardware, digital/analog I/O, synchronization
🧵

I joined 75+ @nobelprize.bsky.social laureates urging US Senators to oppose RFK Jr.'s confirmation as DHHS Secretary. If you’re in a state with GOP senators, PLEASE reach out to them! I’d deeply appreciate it if you amplified this post! 🙏
www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/h...

Sharing here our most recent preprint and the work of Laurence, PhD student extraordinaire, implicating 🧠 #pericyte in stress responses 🐭 and human depression 😞

www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-5...

I am recruiting graduate students for my lab @mcgillu.bsky.social for admission in Fall 2025! Get in touch if you're interested in how brain circuits implement distributed computation, including dopamine-based distributed RL and probabilistic representations.

🚨Job Alert 🚨
Join our vibrant team ! My neuroscience 🧠 research lab at @mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada is looking for a laboratory technician - please see the job posting here and apply. bit.ly/4g3dNA6
Feel free to reach out with any questions!

The call for participating in the Summer School Frontiers in Neurophotonics June 2nd to 13th, 2025 in Quebec City, Canada is now open! One of my trainees went last year and had a great experience, so I wanted to recommend it! neurophotonics.ca/frontiers-in...

After popular demand (thanks @martinowk.bsky.social 😅) here a small representation of our #bluespot crowd! Please share and let me know if I missed someone!

go.bsky.app/DyBTCRF

Cortical norepinephrine-astrocyte signaling critically mediates learned behavior Updating behavior based on feedback from the environment is a crucial means by which organisms learn and develop optimal behavioral strategies. Norepinephrine (NE) release from the locus coeruleus (LC...

New preprint: In this work done by Gabi Drummond they showed that the updating of behavior following unexpected stimuli is mediated by sustained response of astrocytes in the prefrontal cortex. Fun collaboration with the Surlab! #astrocytes #locuscoeruleus www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Neurophotonics is now on Bluesky! For our first post here, we'd like to announce the opening of the call for participation to the Summer School Frontiers in Neurophotonics! Visit neurophotonics.ca/school for more info about this school that combines lectures and hands-on experiments

You love cutting-edge 🔬 imaging 🧠 science 🧪 and want to learn about the latest tools and techniques and as a bonus visit Quebec City in June?
Here is your chance! 🤓