thanks, as always, to the deer mouse for teaching us so much!

And thanks also to @siddhantpusdekar.bsky.social for covering our work!

This was a great collaboration with @adamhantman.bsky.social and lab!

Researchers reveal the neural basis of evolving new capabilities by investigating behavioral and morphological differences between deer mouse subspecies. #neuroskyence

By @siddhantpusdekar.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/evolution/ar...

Congrats! Looks very cool, and I’m excited to read more!

Mammals have hundreds of joints and muscles. Controlling them individually would be nearly impossible.

How does the nervous system organize such complexity into coherent actions?

Our new study explores this question through a natural behavior: jumping.

Agouti integrates environmental cues to regulate paternal behaviour - Nature Expression of agouti signalling protein in neurons in the medial preoptic area is increased by group housing and negatively associated with care, and overexpression of Agouti reduces care and enhances...

Why are some males caring toward infants while others are neglectful or abusive? I'm so pleased to share work that my colleagues and I @princeton.edu have just published @nature.com (an explanatory thread to follow!) (1/8)

Primate dexterous hand movements are controlled by functionally distinct premotoneuronal systems Distinct spinal and cortical pathways coordinate muscle synergies and fine control to support primate dexterous hand movements.

Our paper is out in Science Advances!
What makes primate hands so dexterous?
We show that evolutionarily distinct spinal and cortical pathways work together to balance stability and flexibility, supporting remarkable primate hand control.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Want to come do a postdoc with us?

We’re interested in how sensorimotor function is carried out by the cells and circuits of the spinal cord. We have an awesome team, lots of cool techniques, and we’re open to new ideas/approaches/connections. Get in touch!

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.

1. If the goal is to stop us from doing science, then doing science is more important than ever now.
2. We have radical uncertainty about the future. There is no sense in giving up in advance.
3. We have agency over the future. If you don't like what's happening, work to change what is happening.

Ontogeny of the spinal cord dorsal horn The dorsal horn of the mammalian spinal cord is organized into laminae where each layer is populated by different neuron types, has distinctive circuit connections, and plays specialized roles in beha...

Excited to share @rbrianroome.bsky.social ‘s beautiful paper on development of the dorsal horn of the mouse spinal cord @science.org

This is how the anatomical organization and cell types that process pain, touch, body position and more are laid down.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

How heterogeneity shapes dynamics and computation in the brain Much effort has been spent clustering neurons into transcriptomic or functional cell types and characterizing the differences between them. Beyond sub…

"My New Year's Resolution is to find a principled way to think about all those cell types in the brain"

Why friend, you are in luck, because @rgast.bsky.social has just the perspective for you: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

in non-science announcements: tonight I’ll be participating in the first ever live performance of Ian’s 20-years and counting original Christmas music project. If you’re in the Boston area, join us!

Spinal motor neurons in dazzling detail. ✨

Each green dot is a spinal motor neuron - crucial but rare cells making up just 1% of neurons in the spinal cord. In diseases like ALS, they are selectively damaged, making them of special interest to neuroscientists.

#neuroskyence #FluorescenceFriday

This is insane

Second this.
We need more people saying this:

It’s not just US science and cancer cures at risk, it’s the whole US university system top to bottom.

CEU and Orban are their model. CEU is now gone from Hungary. And the response needed is public pushback, not quiet go-along-to-get-along.

Evolution of taste processing shifts dietary preference - Nature Calcium imaging of taste neurons and the ventral brain provides insight into evolutionary divergence of food choice in Drosophila species, supporting a role of sensorimotor processing in addition to p...

Thrilled to share our new paper!
With @tomtom-auer.bsky.social team, we asked how #evolution reshapes what animals #eat to match their ecological niches. Using pan-neuronal Ca2+ imaging, we show that the changes are in how the brain processes #taste.
Link @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

ChaCha wants me to tell everyone she knows she's a different species from wolves because she's obviously a human

Congrats!! Was fun to hear about this at SfN!

Vocal repertoire expansion in singing mice by co-opting a conserved midbrain circuit node Zheng and Harpole et al. show that singing mice produce two major vocal modes: ancestral USVs and novel songs that follow a linearly decelerating rhythm. Although acoustically distinct, songs and USVs...

Great @currentbiology.bsky.social study by @xmikezheng20.bsky.social @cliffscience.bsky.social @arkarupbanerjee.bsky.social 🧪🧠🐭🎶
Vocal repertoire expansion in singing mice by co-opting a conserved midbrain circuit node
www.cell.com/current-biol...

ha! yeah the late breaking posters are a trek 😩

Thanks, Arkarup! sorry you’re not able to be here—I’m hoping to make it to your labs’ posters!

My poster is today!

Sosa Lab - Postdoctoral Researchers We are seeking postdocs to start in 2026!

The Sosa Lab is going to #SfN25 and actively recruiting ✨postdocs✨ with systems neuroscience experience! We study both fundamental memory processes and how memory changes during pregnancy and postpartum.

If you are interested in meeting at SfN, please email me! www.sosaneurolab.com/join/postdoc...

Thanks!!

Weather app screenshot showing rain in San Diego over 70% chance Friday through Tuesday

PSA: it’s gonna rain at #sfn25! @krissylyon.bsky.social tried to warn me, but I’d already left my house without a rain coat 🙀

Heading to San Diego for #sfn25 today! I’ll be presenting a poster on this work Monday afternoon!

looking forward to meeting neuroscientists! please stop by my poster or reach out if you’re going and want to talk motor neuro/behavior, evolution, neuroethology…or whatever else! 🧠🥳 #neuroskyence

cool -- looks interesting! thanks!

we don't! but i think it's a great question and hope to do this experiment in the future

Just channeling Stephen J Gould: "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops"

thanks for reading! we only looked at lab-raised populations, but there's a rich natural history literature about climbing in wild deer mice, and wild forest mice are better climbers. hand dexterity is less well studied. urban vs populated, we don't know! but an interesting ? for sure!