Horst Obenhaus
@octoscience.bsky.social
PostDoc at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience at NTNU Trondheim. Whitman Scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, MA. I am studying sleep in octopuses and cuttlefish. 🐙
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
A new version of our 2p mesoscope paper is up on biorxiv:
Yang et al, Ultra-wide-field, deep, adaptive two-photon microscopy.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Yang et al, Ultra-wide-field, deep, adaptive two-photon microscopy.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Ultra-wide-field, deep, adaptive two-photon microscopy
Observing the activity patterns of large neural populations throughout the brain is essential for understanding brain function. However, capturing neural interactions across widely distributed brain r...
www.biorxiv.org
January 10, 2026 at 10:19 AM
A new version of our 2p mesoscope paper is up on biorxiv:
Yang et al, Ultra-wide-field, deep, adaptive two-photon microscopy.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Yang et al, Ultra-wide-field, deep, adaptive two-photon microscopy.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
Wow this looks big. Imagine what we could design!
Can we design mutations that bias proteins towards desired conformational states?
Today in @science.org, we introduce Conformational Biasing (CB), a simple and scalable computational method that uses contrastive scoring by inverse folding models to identify conformation-biasing mutations.
Today in @science.org, we introduce Conformational Biasing (CB), a simple and scalable computational method that uses contrastive scoring by inverse folding models to identify conformation-biasing mutations.
Computational design of conformation-biasing mutations to alter protein functions
Conformational biasing (CB) is a rapid and streamlined computational method that uses contrastive scoring by inverse folding models to predict protein variants biased toward desired conformational sta...
www.science.org
January 8, 2026 at 7:10 PM
Wow this looks big. Imagine what we could design!
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
Interesting advice on running a research team Max Planck Style.
If you run out of space, the architects will expand the building.
If people disagree with you in articles, fly them in talk to them.
Quite a different world to most of academia!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
If you run out of space, the architects will expand the building.
If people disagree with you in articles, fly them in talk to them.
Quite a different world to most of academia!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 7, 2026 at 10:29 PM
Interesting advice on running a research team Max Planck Style.
If you run out of space, the architects will expand the building.
If people disagree with you in articles, fly them in talk to them.
Quite a different world to most of academia!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
If you run out of space, the architects will expand the building.
If people disagree with you in articles, fly them in talk to them.
Quite a different world to most of academia!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Track everything you want - with OCTRON 💙
Have you tried #OCTRON yet?
Here's a speedy run-through of the pipeline, showing how you go from annotating animals, to training a model, and visualising predictions in new videos. Everything you need to track your favourite species! 💪
Here's a speedy run-through of the pipeline, showing how you go from annotating animals, to training a model, and visualising predictions in new videos. Everything you need to track your favourite species! 💪
January 6, 2026 at 8:35 PM
Track everything you want - with OCTRON 💙
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
If anyone is or knows a PhD with EEG experience who is a) eligible for a Marie Curie post doc and b) interested in an ecological neuroscience project based in Leeds, let me know. I have an idea that needs a person!
January 6, 2026 at 11:10 AM
If anyone is or knows a PhD with EEG experience who is a) eligible for a Marie Curie post doc and b) interested in an ecological neuroscience project based in Leeds, let me know. I have an idea that needs a person!
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
Can humans & animals really use internal maps to take shortcuts?
Tolman famously said yes - based largely on his Sunburst maze.
Our new review & meta-analysis suggests evidence is far weaker than you might think.
🧵👇 doi.org/10.1111/ejn....
@uofgpsychneuro.bsky.social @ejneuroscience.bsky.social
Tolman famously said yes - based largely on his Sunburst maze.
Our new review & meta-analysis suggests evidence is far weaker than you might think.
🧵👇 doi.org/10.1111/ejn....
@uofgpsychneuro.bsky.social @ejneuroscience.bsky.social
Tolman's Sunburst Maze 80 Years on: A Meta‐Analysis Reveals Poor Replicability and Little Evidence for Shortcutting
In 1946, Tolman et al. reported that rats could take a novel shortcut to a goal after training on an indirect route, supporting the Cognitive Map theory. However, a review of subsequent Sunburst maze...
doi.org
January 5, 2026 at 7:52 PM
Can humans & animals really use internal maps to take shortcuts?
Tolman famously said yes - based largely on his Sunburst maze.
Our new review & meta-analysis suggests evidence is far weaker than you might think.
🧵👇 doi.org/10.1111/ejn....
@uofgpsychneuro.bsky.social @ejneuroscience.bsky.social
Tolman famously said yes - based largely on his Sunburst maze.
Our new review & meta-analysis suggests evidence is far weaker than you might think.
🧵👇 doi.org/10.1111/ejn....
@uofgpsychneuro.bsky.social @ejneuroscience.bsky.social
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
Ultrashort optical-pin excitation for scattering brain imaging https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.04.697592v1
January 5, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Ultrashort optical-pin excitation for scattering brain imaging https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.04.697592v1
Beautiful collection of all kinds of tessellated materials in nature tessellated-materials.mpikg.mpg.de?tile_shapes_... #HUBerlin
January 5, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Beautiful collection of all kinds of tessellated materials in nature tessellated-materials.mpikg.mpg.de?tile_shapes_... #HUBerlin
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
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...
January 4, 2026 at 6:17 AM
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...
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
When I explain to people what is involved with writing a successful grant, they simply don’t believe me.
I explained it once to a famous person from Pixar, and he looked me square in the eye and said: You mean all the cancer and Alzheimer’s grants work that way? You’ve gotta be &$%#ing kidding me!
I explained it once to a famous person from Pixar, and he looked me square in the eye and said: You mean all the cancer and Alzheimer’s grants work that way? You’ve gotta be &$%#ing kidding me!
I don't think you non-science people realize what it takes to get a grant funded by NIH. Started experiments in Sept 2021 to generate 3 new mouse mutants to model human disease. Prelim dara shows they have relevant disease phenotypes worthy of study. Need a small grant first to characterize /1
January 3, 2026 at 1:14 AM
When I explain to people what is involved with writing a successful grant, they simply don’t believe me.
I explained it once to a famous person from Pixar, and he looked me square in the eye and said: You mean all the cancer and Alzheimer’s grants work that way? You’ve gotta be &$%#ing kidding me!
I explained it once to a famous person from Pixar, and he looked me square in the eye and said: You mean all the cancer and Alzheimer’s grants work that way? You’ve gotta be &$%#ing kidding me!
Heartbreaking. Good luck to everyone out there, to all of us in 2026 🍀🤞🏼- May the sacrifices be worth it.
I don't think you non-science people realize what it takes to get a grant funded by NIH. Started experiments in Sept 2021 to generate 3 new mouse mutants to model human disease. Prelim dara shows they have relevant disease phenotypes worthy of study. Need a small grant first to characterize /1
January 2, 2026 at 7:40 PM
Heartbreaking. Good luck to everyone out there, to all of us in 2026 🍀🤞🏼- May the sacrifices be worth it.
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
1/n: A new collaborative preprint from the lab to start the year: "A multi-ring shifter network computes head direction in zebrafish" together with Siyuan Mei, Martin Stemmler and Andreas Herz from the LMU, Munich.
January 2, 2026 at 5:52 PM
1/n: A new collaborative preprint from the lab to start the year: "A multi-ring shifter network computes head direction in zebrafish" together with Siyuan Mei, Martin Stemmler and Andreas Herz from the LMU, Munich.
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
Very happy to have contributed to this wonderful/tentacular work alongside so many amazing colleagues and friends!
It opens up new ways of understanding grey matter heterotopia associated with altered cortical function and #epilepsy in humans.
🧠🧪🔥
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It opens up new ways of understanding grey matter heterotopia associated with altered cortical function and #epilepsy in humans.
🧠🧪🔥
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Position-independent emergence of neocortical neuron molecular identity, connectivity and function - Nature Neuroscience
Even when neocortical neurons form in abnormal locations, they retain their identity and function, revealing that brain circuit formation can be guided by intrinsic developmental programs rather than ...
www.nature.com
January 1, 2026 at 4:52 PM
Very happy to have contributed to this wonderful/tentacular work alongside so many amazing colleagues and friends!
It opens up new ways of understanding grey matter heterotopia associated with altered cortical function and #epilepsy in humans.
🧠🧪🔥
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It opens up new ways of understanding grey matter heterotopia associated with altered cortical function and #epilepsy in humans.
🧠🧪🔥
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This is such a great video - the pinnacle of what humans can engineer and build. I got goosebumps watching it @veritasium.bsky.social. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiUH...
The Ridiculous Engineering Of The World's Most Important Machine
YouTube video by Veritasium
www.youtube.com
January 1, 2026 at 11:28 AM
This is such a great video - the pinnacle of what humans can engineer and build. I got goosebumps watching it @veritasium.bsky.social. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiUH...
Soooo beautiful !!
NYE fireworks < neurons expressing iGluSnFR3!
Developed at our Janelia Research Campus, iGluSnFR3 is a fluorescent sensor designed to rapidly detect & image glutamate — our brains' main chemical messenger — allowing researchers to observe (dazzling) neural communication as it happens. 🎆
Developed at our Janelia Research Campus, iGluSnFR3 is a fluorescent sensor designed to rapidly detect & image glutamate — our brains' main chemical messenger — allowing researchers to observe (dazzling) neural communication as it happens. 🎆
December 31, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Soooo beautiful !!
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
⚠️ New paper alert and what a way to end 2025! 🎉
Happy to share our story “Sleep-dependent infraslow rhythms are evolutionarily conserved across reptiles and mammals.” published today in Nature Neuroscience.
Sleeping dragons 🦎 and functional ultrasound!
Read the full paper here: rdcu.be/eWJHb 1/8
Happy to share our story “Sleep-dependent infraslow rhythms are evolutionarily conserved across reptiles and mammals.” published today in Nature Neuroscience.
Sleeping dragons 🦎 and functional ultrasound!
Read the full paper here: rdcu.be/eWJHb 1/8
Sleep-dependent infraslow rhythms are evolutionarily conserved across reptiles and mammals
Nature Neuroscience - Bergel et al. show that an infraslow rhythm connecting the brain and body during sleep is shared by lizards, mammals and birds, revealing an ancestral process and reshaping...
rdcu.be
December 29, 2025 at 4:17 PM
⚠️ New paper alert and what a way to end 2025! 🎉
Happy to share our story “Sleep-dependent infraslow rhythms are evolutionarily conserved across reptiles and mammals.” published today in Nature Neuroscience.
Sleeping dragons 🦎 and functional ultrasound!
Read the full paper here: rdcu.be/eWJHb 1/8
Happy to share our story “Sleep-dependent infraslow rhythms are evolutionarily conserved across reptiles and mammals.” published today in Nature Neuroscience.
Sleeping dragons 🦎 and functional ultrasound!
Read the full paper here: rdcu.be/eWJHb 1/8
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
Just published my "Programming for Psychologists" course! 👩💻 github.com/Naubody/prog...
Designed for Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience Master's students starting their programming journey at @vuamsterdam.bsky.social.
Feel free to share! Feedback welcome!
Designed for Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience Master's students starting their programming journey at @vuamsterdam.bsky.social.
Feel free to share! Feedback welcome!
November 24, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Just published my "Programming for Psychologists" course! 👩💻 github.com/Naubody/prog...
Designed for Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience Master's students starting their programming journey at @vuamsterdam.bsky.social.
Feel free to share! Feedback welcome!
Designed for Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience Master's students starting their programming journey at @vuamsterdam.bsky.social.
Feel free to share! Feedback welcome!
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
Have you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too!
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/9
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/9
December 6, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Have you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too!
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/9
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/9
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
Friendly neighborhood biologist here. I see a lot of people are talking about biological sexes right now. Lots of folks make biological sex seem really simple. Well, since it’s so simple, let’s find the biological roots, shall we? Let’s talk about sex...[a thread]
(Reposted from the other site)
(Reposted from the other site)
August 9, 2024 at 10:34 PM
Friendly neighborhood biologist here. I see a lot of people are talking about biological sexes right now. Lots of folks make biological sex seem really simple. Well, since it’s so simple, let’s find the biological roots, shall we? Let’s talk about sex...[a thread]
(Reposted from the other site)
(Reposted from the other site)
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
A Christmas present from us and the rest of the #OCTRON team to you: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🎁
December 25, 2025 at 9:51 AM
A Christmas present from us and the rest of the #OCTRON team to you: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🎁
Do you love quantifying animal behavior as much as we do? We have just the tool for you! Presenting #OCTRON - a pipeline that helps you create rich annotation data and enables training of custom segmentation models. Have a look, particularly if you work with non-model / invertebrate organisms!
December 23, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Do you love quantifying animal behavior as much as we do? We have just the tool for you! Presenting #OCTRON - a pipeline that helps you create rich annotation data and enables training of custom segmentation models. Have a look, particularly if you work with non-model / invertebrate organisms!
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
📢 Join us, the Haberkern lab, @uni-wuerzburg.de for a postdoc studying neural circuit mechanisms of navigation. You’ll spearheading neurophysiology experiments on our brand new 2P!
⏳ Apply by 28th February 2026
Details: www.haberkernlab.de/docs/ENPostd...
#neuroscience #academicjobs #postdoc
⏳ Apply by 28th February 2026
Details: www.haberkernlab.de/docs/ENPostd...
#neuroscience #academicjobs #postdoc
December 23, 2025 at 11:27 AM
📢 Join us, the Haberkern lab, @uni-wuerzburg.de for a postdoc studying neural circuit mechanisms of navigation. You’ll spearheading neurophysiology experiments on our brand new 2P!
⏳ Apply by 28th February 2026
Details: www.haberkernlab.de/docs/ENPostd...
#neuroscience #academicjobs #postdoc
⏳ Apply by 28th February 2026
Details: www.haberkernlab.de/docs/ENPostd...
#neuroscience #academicjobs #postdoc
Reposted by Horst Obenhaus
It's funny that everyone who has *ever* programmed, knows how important attention to detail is. Hours wasted because you made a typo, forgot to add a character, etc.
The tiniest thing you literally don't notice is wrong, and your program screams at you and dies.
This is a universal experience.
The tiniest thing you literally don't notice is wrong, and your program screams at you and dies.
This is a universal experience.
December 23, 2025 at 7:16 AM
It's funny that everyone who has *ever* programmed, knows how important attention to detail is. Hours wasted because you made a typo, forgot to add a character, etc.
The tiniest thing you literally don't notice is wrong, and your program screams at you and dies.
This is a universal experience.
The tiniest thing you literally don't notice is wrong, and your program screams at you and dies.
This is a universal experience.