Thomas Andrillon
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thomasandrillon.bsky.social
Thomas Andrillon
@thomasandrillon.bsky.social
Studying the stream of consciousness during sleep and wakefulness

Neuroscientist at the Paris Brain Institute
Chargé de Recherche Inserm

Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Monash University

Co-Editor-in-Chief of Neuroscience of Consciousness (OUP)
My institute, @institutducerveau.bsky.social, is recruiting Junior (<7y post-PhD) Group Leaders (5y contract + start-up package)

Focus on AI and Data Science, researchers in cognitive and computational science are welcome to apply!

Details of the call:
institut-du-cerveau.wiin.io/en/applicati...
JUNIOR GROUP LEADERS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND DATA SCIENCE AT THE PARIS BRAIN INSTITUTE
The Paris Brain Institute - Institut du Cerveau is an internationally renowned institute dedicated to advancing understanding of the brain and improving brain health across the whole spectrum of neuro...
institut-du-cerveau.wiin.io
February 12, 2026 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Thomas Andrillon
Why did consciousness evolve at all? A superb special issue of @royalsocietypublishing.org brings together experts across disciplines to explore the functions of consciousness and why it emerged in some species but not others. @tecumsehfitch.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...
February 8, 2026 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by Thomas Andrillon
Interested in cortical wave dynamics? Check out our review on the physics, physiology, and psychology of cortical waves led by J Cruddas with @jchrispang.bsky.social, out now in
@cp-neuron.bsky.social:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
February 9, 2026 at 11:56 PM
Reposted by Thomas Andrillon
New preprint! with @niccolonegro.bsky.social and @liadmudrik.bsky.social
doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ve6c5_v1
Consciousness seems central to moral status debates, from AI to animal welfare.
But is consciousness necessary for moral status? Is it sufficient?
We surveyed >1000 people to find out. 🧵 1/n
January 23, 2026 at 9:56 AM
57 days, 21 hours and 20 minutes.

They did it! They just popped the loop. What an adventure!
January 26, 2026 at 10:31 PM
🚨 Preprint altert 🚨

**Opposite Effects of Alpha Oscillations on Mind-wandering With Eyes Open and Closed**

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Led by Esther Thielking and Luca Iemi!
January 26, 2026 at 6:54 AM
Notre article sur le vide mental a les honneurs du @lemonde.fr !

Merci @hnirom.bsky.social pour ce bel article !

www.lemonde.fr/sciences/art...
January 20, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Thomas Andrillon
Check out this new model from @ivanmindlin.bsky.social, @rherzoga.bsky.social and friends showing that a local homeostatic inhibition allows for a broader repertoire of states, including spatial mosaics of wake and sleep-like activity.

Could this be the basis of the phenomenon of local sleep?

🧠🧪💤
📄Very happy to share our new pre-print!! 🧠

We introduce a homeostatic inhibitory plasticity rule into the Dynamic Mean Field (DMF) model which stabilizes firing rates and expands the model’s dynamical repertoire—for example, enabling slow-wave activity.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
⬇️⬇️⬇️
1/5
The impact of homeostatic inhibitory plasticity in a generative biophysical model
A main characteristic of biological systems is their capacity to dynamically adapt to environmental changes. In the brain, synaptic plasticity enables the strengthening or weakening of connections bet...
www.biorxiv.org
January 14, 2026 at 8:12 PM
Reposted by Thomas Andrillon
📄Very happy to share our new pre-print!! 🧠

We introduce a homeostatic inhibitory plasticity rule into the Dynamic Mean Field (DMF) model which stabilizes firing rates and expands the model’s dynamical repertoire—for example, enabling slow-wave activity.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
⬇️⬇️⬇️
1/5
The impact of homeostatic inhibitory plasticity in a generative biophysical model
A main characteristic of biological systems is their capacity to dynamically adapt to environmental changes. In the brain, synaptic plasticity enables the strengthening or weakening of connections bet...
www.biorxiv.org
January 14, 2026 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Thomas Andrillon
A new comparative study of seven lizard species, including chameleons and bearded dragons, finds an ancient sleep rhythm conserved over millennia.

By Lauren Schenkman

www.thetransmitter.org/sleep/snoozi...
December 29, 2025 at 6:34 PM
After 35 days at sea, Alexia and her team are passing Cape Horn!

Looping the loop!!!
January 6, 2026 at 1:55 PM
This is the first article I read after my wife gave birth. It goes without saying it resonated deeply with what she told me of her experience and what I witnessed.

A beautiful and important piece. Have a look!
January 5, 2026 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Thomas Andrillon
🚨 New article in #NCONSC

Functional connectivity drifts during sleep as a marker of fluctuations in the level of consciousness
academic.oup.com/nc/article/2...

#consciousness
🧠🧪
Functional connectivity drifts during sleep as a marker of fluctuations in the level of consciousness
Abstract. During the wake–sleep cycle, consciousness waxes and wanes, and this is thought to be reflected in varying levels of integration between brain ar
academic.oup.com
January 5, 2026 at 3:38 PM
Ever had someone ask "What are you thinking about?" and your honest answer was "Actually, nothing"?

In this essay for @psyche.co, I explain why "mind blanking" is more than just a glitch: it’s a window into how our brains toggle between being awake and asleep.

🧠🧪💤

psyche.co/ideas/what-y...
What your mind’s blank moments reveal about consciousness | Psyche Ideas
Scientists are uncovering the nature of an elusive mental experience that challenges what it means to be conscious
psyche.co
January 5, 2026 at 1:17 PM
What happens in your brain when you blank out?

Read a summary of our recent paper by @institutducerveau.bsky.social

parisbraininstitute.org/not-thinking...
December 29, 2025 at 9:45 PM
🚨 New paper in @pnas.org to end 2025 with a bang!🚨

Behavioral, experiential, and physiological signatures of mind blanking
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

with Esteban Munoz-Musat, @arthurlecoz.bsky.social @corcorana.bsky.social, Laouen Belloli and Lionel Naccache

Illustration: Ana Yael.

1/n
December 29, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Reposted by Thomas Andrillon
Our recent research on mind wandering is featured in Cerveau et Psycho, a French magazine on brain and cognition. Thanks, Thomas ;)

Article (FR): stm.cairn.info/magazine-cer...
#MindWandering #Neuroscience

@thomasandrillon.bsky.social
stm.cairn.info
December 20, 2025 at 12:51 PM
That's just amazing!

Very neat analysis of the current debate and a strong proposal to overcome the apparent aporia. Well done!
🎊📜 NEW PAPER 📜🎊

Can we seriously build synthetic consciousness?
And if so, where do we start?

I’m super excited to present recent publication in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews where @jaanaru.bsky.social and I confront this challenge head on.

1/n
On biological and artificial consciousness: A case for biological computationalism
The rapid advances in the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) have galvanised public and scientific debates over whether artificial systems m…
sciencedirect.com
December 18, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by Thomas Andrillon
🎊📜 NEW PAPER 📜🎊

Can we seriously build synthetic consciousness?
And if so, where do we start?

I’m super excited to present recent publication in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews where @jaanaru.bsky.social and I confront this challenge head on.

1/n
On biological and artificial consciousness: A case for biological computationalism
The rapid advances in the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) have galvanised public and scientific debates over whether artificial systems m…
sciencedirect.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Thomas Andrillon
A hippocampal ‘sharp-wave sleep’ state that is dissociable from cortical sleep

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A hippocampal ‘sharp-wave sleep’ state that is dissociable from cortical sleep - Nature Neuroscience
Through continuous multiday recordings in rats, the authors reveal that hippocampal sharp waves reflect sleep need and define a homeostatically regulated sleep state that enables the hippocampus to di...
www.nature.com
December 14, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Reposted by Thomas Andrillon
If you analyse time-resolved data (M/EEG, iEEG, pupillometry, force recordings…) and feel limited by cluster-based permutation tests (CBPTs); especially when trying to determine when an effect starts or ends; you may want to try our new R package: lnalborczyk.github.io/neurogam/
#rstats #brms #EEG
Modelling time-resolved electrophysiological data with Bayesian generalised additive multilevel models
Providing utility functions for fitting Bayesian generalised additive multilevel models (BGAMMs) to time-resolved data (e.g., M/EEG, pupillometry, mouse-tracking, etc) and identifying clusters.
lnalborczyk.github.io
December 11, 2025 at 11:38 AM
"Research will be shared exclusively outside traditional journals"

This is quite a statement!
This is HUGE! (Read it!!). I'll be cheering Doris and Astera Neuro on the entire way. Doris is a genius, both in the scope of her vision and in making things happen (that combination is rare). SO EXCITING! I can't wait to see what Astera Neuro discovers.

astera.org/neuroscienti...
Neuroscientist Doris Tsao joins Astera to lead its new neuroscience program - Astera
The Astera Institute is excited to launch a major new neuroscience research effort led by Dr. Doris Tsao, who will be joining as Chief Scientist for Astera Neuro. We seek to understand one of the deep...
astera.org
December 10, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Not even a week after departure, they are already at the equator!

What a team!
December 5, 2025 at 8:45 PM