WilluhnLab
@willuhnlab.bsky.social
A bunch of passionate neuronerds studying the brain origins of reinforcement learning and compulsive behavior at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience. Dopamine, serotonin, basal ganglia, PFC, DBS. https://nin.nl/research/researchgroups/willuhn-group/
Pinned
WilluhnLab
@willuhnlab.bsky.social
· Jul 24
Intracranial electrophysiological biomarkers of compulsivity in obsessive–compulsive disorder - Nature Mental Health
This research identifies local field potential markers associated with obsessive–compulsive disorder symptoms in patients during provocation. Key findings reveal increased delta and alpha power in spe...
www.nature.com
I am very proud of lead author Tara Arbab for completing this most recent manuscript from the lab! --> Intracranial electrophysiological biomarkers of compulsivity in OCD. www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Reposted by WilluhnLab
A new study led by Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain investigator @carlosbrody.bsky.social tracked decision-making in rats to pinpoint the precise moment the animals commit to a decision: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/scientists-pinpoint-the-moment-of-decision-in-the-rat-brain/ #science
Scientists Pinpoint the Moment of Decision in the Rat Brain
Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain researchers found a synchronized shift in neural activity that signals the moment when animals commit to a decision.
www.simonsfoundation.org
November 26, 2025 at 7:11 PM
A new study led by Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain investigator @carlosbrody.bsky.social tracked decision-making in rats to pinpoint the precise moment the animals commit to a decision: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/scientists-pinpoint-the-moment-of-decision-in-the-rat-brain/ #science
Reposted by WilluhnLab
Harnessing the muscle of one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, researchers at the @alleninstitute.org and their collaborators have built one of the largest and most detailed biophysically realistic brain simulations of an animal ever!
🐁 See the #MouseBrain simulation: https://bit.ly/47TFf2e
🐁 See the #MouseBrain simulation: https://bit.ly/47TFf2e
November 21, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Harnessing the muscle of one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, researchers at the @alleninstitute.org and their collaborators have built one of the largest and most detailed biophysically realistic brain simulations of an animal ever!
🐁 See the #MouseBrain simulation: https://bit.ly/47TFf2e
🐁 See the #MouseBrain simulation: https://bit.ly/47TFf2e
Reposted by WilluhnLab
🎉 New in #NeurIPS2025, we present “Cross-Modal Representational Knowledge Distillation for Enhanced Spike-Informed LFP Modeling”.
We show that high-fidelity spike transformer models can teach LFP models to substantially enhance LFP decoding. #BCI
👏 Eray Erturk
🧵 Paper, Code ⬇️
We show that high-fidelity spike transformer models can teach LFP models to substantially enhance LFP decoding. #BCI
👏 Eray Erturk
🧵 Paper, Code ⬇️
November 25, 2025 at 8:15 PM
🎉 New in #NeurIPS2025, we present “Cross-Modal Representational Knowledge Distillation for Enhanced Spike-Informed LFP Modeling”.
We show that high-fidelity spike transformer models can teach LFP models to substantially enhance LFP decoding. #BCI
👏 Eray Erturk
🧵 Paper, Code ⬇️
We show that high-fidelity spike transformer models can teach LFP models to substantially enhance LFP decoding. #BCI
👏 Eray Erturk
🧵 Paper, Code ⬇️
Reposted by WilluhnLab
Come on Konrad, why do you cave so easily? Here, let me try it for you:
1. Spikes are (to good approximation) the only events that matter.
2. Extracellular fields are one way by which spikes interact with each other.
1/2
1. Spikes are (to good approximation) the only events that matter.
2. Extracellular fields are one way by which spikes interact with each other.
1/2
As we are having a discussion on neural codes: @earlkmiller.bsky.social is entirely right that the "only spike rates matter" idea that is so prominent in neuroscience has no credible evidence. We simply do not currently know how neurons code relevant information. Oscillations are likely part of it.
November 21, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Come on Konrad, why do you cave so easily? Here, let me try it for you:
1. Spikes are (to good approximation) the only events that matter.
2. Extracellular fields are one way by which spikes interact with each other.
1/2
1. Spikes are (to good approximation) the only events that matter.
2. Extracellular fields are one way by which spikes interact with each other.
1/2
Reposted by WilluhnLab
Vacancy alert! @vuamsterdam.bsky.social , @uva.nl, and @amsterdamumc.bsky.social are seeking talent for research positions in neuroscience. Explore all vacancies within the Amsterdam Neuroscience Network and apply now (scroll down to the bottom of our homepage ⬇️) www.amsterdamumc.org/en/research/...
November 24, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Vacancy alert! @vuamsterdam.bsky.social , @uva.nl, and @amsterdamumc.bsky.social are seeking talent for research positions in neuroscience. Explore all vacancies within the Amsterdam Neuroscience Network and apply now (scroll down to the bottom of our homepage ⬇️) www.amsterdamumc.org/en/research/...
Reposted by WilluhnLab
Possibility for a Eastbio funded PhD in my group at the @rowettinstitute.bsky.social @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social.
This is a highly competitive process: applicants should hold a 1st BSc Honours or 2:1 MSc degree in neuroscience.
A single applicant per project will be interviewed.
shorturl.at/rd669
This is a highly competitive process: applicants should hold a 1st BSc Honours or 2:1 MSc degree in neuroscience.
A single applicant per project will be interviewed.
shorturl.at/rd669
EastBio: Too sweet: how early life sugar consumption shapes brain and behaviour at University of Aberdeen on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - EastBio: Too sweet: how early life sugar consumption shapes brain and behaviour at University of Aberdeen , listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Possibility for a Eastbio funded PhD in my group at the @rowettinstitute.bsky.social @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social.
This is a highly competitive process: applicants should hold a 1st BSc Honours or 2:1 MSc degree in neuroscience.
A single applicant per project will be interviewed.
shorturl.at/rd669
This is a highly competitive process: applicants should hold a 1st BSc Honours or 2:1 MSc degree in neuroscience.
A single applicant per project will be interviewed.
shorturl.at/rd669
Reposted by WilluhnLab
So stoked to have our image on the cover of this week's issue of Journal of Neuroscience!! @sfnjournals.bsky.social #JNeurosci #SfN25. Check out the final version of the paper here www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4...
Superior Colliculus Projections Drive Dopamine Neuron Activity and Movement But Not Value
To navigate dynamic environments, animals must rapidly integrate sensory information and respond appropriately to gather rewards and avoid threats. It is well established that dopamine (DA) neurons in...
www.jneurosci.org
November 19, 2025 at 6:15 PM
So stoked to have our image on the cover of this week's issue of Journal of Neuroscience!! @sfnjournals.bsky.social #JNeurosci #SfN25. Check out the final version of the paper here www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4...
Reposted by WilluhnLab
I have so many issues with this podcast with @earlkmiller.bsky.social . I think that this podcast nicely shows why I have trouble with such approaches. Lets go through some of the claims.
Giant Shoulders podcast: Meet the MIT Neuroscientist Proving Brainwaves are the Secret to Consciousness.
youtu.be/7OFb-NG3jIw
#neuroscience
youtu.be/7OFb-NG3jIw
#neuroscience
Meet the MIT Neuroscientist Proving Brain Waves Are the Secret Engine Behind Consciousness
YouTube video by Giant's Shoulder
youtu.be
November 18, 2025 at 8:05 PM
I have so many issues with this podcast with @earlkmiller.bsky.social . I think that this podcast nicely shows why I have trouble with such approaches. Lets go through some of the claims.
Reposted by WilluhnLab
Our microbial-opsin work (and most of the field ) is basic science, but it was intriguing to review clinical progress–direct & indirect–with a wonderful team of co-authors
t.co/JrJen2WGBV
& adapt a fig. of PMID:28912215 (2017) with my long-time collaborator Peter Hegemann (pic: a memory from 2017).
t.co/JrJen2WGBV
& adapt a fig. of PMID:28912215 (2017) with my long-time collaborator Peter Hegemann (pic: a memory from 2017).
November 18, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Our microbial-opsin work (and most of the field ) is basic science, but it was intriguing to review clinical progress–direct & indirect–with a wonderful team of co-authors
t.co/JrJen2WGBV
& adapt a fig. of PMID:28912215 (2017) with my long-time collaborator Peter Hegemann (pic: a memory from 2017).
t.co/JrJen2WGBV
& adapt a fig. of PMID:28912215 (2017) with my long-time collaborator Peter Hegemann (pic: a memory from 2017).
Reposted by WilluhnLab
Two weeks left to apply! MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences is seeking a tenure-track Assistant Professor, working with nonhuman animals in some way. Application deadline is Dec. 1. Full posting: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30586
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences
Job #AJO30586, Assistant Professor level or higher, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US
academicjobsonline.org
November 18, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Two weeks left to apply! MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences is seeking a tenure-track Assistant Professor, working with nonhuman animals in some way. Application deadline is Dec. 1. Full posting: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30586
Reposted by WilluhnLab
Thought now was as good a time as ever to join bsky - Excited to share a big part of my PhD work is finally published- 7+ years of experiments from a great team of people. Wishing I could be at #sfn2025 to celebrate with you guys! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Cocaine seeking and consumption are oppositely regulated by mesolimbic dopamine in male rats - Nature Communications
Here authors demonstrate how opposing trajectories of dopamine transmission underlie changes in drug seeking and taking over chronic drug use. Increased dopamine to drug cues elevates craving, whereas...
www.nature.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Thought now was as good a time as ever to join bsky - Excited to share a big part of my PhD work is finally published- 7+ years of experiments from a great team of people. Wishing I could be at #sfn2025 to celebrate with you guys! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Awesome work by lead author Lauren Burgeno et al: Dopamine evoked by non-contingent cues increases over cocaine use, producing greater cue reactivity; whereas dopamine evoked by contingent cues decreases over cocaine use, producing escalation of drug consumption. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Cocaine seeking and consumption are oppositely regulated by mesolimbic dopamine in male rats - Nature Communications
Here authors demonstrate how opposing trajectories of dopamine transmission underlie changes in drug seeking and taking over chronic drug use. Increased dopamine to drug cues elevates craving, whereas...
www.nature.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Awesome work by lead author Lauren Burgeno et al: Dopamine evoked by non-contingent cues increases over cocaine use, producing greater cue reactivity; whereas dopamine evoked by contingent cues decreases over cocaine use, producing escalation of drug consumption. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by WilluhnLab
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...
www.ucl.ac.uk/cortexlab/po...
November 12, 2025 at 3:41 PM
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...
www.ucl.ac.uk/cortexlab/po...
Reposted by WilluhnLab
Excited to share our cross-disorder GWAS analysis of neurological and psychiatric disorders (~1 M cases), now out in @natneuro.nature.com! We show more extensive genetic pleiotropy than previously recognized, supporting a more unified view of these disorders
rdcu.be/ePmwD
rdcu.be/ePmwD
A genome-wide analysis of the shared genetic risk architecture of complex neurological and psychiatric disorders
Nature Neuroscience - Smeland et al. demonstrate greater genetic overlap between neurological and psychiatric disorders than previously recognized, along with diverse neurobiological associations....
rdcu.be
November 12, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Excited to share our cross-disorder GWAS analysis of neurological and psychiatric disorders (~1 M cases), now out in @natneuro.nature.com! We show more extensive genetic pleiotropy than previously recognized, supporting a more unified view of these disorders
rdcu.be/ePmwD
rdcu.be/ePmwD
Reposted by WilluhnLab
Independent validation of the SnxA biosensor as a sensitive reporter of PI(3,5)P₂ dynamics by Gerald R Hammond and team: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 12, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Independent validation of the SnxA biosensor as a sensitive reporter of PI(3,5)P₂ dynamics by Gerald R Hammond and team: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by WilluhnLab
The Matthew Effect is alive and well in academia - always makes me wary of programs aimed at identifying rising stars in an already highly talented pool...
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
elifesciences.org
November 12, 2025 at 7:03 PM
The Matthew Effect is alive and well in academia - always makes me wary of programs aimed at identifying rising stars in an already highly talented pool...
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
Reposted by WilluhnLab
Delighted to see this finally out: rdcu.be/eO9oW
We tested whether brief striatal dopamine release events influence the vigor of skilled movements. Despite popular belief, we did not find any evidence linking rapid dopamine dynamics to motor vigor on a moment-by-moment basis.
We tested whether brief striatal dopamine release events influence the vigor of skilled movements. Despite popular belief, we did not find any evidence linking rapid dopamine dynamics to motor vigor on a moment-by-moment basis.
Subsecond dopamine fluctuations do not specify the vigor of ongoing actions
Nature Neuroscience - Liu and colleagues show that the vigor (that is, speed and amplitude) of dexterous movements is not controlled by ongoing fluctuations in extracellular dopamine within the...
rdcu.be
November 10, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Delighted to see this finally out: rdcu.be/eO9oW
We tested whether brief striatal dopamine release events influence the vigor of skilled movements. Despite popular belief, we did not find any evidence linking rapid dopamine dynamics to motor vigor on a moment-by-moment basis.
We tested whether brief striatal dopamine release events influence the vigor of skilled movements. Despite popular belief, we did not find any evidence linking rapid dopamine dynamics to motor vigor on a moment-by-moment basis.
Reposted by WilluhnLab
🚨🧠🚨 POSTDOC POSITION 🚨🧠🚨 in my lab: www.ru.nl/en/working-a... Connectivity in Working Memory. Deadline 12 Nov! Apply via website; please repost.
Postdoc Position: Neural Circuitry Underlying Working Memory | Radboud University
Do you want to work as a Postdoc Position: Neural Circuitry Underlying Working Memory at the Faculty of Social Sciences? Check our vacancy!
www.ru.nl
November 9, 2025 at 9:17 AM
🚨🧠🚨 POSTDOC POSITION 🚨🧠🚨 in my lab: www.ru.nl/en/working-a... Connectivity in Working Memory. Deadline 12 Nov! Apply via website; please repost.
Reposted by WilluhnLab
What an exciting program for GRC Frontal Cortex in 2026! www.grc.org/frontal-cort...
2026 Frontal Cortex Conference GRC
The 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Frontal Cortex will be held in Holderness, New Hampshire. Apply today to reserve your spot.
www.grc.org
November 3, 2025 at 7:18 PM
What an exciting program for GRC Frontal Cortex in 2026! www.grc.org/frontal-cort...
Reposted by WilluhnLab
arXiv will no longer accept review articles and position papers unless they have been accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review.
This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.
Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.
This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.
Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.
Attention Authors: Updated Practice for Review Articles and Position Papers in arXiv CS Category – arXiv blog
blog.arxiv.org
November 1, 2025 at 5:28 PM
arXiv will no longer accept review articles and position papers unless they have been accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review.
This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.
Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.
This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.
Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.
Reposted by WilluhnLab
We are seeking a senior tenured professor in our Department working on affective and/or motivational neuroscience (defined in the ad, but pretty broad). The idea is that this person is going help lead our growth in this area alongside our excellent Centers. jobs.utdallas.edu/postings/30693
Associate/Full Professor - Affective Motivational Neuroscience
Position DescriptionThe Department of Neuroscience in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas seeks a late-stage Associate or Full Professor faculty member to ...
jobs.utdallas.edu
October 31, 2025 at 9:15 PM
We are seeking a senior tenured professor in our Department working on affective and/or motivational neuroscience (defined in the ad, but pretty broad). The idea is that this person is going help lead our growth in this area alongside our excellent Centers. jobs.utdallas.edu/postings/30693
Reposted by WilluhnLab
Ventral tegmental area dopamine controls timing variability https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.27.684913v1
October 28, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Ventral tegmental area dopamine controls timing variability https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.27.684913v1
Join us from September 7-10 (2026) in Amsterdam for the "Monitoring Molecules in Neuroscience" conference! The conference venue is booked, the plenary speakers are invited, and we are starting to work on the scientific program. More news to follow soon! monitoringmolecules.org/mmin-2026/
October 28, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Join us from September 7-10 (2026) in Amsterdam for the "Monitoring Molecules in Neuroscience" conference! The conference venue is booked, the plenary speakers are invited, and we are starting to work on the scientific program. More news to follow soon! monitoringmolecules.org/mmin-2026/
Reposted by WilluhnLab
Looking to improve your PeerReview skills? The Reviewer Mentor Program pairs trainees with #JNeurosci & #eNeuro editors & top reviewers to conduct strong manuscript reviews. Open to SfN members at any career stage: http://www.jneurosci.org/rmp
October 25, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Looking to improve your PeerReview skills? The Reviewer Mentor Program pairs trainees with #JNeurosci & #eNeuro editors & top reviewers to conduct strong manuscript reviews. Open to SfN members at any career stage: http://www.jneurosci.org/rmp