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Reposted by Kadjita Asumbisa

Mari Sosa @marisosa.bsky.social · 16d

The Sosa Lab website is now live!
www.sosaneurolab.com

We will be seeking a postdoctoral researcher to join the growing team! If you are a rodent neuroscientist and interested in doing systems neuro work in the mountains 🏔️, please check out the "Join" page.

Sosa Lab

www.sosaneurolab.com

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · 26d

congrats to the team🎉🥂

Reposted by Kadjita Asumbisa

Adrien Peyrache @apeyrache.bsky.social · 27d

Stoked to see this paper finally out!

It answers two big questions: where visual objects are encoded in the brain, and how head-direction cells get oriented using visual landmarks.

Super fun collaboration with @mace-lab.bsky.social and Stuart Trenholm.

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

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Abhilasha Joshi, PhD @rhythmicspikes.bsky.social · Aug 1

📣 We are expanding! Repost 🙏🏽

- Postdoc (funded by @simonsfoundation.org grant on synchronisation between cognitive representations and stepping)
- Project Associates
- Create your role! (Reach out if you are keen on these topics and these roles do not define you 👀🤗)

www.neuroact.in

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Jul 19

congrats!!🎉

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Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · Jun 23

Thrilled to announce I'll be starting my own neuro-theory lab, as an Assistant Professor at @yaleneuro.bsky.social @wutsaiyale.bsky.social this Fall!

My group will study offline learning in the sleeping brain: how neural activity self-organizes during sleep and the computations it performs. 🧵

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Ben Kanter @beneuroscience.bsky.social · Jun 26

Our new paper out now in Science explores how neural activity in the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) *drifts* over time - and *jumps* at key boundaries - to help organize events in memory.

🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Here's a quick summary of what we found 🧵👇

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Reposted by Kadjita Asumbisa

Matthijs Dorst @mattneuro.bsky.social · Jun 13

#neuroskyence folks: as my postdoc grant is running out soon, I am looking for new opportunities in systems neuroscience!

Keywords: patch clamp ephys, opto, mouse behavior, (in vivo) voltage imaging. Would love to return to the Basal Ganglia.

Sharing appreciated, and happy #FluorescenceFriday !

Brightly labelled pyramidal cells in the mouse retrosplenial cortex. Blood vessels are visible of various thicknesses in darker colours.

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · May 2

That's truly exciting news! Congrats Mari!!

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 18

Congrats @markcembrowski.bsky.social 🤩! certainly well deserved!!!!

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Reposted by Kadjita Asumbisa

Adrien Peyrache @apeyrache.bsky.social · Apr 16

I joined this podcast to talk about sleep, dreams, and James Joyce. Yes, all in one conversation. It was a lot of fun!

🔊 Heads up: the audio is a bit rough at the start, but it clears up quickly.

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/b...

Bonus: Professors Adrien Peyrache and Arjun Krishnaswamy on Wake and the Sleeping Brain

Podcast Episode · WAKE: Cold Reading Finnegans Wake · 2025-03-26 · 1h 11m

podcasts.apple.com

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 15

thanks Horst!

Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 15

thanks, Quinn!

Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 15

Lastly, a big shoutout to @mcgill.ca @theneuro.bsky.social IPNMcGiLL , and a heartfelt thanks to the grant gods 💸:Vision Health Research Network (VHRN), @hbhlmcgill.bsky.social @CIHR_IRSC @NSERC_CRSNG @sloanfoundation.bsky.social for funding this work!

Cheers!

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 15

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Huge thanks to the authors behind all the foundational studies that inspired this work, to my amazing advisors (@apeyrache.bsky.social and Stuart Trenholm), and to the brilliant members of the Peyrache and Trenholm labs for their support.

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 15

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In summary, we provide a direct link between stereo olfaction and the HD system in blind mice, and highlight the contribution of HD cells to allocentric spatial navigation.

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 15

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We also tested blind mice with bilateral ablation of olfactory sensory neurons on the task.

And as expected, their performance tanked!

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 15

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Interestingly, during rewarded trials, mice with one nostril blocked adopted a "hunting" strategy: scanning until they randomly hit the target, then used self-motion cues to secure extra rewards. However, once they strayed too far, they were unable to relocate the target.

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 15

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However, blind mice with one nostril blocked struggled, and often waited at random angles. This breakdown was pronounced in probe trials.

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 15

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Blind control mice quickly mastered the task and maintained their head at the correct target angle even during unrewarded probe trials.

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 15

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We then asked: if HD signals deteriorate after disrupting stereo olfaction, do HD-related behaviors suffer as well? To test this, we designed a closed-loop task where mice received brain stimulation as reward for keeping their head at a specific allocentric angle for 500 ms.

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 15

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Could the loss of tuning simply be stemming from reduced odor input due to sealing one nostril? To address this possibility, we employed an alternative method to disrupt stereo odor processing. Again, HD tuning was impaired.

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 15

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Many organisms, incl. rodents, use stereo olfaction to pinpoint odor direction. This prompted us to ask if our blind mice were using this mechanism to fine-tune their HD system. To test this, we sealed one nostril & recorded from HD cells. The result? HD cells became unstable!

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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · Apr 15

Excited to share the sequel to our 2022 paper! In this follow-up, we show that the stable head direction (HD) signals we reported in blind mice rely on stereo olfaction—that is, the comparison of odor info. between the two nostrils.

Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧵highlights below

Stereo olfaction underlies stable coding of head direction in blind mice - Nature Communications

Stereo olfaction involves comparing odor differences between the two nostrils. Here, using neuronal recordings and a behavioral test, the authors demonstrate that blind mice use stereo olfaction to fo...

www.nature.com

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Horst Obenhaus @octoscience.bsky.social · Apr 4

Check out Amy’s cool work on the octopus visual system! Amy + team describe novel receptors and map their distribution and function in the optical lobe.
Turns out: Octos run different hardware to process visual input, but might have evolved similar circuit motives / logic to those in vertebrates!

Amy Courtney @amycourtneyyy.bsky.social · Apr 4

Very excited and proud to finally share this story! 🐙

We discovered surprising roles for dopamine and acetylcholine in the Octopus visual system…
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Novel dopaminergic neurotransmission in the Octopus visual system

Coleoid cephalopods such as the common octopus have a complex visual system, with a camera-type eye and a large optic lobe, that evolved independently from its counterpart in vertebrates. However, the...

doi.org

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