Mark Nicholas
@markolas.bsky.social
260 followers 200 following 11 posts
PhD candidate in Neuroscience in the @yttrilab.bsky.social at @CMU_Bio, retired footballer, maker of good food https://markolas11.github.io
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markolas.bsky.social
I started studying neuroscience back in 2012.

This week I will be defending my PhD from the
@yttrilab.bsky.social at @cmu.edu @the-cnbc.bsky.social

Date: Friday, September 26th
Time: 2:30 pm eastern
If you are interested in the Zoom option, please reach out.

#neuroskyence
Reposted by Mark Nicholas
vincentcostaphd.bsky.social
Why do we go downstairs when we hear a scary noise at night?

New #preprint by postdoc Kati Rothenhoefer shows how novelty seeking & explore-exploit decision making in #macaques resolves curiosity about whether choices will lead to appetitive or aversive outcomes.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Dissociable effects of curiosity and hedonic valence on reinforcement learning
Curiosity and exploration support learning and adaptive decision-making in uncertain environments. While these processes are sensitive to motivational context, it remains unclear how outcome valence s...
www.biorxiv.org
Reposted by Mark Nicholas
juliefabre.bsky.social
🚀 We are excited to share that bombcell is now available in Python! 🐍 Automatically sort your units into good/MUA/noise/non-somatic using quality metrics and interpretable & adjustable classification thresholds.
pip install and play around with our toy dataset:
🔗 github.com/Julie-Fabre/...
GitHub - Julie-Fabre/bombcell: Automated quality control, curation and neuron classification of spike-sorted electrophysiology data
Automated quality control, curation and neuron classification of spike-sorted electrophysiology data - Julie-Fabre/bombcell
github.com
markolas.bsky.social
Well whether or not "they have to do it", is still a question, but I would say blinking is a convenient way to break up incoming information.
Next time you give a lecture or a talk, take note of when the audience blinks relative to your speech cadence and information you are sharing
markolas.bsky.social
The idea of blinking and editing are linked comes from the first link - "In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing" by Walter Murch

"...And that blink will occur where a cut could have happened, ... Not a frame earlier or later." (pg 36)
markolas.bsky.social
In a past life I did film production and editing and we knew to make edits around content - we would see blinks in the audience with cut scenes as if they were chunking information

I remember reading this back in the day which helped me a lot with editing

www.craftfilmschool.com/userfiles/fi...
Reposted by Mark Nicholas
cmu-neuroscience.bsky.social
Tim Verstynen, Interim Director of the NI, has been awarded the 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship! 👏

Awarded annually to "trailblazing artists and scholars," Tim will be inducted into the 100th class of Guggenheim Fellows on June 2.

Read more about his upcoming "exploration of exploration."
🌎 ⬇️
CMU Neuroscientist Has Big Plans for Guggenheim Fellowship - Neuroscience Institute - Carnegie Mellon University
Timothy Verstynen has always been fascinated by how organisms explore their environments — from the human quest to map the surfaces of distant planets to the itty-bitty journeys of single-celled bacte...
www.cmu.edu
Reposted by Mark Nicholas
tdverstynen.bsky.social
🚨New lab preprint alert!🚨

Grab a drink, sit down, and let me walk you through the moment-by-moment process of how information loops through basal ganglia circuits during a decision.

(Link at the end of the thread)

1/9
markolas.bsky.social
Having learned from Carl both as an undergraduate and graduate student, I continually go back to my notes and the topics studied in his course to help me think about concepts in cognitive neuroscience.

Thank you, Carl
cmu-neuroscience.bsky.social
Carl Olson, Professor of the Neuroscience Institute at CMU, died Nov. 23, 2024. Carl was a renowned neuroscientist who provided insights into fundamental issues in the neural basis of cognition. Read more about Carl's life and legacy in his published obituary. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
markolas.bsky.social
Super proud of this work and as I finish up my #PhD studies I am actively looking for a #postdoc position.

I am interested in studying learning and value-based decision making and how cortical and subcortical areas contribute to complex behavior

tinyurl.com/LesionsOfM1

#neuroskyence
markolas.bsky.social
Thanks to @antofala.bsky.social and @harsh-kanodia.bsky.social of @biozentrum.bsky.social for presenting at our journal club on some really cool SNr/brainstem activity during skilled reaching

#neuroskyence