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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · 14d

Which small midbrain structure plays a surprisingly central role in how animals see, decide, and act, and has been the star of multiple recent papers from @farrowlab.bsky.social and @boninlab.bsky.social?
That's right, the superior colliculus!
https://blog.vib.be/meet-the-superior-colliculus

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Sep 4

What if... a brain scan would be as easy as an ultrassound?

The Urban lab's work on fUS is covered in EOS (in Dutch)!

Read it here 👇 https://www.eoswetenschap.eu/technologie/wat-als-een-hersenscan-even-eenvoudig-werd-als-een-echo

Wat als een hersenscan even eenvoudig werd als een echo?

Bij pasgeboren baby’s verlopen epileptische aanvallen vaak zó subtiel dat ze onopgemerkt blijven. Toch kunnen net die eerste aanvallen schade veroorzake...

www.eoswetenschap.eu

NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Jul 23

📢 New paper out in Nature!
The Hoekstra lab at Harvard and @farrowlab.bsky.social lab at NERF reveal how a brain switch is tuned by evolution to control freezing vs fleeing in two sister species of deer mice.

👏 Huge congratulations to the entire team
https://tinyurl.com/3at3zvby

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Jul 21

New from the Urban Lab: PyfUS!

An open-source Python toolkit for analyzing whole-brain fUS data—now with single-voxel clustering for fine-scale insights. Just published in Neurocomputing.

🔗 Paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2025.130899
🛠️ Code: github.com/OpenfUS/PyfUS

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Jul 16

In a new essay in The Transmitter,
@farrowlab.bsky.social and katjareinhard.bsky.social‬ make the case for evolutionary thinking in systems neuroscience. Comparative approaches = deeper insight into brain function.
tinyurl.com/33sebnf7

✨ Artwork by Eoin Ryan

Systems and circuit neuroscience need an evolutionary perspective

To identify fundamental neuroscientific principles that generalize across species, neuroscientists must frame their research through an evolutionary lens.

tinyurl.com

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Reposted by NERF

Clément Brunner @clembrunner.bsky.social · Jul 16

We map brain-wide functions of awake mice at the single-voxel scale !

Introducing PyfUS our brand new, ground-setting, open-source software for analysing brain-wide functional ultrasound imaging datasets.

Now in #Neurocomputing
@sciencedirect.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...

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Reposted by NERF

FarrowLab @farrowlab.bsky.social · Jul 16

Excited to see this out! 🎉 Congratulations to the fantastic
@nkkuhn.bsky.social for leading the way, with key contributions from Chen Li and
@boninlab.bsky.social. Thanks also to: @nerflabs.bsky.social, @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social, @viblifesciences.bsky.social, and KU Leuven.
tinyurl.com/3rfe6f2k

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Jul 15

New research from the @farrowlab.bsky.social and @boninlab.bsky.social at NERF out in @currentbiology.bsky.social reveals how the intricate dendritic architecture of midbrain neurons helps detect and compute critical motion cues.
https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0960-9822(25)00820-6

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Reposted by NERF

OpenfUS initiative @openfus.bsky.social · Jun 23

Last piece of work by Urban lab @viblifesciences.bsky.social @cbdresearch.bsky.social @nerflabs.bsky.social

Imaging Neuroscience @imagingneurosci.bsky.social · Jun 21

New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Théo Lambert, Alan Urban, et al:

Functional ultrasound imaging and neuronal activity: How accurate is the spatiotemporal match?

doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · May 27

Latest paper from the @alanurban.bsky.social‬ lab shows functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging reliably tracks neuronal activity with good spatial precision! 🎯

Congrats to the team! 👏
https://direct.mit.edu/imag/article/doi/10.1162/IMAG.a.34/131016/Functional-ultrasound-imaging-and-neuronal

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · May 26

Last Friday, we celebrated Art & Neuroscience with great talks, posters, workshops, and lots of connection at the yearly NERF retreat.

Special thanks to the @boninlab.bsky.social‬ for organizing, and to everyone who joined in on the fun! 🧠✨

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · May 23

🎨 Painted faces
🐁 Tickling experiments
🙋🏻‍♀️ Thought-provoking questions

Where else but at the NERF retreat? 🤩

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · May 19

Exciting news: @boninlab.bsky.social‬ & @vanderhaeghenp2.bsky.social with ‪@franckp.bsky.social‬ receive SFARI funding to study how early synaptic development in SYNGAP1 mutants shapes brain circuits & behavior in autism. 👏
https://tinyurl.com/54ywzxm9

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Apr 22

Hayden, Karthik & Nastya from the @ppjgoncalves.bsky.social lab joined the #SBI Hackathon in Tübingen in March, contributing to the open-source SBI package. Nastya gave a lightning talk on multifidelity inference for computationally expensive simulators. A great week of science & collaboration!

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Apr 10

Congratulations to Dr. Simone Marcigaglia on defending his PhD today! 👏 🎓

Simone developed a novel microfluidic catheter aimed at bypassing the blood-brain barrier, an ambitious and much-needed approach that would fill an existing gap in the market for intracerebral infusions.

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Reposted by NERF

Pierre Vanderhaeghen @vanderhaeghenp2.bsky.social · Apr 7

With beautiful illustration of calcium imaging of human cortical neurons in visual cortex of awake transplanted mice by @benvermaercke.bsky.social @boninlab.bsky.social

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · Apr 7

Transplanted cells offer insight into human-specific properties, such as lengthy cortical development and sensitivity to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disease, writes @vanderhaeghenp2.bsky.social in our “Frontiers in human neurotechnology” series.

www.thetransmitter.org/human-neurot...

In vivo veritas: Xenotransplantation can help us study the development and function of human neurons in a living brain

Transplanted cells offer insight into human-specific properties, such as a lengthy cortical development and sensitivity to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disease.

www.thetransmitter.org

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Apr 2

🎶 Throwback to Quiz Night two weeks ago! Our NERF delegation may not have made it to the podium, but team spirit (and Disney knowledge!) was strong 💪

Big thanks to the PhD Association for organizing such a fun night. We're already looking forward to the next edition!

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Mar 21

In a series of recent studies, the Urban lab shows how it's pushing the boundaries of functional ultrasound (fUS), with:
👉 AI-powered navigation tools with micrometer precision
👉 3D vascular mapping
👉 ultra-sensitive activity analysis
https://blog.vib.be/peering-into-the-brain-with-ultrasound

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Mar 18

Thus new review by Jennifer Hoy (University of Nevada) and Karl Farrow (NERF) takes a deep dive into the role of the superior colliculus.
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)00052-1

Beautifully illustrated by Pia Rachedi + open access

@farrowlab.bsky.social

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Mar 14

New work co-led by @ppjgoncalves.bsky.social introduces a powerful new approach to model conditional distributions of neural and behavioral data using masked variational autoencoders.
Congratulations to @auschulz.bsky.social‬ et al.
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(25)00109-3

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Feb 11

As part of #NEUROGATE, the Haesler lab is helping develop a holographic endoscope for high-resolution, deep-brain imaging. Supported by a €2.5M EIC grant, this ultra-thin fiber technology could transform neuroscience & neurotech.
nerf.be/en/news#/new...

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Feb 10

Belated congratulations to our newest Dr. Lies Deceuninck! 🙌 🎓

Reposted by NERF

Clément Brunner @clembrunner.bsky.social · Feb 10

🚀New from Urban Lab in #eNeuro @sfnjournals.bsky.social We used spatiotemporal clustering of single fUS voxels to map visual activity in awake mice. This high-resolution method precisely separates signals, revealing fine-grained activity patterns like never before🧠✨ tinyurl.com/47t27c7k

Spatiotemporal Clustering of Functional Ultrasound Signals at the Single-Voxel Level

Functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging is a well-established neuroimaging technology that offers high spatiotemporal resolution and a large field of view. Typical strategies for analysing fUS data compri...

doi.org

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Dec 17

What a week for the @boninlab.bsky.social!
Celebrating the publication of two papers and now the news of an FWO project grant, enabling more exciting science over the next four years. Congratulations Vincent Bonin and Asli Ayaz. 👏

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NERF @nerflabs.bsky.social · Dec 17

Two new studies from the @boninlab.bsky.social reveal the complexity of the brain’s visual processing network and how it adapts to different states of arousal and behavior. 👁️ 🧠

Congratulations to @xuhan87.bsky.social, Karolina Socha, and the rest of the team. 🙌

nerf.be/en/news#/new...

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