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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Víctor Calbiague-García @victorcalbiagueg.bsky.social · 1d

11/n This way, this inhibition “piggybacks” on existing circuits. Revealing that the retina doesn’t build new circuits for every computation — it repurposes existing ones, using limited wiring to perform multiple computations efficiently. ♻️

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Víctor Calbiague-García @victorcalbiagueg.bsky.social · 1d

10/n Mechanistically, we propose that ON stimulation in the surround may trigger crossover inhibition that suppresses wide-field GABAergic amacrine cells—normally responsible for surround suppression—thereby disinhibiting distant OFF ganglion cells.

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Víctor Calbiague-García @victorcalbiagueg.bsky.social · 1d

6/n This setup let us directly stimulate individual rod bipolar cells while recording retinal output in real time.

Result? Activating single RBCs drove responses in OFF ganglion cells far beyond their receptive field center 💥

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Víctor Calbiague-García @victorcalbiagueg.bsky.social · 1d

5/n So, to tackle this we combined:
✨ Optogenetics — to control specific neurons
✨ Two-photon holography — to activate single cells precisely
✨ Multi-electrode recordings — to monitor hundreds of ganglion cells simultaneously

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Víctor Calbiague-García @victorcalbiagueg.bsky.social · 1d

3/n Our hunch: a circuit best known for rod vision — the rod bipolar (RBC) → AII amacrine pathway — might also shape these surround responses under brighter conditions. 🌙➡️💡

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Víctor Calbiague-García @victorcalbiagueg.bsky.social · 1d

🚨 New preprint out from our lab!
📄 The Rod Bipolar Cell Pathway Contributes to Surround Responses in OFF Retinal Ganglion Cells
👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The Rod Bipolar Cell Pathway Contributes To Surround Responses In OFF Retinal Ganglion Cells

Sensory neurons can be influenced by stimuli beyond their receptive field center, yet the mechanisms underlying this surround modulation remain poorly understood. In the retina, many OFF ganglion cell...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Tessa Dekker @tessamdekker.bsky.social · 11d

We’re hiring! We’re looking for two RAs to study neuroplasticity in sight loss, sight rescue and development in children and adults @ucl.ac.uk using a wide range of neuroimaging and behavioral methods. Please help spread the word! Apply by 16 Oct! t.ly/q3aYe #neurojobs #NeuroSkyence

Research Assistant at UCL

Recruiting now: Research Assistant on jobs.ac.uk. Click for details and explore more academic job opportunities on the top job board

t.ly

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Pascal Mamassian @mamassian.bsky.social · 14d

A nice shift in perceived colour between central and peripheral vision. The fixated disc looks purple while the others look blue.

The effect presumably comes from the absence of S-cones in the fovea.

From Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt:
arxiv.org/pdf/2509.115...

An array of 9 purple discs on a blue background. Figure from Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt.

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Olivier Marre @oliviermarre.bsky.social · Aug 16

If you are looking for a book to read and are interested in computational/systems neuroscience or AI, I have a suggestion: trialsanderrors.substack.com/p/a-recommen...

If you are working in systems or computational neuroscience, or AI, I would strongly recommend to read “The mechanization of the mind” by Jean-Pierre Dupuy.

trialsanderrors.substack.com

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Valerie Ego-Stengel @vegostengel.bsky.social · Jun 4

A very clear, detailed, and fair account on the (obscure?) French way to distribute positions in academia, and then manage to actually do some research! Thanks Olivier

Olivier Marre @oliviermarre.bsky.social · Jun 3

In case this is helpful for anyone, here is a post on how to get a job in french academia : trialsanderrors.substack.com/p/getting-a-...
Aimed at non-french scientists who are curious, but french ones may find it useful too.

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Olivier Marre @oliviermarre.bsky.social · Jun 3

In case this is helpful for anyone, here is a post on how to get a job in french academia : trialsanderrors.substack.com/p/getting-a-...
Aimed at non-french scientists who are curious, but french ones may find it useful too.

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Matteo Carandini @carandinilab.net · Feb 7

Neuropixels and Optogenetics are delighted to announce the birth of

Neuropixels Opto

Combining high-resolution electrophysiology and optogenetics

Today in bioRxiv

960 sites, 28 emitters, 2 colors

By Lakunina, @karolinazsocha.bsky.social, Ladd, et al

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

(1/2)

A Neuropixels Opto probe with 3 blue emitters and 3 red emitters lighting up in succession, with corresponding neural activity in different layers of the cortex.

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Pascal Mamassian @mamassian.bsky.social · Feb 8

Some people see spontaneous faint flickering flashes in their visual field, a condition known as Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS, not to be confused with @vssmtg.bsky.social).

Maybe a visual equivalent of the auditory tinnitus?

Here is a very nice study from the lab of @sengelweb.bsky.social.

PsyArXivBot @psyarxivbot.bsky.social · Feb 6

Visual Snow is Susceptible to the Motion Aftereffect: http://osf.io/u6fcx_v2/

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Tom Baden @neurofishh.bsky.social · Feb 5

Seeking input: A standardized nomenclature
for the rods and cones of the vertebrate retina

A number of us have been working on a proposal to bring various disconnected naming systems for the vertebrate rods and cones across species into alignment. The basic proposal looks like this:

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Pascal Mamassian @mamassian.bsky.social · Jan 31

If you are interested in the contribution of Ibn al-Haytham to vision science, and if you don’t mind reading French, I recommend the book of Michel Imbert “La fin du regard éclairant”

www.vrin.fr/livre/978271...

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Dr Nick @nmwilkinson.bsky.social · Jan 22

as a side effect of a sort of "false-fusion" cos the binoc pair acts like a spatial filter. A binoc extension of the previous filter model does the trick, reproduces the newborn results. The results don't imply an "innate neural face representation". The inference was flawed.
doi.org/10.1111/desc...

Staring us in the face? An embodied theory of innate face preference

Human expertise in face perception grows over development, but even within minutes of birth, infants exhibit an extraordinary sensitivity to face-like stimuli. The dominant theory accounts for innate....

doi.org

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Olivier Marre @oliviermarre.bsky.social · Jan 20

New post: What chess (may have) taught me about neuroscience.
trialsanderrors.substack.com/p/what-chess...

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Olivier Marre @oliviermarre.bsky.social · Jan 20

Good resolution of 2025: start a blog for thoughts that cannot go in papers (too speculative or preliminary).

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Ben Balas @bjbalas.bsky.social · Jan 18

Besides being beautiful, the different grouping principles on display across the different artists here is fascinating. It would be fun to see how consistent each person is in terms of how they approach lots of different patterns! #VisionScience

Angie Grace @angiegracecoloring.bsky.social · Jan 18

For @bjbalas.bsky.social - screenshot examples where a single line work drawing and the same palette of colors are interpreted differently by different colorists. The fourth picture actually had me double checking to make sure that really is the same pattern.

One pattern drawing, identical color palette used in each, and very different interpretations by the individual colorists.

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Mel Goodale @action-brain.bsky.social · Jan 16

Clever study that explores the debate between those who claim that color categories are 'innate' and those who argue that they are dependent on language. It turns out that monkeys, unlike humans, do not have consensus color categories, suggesting cognitive mechanisms such as language are required.🧪🧠

Joey Saito @jsaito25.bsky.social · Jan 16

The origin of color categories | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The origin of color categories | PNAS

To what extent does concept formation require language? Here, we exploit color to address this question and ask whether macaque monkeys have color ...

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

TübingenNeuroCampus @tueneurocampus.bsky.social · Jan 15

🧠 Wonderful speaker in the Neurocolloquium on Jan 23, at 4.15pm: Emilie Macé, Prof in the EXC Cluster Multiscale Bioimaging in Göttingen on how "Visual objects refine the encoding of head direction", live & in Zoom
Host: Robert Ohlendorf @maxplanckcampus.bsky.social
Sign up forms.gle/RoxUFPrj6Dyr...

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gregdfield.bsky.social @gregdfield.bsky.social · Jan 15

My first Bluesky post is to announce a Tenure-Track Faculty Search at the Jules Stein Eye Institute of UCLA. We are considering applications at the Assistant and Associate professor levels. Apply here: recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF10092.
DM or email me with any questions. Please distribute!

Vision Science Faculty at UCLA Stein Eye Institute

University of California, Los Angeles is hiring. Apply now!

recruit.apo.ucla.edu

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Reposted by Olivier Marre

Pascal Mamassian @mamassian.bsky.social · Jan 14

Do you want to study cognitive science and live in Paris?

Our master’s program in Cognitive Science at @ENS_ULM, @psl_univ, and @EHESS_fr is now accepting applications for 2025-2026. All courses are in English.

Deadline: 13 March 2025

More info: master-cognitive-science.ens.psl.eu/en

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Carsen Stringer @computingnature.bsky.social · Jan 12

What if… spontaneous neural activity 🧠 reflects the baseline rumblings of a brainwide dynamical system initialized for learning? We find that the rumblings have macroscopic properties like those emerging from linear symmetric, critical systems 🧵 #neuroscience #neuroAI www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

schematic of neural recordings from mouse V1, whole-brain, and hippocampus; neural activity traces from the population, showing more correlated activity in V1 and whole-brain recordings versus more decorrelated activity in hippocampus

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Olivier Marre @oliviermarre.bsky.social · Jan 13

Very likely that the record will be broken tonight ! 10 days earlier than the previous one, what an amazing feat !

Olivier Marre @oliviermarre.bsky.social · Jan 6

The world record, 74 days, might be broken this year. The first and second (Charlie Dalin and Yoann Richomme) are now racing in the Atlantic ocean. When they crossed the Cape Horn, they only had one hour difference. A really close race !

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