Applications for Doctoral Clinical Fellowships at the Crick, including a project in my lab, are now open! Please share widely!

We use high refresh rate "gaming" monitors to present closed-loop visual stimuli with low latency. They have various "gaming modes" and response time options that are poorly documented. So @antblot.bsky.social tested every possible setting to find out what they do.

znamlab.org/hardware-con...

How does the brain blend what we see with what we hear? In collaboration with @flor-iacaruso.bsky.social lab, we find new anatomical and functional rules that govern how auditory and visual cortices talk to each other.

Led by @alexegeaweiss.bsky.social & @bturner-bridger.bsky.social.

One way - it detects inputs of the starter neurons.

6/ As BRISC does not depend on the availability of transgenic animals, it is readily applicable across brain areas and species to systematically investigate how microcircuit organization varies across the brain and the evolutionary tree.

Preprint at www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

\5 Long-range inputs onto single V1 neurons reveal the topography of feedback projections from higher visual areas, which mirrors the retinotopic organisation of the visual cortex.

4/ We apply BRISC in the mouse primary visual cortex, mapping 7,814 putative synaptic connections of 385 starter neurons and identifying layer- and cell-type-specific connectivity rules.

3/ Barcodes are read out from intact tissue sections using in situ sequencing, thus reconstructing presynaptic ensembles of individual starter neurons while preserving spatial information.

2/ BRISC uses random molecular barcodes transsynaptically transmitted by rabies viruses to map inputs of many neurons simultaneously, while maintaining single cell resolution. Connections between individual neurons are then identified by matching their barcode sequences.

1/ Mapping synaptic connectivity between individual neurons is extremely laborious. We developed BRISC, a new method that makes it possible to map inputs onto 100s of neurons in the same animal in a matter of weeks! Led by Alex Becalick and @antblot.bsky.social. 🧵

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

Agree. Cuts in UKRI funded PhD places, is about government funding and prioritisation. We need work force planning with joined up thinking

A PhD is not about an academic career, its an apprenticeship for the knowledge economy. "Europe's Silicon Valley" will not exist without PhDs

Save the date!

UK Neural Computation 2025 will be at Imperial College London
9 July: ECR day
10-11 July: main meeting

9 invited speakers, 4 talks from abstracts and many posters

Abstract & registration opening soon

Pls share!

neuralcomputation.uk

Interested in understanding how things work? In particular the tools you use to study the brain? Join us at TENSS 2025 where we brainstorm ideas, build and debug microscopes, electrophysiology and behavior rigs amidst the picturesque Transylvanian hills! tenss.ro
Apply by: February 16th!

📢 If you are at #SfN2023, check out the lab's posters from Yiran He (Sun AM) and Alex Becalick (Mon PM)! I'll be around as well, so send me a message if you'd like to meet and catch up! #SfN23

We're hiring - a lab tech and fully funded (UK rate) PhD student! Join us at to figure out how the brain constructs auditory space! Adverts here (tech : shorturl.at/hmrFY) and here (PhD studentship : shorturl.at/adoJN). #neuroscience #hearing

🚀 Don't miss your chance join @thecrick.bsky.social PhD programme, including projects in my lab! Interested in how neuronal activity, connectivity and gene expression all relate to each other in vivo?

Learn more and apply at crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

🗓️ Deadline Nov 9! Please repost!

Mouse cortical neurons have ~5,000 spines, but how many different presynaptic cells do they get input from? What is the average number of synaptic contacts between connected neurons in the mouse neocortex? I was hoping that there is a good estimate based on EM but I cannot find one.

Wow! End of an era indeed! Once a few years ago I tried to crossreference the timing of your and BGB's tweets but there was no clear signal.

ICYMI for neuro Twitter expats, a long standing mystery is solved.

Delighted to see this in print from my @TheCrick colleagues in Jonny Kohl's lab

How pregnancy (in mice) changes the behaviour of a population of hypothalamic neurons & initiates parental behaviour before birth

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

(3) We are also looking for a Doctoral Clinical Fellow to join us to map synaptic connections in human brain tissue using high throughput molecular methods, in partnership with Dimitri Kullmann at UCL:
www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

(2) Joint studentship with Laura Andreae at KCL to understand mechanisms of development of corticocortical connections:
www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Multiple opportunities for PhD projects in my lab at the Francis Crick Institute starting in 2024! The Crick is an incredible place to do science! Please repost!

(1) Mapping neocortical circuits using high throughput molecular connectomics and in vivo imaging:
www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...