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santiagorompani.bsky.social
Santiago Rompani
@santiagorompani.bsky.social
1.1K followers 820 following 56 posts
Neuro group leader at EMBL Rome. My lab studies how vision is shaped by cross-modal and state-dependent modulation, among other things.
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santiagorompani.bsky.social
Santiago Rompani @santiagorompani.bsky.social · Aug 9
The lab's first paper is out!

We find that pupil constriction in mice drives strong retinal activity in vivo, and that humans can also perceive pupil-shaped stimulus. This has repercussions for anybody using pupillometry.

🧵1/n

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#neuroskyence #neuroscience #neuro
Pupil size modulation drives retinal activity in mice and shapes human perception - Nature Communications
The pupil is known to assist retinal adaptation to light level changes. Here, the authors find a mechanism for how the pupillary light reflex drives monocular and binocular retinal activity in mice an...
www.nature.com
2 9 48
Reposted by Santiago Rompani
natneuro.nature.com
Nature Neuroscience @natneuro.nature.com · 5d
Characteristic facial features in mice simultaneously encode not only currently used decision variables but also independent and unexpressed ones, and these features partially originate from neural activity in the secondary motor cortex

@fannycazettes.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Facial expressions in mice reveal latent cognitive variables and their neural correlates - Nature Neuroscience
The face reveals more than just emotion. Cazettes, Reato and colleagues show that subtle facial movements reveal hidden cognitive states, reflecting the brain’s ongoing computations and offering a noninvasive window into unexpressed thoughts and decisions.
www.nature.com
1 6 27
Reposted by Santiago Rompani
carandinilab.net
Matteo Carandini @carandinilab.net · 8d
Neuropixels Ultra!

By @steinmetzneuro.bsky.social, who led a big collaboration

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Ultra-high-density Neuropixels probes improve detection and identification in neuronal recordings
To understand the neural basis of behavior, it is essential to sensitively and accurately measure neural activity at single-neuron and single-spike re…
www.sciencedirect.com
18 81
Reposted by Santiago Rompani
biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social
bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 8d
Learning induces persistent chromatin loops underlying robust gene expression during memory recall https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.678146v1
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Reposted by Santiago Rompani
martinowk.bsky.social
Keri Martinowich @martinowk.bsky.social · 14d
In the early years of my PhD I remember being asked if we'd ever treat or cure diseases like HIV or Huntington's. I remember saying maybe, but not knowing if I believed. Seeing research pay off as real impact on human lives is - incredible.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

www.bbc.com/news/article...
Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time
One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.
www.bbc.com
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Reposted by Santiago Rompani
danielemarinazzo.bsky.social
Daniele Marinazzo @danielemarinazzo.bsky.social · 13d
You could have rather put the quotation marks in "arousal", given the last sentence of the paper.
Nice and impressive, but it's basically saying that there is a low-dimensional descriptor. Now, it could have been reversed having latent brain dynamics as a predictor, and pupillometry as the target
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Reposted by Santiago Rompani
zachrosenthal.bsky.social
Zach Rosenthal @zachrosenthal.bsky.social · 14d
Super proud of this collaboration with rockstar Ryan Raut - born out of playing in the sandbox in our last year of grad school! Multi-scale brain activity can be predicted from a simple measure of arousal like pupil diameter. Out with linear causality, in with dynamic systems to explain neurobiology
Arousal as a universal embedding for spatiotemporal brain dynamics - Nature
Reframing of arousal as a latent dynamical system can reconstruct multidimensional measurements of large-scale spatiotemporal brain dynamics on the timescale of seconds in mice.
www.nature.com
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Reposted by Santiago Rompani
reid-lab.org
Andrew Reid @reid-lab.org · 14d
This one looks intriguing. Arousal "embedding" whole-brain dynamics. 🤯

#neuroskyence #compneurosky

doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Arousal as a universal embedding for spatiotemporal brain dynamics - Nature
Reframing of arousal as a latent dynamical system can reconstruct multidimensional measurements of large-scale spatiotemporal brain dynamics on the timescale of seconds in mice.
doi.org
4 16 48
Reposted by Santiago Rompani
ninaluong.bsky.social
Nina Luong @ninaluong.bsky.social · 17d
It’s been a 24 hour traveling day from Portland to Pécs, which includes 2 planes, a bus, a metro, a train & a car.

I am so excited to be at ERM2025 and to be selected as a speaker in the New Perspectives, Tools and Resources session!
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santiagorompani.bsky.social
Santiago Rompani @santiagorompani.bsky.social · 19d
Our EMBL Press office has a nice little article on our recent paper on how the pupil's dynamics shape visual responses in the mouse and human.

A new look at the pupil: more than just a gatekeeper www.embl.org/news/science...
A new look at the pupil: more than just a gatekeeper | EMBL
New research from the Rompani and Asari groups at EMBL Rome suggests that the pupil does more than just respond to light and internal states — it may actively shape our vision.
www.embl.org
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Reposted by Santiago Rompani
vineytj.bsky.social
Tim Viney @vineytj.bsky.social · 23d
*New preprint from the lab* – “Granularity of thalamic head direction cells”
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
🧠📈 🧪
1/11
Granularity of thalamic head direction cells
Head direction signaling is fundamental for spatial orientation and navigation. The anterodorsal nucleus of the thalamus (ADn) contains a high density of head direction (HD) cells that process sensori...
doi.org
2 10 20
Reposted by Santiago Rompani
natneuro.nature.com
Nature Neuroscience @natneuro.nature.com · 21d
Neurons in mouse primary visual cortex that respond emergently to illusory contours drive pattern completion

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Recurrent pattern completion drives the neocortical representation of sensory inference - Nature Neuroscience
Neurons that respond emergently to illusory contours drive pattern completion in V1. Pattern completion in lower cortical areas may therefore mediate perceptual inference by selectively reinforcing ac...
www.nature.com
1 9 31
Reposted by Santiago Rompani
cvsuor.bsky.social
UR Center for Visual Science @cvsuor.bsky.social · 22d
OUT NOW from @zvrlab.bsky.social in Nat. Communications: Fear conditioning activates brain areas linked to emotion and stress. Brain responses vary by task and mental health, showing different patterns in people with anxiety or depression.
doi.org/10.1038/s414... #URochesterResearch
Neural correlates of human fear conditioning and sources of variability in 2199 individuals - Nature Communications
A large brain imaging study of over 2000 people worldwide shows that fear conditioning engages brain regions linked to emotion and attention, with differences in individuals with anxiety or…
doi.org
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santiagorompani.bsky.social
Santiago Rompani @santiagorompani.bsky.social · 21d
Heroic experiments recording in SC and V1 in unrestrained animals to see how the two areas differentially respond to visual detection (with causal perturbation)
biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social
bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 22d
Contributions of superior colliculus and primary visual cortex to visual spatial detection in freely moving mice https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.11.675538v1
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santiagorompani.bsky.social
Santiago Rompani @santiagorompani.bsky.social · 21d
Cool study showing the LC has dopaminergic as well as norepinephrine release differentially in different circuits--relevant to our understanding of how arousal shapes responses throughout the brain
biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social
bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 23d
Stimulus-Dependent Dopamine Dynamics from LocusCoeruleus Axons https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.676390v1
Reposted by Santiago Rompani
apeyrache.bsky.social
Adrien Peyrache @apeyrache.bsky.social · 22d
🚨New preprint alert!

The thalamus has long been seen as a relay of sensory signals to cortex.
But could it also generate its own structured activity?
Our study explores this question in the head-direction (HD) system.

Some explanation 🧵👇 1/13

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Coherent dynamics of thalamic head-direction neurons irrespective of input
While the thalamus is known to relay and modulate sensory signals to the cortex, whether it also participates in active computation and intrinsic signal generation remains unresolved. The anterodorsal...
www.biorxiv.org
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Reposted by Santiago Rompani
katjareinhard.bsky.social
Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · 25d
Excellent end to the Italian Congress for Neuroscience (SINS) - our postdoc Lucia Zanetti chairing a fascinating session on the retina & beyond together with @serenariccitelli.bsky.social! Well done & thanks to the speakers Stefano Di Marco, @santiagorompani.bsky.social, Norma Kühn & Max Joesch
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Reposted by Santiago Rompani
mace-lab.bsky.social
Emilie Macé @mace-lab.bsky.social · 27d
Thrilled to share that our work is now published in Science! ✨

We found a preference for visual objects in the mouse spatial navigation system where they dynamically refine head-direction coding. In short, objects boost our inner compass! 🧭

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

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santiagorompani.bsky.social
Santiago Rompani @santiagorompani.bsky.social · Sep 9
Great name choice! Bringing the Instrumentality to neuroscience instrument use ;)
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Reposted by Santiago Rompani
cconstan.bsky.social
Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · Sep 9
New (methods) preprint from the lab!
NERV: A Comprehensive Framework for Rapid, Reproducible, and Hardware-Synchronized Neuroscience Experiment Design and Execution (1/10)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
NERV: A Comprehensive Framework for Rapid, Reproducible, and Hardware-Synchronized Neuroscience Experiment Design and Execution
Background: Behavioral neuroscience experiments require precise stimulus control, millisecond timing, hardware integration, and robust data provenance. Increasing use of 3D environments and multimodal...
www.biorxiv.org
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Reposted by Santiago Rompani
carandinilab.net
Matteo Carandini @carandinilab.net · Sep 3
The two key studies of the International Brain Laboratory @intlbrainlab.bsky.social are out today!

A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Brain-wide representations of prior information in mouse decision-making
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour - Nature
The International Brain Laboratory presents a brain-wide electrophysiological map obtained from pooling data from 12 laboratories that performed the same standardized perceptual decision-making task i...
www.nature.com
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santiagorompani.bsky.social
Santiago Rompani @santiagorompani.bsky.social · Sep 5
Amazing opportunity to apply for a PhD program with over 100 groups across 6 sites throughout Europe! No fee to apply, and we welcome applicants from all over the world.
embl.org
EMBL @embl.org · Sep 1
📢 Recruitment for the EMBL International PhD Programme is officially open!

At EMBL, we train young scientists to become skilled and creative future leaders in academia and other sectors. Join us and get a head start on your career in life sciences!

bit.ly/47mmiFF
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Reposted by Santiago Rompani
neurovenki.bsky.social
Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · Sep 1
Thrilled to share this work, long time in the making! Carried through creatively by @siddjakes.bsky.social after initial design & piloting by @trackingskills.bsky.social, with help from @trackingactions.bsky.social. Modeling in collaboration with Massimo Vergassola & Nicola Rigolli.
Mice navigate scent trails using predictive policies
Animals actively sense their environment to extract features of interest to guide behaviors. For mammals, odors are prominent environmental features which are sampled by active modulation of sniffing ...
www.biorxiv.org
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Reposted by Santiago Rompani
timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · Aug 26
What a wild thing to read.

"If such a prompt injection is included in a submission and it consequently results in a positive LLM-generated review, we consider this a form of collusion...that both the paper authors and the reviewer would be held accountable for,

blog.iclr.cc/2025/08/26/p...
Policies on Large Language Model Usage at ICLR 2026 – ICLR Blog
blog.iclr.cc
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Reposted by Santiago Rompani
antihebbiann.bsky.social
Ann Kennedy @antihebbiann.bsky.social · Aug 20
I wrote a Comment on neurotheory, and now you can read it!

Some thoughts on where neurotheory has and has not taken root within the neuroscience community, how it has shaped those subfields, and where we theorists might look next for fresh adventures.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Theoretical neuroscience has room to grow
Nature Reviews Neuroscience - The goal of theoretical neuroscience is to uncover principles of neural computation through careful design and interpretation of mathematical models. Here, I examine...
www.nature.com
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Reposted by Santiago Rompani
biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social
bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · Aug 19
Visuomotor mismatch EEG responses in occipital cortex of freely moving human subjects https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.14.670295v1
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