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Reposted by Thomas Luo

Princeton Neuroscience Institute @princetonneuro.bsky.social · 7d

With the help of AI, Princeton’s @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social and @carlosbrody.bsky.social can now pinpoint the exact moment a rat makes up its mind — just by reading its brain activity 🧠🐀
pni.princeton.edu/news/2025/wh...

When a rat makes up its mind, these neuroscientists know

Scientists can now freeze-frame the exact moment an animal makes up their mind and commits to a choice — simply by looking at their brain activity

pni.princeton.edu

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Reposted by Thomas Luo

Julie Charlton @juliecharlton.bsky.social · 15d

🛑 Attention researchers who train freely-moving rodents!

Jess Breda and I developed a protocol for training center-port nose fixation 61% faster than a previous curriculum while keeping violation rates low.

Preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

FixGrower: An efficient and robust curriculum for shaping fixation behavior in rodents

Center-port fixation is a common prerequisite for many freely-moving rodent tasks in neuroscience and psychology. However, typical protocols for shaping this behavior are non-standardized and ineffici...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Thomas Luo

Carlos Brody @carlosbrody.bsky.social · 16d

Thank you @nancyrmack.bsky.social and @princetonneuro.bsky.social for a great explainer about our paper!

pni.princeton.edu/news/2025/wh...

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Reposted by Thomas Luo

Ulises Pereira Obilinovic @ulisespereirao.bsky.social · 17d

Friday’s AIND JC lead by Shawn Olsen and I on the Brody lab preprint ran 90+ min, unusual. Nice paper, spirited discussion. Make a clear argument that to grasp behavior we need multiregional, multi-neuron, simultaneous single-trial data. Below quotes from the paper.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Brain-wide coordination of decision formation and commitment

Neural correlates of a subject’s upcoming choice in decision making tasks are remarkably widespread throughout the brain, but how these brain-wide signals are coordinated remains unknown. Do brain reg...

www.biorxiv.org

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Thomas Luo @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social · 17d

Thanks, Maxime!

Thomas Luo @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social · 18d

This is a great point! The sensory stimulus is an obvious driver, but even after we account for that, there’s still a lot of variability left over. Going forward, we might dig into the animals’ past choices or their video recordings to get a handle on those extra factors.

Thomas Luo @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social · 18d

Thank you!

Thomas Luo @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social · 18d

Thanks, Chris!

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Thomas Luo @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social · 18d

Thanks, Jen!

Reposted by Thomas Luo

Carlos Brody @carlosbrody.bsky.social · 19d

What happens in your brain when you make up your mind?

Postdoc (soon faculty at U. of Utah) @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social and ex-grad student (now Shanahan Fellow at Allen Institute) @timkimd.bsky.social have some answers in this new paper out in Nature!

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

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Thomas Luo @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social · 19d

This is a great question! In future studies, it might be interesting to ask whether nTc timing depends on over-stimulation or on environmental change.

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Thomas Luo @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social · 19d

Thanks, Gabe!

Thomas Luo @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social · 19d

Thanks, Nicole!

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Thomas Luo @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social · 20d

This would not have been possible without the support from the NIH, @hhmi.org, @simonsfoundation.org, and @princetonneuro.bsky.social.

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Thomas Luo @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social · 20d

Many thanks to my co-first author @timkimd.bsky.social, our PI and mentor @carlosbrody.bsky.social, and other co-authors @dikshagup.bsky.social, @abondy.bsky.social, Charles Kopec, Verity Elliott, and @briandepasquale.bsky.social who contributed to this project.

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Thomas Luo @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social · 20d

How does the brain decide? 🧠

Our new @nature.com paper shows that neural activity switches from an 'evidence gathering' to a 'commitment' state at a precise moment we call nTc.

After nTc, new evidence is ignored, revealing a neural marker for the instant when the mind is made up.

rdcu.be/eGUrv

Transitions in dynamical regime and neural mode during perceptual decisions - Nature

Simultaneous recordings were made of hundreds of neurons in the rat frontal cortex and striatum, showing that decision commitment involves a rapid, coordinated transition in dynamical regime and neura...

www.nature.com

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Tatiana Engel @engeltatiana.bsky.social · Jun 25

Out today in @nature.com: we show that individual neurons have diverse tuning to a decision variable computed by the entire population, revealing a unifying geometric principle for the encoding of sensory and dynamic cognitive variables.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Gabriel Stine @gabrielmstine.bsky.social · Jun 23

Our paper on NHP neuropixels is finally out in Nat Neuro! These probes have already been transformative and will usher in a new era of primate neuroscience. I am extremely proud to have played a very small role in this project. I can't wait to see what our community discovers. tinyurl.com/54u3hrj8

Large-scale high-density brain-wide neural recording in nonhuman primates - Nature Neuroscience

Neuropixels 1.0 NHP is a 45-mm, high-density silicon probe capable of recording large numbers of neurons with single-neuron resolution from most areas in a macaque’s brain.

tinyurl.com

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Reposted by Thomas Luo

Julie Fabre @juliefabre.bsky.social · Jun 13

🚀 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

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Hannah Payne @hannahpayne.bsky.social · Jun 11

My latest Aronov lab paper is now published @Nature!

When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️

The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar

bit.ly/3HvWSum

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Reposted by Thomas Luo

Grace Telford @ogtelford.bsky.social · Jun 11

Delighted that the first paper from our Cy2 JWST program was published today, reporting the discovery of molecular hydrogen in the 3% Solar metallicity galaxy Leo P. This was a very fun project with @karinsandstrom.bsky.social strom.bsky.social and fabulous co-authors! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Molecular hydrogen in the extremely metal- and dust-poor galaxy Leo P - Nature

Observations from the JWST MIRI-MRS instrument reveal the detection of rotational emission from molecular hydrogen near the only O-type star in the 3% solar metallicity galaxy Leo P, providing confirm...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Thomas Luo

Brian DePasquale @briandepasquale.bsky.social · Jun 10

Tired of your boring old DDM? Check out recent work by grad student @ryguy.io that introduces a *state-dependent* DDM using an underlying HMM. We find mice change their speed-accuracy strategy from trial to trial! Code provided! (in Julia of course!)

Ryan Senne (he/him) @ryguy.io · Jun 10

🚨PREPRINT ALERT🚨

"A State–Dependent Drift Diffusion Model Reveals Mice Actively Explore A Speed–Accuracy Continuum During Decision-Making" is now available on biorxiv! Check it out below 👇

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

In this work we find that mice are not just static mindless decision makers.

A State-Dependent Drift Diffusion Model Reveals Mice Actively Explore A Speed–Accuracy Continuum During Decision-Making

Understanding how animals shift between different decision-making strategies is critical for bridging normative models with naturalistic behavior. While drift diffusion models (DDMs) provide a powerfu...

www.biorxiv.org

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Carlos Brody @carlosbrody.bsky.social · May 7

we're crowd-sourcing a searchable repository of tangible benefits stemming from federally-funded research. Come enjoy the great stories; or send in an idea; or volunteer to join the team.

publicusaresearchbenefits.com

please share and re-share so we get more great stories in there!

Searchable database of tangible benefits that federally-funded research gave us.

A crowd-sourced site. Health and Well-being. National Security. Prosperity.

publicusaresearchbenefits.com

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · May 6

Calling all science advocates!! Carlos Brody+ are creating a searchable database of tangible science benefits, and they need you.

publicusaresearchbenefits.com

They are asking for suggestions - from brief to lengthy. The database is state-searchable, so all 50 states.

Please spread the word!

Searchable database of tangible benefits that federally-funded research gave us.

A crowd-sourced site. Health and Well-being. National Security. Prosperity.

publicusaresearchbenefits.com

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Reposted by Thomas Luo

Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.bsky.social · May 2

(2/3)
MAKE NOISE:
1. Share your story. Post how NSF funding has impacted your research or your life. Use #WithoutNSF to raise your voice.

2. Share your story on the Federal Freeze Tracker to help lawmakers and the public understand what’s at stake:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Federal Funding Freeze: Share Your Story

Trump's funding freeze is causing chaos and harming Americans. Share your story to build the movement.

docs.google.com

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