Brain cells critical for mouse navigation found to be highly specialised www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-06... @oxneuro.bsky.social @medsci.ox.ac.uk

New paper out in Current Biology. We define thalamic head direction (HD) cells based on the combination of neurochemical identity, physiology, sensorimotor responses, and connectivity, suggesting cell types. Great work led by Sara Hijazi and Shan Jiang from the lab. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Thalamic recordings show a rhythm that’s strong in wake and REM and absent in deep sleep: An electrophysiological signature of conscious states. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroscience

Fascinating interview with @utafrith.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

I don't know how many people see this when they look at trees during the winter, but mistletoe always reminds me of amyloid plaques - mistletoe is a parasite and each 'plaque' can vary in size. This is how I think of the 3D structure of amyloid plaques in the brain

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, affecting roughly 50 million people around the world. Researchers at Oxford are looking at how epilepsy can be prevented, diagnosed and treated ⬇️ #InternationalEpilepsyDay

Now online! Peripheral cancer attenuates amyloid pathology in Alzheimer’s disease via cystatin-c activation of TREM2

Coincidence of thalamic HD signal and retrosplenial visual input is detected in the Presubiculum! 🎯 This may be the neuronal basis for landmark anchoring of the HD signal. Pleased to announce the VOR is now available elifesciences.org/articles/92443 Congrats first author Louis Richevaux 🙌

1. Some good news at last. This week’s column is about the amazing thing a couple of us stumbled into three years ago, which we’ve now developed into a global research programme. It doesn’t change everything, of course, but it could help change quite a lot. + 🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Moon halo (22°) tonight in UK. Apparently this illusion is created by millions of hexagonal ice crystals in upper atmosphere

***Publication alert*** "Pathological tau alters head direction signaling and induces spatial orientation" www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Reposting some comments via the Science Media Centre on the UK government's ambition of phasing out animal testing in the UK. I think it is important for scientists to explain to policymakers and the public about pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics - complex interactions between drugs and the body

#astrocytes #endothelium #cerebrovascular 😱🤩🤩

This is really interesting. These bacteria form biofilms, which are essentially amyloids

New blogpost on my concerns about Wellcome LEAP new $50m program on autism/microbiome links. deevybee.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-le... #autism #microbiome #biomarkers #diagnostic

This is a strange and surprising finding. Need to study the electron micrographs in the suppl material carefully (without the colourful shading) to learn more. Note that neurons can have cilia, I wonder if this is what they have detected e.g. recent review here: doi.org/10.1016/j.tc...

After many months of work on the revision, we have a paper accepted today (pending minor revisions). Also had a paper rejected at the same time (but going to ignore this email for today!)

Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, dies aged 91

What do we know about the causes of #autism? @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social Professor Laura Andreae speaks with BBC Radio 4's Inside Science about the genetic factors behind autism, particularly around twin studies. 🔊 Listen now: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

This is incredible news! It is also a good example of why it is so important to identify and define the most vulnerable brain regions and cell types for a given disease. In this case it is medium spiny neurons of the striatum.

September 21 is #WorldAlzheimersDay Alzheimer's disease and prion diseases are linked to unnatural aggregation of proteins into amyloid fibrils.

🚨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...

*New preprint from the lab* – “Granularity of thalamic head direction cells” doi.org/10.1101/2025... 🧠📈 🧪 1/11

15 Sep is the deadline to submit your abstract for a poster or data blitz talk at #iSCAN 2025. Don't miss this opportunity and join us for an exciting meeting on spatial cognition in aging and neurodegeneration! Abstract submission: tinyurl.com/2r7f8dup Meeting website: tinyurl.com/mry28bfc

(buried in a reply, but) This is mind-blowing & deserves a post. Scroll to "video" in this article to watch what happens when the human hypothalamus is stimulated: it's a combo of embarrassment/shame and intense body sensations emanating from the heart. WOW. www.brainstimjrnl.com/article/S193...

NEW: An Oxford study has found that a vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is associated with a 29% reduction in dementia risk over the following 18 months. The findings suggest a novel explanation for how vaccines produce this effect. Read more ⬇️

NEW: Eight exceptional individuals whose achievements have made lasting contributions to the world were recognised today with honorary degrees at Oxford University’s Encaenia. More information ⬇️ www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-06...

Exeter College was honoured to host Lord Crewe’s Benefaction this morning in the Fellows’ Garden, part of @ox.ac.uk Encaenia ceremony. The Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, and honorands gathered with other University dignitaries, before processing to the Sheldonian Theatre.

Whew, what a day! Today we revealed the preview of NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory's epic cosmic movie🎬 #RubinFirstLook From wide-field and deep views of the Universe, to the dynamic and changing sky, Rubin is already bringing the night sky to life! 🔭🧪 rubinobservatory.org/news/first-i...

If you are in London a week today and are free early evening, please come along to my talk at @royalsociety.org (free!). If you can’t make it, it will be live-streamed and subsequently available online…

I've been writing a textbook on computational cognitive neuroscience, which has prompted me to assess the evidence supporting various theoretical ideas. It's striking to me how some ideas have an extraordinary shelf life despite weak evidence.

Interesting discussion tonight on How to Hack your Brain to improve learning at Oxford Biohacking Society with my neuroscience colleagues bstaresina.bsky.social‬ and vineytj.bsky.social

Love seeing the beautiful butterfly at #Tau2025 where 1000+ scientists and clinicians are gathering to share ideas to accelerate biomedical discoveries. Here is a starter pack to quickly follow TAUrrific researchers. Let me know if I need to add anybody go.bsky.app/KHno2VG @millermb.bsky.social

Excited to share the sequel to our 2022 paper! In this follow-up, we show that the stable head direction (HD) signals we reported in blind mice rely on stereo olfaction—that is, the comparison of odor info. between the two nostrils. Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵highlights below

Wow! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

One of my favourite markers: vimentin (tested in post-mortem human cortex)

We now have a blood biomarker that is even more strongly associated with tau PET and cognitive symptoms than even p-tau217! Plasma eMTBR-tau243 will help us to understand whether cognitive impairment is likely to be related to Alzheimer's pathology. #ENDALZ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Check out the new preprint by Manfredi @vitorlds.bsky.social et al., who find that hippocampal replays can be classified by their sinks in Radiatum or LM! Radsink -> recent waking motifs LMsink -> prior coactivity motifs www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

“essentially closing research operations in my group” = no new experiments save 1 recently funded grant. Spending freezes limit our ability to order supplies and reagents. We need to focus remaining funding on maintaining personnel + analyzing existing samples w whatever’s left in the cabinet

Excited to share our latest paper: “Phase Precession Relative to Turning Angle in Theta-Modulated Head Direction Cells” together with Dr. Eleonora Lomi (co-first author) Prof. @katejj.bsky.social Prof. Anna Mitchell and Prof. @neilburgess10.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/hipo...

Congratulations to winners of The Brain Prize 2025! Professors @michellemonje.bsky.social, @stanfordmedicine.bsky.social and @hhmi.org Investigator, and Frank Winkler, Heidelberg University Hospital, have pioneered the field of Cancer Neuroscience. Learn more: brainprize.org/winners/canc...

Apologies for this long post I put together to explain to non-scientists the impact of NIH cuts: Last night, an “atomic bomb” was dropped on the biomedical science community. We were informed that effective immediately, indirect costs on NIH grants (both current and future) would be fixed at 15%.

😱 They "‘toad-napped’ 62 cane toads" and they found their way home! Seriously, this is a cool behavioral study, and it provides intriguing evidence of the conserved role of pallial brain regions in spatial navigation.

@physoc.bsky.social has a starter pack of physiologists. Hooray!! go.bsky.app/2KU1XD6

Exciting new work from the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network describing a PSEN2 mutation carrier who has “escaped” disease. Importantly lessons to learn for AD resilience!

I am delighted to share that our latest research has been published in Acta Neuropathologica. Please have a read: doi.org/10.1007/s004... #Neuropathology #AlzheimersDisease #Neurodegeneration #Glia #HumanBrain #Immunity

Thanks to all of the NIHers and their friends who reached out to me. I am still here (DM me or Signal jeremymberg.78) I still have a very incomplete picture but based on what I have been told, the damage to NIH and to many wonderful people who work(ed) there is/was impossible for me to imagine 1/n

Grid cells have a geometry in time. Thanks to @azvollan.bsky.social l & @rjgardner.bsky.social for this heroic discovery. @ercresearch.bsky.social #KiloNeurons @m-bmoser.bsky.social @kavlintnu.bsky.social @nature.com @kavlifoundation.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Launch of the Centre for Global Epilepsy www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/news/oxford-...

Don’t miss this upcoming #LMBSeminar by Maria Grazia Spillantini, Professor of Molecular Neurology at the University of Cambridge. At 11am (GMT) Monday 10th Feb, Maria will discuss ‘Alpha-Synuclein and its Aggregation: Past, Present and Future’ More details: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/news-and-eve...