Our intelligence and cognitive abilities are perhaps due to an expansion of our cerebral cortex. But surprisingly, compared to highly intelligent birds, primates have many more neurons in their cerebellum as compared to the cerebral cortex. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

The bird branch of evolution separated from mammals hundreds of millions of years ago. Yet, their cerebellum has the same structure as ours, including the zebrin bands. Here is the cerebellum of the zebra finch and the most amazing flyer of them all, the hummingbird. doi.org/10.1159/0005...

Birds are both intelligent and incredibly agile, yet they are quite small. How do they achieve this with their little brains? They have twice as many neurons per brain mass than mammals, including primates. www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

George Washington wrote to a Jewish congregation in Rhode Island that the United States was founded not on “toleration … as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people,” but on a government that “gives to bigotry no sanction.”

Tenure-track faculty position in motor neuroscience at Penn State. psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/PSU_Academic...

I don't have much of a view from my office window, but this morning, the wind was brushing the vapor trails left by the rushing jets, leaving behind the froth of a cresting wave. If this was a superhero movie, there would be a surfer riding the waves in the sky.

Since start of 2025, as compared to the same period in 2024, Johns Hopkins has received 40% fewer federal awards, a decline of ~50% in research funding, a reduction of $500 million. University wide, international graduate student enrollment is down by 8% since last year.

The cerebellum receives a surprisingly rich amount of information regarding stimulus value via its climbing fibers. What role does this pathway play in learning to make better decisions? Haining Zhong will explain.

Haining Zhong imaged climbing fibers during auditory discrimination, finding that they encode cue identities and perceptual choices. The responses were reshaped by reversal learning. The predictive nature of these signals suggests a role for climbing fibers in decision-making. Zoom link: email me.

To understand cortico-cerebellar connectivity in humans, the usual approach is to exploit the correlations of functional brain imaging signals during rest. In this talk, Jorn Diedrichsen will present results suggesting that a better approach is to measure co-activation during specific tasks.

At the Society for Neuroscience Conference this year, a scientific meeting to bring closer the neuroscientists who have cultural ties to the middle east. Please join us. www.middleeastneuro.com

In my drive this morning I thought how lucky I am to have a road and a working car in a city that is not being bombed. During lunch with my students I looked at their beautiful young faces and wished for them a better world.

Shlomi Haar will present longitudinal studies of Parkinson's disease, focusing on anatomical and connectivity changes in the brain. Before diagnosis, there is a surprising increase in cerebellar white matter volume, followed by degeneration post-diagnosis.

For black-capped chickadees, looking out at a location activates the same place cells as actually being there, a study from Columbia University shows. By @martajhill.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/hippocampus/...

Rui Costa introduces a computational framework in which cerebellar networks learn to guide cerebral cortex dynamics with task-outcome predictions.

The cerebellum builds internal models of self motion, making it possible for us to read both the signs on the road, and our phones, while we walk. Jean Laurens will describe this computation. Seminars are open to all.

Neuronal computation in the cerebellum via a vector calculus. Work of Mohammad Amin Fakharian, Alden Shoup, Paul Hage, and Hisham Elseweifi www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

In people who suffer from essential tremor, excessive cerebellar oscillations give rise to involuntary, rhythmic movements. Ming-Kai Pan will present evidence from both mice and humans demonstrating that the cerebellum contributes to real-time motor control by encoding motor frequencies.

To unlearn is hard, but necessary for recovery, because without it, some memories can bring us depression and anxiety. This process is called extinction learning. Enzo Nio and Dagmar Timmann explain the role of the cerebellum in learning to forget. Seminars are open to all (contact me).

This little bluebird was born 2 weeks ago. Today he ventured to the opening of his birdhouse, felt the sun and the wind for the first time, stood there gripping the edge, deliberating for about 15 minutes, and then finally, leaped forward, opened his wings, and left home.

Artificial neural networks use backprop, which attributes errors starting at the output layer, then works backwards. Cerebellum is also a multilayer network, but learning does not rely on backprop. How does the cerebellum guide learning in all of its layers? David Ehrlich explains.

A group of neurons in the thalamus receive converging inputs from the basal ganglia and the cerebellum. Richard Roth explains the role of these neurons in motor control and motor learning. You can join live (email me), or watch the recordings: www.youtube.com/@shadmehrlab...

Wiring of the brain during development is like a dance where neurons try different partners, then choose the perfect one. Fekrije Selimi explains how the parallel fibers and the climbing fibers find their Purkinje cell partners in the cerebellum.

If the cerebellum is damaged, talking and singing become difficult, as if you have marbles in your mouth. Yet, the cerebellum is usually not included in the brain's vocal circuitry, particularly in songbirds. Lubica Kubikova explains how the cerebellum contributes to learning and performance of song

Do you want to analyse multidimensional large scale foraging data? I have a postdoc opening. Postdoc will be part of an HSFP grant ‘”Neurometabolic mechanisms underlying social foraging” with Robert Froemke (NYU) and Jee Hyun Choi (KIST). Details: stellen.uni-konstanz.de/jobposting/8...

We use our tongue much like our hands: to interact with objects and transport them. Here, we report on the role of the cerebellum in control of the tongue, demonstrating that it signals how to stop the movement as the tongue approaches its target. tinyurl.com/38mjzy2n

Because there are few treatments options available to patients with cerebellar disease, an important tool is to use neuro-rehab to engage the healthy regions of the brain so that it learns how to compensate for the damaged cerebellum. Amanda Therrien will explain.

When a movement experiences an error, the brain responds with a corrective movement. With repetition, the initial movement blends into the corrective action, becoming one. Robi Soetedjo describes a neural basis for this process of motor learning.

Perhaps you could use a bit of joy today. Here is the April wind blessing us with progress, without noise.

After the devastating waves that destroyed Fukushima, killing many, one of the residents built a phone booth in his garden. He installed a wooden platform and placed a rotary phone on it. He connected the phone to nothing. People would come to use the phone to talk to ones they had lost.

A principal puzzle in neuroscience is how to relate neuronal activities to control of behavior. I will present ideas on using the climbing fiber input to estimate contributions of the various neurons in the cerebellum. That is, to understand what a neuron does, it is useful to look at its teacher.

When the news instills fear, we need hope to coax us out of our shell. Here's a young writer explaining why her empathy is enriched when she shares a ride with strangers. www.baltimoresun.com/2025/03/20/a...

Using thread, the artist Sonya Clark has stitched a map of the world on a piece of wood, but then woven the individual threads into a single pony tail, visualizing our connected humanity. From a visit to the Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC

Silicon probes enable large-scale neural recordings, but limited information on neuron identity. Maxime will present methods for identifying cell-types in the cerebellum, verified by opto-tagging. @maxime-beau.bsky.social Seminars are open to all (email me).

Happy Nowruz, the first day of spring celebration! #nowruz 🪻

Dimitar Kostadinov will explain how populations of cerebellar neurons encode sensorimotor variables during goal-directed behavior, and how these signals change with learning. The seminars are open to all (please contact me).

Gratitude to Old Teachers Robert Bly When we stroll across the frozen lake, We place our feet where they have never been. Who is down there but our old teachers? Water that once could take no human weight we were students then, holds up our feet. Beneath us the teachers, and around us the stillness

Time together. I think it's the best gift you can give a friend.

We gathered at the Lincoln Monument to say: No science no future Cures not cruelty Facts not fascism Science trumps politics Divide cells not people Democracy is peer review

How the cerebellum develops during childhood and adolescence is poorly understood. Carolin Gaiser presents an imaging study of nearly 5000 individuals, tracking changes in the structure of the cerebellum from 6-17 years old. The talks are open to all (email me for link).