Come join us at University of Toronto. We're hiring a Professor of computational cognitive neuroscience. #neuroAI #compneuro jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

🦵We’re sure you’ve heard of phantom limbs - the sensation or pain felt in a limb that has been amputated. What if we told you that…. …the brain never forgets the missing limb?🧠

Longitudinal neuroimaging in three adults, followed before and up to 5 years after arm amputation, reveals that amputation does not trigger large-scale cortical reorganization @hunterschone.bsky.social @cibaker.bsky.social @plasticity-lab.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Phantom feelings in lost limbs present a puzzle for neuroscientists who were taught to believe that once a body part is amputated, another body part will creep into its spot on the brain’s map of the body. A new imaging study undermines that theory. https://scim.ag/45SInZQ

Preprint out -- using intramuscular microelectrode arrays to detect residual motoneuron activity in tetraplegic spinal cord injury, and then using that activity for control Credit to my other co-first authors Agnese Grison and Ciara Gibbs 1/n www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

"primary somatosensory cortex stays remarkably constant even years after arm amputation. The study refutes foundational knowledge in the field of neuroscience that losing a limb results in a drastic reorganization of this region, the authors say." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Of course I stumble onto this paper right before I head to discuss post-injury remapping in my cog neuro lecture this morning www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🙃

Well, neuroplasticity — you had a good run.

Really delighted to announce that our paper is now out! We fMRI scanned patients both before amputation and after - allowing us to make direct comparisons. We found that the cortical maps are extremely stable, almost unchanged - even 5 years after amputation!

Contrary to what many neuroscientists think: the brain holds a map of the body that remains unchanged even after a limb has been amputated: https://bit.ly/3UyFkRx @mrccbu.bsky.social‬ ‪@pittdeptofmed.bsky.social ‪@plasticity-lab.bsky.social‬ ‪@hunterschone.bsky.social 🧪 #PhantomLimb #Research

“This neural configuration before amputation remains after the amputation. And it’s not ‘use it or lose it,’” says John W. Krakauer. By @avaskham.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/plasticity/a...

This is an incredible study and such important work. It also aligns with what we are seeing in the complimentary situation after stoke- rather than losing the peripheral limb, losing the central map. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34172735/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37940595/

Another amazing piece of work by @hunterschone.bsky.social The only person I know that could have pulled off such a complicated project. Really proud to be a part of it!

Loss of sensory input has long been used to study brain plasticity - here, we challenge the prevailing view of massive reorganization in a longitudinal study of amputees Massive effort from @hunterschone.bsky.social who was in the awesome NIH/UCL PhD program with @plasticity-lab.bsky.social

Really amazing work that challenges some long-held beliefs about cortical plasticity. "We show adult sensory body maps are unaltered after amputation, suggesting deprivation-driven plasticity is even more marginal than argued by the strongest opponents of cortical reorganization."

Super pleased to see this heroic effort finally in print!! Many thanks to Hunter, our amazing study participants, and everyone else who made this fantastic study come true.

Now out in @natneuro.nature.com What happens to the brain’s body map when a body-part is removed? Scanning patients before and up to 5 yrs after arm amputation, we discovered the brain’s body map is strikingly preserved despite amputation www.nature.com/articles/s41593-025-02037-7 🧵1/18

$323 million worth of neuroscience funding has been cut from NIH according to a new analysis from @thetransmitter.bsky.social/ @claudia-lopez.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/funding/nih-...

We had a great time at the @bcisociety.bsky.social meeting in Banff, Canada. We gathered almost all (@hunterschone.bsky.social?) the CBRG attendees (current and former) for the official photo. @jenpitt.bsky.social @giacomovalle.bsky.social @johndowney.bsky.social @miskarous.bsky.social

I have confirmation from several sources now that all T32s, many F30s and F31s, and most or all Center awards (P30, P50) have been terminated at Columbia. This is quite damaging to research and to individuals. This is pure terrorism and cannot be legal. But litigation will take time...

@standupforscience.bsky.social in Pittsburgh with @jeffweiss.bsky.social and Brian Dekleva

One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is “Neural network retuning and neural predictors of learning success associated with cello training.” Explore the article here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... For more trending articles, visit ow.ly/Me2U50SkLRZ.

Most of what we know about health and disease centers on the male body. This 2016 NIH policy was a huge win for those of us that want the scientific body of knowledge to serve, well, all bodies.

So glad I had the privilege of being a part of this incredible life changing research

Very proud to be part of this important and exciting work, also featured in the Guardian: www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

WOMEN and FEMALE are red flag words. (Men, male are not on the list). Let that sink in.

How it feels trying to get work done:

Fear and uncertainty dominated conversations this week among those doing NIH-funded research involving people who are transgender, gender fluid, nonbinary, or otherwise gender minorities. scim.ag/3Ce2Tto

A phenomenal opportunity in Switzerland 🇨🇭 for students interested in a PhD in vision neuroscience! Dr. Teichmann is an outstanding scientist and mentor.

New in @science.org our study "Tactile edges and motion via patterned microstimulation of the human somatosensory cortex". 🦾 🧠 ⚡ science.org/doi/10.1126/... Interesting related perspective by prof. Paul Marasco science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Eleanor Maguire, who died 4 January at age 54, pioneered the famous London taxi-driver study and naturalistic approaches for studying spatial and episodic memory in people. By @callimcflurry.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/memory/remem...

Happy New Year! Check out our recent paper on presurgical planning for BCIs to restore the sense of touch, led by @johndowney.bsky.social with collaboration from the @corticalbionics.bsky.social team.

Our new publication in Human Brain Mapping is a roadmap to implanting stimulation electrodes to evoke tactile sensations on the fingers of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) users. We share the plan and results for 5 study participants across a decade at 2 sites. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

We’re thrilled to share our new research article, "Shaping the developing homunculus: the roles of deprivation and compensatory behaviour in sensory remapping on bioRxiv: rebrand.ly/qbz6nal with @dorothycowie.bsky.social

Our group has a new paper out now in Nature BME, led by Charles Greenspon. It covers a number of updates on how we can restore tactile sensation from the hand using intracortical microstimulation (ICMS). www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A LITTLE LOUDER FOR THE STUDY SECTIONS IN THE BACK: ". . . classical functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) . . . can be reliable when averaged across tens of people, or even in an individual, given sufficient repetition."