My PhD paper is out in Science Advances! We found that the adult zebrafish cerebellum encodes both positive and negative valence during GO/NOGO task learning, and teaching signals sent to Purkinje cell update internal models of task rules. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Many thanks to @klaus-tschira-stiftung.de and @gso-forresearchers.bsky.social for this wonderful opportunity to study the mechanisms underlying naturalistic decision processes in the context of foraging behavior! We’ll also soon have openings for PhD students, stay tuned!

New method for identifying the fine transcriptomic types of thousands of neurons recorded in vivo!

New preprint from the lab, led by Bradley Cutler. With the @james-gagnon.bsky.social lab we use zebrafish to show that fever is not a reduction in the perception of warmth. Immune signals instead increase the valence of warming stimuli while cooling turns aversive. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Having a lovely time using the incredible imaging facilities at @clf-stfc.bsky.social 🦈🔬

Using light-activated CRISPR in zebrafish, we triggered synchronized DNA breaks and track the repair process. ⚡🐟⚡ 

 Well ... DNA repair is very different in embryos compared to tissue culture cells. Embryos repair DNA breaks incredibly fast - within minutes! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Nature research paper: Astrocytes connect specific brain regions through plastic networks go.nature.com/4eBe8fV

Happy to share our new paper published in Nature Communications! www.nature.com/articles/s41... We developed CaMPARI-seq to link neural activity with molecular profiles and revealed how the brain distinguishes optic flow to guide behavior. Congratulations to our postdoc Koji Matsuda!

What has changed in mama bear brain (well, actually mice) to make her risk her life to attack a potential threat and protect her young? Oxytocin is the key! Happy to share our new study led by two awesome postdocs: Takashi Yamaguchi and Rongzhen Yan. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In a new study, @yale.edu researchers led by @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social's @ehoffmanlab.bsky.social, MD, PhD 🥼 identified a promising candidate to rescue disrupted brain activity in zebrafish carrying mutations in autism risk genes 🦓🐠

Thrilled to share our new paper, which shows that the relative timing of cholinergic and dopamine release dynamically gates whether dopamine acts as an RPE for in vivo plasticity and reinforcement learning. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

a while ago, I made this feed for neuroscience/cognitive science summer schools. after some tuning, it generally manages to find cool events. 🙂 bsky.app/profile/did:...

Out now in Science: The Truman Show, but with killifishes! "Continuous recording of a vertebrate’s adult life from adolescence until death would provide a complete view into the behavioral architecture of aging." www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

How do fish localize sound without interaural cues? @johve.bsky.social et al. found a behavioral algorithm for directional hearing that predicts behavior from a pressure/motion phase comparison and accounts for how this relationship varies with distance. www.cell.com/current-biol...

First whole-brain recording of social sound processing in a vertebrate. Surprises start in the hindbrain; thalamus gates conspecific calls; male and female brains diverge downstream. Work by @joerghenninger.bsky.social, @mh123.bsky.social sky.social and team. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

“Astrocytes in the lateral septum may explain, or be at the basis of, the sex differences we observe in terms of social fear.” –Alexandre Charlet. By Holly Barker www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/ast...

An exciting study with Roberto Garza and Armin Bahl biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We combine high-throughput behavioral assays in larval zebrafish with drift-diffusion modeling studying integration dynamics across development and a variety of mutants . Give it a read :D

Check this out! Latest collaborative work from my and Mark Fishman's labs - led by Roy Harpaz, with help from Pedro Piquet and Yasuko Isoe (@yasukoisoe.bsky.social)

Have you ever wondered how the brain should represent the sensory world in order to generate behavior? Read our new preprint: work by Shuhong Huang shuhonghuang.bsky.social with our long-standing collaborator James Fitzgerald at Northwestern.

“ok so this is embarrassing but just for the record and just so we have it, your C.V says "Nature Scientific Reports"? sorry to have to even ask”

Excited to share our new preprint! We explore the link between the locus coeruleus (LC) and arousal for astrocytes, pyramidal cells, interneurons in the hippocampus. A fantastic collaboration with @sianduss.bsky.social @bohaceklab.bsky.social, and many others: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/5

Supplementary figure 16

Lu, Schultz, Kozlov, Astrocytes and neurons exhibit partially shared but distinct composite receptive fields for natural stimuli Now published in J Neurophys journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1...

In @elife.bsky.social: Pallium-encoded valence-specific chemosensory amplification of eye-body coordination in larval zebrafish doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

1/6: New publication from the lab: “Plastic landmark anchoring in zebrafish compass neurons” by Ryosuke Tanaka (@ryosuketanaka.bsky.social) and Ruben is available here: rdcu.be/eX1L4

Okay, well, I painted some new neurons in burnt sienna and black #sciart

1/n: A new collaborative preprint from the lab to start the year: "A multi-ring shifter network computes head direction in zebrafish" together with Siyuan Mei, Martin Stemmler and Andreas Herz from the LMU, Munich.

Surprise mother$#@%er! Q: What does this mean for neural systems to understand them? A: We absolutely need the wiring diagram. All synapses, chemical and electrical. #Connectomics

Interested in the latest advances in neuroscience (neural dynamics and internal models) and how they can be leveraged to build smarter, adaptive AI? ➡️ My first real solo piece 🖤🫶 @natneuro.nature.com rdcu.be/eWVmA

"My New Year's Resolution is to find a principled way to think about all those cell types in the brain" Why friend, you are in luck, because @rgast.bsky.social has just the perspective for you: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Glutamate is the primary molecule that neurons use to communicate with each other. Previously, scientists have mostly recorded when neurons fire output signals, but now with a new glutamate indicator, they can record the many inputs that causes cells to fire. 🧵 #neuroskyence

I don't always get pretty, isolated, AND transfected primary neurons in culture, but when I do I take advantage.... Rat hippocampal neuron overexpressing ThymosinB4-mScarlet and imaged for 16hr on a @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social LSM880 with Airyscan. #FluorescenceFriday #Microscopy

Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, et al.

Really enjoyed highlighting this work by @vmsruetten.bsky.social from @mishaahrens.bsky.social lab for preLights. WHOLISTIC! A whole-body functional atlas of cellular dynamics. Lots of cool things in the preprint. @hhmijanelia.bsky.social @prelights.bsky.social

Check out our newest issue where we interview @juliesemmelhack.bsky.social, who studies the neural circuits of visual behavior at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. www.cell.com/current-biol...

It's finally out! Our paper on optogenetic interrogation of the lateral line: www.cell.com/iscience/ful... This one involved a lot of sweat and tears, and it was a real tour de force. It was also the last paper we got to write with Jim, so it's a special one (and hence, the tears).

The fun leaving your body the moment you're done with the science and it's time to get it published

We are very excited: @hannazwaka.bsky.social has been awarded a Leibniz Best Minds grant as a Junior Research Group Leader! Five years of independent research, tenure track and part of the Best Minds network – a real boost for her career.

You're not you when you're hungry... and neither is a zebrafish! Our new paper shows that hunger completely overrides the instinct to flee, making zebrafish approach potential threats instead. "Hunger shapes predator avoidance in zebrafish." @zebrafishrock.bsky.social 🐟 doi.org/10.1080/0394...

when someone tells me not to use em dashes because AI uses em dashes

(1/n) We are excited to share our new paper in Nature Communications, by Hagar Lavian (@hlavian.bsky.social) and team, revealing how the zebrafish brain integrates visual navigation signals! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Like most animals, fish move less at night. Underwater, stable posture requires movement. Find out how fish don't fall down at night in: Lighting and circadian cues shape locomotor strategies for balance and navigation in larval zebrafish from @yunluzhu.bsky.social doi.org/10.1101/2025...

The changes we experience may be the source of our subjective experience of time. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Going to the lab during the weekend to do cell culture work and trying to do everything at double speed

Writing the “Alternative Plans” part of the grant

Now published in Molecular Metabolism, improved by the helpful reviewers! We hope to continue to leverage the #zebrafish to understand the neurometabolic and hormonal regulation of appetite and beyond! Read the full article here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

✨ New preprint ✨ What if we could watch AND control thousands of individual neurons in behaving mice—with stable access over months? 🧠⚡ Our work introduces transgenic all-optical tools that make this possible - and a resulting surprising discovery! 🔭💡 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/13 🧵

How does a fish know when to blend in? Scientists identified a key circuit controlling camouflage in zebrafish – from cells in the retina sensing light to nerve cells in the brain controlling the release of a hormone that pales the skin to match bright backgrounds. www.bi.mpg.de/news/2025-11...