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Our work showing that the locus coeruleus broadcasts unsigned visuomotor prediction errors to facilitate cortical sensorimotor learning is now on bioRxiv!
Please check it out, would love feedback! biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

An examination of over 1 million funding proposals to the National Science Foundation from 1996 to 2019 reveals that white principal investigators are consistently funded at higher rates than most non-white PIs and relative funding rates for white PIs have been increasing. elifesciences.org/articles/830

A series of extremely cool #locuscoeruleus manuscripts have been put out there recently, and I wanna take the opportunity to highlight them in this🧵

Would love input from other #bluespot enthusiasts, since I'm definitely missing papers!

Maybe we can keep adding by replying, and eventually create an easily accessible list of publications that currently shape the #LC field

🔵

#systemsneuro #neuroscience #noradrenaline #preprints

What a cool study showing a behavioural task switching role for prediction errors in ACC: biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

Prediction error signals in anterior cingulate cortex drive task-switching

Task-switching is a fundamental cognitive ability which requires animals to update their knowledge of current rules, allowing flexible behaviour in a changing environment. This is often achieved through evaluating discrepancies between observed and expected events. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has a key role in processing such discrepancies, or prediction errors. However, the neural circuit mechanisms underlying task-switching are largely unknown. Here we show that activity in the ACC induced by the absence of expected stimuli is necessary for rapid task-switching. Mice trained to perform a block-wise set-shifting task typically required a single experience of an expectation violation, or prediction error to accurately switch between responding to the same stimuli using distinct rules. Neurons in the ACC explicitly represented these prediction errors, and their activity was predictive of successful one-shot behavioural transitions. Prediction error signals were projection target-specific, constrained in their spatio-temporal spread across cortex, and heavily disrupted by VIP interneuron perturbation. Optogenetic silencing and single-trial un-silencing revealed that the requirement of the ACC in task-switching was restricted to the epochs when neural prediction error signals were observed. These results reveal a dedicated circuitry promoting the transition between distinct cognitive states ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

www.biorxiv.org

Calling all UK-based early career woman scientists! Please apply for the L’Oréal For Women in Science Fellowship. The deadline is 02/12, the application is super short (500 words!!) and the £15k is flexible. Happy to help talk through your proposal/ personal statement. Please email me! forwomeninscience.com/challeng #WomenInSTEM #ChemToots #ChemMastodon #ScienceMastodon

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Recognizing #preprints with peer reviews - funders & institution session with @ThomasGuillem@twitter.com (@PeerCommunityIn@twitter.com), Fiona Watt (@EMBO@twitter.com), and @JohanRooryck@twitter.com (@cOAlitionS_OA@twitter.com).

Register to watch the livestream on Dec.1-2:
buff.ly/3G0fpfz
#RecognizingPreprintReview

I'm honoured to share that this year I got promoted to Full Professor at UCL!

Thanks amazing Saleem Lab team across the years, without whom it wouldn't have been possible.

Thanks @EP_UCL@twitter, @UCLPALS@twitter @UCLBrainScience@twitter for the support

Prof Saleem 😀
Professor of Systems Neurosci

This is what we should be doing, everywhere. Pretending that our rankings of projects/papers/candidates etc objectively reflect some crowd wisdom is incorrect. Creating space for chance will change this and lead to a better, less unfair system. nature.com/articles/d41586-021

Our work showing that the locus coeruleus broadcasts unsigned visuomotor prediction errors to facilitate cortical sensorimotor learning is now on bioRxiv!
Please check it out, would love feedback! biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

Good time to announce that I will be starting my lab at SIDB & University of Edinburgh early next year! 🎉 We will investigate neuromodulation and cortical learning, as well as their dysfunction in mouse models of autism spectrum disorder

short
Neuroscientist fascinated by neuromodulation and cortical learning. Big on open science! Also love nature (i.e., wildlife 🐛 ) and painting strange pictures.

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