Roxana Zeraati

Thrilled to share our paper "Intrinsic timescales in the visual cortex change with selective attention and reflect spatial connectivity" now out at #NatureCommunications

nature.com/articles/s41467-023

We have added interesting new analyses to our preprint version (thanks to the reviewers!),
so here goes a new summary:

#NeuroNewPaper
#NeuroPaperThread
# Timescale #Attention #visualcortex #connectivity

Zach Zeisler

What better way to introduce myself on this Neuromatch server than to announce that my first paper is out on bioRxiv!

We used MAPseq to characterize the branching patterns of single macaque amygdala neurons, finding that they often innervate multiple distinct areas in frontal cortex and form dissociable networks. Brief thread to follow:

#NeuroPaperThread #NeuroNewPaper

biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

High-throughput sequencing of macaque basolateral amygdala projections reveals dissociable connectional motifs with frontal cortex

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) projects widely across…

www.biorxiv.org
Adrian Valente

RT from Manuel Beiran on the blue bird about his new paper on parametric control of low-dimensional manifolds (a joint work with @nicognitive, Srdjan Ostojic, Mehrdad Jazayeri and Hansem Sohn out in Neuron last week).

Here is the open-access link:
t.co/uqgTApyAID

What neural mechanisms support generalization in temporal tasks? How can neural dynamics be controllable by inputs? Thread reproduced here:

#mastoprint #paper #Neuropaperthread #neuronewpaper

Dimos Karamanlis

Our new work with @TimGollisch and team is now out as a @biorxivpreprint!

We found that gaze shifts in natural movies drive concerted responses in populations of retinal ganglion cells. We think that these concerted responses violate the decorrelation prediction of efficient coding in a cell-type-specific manner in both marmosets and mice.

Check the manuscript for more details!

biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

#NeuroNewPaper
#neuroscience

Serge Dumoulin

Null-findings are important, but more difficult to prove and publish. Here is a null-finding #NewPaper / #NeuroNewPaper.

Line-scanning functional #MRI has both high spatial and high temporal resolutions, about 200 micrometers and 200 milliseconds. This is achieved by sacrificing spatial coverage, akin to a virtual BOLD electrode through the brain. Previously, we implemented a human line-scanning sequence using gradient-echo #BOLD #fMRI at 7T.

Spin-echo MRI sequences offer several advantages over gradient-echo MRI sequences, for example much improved spatial line-selection and microvascular specificity. However, despite many efforts, especially from the lead-author Luisa Raimondo, spin-echo line-scanning currently lacks adequate sensitivity for #neuroscience applications.

link.springer.com/article/10.1

Towards functional spin-echo BOLD line-scanning in humans at 7T - Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine

Objective Neurons cluster into sub-millimeter spatial…

link.springer.com
Albert Cardona

@summerfieldlab Welcome! Good places to start are these hashtags (which can be followed, just like following people): #neuroscience #NeuroNewPaper #NeuroPaperThread ... and so many more. Tags are the way to discover what's going on without following a thousand people.

Ramon Nogueira

@chrisXrodgers @StefanoFusi #NeuroPaperThread #NeuroNewPaper

Shortly, mice were trained to discriminate between concave and convex shapes using only their whiskers. They accumulated touches across time and whiskers to perform the discrimination task

Ramon Nogueira

@chrisXrodgers @StefanoFusi #NeuroPaperThread #NeuroNewPaper

7) We realized that instead of a random and disorganized mixed code, the geometry of representations in S1 was best characterized by a low-dimensional scaffold with small perturbations towards higher dimensions. An approximately disentangled representation in orthogonal subspaces

Ramon Nogueira

@chrisXrodgers @StefanoFusi #NeuroPaperThread #NeuroNewPaper

5) We built a simulation of the task and changed the general parameters of the shapes. Linear integration was also sufficient for a variety of shapes, distances, angles, and sizes. Non-linear integration of touches was necessary for tasks with complex semantics of groups of shapes

Ramon Nogueira

@chrisXrodgers @StefanoFusi #NeuroPaperThread #NeuroNewPaper

6) Populations of S1 neurons were fit with encoding models of varying degrees of flexibility. We found that S1 activity was best explained by models that allowed for non-linear mixed selectivity rather than pure or linear mixed selectivity

Ramon Nogueira

@chrisXrodgers @StefanoFusi #NeuroPaperThread #NeuroNewPaper

9) Finally, we fit RNNs to perform an artificial equivalent of the task and found that the geometry of the representations is determined by the difficulty of the task, and RNNs trained on complex tasks can still form representations that can generalize to unseen conditions

Ramon Nogueira

@chrisXrodgers @StefanoFusi #NeuroPaperThread #NeuroNewPaper

11) Also, I am on the job market this year, so please do not hesitate to reach out if you think I could be a good fit for a theoretical/computational faculty position in your department!

Ramon Nogueira

@chrisXrodgers @StefanoFusi #NeuroPaperThread #NeuroNewPaper

10) Thanks for reading until the end. Many more details in the main article and supplementary figures. Thanks for the support from our many funding agencies and to the
Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, and the Zuckerman Brain at Columbia University. Please reach out if you have any questions or suggestions!

Ramon Nogueira

@chrisXrodgers @StefanoFusi #NeuroPaperThread #NeuroNewPaper

8) This organization was not a simple consequence of somatotopy because all whiskers were represented in all columns (see also Rodgers et al 2021). This representational geometry can be useful for balancing generalization and flexible behavior

Ramon Nogueira

#NeuroPaperThread
#NeuroNewPaper
@chrisXrodgers @StefanoFusi

4) We monitored whisker movement and contacts and used linear and non-linear classifiers to decode the identity of the shape and the choice of the animal on a trial-by-trial basis. We found that linear integration is sufficient for both shape’s identity and the animals’ choice

Ramon Nogueira

@chrisXrodgers @StefanoFusi
#NeuroPaperThread #NeuroNewPaper

2) This deep dive into neural representations follows a previous study led by
@chrisXrodgers
at the Randy Bruno lab, where the task and neural recordings are described in depth, and very interesting results about task dependency are presented sciencedirect.com/science/arti

Ramon Nogueira

#NeuroPaperThread #NeuroNewPaper

1) Our article “The geometry of cortical representations of touch in rodents” with @chrisXrodgers Randy Bruno and @StefanoFusi is finally out! In brief, we found that whisker contacts in mice S1 are represented in approximately orthogonal subspaces nature.com/articles/s41593-022 🧵👇

Matteo Carandini

Visual cortex is affected by sounds. Does this mean it is multisensory? Does it represent sounds?

Today in Nature #Neuroscience (doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-012) Célian Bimbard and team find otherwise.

Sound-evoked activity in visual cortex was similar across neurons. Even neurons in hippocampus. It persisted after we cut fibers from auditory cortex!

This activity was predicted by… subtle body movements evoked by the sounds. It reflects brainwide state and behavior signals.

#NeuroNewPaper

Leon Lotter

@NicoleCRust @kendmiller

I’d be in on #NeuroPaperThread and #NeuroNewPaper. Although I’d prefer #NewNeuroPaper bc grammar 😋.

And I am not sure how much sense it makes to let a single field „claim“ a very general tag such as #PaperThread. It would be more elegant to establish a convention for all fields, i.e., #PaperThread for field-independent use, #MLPaperThread or #AIPaperThread for the Sigmoidians. Sorry folks 👀