Please RT: postdoc positions open in the lab to work on a @ERC_Research -funded project on retinal circuits and computations. Don't hesitate to DM or email me for details. https://t.co/JhNs63DySV

🚨 New preprint out from our lab! 📄 The Rod Bipolar Cell Pathway Contributes to Surround Responses in OFF Retinal Ganglion Cells 👉

1/n In the retina, some OFF ganglion cells — which usually respond when light decreases — also respond to increases in light in their surround. This is called an antagonistic surround modulation. But… how does that happen? 👁️

3/n Our hunch: a circuit best known for rod vision — the rod bipolar (RBC) → AII amacrine pathway — might also shape these surround responses under brighter conditions. 🌙➡️💡

5/n So, to tackle this we combined: ✨ Optogenetics — to control specific neurons ✨ Two-photon holography — to activate single cells precisely ✨ Multi-electrode recordings — to monitor hundreds of ganglion cells simultaneously

6/n This setup let us directly stimulate individual rod bipolar cells while recording retinal output in real time. Result? Activating single RBCs drove responses in OFF ganglion cells far beyond their receptive field center 💥

9/n Together, this shows that the RBC–AII pathway, long known for relaying rod signals in dim light, also contributes to surround modulation in OFF ganglion cells. 😲

10/n Mechanistically, we propose that ON stimulation in the surround may trigger crossover inhibition that suppresses wide-field GABAergic amacrine cells—normally responsible for surround suppression—thereby disinhibiting distant OFF ganglion cells.

11/n This way, this inhibition “piggybacks” on existing circuits. Revealing that the retina doesn’t build new circuits for every computation — it repurposes existing ones, using limited wiring to perform multiple computations efficiently. ♻️

12/n Massive thanks to everyone involved in this project, specially the co-first authors giulia, francesco, and Thomas, @RetinaGeek, and to our institute @institut_vision 🙌 #Neuroscience #Retina #VisionScience

If you are looking for a book to read and are interested in computational/systems neuroscience or AI, I have a suggestion:

@StphTphsn1 @RetinaGeek And I broadly agree :) As a physicist-turned-neuroscientist, this was hard to accept, but the expectation that e.g., retinal ganglion cells and cerebellar purkinje cells somehow behave according to some grand theory despite their widely different morphology is just unreasonable

@StphTphsn1 @RetinaGeek Very cool! @RetinaGeek was one of my first neuroscience collaborators 13 years ago, and I do play chess...

"What chess taught me about neuroscience" by @RetinaGeek https://t.co/rqogxRCgnP A thoughtful essay on the interplay between data accumulation and theory in neuroscience, and how hopes of a grand theory of the brain may never pan out.

New blog post: What chess (may have) taught me about neuroscience.

Have you had private doubts whether we'll ever understand the brain? Whether we'll be able explain psychological phenomena in an exhaustive way that ranges from molecules to membranes to synapses to cells to cell types to circuits to computation to perception and behavior?

New research out of @UniBonn (Germany) finds that rapid eye movements may optimize sharp vision and help us detect small details: https://t.co/LhGOhqmJj7 #NationalEyeInstitute #EyeHealth #VisionHealth #EyeHealthEducation #EyeHealthcare #EyeResearch

Nature Reviews Neuroscience How deep is the brain? The shallow brain hypothesis https://t.co/3tpXGdCOmF

A lot to learn from @eric_is_weird's post on the problem selection processes at Bell Labs: https://t.co/u1nD08cldS My thoughts on how to set up a lab/FRO inspired by the piece:

Our paper "GABAergic amacrine cells balance biased chromatic information in the mouse retina" is now published in @CellReports

🔴 Réduction de la dépense publique : peut-on mettre les retraités à contribution ? ➡️ Oui, et je vous explique pourquoi dans ce fil ! Pensez à le mettre dans vos signets et à le diffuser au max, c'est le seul et unique thread complet avec tous les chiffres sur le sujet 👇