Roberto Toro

I’m building a foundational reading list for our lab (systems & circuit neuroscience, compneuro, modeling, neuromodulators, population coding etc.).

I’d like to crowdsource recommendations.

Which review(s) would you consider mandatory reading for the next generation of researchers?

Chirodectes maculatus

TOMORROW EVENING 🌓✨
Ian Watts on the African MSA ochre record as residue of ritual strategies and the emergence of symbolic culture.

Evolving Evolution is ... an invitation to think more philosophically about fundamental issues concerning the scope and coherence of evolutionary explanations, idealization in science, causation, organism-environment relationship, and the nature of selection.

Another great review. Thank you Simon

"You see what you look for, and you look for what you know."

We are proud to release FOCUS: a 100 μm deformable human subcortical atlas precisely registered to MNI space.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

ping @r3rt0.bsky.social

Multi-dimensional diffusion MRI at ultra-high gradient strength for mapping axonal architecture and microstructure in the primate brain | bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Want to organise one of our Workshops? You focus on the science, we focus on the logistics. Next deadline for topic proposals: 29 May 2026 The Company of Biologists icon to the left, two people discussing outside to the right

Do you have a vision for a Workshop but don’t have the time to arrange the logistics or raise the funding? Submit your idea to us in our annual call for topics. We'll provide all necessary support for successful applications. Find out more at biologists.com/workshops/pr...

Found an additional graphic that gets even more of these quotes together.

I've kept "I hate myself, I hate clover, and I hate bees" pinned above my desk since I first started studying evolutionary biology as an undergraduate. So relatable to get extremely frustrated with your study system.

𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 sounds straightforward:
compare species, identify differences, explain them.
In reality, it 𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲.
𝘞𝘩𝘺?
#CorticalEvolution2026

also Rue Pascal is not far <3

One on left is a black dog and above it the words “Reality”. Below it is “I chased a squirrel” One the right is a black dog and above it says “LinkedIn”. Below it says, Proud to announce that I effectively executed a rapid-response squirrel displacement strategy to mitigate potential yard intrusions. Humbled by the unwavering support of my family and local stakeholders. This experience reinforced the importance of vigilance, ownership, and continuous improvement. Looking forward to scaling this impact in future engagements.

😂

When a violin vibrates, to series of eigenfunctions get excited together? Is it possible to find which eigenfunctions combine into a pattern? (like all Fourier functions that combine into a square wave, for example)

Insightful work led by @haldipur.bsky.social, revealing new aspects of human cerebellar development by focusing on Bergmann glia 🧪🧠

From genes to dynamics: Examining brain cell types in action may reveal the logic of brain function Defining brain cell types is no longer a matter of classification alone, but of embedding their genetic identities within the dynamical organization of population activity.

Defining brain cell types is no longer a matter of classification alone, but of embedding their genetic identities within the dynamical organization of population activity, writes @lmprida.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/defining-cel...

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗶𝗻 𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗯𝗮𝗼.
To bring together evolutionary, developmental and systems perspectives and to rethink where the field is going next.
June 15–17, 2026 Spain
#CorticalEvolution2026

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝘄?
Because many of the biggest open questions in neuroscience still revolve around the cerebral cortex — how it emerged, expanded, diversified, and why it differs so much across species.
#CorticalEvolution2026

New to using Jupyter notebooks for the Allen Brain Cell Atlas?

Join us on Feb. 11 for a beginner-friendly webinar focusing on installation, set-up, and common questions.

Register for the meeting link and recording: https://alleninstitute-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_q0sJzndpRbSZWjrSGblu6A#/

Working on Graphite/Geogram, improved the GUI, reorganized in a tree (leaves much more space for the 3D view). Will be released soon. For the curious, the repo is up to date here: github.com/BrunoLevy/Gr...

Image: OpenSCAD test suite (displayed in a retro-futurist style for fun...)

The ‘Rosetta Stone’ of palaeoneurology: A detailed study of the link between the brain and the endocast on 75 volunteers Imaging data from 75 volunteers were used to determine the sulci on the brain and then read on the internal surface of the cranium, the endocast, the impressions actually linked to the sulci visible ...

Detailed characterisation of the link between brain and enbocast (study led by A. Balzeau); presenting a good challenge for the interpretation of fossil endocasts, and offering useful recommendations for future studies
🧪💀🧠
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#Communiqué 🗞️ Une équipe a cartographié les correspondances entre les sillons cérébraux et les empreintes laissées sur les endocrânes à partir de sujets vivants afin de mieux reconstituer les cerveaux de nos ancêtres. 🧠

👉 www.cnrs.fr/fr/presse/le...

We invite applications for postdoctoral researchers with strong expertise in in vivo electrophysiology and circuit neuroscience to join our team at the Paris Brain Institute (ICM).

Sifting through Animal Behavior Society newsletters and came across a castigation of the field made by Dutch ethologist Adriaan Kortlandt in 1990. He states, "Ethology is supposed to be the study of behaviour, but the behaviour has become invisible." He also used to fight goats during lectures.

an insect, a bird, and an elephant visualized with unit height scaling. insect is landscape shaped and the elephant is portrait shaped

Why is it that small animals like insects have a landspace body plan when viewed head-on, but larger animals like elephants are taller than wide?

With @m-v.bsky.social, we find out in our new preprint titled 'Size and shape of terrestrial animals' - arxiv.org/html/2602.00...

Fascinating - Apparently, for one day only (Jan 31), the town of Quilicura, Chile, launched quili.ai, "a human-powered alternative to AI that invites people to submit the everyday questions they would normally ask a machine to Quilicura residents" environmentenergyleader.com/stories/one-...

Why do I believe noncoding DNA carry more genetic information than coding DNA in the human genome? One argument beyond our MYC data: >70% of the conserved DNA are noncoding. While a lack of conservation does not mean lack of function, the presence of conservation often indicates function.

🧠 Cortical Evolution 2026
📍 Bilbao, Spain | 🗓 June 15–17, 2026
Join us for an international meeting on the evolution, development & organization of the cerebral cortex.
More information coming soon 👀
🔗 www.ventricular.org/corticalevolution26
#CorEvo26

What if the immune system held a key to brain health ? 🧠

Research by Aleksandra Deczkowska @adeczkowska.bsky.social at the Institut Pasteur shows constant immune–brain dialogue, and how modulating immunity could help prevent or treat neurological diseases.

🧠✨ Older neurons get richer connections in the human brain!
Our new paper is out in Nature Communications.
We reveal a fundamental link between ᴅᴇᴠᴇʟᴏᴘᴍᴇɴᴛ ⛓️ ʙʀᴀɪɴ ꜱᴛʀᴜᴄᴛᴜʀᴇ & ꜰᴜɴᴄᴛɪᴏɴ in the human connectome 🧵👇

We are thrilled that our study on the evolution of gene regulation in mammalian cerebellum development – led by @ioansarr.bsky.social, @marisepp.bsky.social and @tyamadat.bsky.social, in collaboration with @steinaerts.bsky.social – is now out in @ScienceMagazine! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...