Michael Roberts

Check out our first research article from the Emrick lab, published in Cell Reports! We define the sensory neurons in the tooth as sentinels: tuned to detect tooth damage and trigger a protective jaw opening reflex. 🦷🔨

I’m officially a mammalian somatosensory biologist (but I still 🩷 worms 🪱)

Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission The number of older people, including those living with dementia, is rising, as younger age mortality declines. However, the age-specific incidence of dementia has fallen in many countries, probably b...

High profile Lancet report into possible links between hearing loss & dementia:

Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission 🧪🦻🏾🧠
www.thelancet.com/article/S014...

Interview: How a Hearing-Loss Grant Got Cut in the Fight Over DEI “It felt like the floor dropped out,” researcher Uri Manor said after the sudden suspension of his lab’s award.

undark.org/2025/07/11/i...

The Surprising Scientists Hit by Trump’s D.E.I. Cuts

Another important article by Kate Zernike from the @nytimes.com

You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/u...

Congrats!!! 🎉

Top-down prediction signals from the medial prefrontal cortex govern auditory cortex prediction errors Hockley et al. investigate how the brain processes auditory stimuli based on predictability. The results show that predictions in the medial prefrontal cortex govern sensory information flow and modul...

Thrilled to present our paper out today in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social

We asked how prediction errors are generated in the auditory cortex during the oddball paradigm. When blocking top-down prediction signals from mPFC, we saw reduced prediction errors in A1.

doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

Thrilled that our paper has been published in @elife.bsky.social
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

We ask: how can a neuron integrate information across multiple time scales?

Twist: This neuron has extreme properties that helps it work ~300x times faster than neurons in the hippocampus

Summary 🧵to follow

(Plz repost)

I’ve been receiving some good news lately and will be hiring at all levels to expand the lab. Please get in contact if you are interested in reinforcement learning, neural plasticity, neural circuit dynamics, and/or hearing rehabilitation.

pierre.apostolides @ umich .edu

Tyvm

I spent this afternoon in DC meeting with @repdwightevans.bsky.social about the current science funding freeze & indirect cuts. I'm proud to fight for the biomedical research funding & cures we all deserve—and you can, too.

Dan Johnston, History of Neuroscience Autobiographies by SFN. Dan was my PhD advisor who I learned so much from. He writes about challenges, successes, failures; love for his dogs, colleagues and passion for physiology. Great perspective by a talented, humble & kind human.

tinyurl.com/3kuswnn2

Thank so much for all your support with this project Ross!

Neurons in the inferior colliculus use multiplexing to encode features of frequency-modulated sweeps Within the central auditory pathway, the inferior colliculus (IC) is a critical integration center for ascending sound information. Previous studies have shown that many IC neurons exhibit receptive f...

Our new work investigating multiplexing and mixed selectivity in auditory inferior colliculus neurons is up on bioRxiv 🎉 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Atomistic Mechanisms of Calcium Permeation Modulated by Q/R Editing and Selectivity Filter Mutations in GluA2 AMPA Receptors GluA2 is a key subunit of AMPA receptor ion channels that is abundantly expressed in the vertebrate brain. Posttranscriptional Q/R editing of GluA2 renders AMPARs nearly impermeable to calcium ions, w...

! 🚨Preprint Alert🚨
!
Flo and Johann’s magnum opus on calcium permeation in AMPA Receptors is up. It’s another chapter in our collaboration with Han Sun (FMP-Berlin), with ephys from our former student @ecekuru.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

For the details, here's a #bluetorial

1/n

A snip of my profile. Banner image incldes Arendt, Durkheim, Fanon and others drawn rouglys on eggs in Black and White. Profile picture is me in front of some autumn leaves. Key descriptive text identifies me as a criminologist working on atrocity crime. At the bottom, highlighted by a big red arrow is my ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7463-1302

A snip from my ORCID profile page - at the left is a list of institutional and other links to social media, including one to Bluesky, highlighted by a big red arrow.

Academics wanting to 'verify' their Bluesky profile as genuine might give an ORCID identifier in their profile and link back to their Bluesky profile from ORCID.

#AcademicSky

Hi! I am starting my postdoc in January & am planning to apply for the HHMI Hanna H. Gray fellowship in the 2025 cycle, and I was wondering if there are any recent awardees who would be willing to share example applications or tips? Thank you thank you! #Neuroscience 🧪

Fluorescent images of green neurons

Hi everyone! I am a graduate student in the Roberts lab, I am focused on identifying the neuron types and circuits in the inferior colliculus using light-sheet, tissue clearing and sequencing. I am excited to get to know everyone in the field! #neuroscience

UCL – University College London UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

We are recruiting a PhD student! The project will define the sensory strategies that freely moving animals use to chase sounds. The ideal candidate will have an engineering / neuroscience background and strong coding skills. Reach out to learn more! shorturl.at/cNu0p

here's my latest preprint where I show that auditory midbrain and thalamus display similar patterns of plasticity as the auditory cortex during perceptual task performance and perceptual learning! auditory cortex has 24 hours to respond

Going to #AROMWM ? Looking for a postdoc position? Love auditory neuroscience and regeneration? Fully funded position in my research group - would love to tell you more about it at #ARO2024 👂🐟🔬

Cisplatin drives mitochondrial dysregulation in sensory hair cells bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

Check out our new preprint! Using live imaging in zebrafish to evaluate cellular mechanisms of cisplatin chemotherapy-induced hearing loss, we show that sensory hair cell mitochondria are direct targets for cisplatin, and that cumulative mitochondrial activity increases hair cell vulnerability 👂🐟⚕️

#JobAlert
The Sheets lab at WashU seeks a #postdoc to investigate traumatic injury and #regeneration of #sensory receptors and nerves in the #zebrafish model! 🐟👂
Apply here: tinyurl.com/44z4rus3

Identifying Neuron Types and Circuit Mechanisms in the Auditory Midbrain The inferior colliculus (IC) is a critical computational hub in the central auditory pathway. From its position in the midbrain, the IC receives nearl…

Our IC review is live! See below for an overview from @robertsneuro.bsky.social and I about the incredible computations the IC is doing and why cell types & circuit motif identification are critical for better understanding our favorite auditory hub. 🧠 👂 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Calling all bio undergrads 📢
Want to gain research experience and training before grad school?
Interested in projects exploring developmental biology and regeneration?
Want to investigate sensory nerve development and regeneration with my lab? 🐟
Applications now open!
sites.wustl.edu/devbioregenm...

It’s happening. #jneurosci #sfn #openscience

If there's a microphone available, please use the microphone 🥺 Just use it, it doesn't matter if you're "loud" or a random person in the back of the room says they can hear you. It's an accessibility issue that affects me but I don't always have the energy/courage to say anything.

First post!

We're looking for a Research Assistant to help us understand how platinum-based chemotherapy drugs damage sensory receptors & nerves! #neuroscience #zebrafish #job

jobrxiv.org/job/washingt...

The Royal Society have launched a new postdoc career development fund - initally for those of black heritage royalsociety.org/news/2023/09... please circulate widely (and if you're eligible and interested in auditory neuroscience reach out!)

E.A.R.S. is accepting submissions for a special Trainee Session on December 12. Research trainees at graduate or post-doctoral stage in auditory neuroscience are welcome to submit their abstract by Nov. 22 to be given full consideration.

forms.gle/2kLrVe4PPjb4...

We're hiring - a lab tech and fully funded (UK rate) PhD student! Join us at to figure out how the brain constructs auditory space! Adverts here (tech : shorturl.at/hmrFY) and here (PhD studentship : shorturl.at/adoJN). #neuroscience #hearing