Amir Levi, Ph.D

Edan, Sahar & Geula: Savta & 2 grandsons slain, captured, killed Cpl. Edan Baruch, 20, and grandmother Geula Bachar, 81, were slain on October 7; Sahar Baruch, 25, killed in captivity

No science today. Two years ago, my great aunt Geula, 81, was murdered in her home. Her grandson Idan was shot dead on the bloody streets of Kibbutz Be’eri. His brother Sahar was kidnapped to Gaza, where he was murdered. Today, I mourn.
#October7th
www.timesofisrael.com/edan-sahar-g...

Science of the day: tracking animal movement isn't trivial. I recently switched from @DeepLabCut to an 8-camera setup by @optitrack - and I'm impressed by its precision.
Side science: 2 LEDs on the mouse head also do the job www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#Neuroscience #Motion #neuroskyence

Science of the day: to find the synaptic gain between two neurons, I use a method developed by Lidor Spivak (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35641587/) to de-convolve the auto-correlation from the cross-correlation.
Side science: what is you go to method?
#Neuroscience #Connectivity #neuroskyence

Science of the day: The three essential components for groundbreaking neuroscience: inspiration, perspective, and a well-stocked bottom shelf.
Side science: The optimal book-to-whisky ratio is still under review.
#Neuroscience #neuroskyence #whisky #hawking

Thanks for your interest! We (mostly Dr. Shirly Someck x.com/shirlysomeck...) were also perplexed by the amount of Punits in our data. I think that juxtacellular recording, as you give in the first example, only explain small part of the Punits. Most are a result of return currents.

Science of the day: Some spikes are just more positive than others, at least waveform-wise.
Side science: interested in these positive units (Punits), check out this work by Shirly Someck www.nature.com/articles/s42...
#Neuroscience #neuroskyence #punits #PositiveVibes

Science of the day: Head direction neurons usually need a decoder to reveal heading. With these raster plots, the heading is clear from the neurons' spiking activity
Side science: although compared to an internal compass, the HD system isn’t tied to magnetic north
#Neuroscience #neuroskyence #spikes

Science of the day: the activity of thalamic neuronal population during slow wave sleep. Here, dozens of neurons synchronize their firing activity in a Delta rhythm
Side science: Shana Tova to you all! I hope this year will be a year of science and peace
#Neuroscience #neuroskyence #ShanaTova

Science of the day: the distance between shanks of this silicone probe, used for electrophysiological recordings from the brain, is 0.125 mm. For scale, a hair at the bottom of the image
Side science: my go to probe is the diagnostic biochips 8 shanks, 128 channels.
#Neuroscience #neuroskyence

Science of the day: 10 neuroscientists require 3 weeks to finish a bucket full of caramel and cheddar popcorn (thanks @hhmi.org)
Side science: the lab is divided between those who prefer the caramel ones and those who know nothing.
#Neuroscience #popcorn #neuroskyence

Science of the day: the 4 ingredients of an in house optogenetic device: LED, fiber, 61 and 68 optical adhesives.
Side science: although I was taught this technique by Eran Stark, I consider Shirly Someck to be the uncontested master builder
#Neuroscience #optogenetics

Very excited to be part of the 2025 class of fellows. Thank you @jcchildsfund.bsky.social for the opportunity and for your support!