Michèle Insanally, PhD

Inhibitory inputs from thalamus promote resilient spiking in tail of striatum Neuroscience; Sensory neuroscience

Latest from the lab: Laura Haetzel finds that excitatory transmission from auditory thalamus to tail of striatum is accompanied by a sparse inhibitory projection. This allows for state-dependent control of striatal output.
www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

we are almost booked! Only a handful of openings left. So, please do attend if you register. Also, here is the poster!

High-resolution in vivo kinematic tracking with customized injectable fluorescent nanoparticles Injectable fluorescent nanoparticles were used to track positions on and inside of freely moving animals at high resolution.

Our first preprint has been accepted for publication www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... !!
tldr: @ezeyulu00.bsky.social , @amartyapradhan.bsky.social , @dkoveal.bsky.social and I developed a method using injectable nanoparticles to turn mice into…constellations in motion. 🧵⤵️

#Cosyne2026 is now open for business!

Show us what you got both for the main meeting & workshop proposals 🧠🥳🧠🥳🧠

New workshop! Just before SFN, join the Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Neuroscience of the Simons Foundation for a workshop on pynapple and NeMoS. Learn how to use these open-source packages to analyze and model neural data! Accommodation & meals provided. Link ⬇️

Episode #30 in #TheoreticalNeurosciencePodcast: On co-dependent excitatory and inhibitory plasticity – with Tim Vogels @tpvogels.bsky.social

theoreticalneuroscience.no/thn30

How can excitatory and inhibitory synaptic plasticity, co-exist in spiking neural network models? With co-dependence!

Quote from Noel Federman, 2024 ENSS Speaker: "It's a great multi-disciplinary place here, and meeting people working in diverse fields is enriching."

Know a brilliant postdoc? Encourage them to apply for the SWC Emerging Neuroscientists Seminar Series — a chance to present to the London neuroscience community.

Open to postdocs worldwide, travel & accommodation covered, no CV’s or references needed.

www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/content/...

Check out L’assiette, classic French bistro. I always try to make it there when I’m in Paris.

Spatial learning circuitry fluctuates in step with estrous cycle in mice Cyclic shifts in estradiol levels coincide with changes in dendritic spine density and the activity of place cells in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, a new study shows.

Very happy to see a Transmitter (@thetransmitter.bsky.social) piece on our recent work on estrous cycle modulation of hippocampal structure and function. Thanks to Sydney Wyatt (@sydneywyatt.bsky.social) for covering the work and its context:

www.thetransmitter.org/neuroendocri...

Here Are the Nearly 2,500 Medical Research Grants Canceled or Delayed by Trump (Gift Article) Some cuts have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye.

New powerful article up in the New York Times on cancelled and delayed grants

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

🧠🤖 Computational Neuroscience summer school IMBIZO in Cape Town is open for applications again!
 
💻🧬 3 weeks of intense coursework & projects with support from expert tutors and faculty
 
📈Apply until July 1st!

🔗https://imbizo.africa/

✨Excited to share that my trainee Tiange Hou will be pursuing her PhD at Scripps Research this Fall! Looking forward to learning about the discoveries this talented researcher will make in the future! #skyence #PhD #neuroscience

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

Thanks, Adrien!

Thanks for the shout, Blake!

Was just pointed to this important preprint from @minsanally.bsky.social :

www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-4...

tl;dr: classically "non-responsive" cells are preferentially recruited by top-down inputs and are critical for learning.

So, my neuro-friends: Don't ignore untuned cells!!!!

🧠📈 🧪

(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

A neuroimmune circuit mediates cancer cachexia-associated apathy Cachexia, a severe wasting syndrome associated with inflammatory conditions, often leads to multiorgan failure and death. Patients with cachexia experience extreme fatigue, apathy, and clinical depres...

1/ Why do patients with late-stage cancer lose motivation & sink into apathy?
🔥 Our new Science paper shows chronic inflammation activates a cytokine-sensing brain circuit that lowers motivation. Huge team effort: Aelita Zhu, Sarah Starosta, Pignatelli & Janowitz labs! 🧵
🔗 doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Extensive compositionality in the vocal system of bonobos Compositionality, the capacity to combine meaningful elements into larger meaningful structures, is a hallmark of human language. Compositionality can be trivial (the combination’s meaning is the sum ...

🚨New in @science.org🚨
With Simon Townsend (@nccrlanguage.bsky.social) and Martin Surbeck, we have investigated whether wild bonobos can combine calls in complex combinations, similar to how humans combine words into sentences 🧪
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#ScienceResearch #AnimalCommunication

Come check out our posters at Cosyne this year! #cosyne2025 @cosynemeeting.bsky.social

🌟 Exciting news!

The Call for Symposia and Technical Workshops for #FENS2026 in Barcelona is now open! 🧠

🗓️ Deadline: 5 May 2025

🔗 Find out more and submit your proposal today: loom.ly/riIGtu0

#NeuroscienceConference #CallForProposals

Mathematical Methods in Computational Neuroscience Summer school in Eresfjord, Norway (July 8th - 26th, 2024)

Applications are open for the summer school 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗡𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲.
compneuronrsn.org

Application deadline: March 31, 2025
Located in beautiful Eresfjord, Norway 🇳🇴

#Neuroscience #ComputationalNeuroscience #KavliNeuro
@kavlintnu.bsky.social

We can't wait for the next annual meeting in Lisbon, Portugal from September 23–26, 2025 at the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon.

Our current president, Steve Chang sends everybody a few words: "This upcoming meeting is extra special for a couple of reasons..."

The Transmitter’s ‘Rising stars in neuroscience’ 2025 Recognize early-career researchers who have made outstanding contributions to the field. Selected nominees will be featured on our website and in our annual book.

We are excited to announce that nominations are open for our “Rising stars in neuroscience” 2025 report. We seek to feature early-career researchers who have made outstanding scientific contributions and demonstrated a commitment to community-building. Submit a nominee here:
bit.ly/4bsoBXD

How does the brain integrate sensory inputs to shape memory and behaviour?

In a recent SWC seminar @jangrundemann.bsky.social, from @dzne.science, shared his research on the auditory thalamus and its role in learning.

Read the Q&A:

www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/qa/bridg...

If you know anyone who would like to spend the summer contributing to open-source neuroscience software (and getting paid), please get in touch.

Projects can include neuroanatomy, behaviour, ephys and data management tools.

Looking forward to this!

Hey Neuroscientists 🧠! Heading to San Diego for #SfN25 in November? Join us for an exciting all-day symposium at @scripps.edu in beautiful La Jolla, just a couple of days before the conference. It's free to attend, so register early and plan your travels accordingly! 🧪

CCN’s NeuroRSE Group Hosts Two Software Workshops The Center for Computational Neuroscience recently hosted workshops to teach scientists how to analyze neuroscience data with new software tools.

The NeuroRSE group at #FlatironCCN recently hosted two software workshops on analyzing #neuroscience data using new software tools @pynapple.bsky.social and NeMoS. The next workshop will take place at SfN this November. Read more: www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/02/25/c... #science

#Neuroskyence students! We're brainstorming ways to support your development over this summer break, esp. given the changes in summer intern programs across our fields. What other opportunities would you like to see?

Some ideas: undergrad-focused webinars, self-paced courses, challenges, etc.