Armin Lak

Agreed, and very interesting

what a nice study, congrats. will take a slide in my next BG teaching :) I wonder about the uniqueness of persistent confidence signals. Aren’t they as persistent as e.g. OFC confidence signals? Or am I missing something?

Actually the view from my office just got more interesting, as the official celebrations of the 200th anniversary now include a pirate projection saying "Free Palestine". Regardless of opinions, may UCL enjoy 200 more years of freedom of speech.

Hi Katherine, replied as a direct message

RA job alert. We are looking for a fearless experimentalist to join our experiments on cortical neuromodulators during visually guided learning, lead by @michael-lynn.bsky.social . Opportunity to learn 2p imaging, design and conduct experiments. RT plz. Apply here: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Description Please note that job descriptions are not exhaustive, and you may be asked to take on additional duties that align with the key responsibilities ment...

There is a new Postdoctoral Research Associate position available in my group, to work on computational analysis of human neuroimaging workflows to develop robust, interpretable and scalable biomarkers of cognitive brain health.

Closing date 10th Feb 2026.

www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...

Out today in Neurophotonics, we show that cross-talk between the imaging laser and opsin in all-optical experiments can affect response dynamics beyond what has been accounted for. Imaging conditions subthreshold for evoking spikes can accelerate opsin desensitization:
doi.org/10.1117/1.NP...

We're running a 5th edition of the always-exciting UCL Summer School on Consciousness and Metacognition this year, 8th-10th July 2026 in London. Accommodation and travel expenses are covered.

For more information and how to apply, check out metacoglab.org/summer-schoo...

This one from @kepecslab.bsky.social and Song Hu lab is awesome:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nice journal cover image!

Thank you

Thanks! we indeed found the dissociation interesting

Hah! thank Ross

led by amazing Matthias Fritsche and contributions from several others in the lab and our collaborators, with generous funding from @wellcometrust.bsky.social , @hfspo.bsky.social and @erc.europa.eu

It started with a surprising observation: we manipulated both sensory and reward expectation during a visual decision task. These had SIMILAR behavioral effects but OPPOSITE dopamine signals. These, other exp & modelling showed spatially overlapping dopamine SPEs & RPEs for shaping visual decisions

Dorsal striatal dopamine integrates sensory and reward prediction errors to guide perceptual decisions Perceptual decisions are shaped by expectations about sensory stimuli and rewards, learned through sensory and reward prediction errors. Dopamine is known to convey reward prediction errors that shape...

New preprint. We show that in addition to reward prediction errors (RPEs), dorsal striatal dopamine signals encode sensory prediction errors (SPEs), the difference between sensory prior & observed stimulus. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

congradulations! you giving us good xmas reading homework!!

Very sad to hear

We tend to think of neurons as either excitatory or inhibitory, but some neurons chemically inhibit their downstream targets while electrically exciting their neighbors. What is gained by having an inhibitory neuron excite its neighbor?

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

Postdoctoral Fellow / PhD Student in Systems Neuroscience - VIB The Laboratory of Cortical Information Processing | Vision to Action at NERF (www.nerf.be) invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellow or PhD Student to work on a new research project funded by the...

Please repost widely. @vanderhaeghenp2.bsky.social and I are hiring a postdoc with expertise in sensory physiology and in vivo circuit imaging/manipulation. The project centers on human-specific brain development and SYNGAP1-related disorders. Call closing soon—apply ASAP
jobs.vib.be/j/119852/pos...

Corticostriatal pathways for bilateral sensorimotor functions Corticostriatal pathways are essential for a multitude of motor, sensory, cognitive, and affective functions. They are mediated by cortical pyramidal …

concise and informative review article on corticostriatal pathways in sensory process by @giladsilberberg.bsky.social et al . I find myself looking into it frequently and learn/cross check a new thing every time : www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We look forward to discussing these with you all #SfN25, #SfN2025

Our lab is looking for a postdoc! We have interesting projects and cutting-edge techniques such as Neuropixels Opto, Light Beads Microscopy and more. We would be delighted to receive your application. Deadline is 25 November 2025. More info here:
www.ucl.ac.uk/cortexlab/po...

and here is my (now old) gif on this (it only misses the 2p experiments):

Congradulations to co-1st authors, Antara Majumdar, Caitlin Ashcroft & Matthias Fritsche, our collaborators and funders

Out today at Neuron, our experiments show that frontal cortical representation of economic variables is jointly determined by spatial organization and downstream
connectivity of neurons, revealing a structured, multi-scale code for economic variables. www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Congratulations! So exciting!

Desensitization of opsin responses during all-optical interrogation depends on imaging parameters Significance The combination of two-photon calcium imaging and two-photon optogenetic stimulation, termed all-optical interrogation, provides spatial and temporal precision when recording and manipula...

All-optical experiments are great but @neurorussell.bsky.social found that opsin desensitization due to cross-talk between the imaging laser and the opsin causes major issues. These can be ameleorated with long inter-stimulus intervals & short imaging doses. All here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Looking for a PhD next year? Want to come and work on the next generation of OPM-MEG/EEG biomarkers in computational psychiatry?

Apply for our MRC iCase studentship with @mkflugge.bsky.social, collabs with @lilweb.bsky.social + industrial placement at P1Vital:
www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/gradua...

A hardwired neural circuit for temporal difference learning The neurotransmitter dopamine plays a major role in learning by acting as a teaching signal to update the brain's predictions about rewards. A leading theory proposes that this process is analogous to...

Beautiful and clear results showing that temporal difference error calculation is hardwired in the dopamine/striatum mircocircuits: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
from @malcolmgcampbell.bsky.social and @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social