Martin J. Dahl

A neuromodulatory circuit-to-molecular pathway for reformatting aversive memories during recall Tan et al. identify a neuromodulatory circuit-to-molecular pathway in rats that updates aversive memories when they are recalled. Noradrenaline from the locus coeruleus triggers synapse-to-nuclear tra...

Excited to share our new paper:
We uncover a locus coeruleus→amygdala circuit linking β-adrenergic signaling to transcription regulation in defined amygdala cells during memory reconsolidation—+ stress or elevated noradrenergic signaling at recall can strengthen memory.
www.cell.com/neuron/abstr...

Excited to share newly minted PhD Anu Korukonda's tour de force thesis work describing the impact of pathogenic tau on #locuscoeruleus function in a mouse model of early #Alzheimers. A must for #BlueSpot researchers! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Publication of the Year Award - Nomination Thank you for submitting your Nomination!

The Neuromodulatory Subcortical Systems PIA within @istaart.bsky.social is requesting nominations for the best paper of 2025 on neuromodulatory subcortical systems in Alzheimer's disease!! ISTAART members: promote the work of your colleagues (or yourself) here: alz.surveymonkey.com/r/Publicatio...

Excited to share our new preprint! We explore the link between the locus coeruleus (LC) and arousal for astrocytes, pyramidal cells, interneurons in the hippocampus. A fantastic collaboration with @sianduss.bsky.social @bohaceklab.bsky.social, and many others: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/5

BOLD signal changes can oppose oxygen metabolism across the human cortex, Nature Neuroscience

fMRI signals “up,” but neural metabolism might be going “down.”

In our @natneuro.nature.com paper, we demonstrate that about 40% of voxels with robust BOLD responses exhibit opposite oxygen metabolism, revealing two distinct hemodynamic modes.

rdcu.be/eUPO8
funds @erc.europa.eu
#neuroskyence 🧵:

Exemplary analysis pipeline for respiratory data

'Robust circular cluster-based statistics
for respiration-brain coupling'

New preprint, and what a way to welcome @teresaberther.bsky.social to the #neuroskyence community. With @eliobalestrieri.bsky.social, she developed CBPT for circular #bodybrain analyses.

Paper: osf.io/preprints/ps...

🧵🔽

Our paper and research on a #taVNS #MRI setup has now been published: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

@nbkroemer.bsky.social @glassybrain.bsky.social

Impact of Alzheimer's disease risk factors and local neuromelanin content on the transcriptomic landscape of the human locus coeruleus The locus coeruleus (LC) is a small noradrenergic nucleus in the dorsal pons that sends projections across the brain regulating sleep, arousal, attention, stress responses, and some forms of cognition...

Got with the times + made a BSky to share our new, large-scale spatial RNAseq study of adult human #locuscoeruleus! Co-1st auth and cryostat wizard @heenadivecha.bsky.social squeezed 85 tissue sections into 43 Visium arrays. (1/8)

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

Attentional failures after sleep deprivation are locked to joint neurovascular, pupil and cerebrospinal fluid flow dynamics - Nature Neuroscience Yang et al. show that moments of failed attention we experience after sleep deprivation reflect brief ‘sleep-like’ episodes in the brain, corresponding to a brain- and body-wide event with altered bra...

Our paper on CSF, BOLD, pupil, and physiological measures in sleep deprivation and recovery sleep is finally out! 🎉 Congrats Zinong! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This was fun — Thanks everyone for the great presentations!

Featuring the stellar
@mariekeweijs.bsky.social
@juliankosciessa.bsky.social
@claireocallaghan.bsky.social
as well as the 🦋-less Sarah Meissner & Prokopis Prokopiou!

Speakers for ICON symposium on novel measurement & manipulation approaches for neuromodulatory systems! Sept 19, 11:45 am Room Sé

At #ICON? – Join us tomorrow to hear about novel measurement & manipulation approaches for neuromodulatory systems!
🗓️Sept 19,
🕚11:45 am
🏫Room Sé

#ICON2025 #CogNeuro #AcademicSky #LocusCoeruleus #neuroskyence

Photostimulation of locus coeruleus CA1 catecholaminergic terminals reversed Spatial memory impairment in an alzheimer’s disease mouse model - Psychopharmacology Rationale One of the earliest changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the loss of catecholaminergic terminals in the cortex and hippocampus originating from the Locus Coeruleus (LC). This ...

We showed previously that chemogenetic activation of the LC rescues spatial reversal learning in the TgF344-AD rat. New paper follows up and reports that optogenetic stimulation of LC terminals in CA1 also rescues cognitive deficits in 3xTg mouse model of AD. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Adaptive learning is coordinated across behaviour, time and neurobiology (from synapses and dendrites, to astrocytes and the systems level).

If you’ve ever wondered how noradrenaline helps shape these multiscale learning processes, you might like this: www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

Reevaluating the role of education on cognitive decline and brain aging in longitudinal cohorts across 33 Western countries - Nature Medicine In a large cross-national study, education was linked to better memory and larger brain volumes but not to slower cognitive or brain decline with age, suggesting that the association reflects early-li...

New study out in Nature Medicine: Education does not protect against age-related decline of memory. Read more here: Reevaluating the role of education on cognitive decline and brain aging in longitudinal cohorts across 33 Western countries www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pupil-linked arousal, cortical activity, and cognition in Alzheimer’s disease Combining pupillometry, EEG and MRI, David et al. report abnormalities in tonic and phasic arousal in Alzheimer’s disease. Locus coeruleus integrity, peak

Great (and lots of) work from Mike David and many colleagues using #pupillometry #EEG #MRI to understand arousal and #locuscoeruleus changes in #AlzheimersDisease. Out now in @braincomms.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/braincomms/a...

Neuropeptide Y neurons surrounding the locus coeruleus inhibit noradrenergic system activity to reduce anxiety Endogenous neuropeptide Y signaling modulates locus coeruleus activity, promoting adaptive responses to stress.

Beyond happy & proud to have our paper on peptidergic neuromodulation of the #LC out!

This is a project that started with naive intentions & silly curiosity, withstood 1 pandemic & 2 lab moves & made us fall in ❤️ with the most beautiful brain regions of all!! 🔵

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our oscillations consensus paper is finally out as a preprint 🤩 thanks to everyone involved
arxiv.org/abs/2507.15639

Alzheimer's & Dementia Deadline for submissions: Saturday, August 30 2025

Call For Papers! Alzheimer's & Dementia Special Issue: Neuromodulatory Subcortical Systems in Alzheimer's Disease

Research on the intersection of the Neuromodulatory Subcortical Systems and AD are welcome! #AlzResearch

⏰Deadline: Aug. 30, 2025

alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/...

Super happy to see our latest work out in @plosbiology.org : N2 sleep during short naps increased the likelihood of insight in a decision task. The steepness of the spectral slope best predicted insight, beyond sleep stages alone. With dream team @maritpetzka.bsky.social @nicoschuck.bsky.social

A plot showing that taVNS does not induce larger pupil dilation compared to sham.

A plot showing that sham-induced pupil dilation is much more variable

Pulsed taVNS elicits pupil dilation. However, if sham feels as intense, there is not much left. Based on our comparatively large sample (94 participants, single-blind crossover), we show that a highly variable sham response explains this.
#neuroskyence 🩺
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

After years of hard work, @hashimsat.bsky.social's big one is out!

Huge thanks to co-authors Katharina Wille, Matt Nassar, Radek Cichy, @nicoschuck.bsky.social & Peter Dayan - and to @haukeren.bsky.social for his invaluable support!

Norepinephrine changes behavioral state through astroglial purinergic signaling Both neurons and glia communicate through diffusible neuromodulators; however, how neuron-glial interactions in such neuromodulatory networks influence circuit computation and behavior is unclear. Dur...

Excited to share that the astrocyte-centered half of my thesis work is now out @science.org ! With @mishaahrens.bsky.social and @marcduque.bsky.social
science.org/doi/10.1126/... 1/8

Modulating cortical excitability and cortical arousal by pupil self-regulation - Nature Communications Weijs, Missura, Potok et al. showed in this study with brain stimulation and electrophysiological methods that self-regulation of pupil size via pupil-based biofeedback modulates cortical excitability...

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

Excited to see this out in @natcomms.nature.com today!

This paper builds on the lab's work on self-regulation of arousal through pupil-based biofeedback. We assessed several markers of cortical and cardiac arousal in a pure self-regulation and dual task setting.

Heterogeneous pericoerulear neurons tune arousal and exploratory behaviours - Nature A set of neurons in the peri-locus coeruleus region controls arousal and avoidance states, providing an understanding of the neurobiological basis of arousal and exploratory behaviours.

A wonderful day for science, to see the (peri) #LC in all its glory. A ginormous effort from all involved, and a fantastic resource for the field. Chapeau 🎩

🧠 🔵

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

A time window for memory consolidation during NREM sleep revealed by cAMP oscillation Sleep is crucial for memory formation. Deng et al. find that cAMP levels in mice oscillate with a 1-min cycle during slow-wave sleep, and hippocampal activity at the peak of these oscillations is nece...

A time window for memory consolidation during NREM sleep revealed by cAMP oscillation: Neuron www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

My paper reviewing how different neurodegenerative diseases affect autonomic function was just published.

Pupillometric signature of implicit learning of statistical regularities Binda et al. show that the diameter of our eye pupils tracks the statistical structure of visual stimuli, as implicitly learned through passive viewing. The learning occurs despite unawareness of the ...

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) and fMRI: a great combination to test the mechanism of action driving stimulation effects 🧠
But how to use the stimulation safely within the magnetic field? We looked into this! #neuroskyence
doi.org/10.31234/osf...

👉👉new paper alert from @labluthi.bsky.social - so proud for talented and determined Dr.Najma Cherrad who opened the lab‘s access to brain-body communication! #sleep #locuscoeruleus #parasympathetic @fbm-unil.bsky.social