Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute

YouTube video by Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute Why Study The Brain?

Why study the brain? We asked students, professors and administrators at our institute. Their response: understanding this extraordinary organ is key to understanding ourselves, tackling devastating diseases like Alzheimer’s and building a better future for us all.

youtube.com/shorts/Vffog...

Curious about how your brain makes sense of the world? Come to Saturday Science and explore your senses with activities and demos for the whole family.
📅 Saturday, Sept 27 | 1–4 PM
📍Greene Science Center, 605 W 129th St, NYC
🎟️ Free and open to everyone!
👉 Sign up: bit.ly/SatSciSept2025

How does the brain connect with each muscle to control the body? Check out new videos from @columbiamed.bsky.social & @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social that reveal two key molecules behind this vital process in fruit flies. @genesdev.bsky.social

zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/microscopic-...

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Temporal integration in human auditory cortex is predominantly yoked to absolute time - Nature Neuroscience Temporal integration throughout the human auditory cortex is predominantly locked to absolute time and does not vary with the duration of speech structures such as phonemes or words.

What happens when you listen to speech a different speeds? Does your brain change its processing speed too? It turns out, no
@samnorman-haignere.bsky.social & researchers at
@zuckermanbrain.bsky.social found the auditory part of the brain keeps clocking in at a fixed time
via @natneuro.nature.com

Promotional poster for The Zuckerman Neuroscience Institute's Teacher Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University. The poster invites teachers to join a series of professional development workshops focused on neuroscience and psychology for middle school educators. Event details including dates, credits, and registration instructions are provided.

📣 Calling all middle school #STEM teachers in NYC!

New spots have become available for the October 2025 Teacher Institute for Neuroscience and Society at @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social.

Apply by Sept. 22: zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/teacher-inst...

#neurosociety #stemlearning #stemeducation

A brain center that controls consummatory responses The BNST brain region integrates a broad range of external and internal signals to flexibly regulate consumption, revealing a unified control over consummatory responses.

Read more on @cellpress.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

How does hunger spur us to consume? @columbiauniversity.bsky.social scientists have found a brain area that drives mice to consume sweets, fats, salt & food. This finding may inform novel treatments for both overeating and undereating:
zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/brain-dial-c...

Featuring Claudia Lugo-Candelas, PhD; Kevin G. Bath, PhD; moderated by Thiago Arzua, PhD.

Our event "How Early Life Shapes the Developing Brain" was so popular that we’ve added more virtual tickets! Join experts as they discuss early life, brain development, and resilience.

Sign up at bit.ly/SNFBILSept

Collaborations are moving neuroscience forward. Scientists from 20 institutions (including ours!) created the first brain-wide map of individual neurons’ activity in mice for the @intlbrainlab.bsky.social.

www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/research...

Our latest paper on the development of an #ultrafast #laser #PhasePlate for #cryoET @fitzpatricklab.bsky.social @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1063/4.0000770

Special thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Pinkerton Foundation, and NIH (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke) for supporting this program.

Last week we proudly celebrated the graduating BRAINYAC class with a poster session highlighting the students’ research! BRAINYAC partners 10th & 11th graders from schools in Upper Manhattan & the Bronx with @columbiauniversity.bsky.social neuroscientists.

Congratulations to @bendeskylab.com on being awarded a @hypothesisfund.bsky.social seed grant! He’s asking why some of an animal’s genes are switched on and others off, depending on which parent the genes came from. And how evolution shapes this phenomenon, called genetic imprinting.
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4/ Awardee @bendeskylab.com investigates how genetic conflict between paternal + maternal genes 👫 ('genomic imprinting') evolved & why this epigenetic phenomenon leads to developmental incompatibilities.
🎉 Congrats Dr. Bendesky! @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social
🙏 #HFScout @harmitmalik.bsky.social

Profiling Maternal Behavior Responses During Whole-Brain Imaging Recent advancements in whole-brain imaging tools have enabled neuroscientists to investigate how coordinated brain activity processes external cues, ...

🚨New Marlin Lab publication✨ app.jove.com/v/67112/prof...

In this #JoVE, we share a method for extracting meaningful, uninstructed behavioral readouts from constrained video recording environments (🧵1/2)

Led @brimcr.bsky.social & @AmirLawen, a @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social collab w/ @ItamarKahn.

Bianca Jones Marlin, PhD

Congratulations to @bjmarlin.bsky.social on being named a 2025 Pew Biomedical Scholar! Her research dives deep into what is innate, what is learned and what is chosen by biology to be passed down from generation to generation. 🧠 🌟
www.pew.org/en/projects/...

Join us on September 9 for our next Stavros Niarchos Foundation Brain Insight Lecture: how early life shapes the developing brain.

Featuring Claudia Lugo-Candelas, PhD; Kevin G. Bath, PhD; moderated by Thiago Arzua, PhD.

Learn more and register: zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/stavros-niar...

Picture of Diana Li, PhD accompanied by the quote: “Empowering teachers to create the opportunity for their students to explore is key.”

Our Teacher Institute for Neuroscience and Society is helping teachers explore neurodiversity, AI & screen time with students, @danafoundation.bsky.social notes. Are you a NYC middle school teacher? Apply by 8/8 for the fall, to dive into AI’s role in schools! bit.ly/teacher-neur...

Fluorescent labels reveal that a higher proportion of cells from 22q11.2 deletion syndrome patients (left) are stuck in an early phase of division (green), compared to cells from healthy individuals (right).

By growing brain-like balls of cells in lab dishes, our own Joseph Gogos and colleagues are revealing how a missing chunk of chromosome can lead to major problems in the human brain—and potential ways to treat them. Read more in @natcomms.nature.com
zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/3-d-brain-ce...

All 180 neurites in the brain of the roundworm P. pacificus, as revealed by electron microscopy

How do brains change over evolution? By comparing the brains of two worms in exquisite detail, research by Oliver Hobert, Steven Cook, et al. reveals evolutionary changes that might one day shed light on brain disorders. Read more in @science.org zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/tale-two-worms

This paper changed my life: Victoria Abraira on a tasty link between circuits and behavior The findings from Charles Zuker’s lab put the taste system on the map, revealing that some fundamental principles of behavior are hardwired.

Victoria Abraira reflects on a paper from Charles Zuker’s lab that made her wonder which aspects of somatosensory circuits are hardwired, which are plastic and how we can change them, in our latest “This paper changed my life.”

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-c...

Contributor: The human brain doesn't learn, think or recall like an AI. Embrace the difference Inaccurate metaphors about the mind can cause real harm, for instance leading educators to 'train' children like algorithms.

Framing human brains in terms borrowed from artificial intelligence is dangerous—writes Shohamy lab grad student @iddogefen.bsky.social in @latimes.com. He explores the harm of trying to “optimize” or “fine-tune” people—for education, health, law, art or science. tinyurl.com/2zjsv892

What was @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social up to in 2024?
See for yourself in our Yearly Recap: bit.ly/ZIyearlyrecap

Learn more: zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/restoring-br...

A New Study Targets Genetic Risk For Mental Illness New effort to address rare genetic conditions that dramatically raise the risk of serious mental health challenges, including schizophrenia.

Is it possible to fix the problems a missing bit of chromosome might cause in the brain? The work of our own Gogos lab, featured in @forbes.com, explores how DNA fragments might one day help reverse such memory and learning problems: www.forbes.com/sites/willia...

8 Columbia Alumni Books to Read for Pride Month These eight books celebrate the struggles and the strengths of the LGBTQ+ community.

🌈 📖 Explore memoirs, novels, essays, and more from Columbia authors that celebrate the unique stories and shared histories of the LGBTQ+ community.

Congrats to @columbiauniversity.bsky.social scientist @lintonvision.bsky.social, who received the David Marr Medal from the Applied Vision Association @theava-uk.bsky.social for "pioneering research on visual experience."

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YouTube video by Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute Breaking the Chain of Discovery?

Recent funding cuts have targeted the training of new scientists across the United States. What does this mean for the future of discovery and innovation? Reflect with us here on the dangers of losing today’s young scientists: youtu.be/AZCAs4N7alU?...

Brain scans like these helped scientists classify how study participants made decisions

How do you make a decision in a situation you’ve never encountered? Memories do much of the thinking long before you have to make the choice. Read more by Daphna Shohamy, @jonathannicholas.bsky.social and Nathaniel Daw in @natcomms.nature.com zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/memories-can...

Come explore the workings of the brain at Saturday Science on June 7, and help us celebrate #ManhattanvilleCommunityDay with an amazing lineup of food, fun, and activities for all! More info: www.eventbrite.com/e/saturday-s...