JJ

Competitive pre-ordering during planning persists in kinematically fused sequential movements Results in human and non-human primates have shown that elements of a movement sequence are pre-ordered in parallel competitively before execution, a process known as competitive queueing (CQ). Howeve...

Competitive pre-ordering during planning persists in kinematically fused sequential movements

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

A small primer on the #NobelPrize awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi today. This prize was for combining two separate fields of immunology research - genetic research on IPEX and immunology research of regulatory T cells (#Tregs), with enormous impact on biology/medicine

for those who have missed it b/c of the weekend posting ;-)

Adults up to 80 years old maintain effective movement planning when facing complex body dynamics Aging can significantly impact motor performance, especially in highly complex tasks such as multi-joint movements where the nervous system needs to adequately coordinate mechanical interactions betwe...

First first author paper of Anouck Matthijs on the fact that aging does not affect the ability to compensate for interaction torques during movement planning. Both the timing and scaling of anticipatory EMG activity are preserved with age.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Left: Schematic representation of the 3D VR setup allowing control of movements through manual control (MC) and brain–computer interface (BCI). The setup includes four infrared cameras for online tracking of hand position using reflective markers, enabling realistic 3D movements and decoder calibration for the BCI task. The monkey’s other arm was gently restrained, and gaze position was monitored using an infrared eye tracker. Right: Averaged 3D trajectories obtained from one experimental session in Monkey Y during 3D reaches performed under the BCI condition.

How do parietal & premotor areas in the brain adapt to a #BrainComputerInterface? This study shows that frontal & parietal #brain areas co-adapt during BCI-based #MotorLearning, offering insights into visuomotor adaptation & informing future #BCI developments @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3VEZidV

Comic. [Two people hiking up mountain] PERSON 1: Okay, we’re nearing the next downhill segment I’ll put in the order. ...Confirming start and end points… Submitted! [water slide being dropped from above by drones] PERSON 2 with long hair: Look, here it comes! [Waterslide positioned on downhill slope of mountain with both people riding down] BOTH: Wheeee [Waterslide carried back into the air] [Both people continuing to hike up next slope] [caption] On-demand waterslide delivery has really improved the whole hiking experience.

Hiking

xkcd.com/3147/

bsky.app/profile/ourw...

Aging Brains Show Stripes of Cell Death Purkinje cells, the neurons of the cerebellum, appear to die in an organized pattern, overturning previous beliefs that neurodegeneration occurs homogenously.

“Wait a minute, there’s patterns on the other side of life as well.”

Such a cool write-up about Sarah's work on normal aging in the cerebellum!

www.the-scientist.com/aging-brains...

a gold mine...

Yet another example that one should not trust AI to summarize scientific articles. While the article mentions a longitudinal study, the paper is purely about cross-sectional data (some of it form longitudinal studies but still...)

How to design your academic website - Nature Human Behaviour An academic website serves as both a public-facing window on the world wide web and an important internal laboratory resource. In this ‘How to’ piece, I outline how to build your academic website, including what content to include, and ways to build and launch your site.

In this 'How to' Comment, @gribblelab.org gives advice on how to think about one's academic website and how to go about building one. #AcademicWebsite
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Honestly, how do you do a force-field adaptation in your kitchen? 😜

No way. Risks are too big...

Repeated head trauma causes neuron loss and inflammation in young athletes - Nature Repetitive head impacts from contact sports are associated with brain inflammation, vascular damage and neuron loss that are independent of hyperphosphorylated tau pathology.

Repeated head impacts in young athletes can cause neuron loss and inflammation long before signs of neurodegenerative diseases appear. Findings may help explain early symptoms in individuals exposed to contact sports and guide efforts to detect and treat brain damage.

#Neuroscience #Neuroskyence

new pape from our lab, led by the indefatigable @chrisjdallmann.bsky.social. i am very proud of this one.

I can't do that but that's OK. I block my calendar when I need to write. Take control of your calendar and it will be fine (sorry, unsolicited advice as well ;-) )

Cerebellar Contributions to Action and Cognition: Prediction, Timescale, and Continuity The cerebellum is implicated in nearly every domain of human cognition, yet our understanding of how this subcortical structure contributes to cognition remains elusive. Efforts on this front have ten...

The cerebellum isn’t just about coordinating movement. It’s implicated in nearly every domain of cognition—from language to social behavior.

But how exactly does the cerebellum contribute to action and cognition? 🧵

Check out our new paper w/ Rich Ivry.
arxiv.org/abs/2509.09818

We have indeed known for a very long time that optimality does not hold in many circumstances

The myth of optimality in human movement science The concept of optimality dominates contemporary human movement science, with researchers across biomechanics, motor control, and neuroscience routine…

The myth of optimality in human movement science

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Research Article Evolutionary Biology Evidence for deliberate burial of the dead by Homo naledi Lee R Berger Is a corresponding author Tebogo Vincent Makhubela Is a corresponding author Keneiloe MolopyaneAshley KrügerPatrick Randolph-Quinney Is a corresponding author Marina ElliottBecca PeixottoAgustín FuentesPaul TafforeauJohn Hawks Is a corresponding author see all

eLife Assessment The authors study the context of the skeletal remains of three individuals and associated sediment samples to conclude that the hominin species Homo naledi intentionally buried their dead. Demonstration of the earliest known instance of intentional funerary practice – with a relatively small-brained hominin engaging in a highly complex behavior that has otherwise been observed from Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis – would represent a landmark finding. The authors have revised their manuscript extensively in light of the reviews of their initial submission, with improved illustration, context, discussion, and theoretical frameworks, leading to an improved case supporting their conclusion that Homo naledi intentionally buried their dead. One of the reviewers concludes that the findings convincingly demonstrate intentional burial practices, while another considers evidence for such an unambiguous conclusion to be incomplete given a lack of definitive knowledge around how the hominins got into the chamber. We look forward to seeing the continued development and assessment of this hypothesis. It is worth noting that the detailed reviews (both rounds) and comprehensive author response are commendable and consequential parts of the scientific record of this study. The editors note that the authors' response repeatedly invokes precedent from previous publications to help justify the conclusions in this paper. While doing so is helpful, the editors also note that scientific norms and knowledge are constantly evolving, and that any study has to rest on its own scientific merit.

Interesting to see how the eLife review process shaped this controversial study. The current summary is worth a read! 🧪
elifesciences.org/articles/89106

Motor Learning: Bridging the Gap Between Basic and Applied Approaches: https://osf.io/mbdc8

Network dynamics for sensory prioritization: Functional connectivity related to individual sensory weighting of vision versus proprioception during upper limb control Precise control of the hand requires the dynamic integration of visual and proprioceptive (body position sense) sensory cues with internal models, task goals, and motor plans. Individual differences i...

Preprint alert!

Individual preferences in relying on vision or proprioception in reaching show distinct patterns in connectivity across sensorimotor network.

Happy to have contributed to this nice piece of work by Kess, @hjblock.bsky.social and other cool people!

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

Motor cortex flexibly deploys a high-dimensional repertoire of subskills Skilled movement often requires flexibly combining multiple subskills, each requiring dedicated control strategies and underlying computations. How the motor system achieves such versatility remains u...

Of potential interest to those keen on motor control and/or multi-task networks. Congrats to Elom and Eric.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Life as an academic is sometimes tough but getting positive reviews for two papers (although one rejection) and one grant in the last days feels very good.

In this paper we use a new approach from control theory (engineering), a "disturbance observer", to see if it can be applied to visuomotor adaptation. This "DO model" is doing reasonably well.

This is an amazing success story. We are happy to have published several papers there - it really has become the top neuroimaging journal within just two years. Kudos to all who had the courage to make it happen!

Stable cortical body maps before and after arm amputation - Nature Neuroscience Longitudinal neuroimaging of participants with planned arm amputations shows that the cortical body map remains stable after amputation, with no evidence of hand or face reorganization, thus challengi...

Longitudinal neuroimaging in three adults, followed before and up to 5 years after arm amputation, reveals that amputation does not trigger large-scale cortical reorganization

@hunterschone.bsky.social @cibaker.bsky.social @plasticity-lab.bsky.social

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

wait for the next stage... "I have a child starting university"

We investigated how eye movements might influence reflexes during balance tasks. We found that when people tracked a moving object with smooth pursuit versus keeping their gaze fixed, their leg muscle reflexes were enhanced during perturbations.