Mark Brandon

I’m very happy to share the latest from my lab published in @Nature Hippocampal neurons that initially encode reward shift their tuning over the course of days to precede or predict reward. Full text here: rdcu.be/eY5nh

I’m very happy to see this one cross the finish line. Congrats to @rrrozeske.bsky.social and Leonie Runtz for this work! See Rob’s nice thread below! 👇

Ever wondered how the hippocampal cognitive map is read-out? @changmin-yu.bsky.social @zilong-ji.bsky.social with Jake & John, show that, during navigation, theta sweeps indicate remembered goal-directions (cf. current/next movements or perceptual targets) 1/2 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

All theory is wrong until verified by data. Greatly indebted to @mhyaghoubi.bsky.social, @markbrandonlab.bsky.social, @douglasresearch.bsky.social for finding the hippocampus encoding reward prediction! Grateful to my advisor @cpehlevan.bsky.social, @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social. #RL #hippocampus

Fantastic work!

New paper from the lab, now out in @PNASNews tinyurl.com/bdeh2bs8 - ADN neurons (head direction cells) project to MEC inhibitory cells, with a preference for VIP-expressing cells - MEC VIP cells increase cfos expression during, and are required for, a spatial memory task

How good is your place cell model? Come benchmark yours against real data - nearly 70K CA1 rate maps in various geometric shapes across weeks - collected and curated in my lab by the great @jquinnlee.bsky.social and @atkeinath.bsky.social

The dataset and code for our recent paper in Neuron (tinyurl.com/yc48d6vr) is online now! The data is available on Zenodo (zenodo.org/records/1486...) and code on Github (github.com/jquinnlee/ge...). Big thanks to @markbrandonlab.bsky.social and @atkeinath.bsky.social on this effort! #neuroskyence 🧠

Congrats Dr Gilberto R Vite! 🎉🍾 Gilberto successfully defended his PhD, on the role of the thalamus in coordinating activity in the entorhinal cortex. Big thanks to his committee, Laura Colgin, @markbrandonlab.bsky.social, Stuart Trenholm, and @sylvainbaillet.bsky.social 🙏🙏

Grateful to @apnews.com for covering our recent @pnas.org article on how London taxi drivers plan routes: apnews.com/video/how-th... #neuroskyence

New paper out in Cell Reports! Led by @susieyufeng.bsky.social, we found that chronic epilepsy in mice drives distinct synchronization deficits in hippocampus and MEC, with early changes in HPC and late-onset changes in MEC that align with progressive memory impairment. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Here is the MIT Tech Review article covering the data collection linked to this new Phd Opportunity at our new International Centre for NeuroArchitecture and NeuroDesign: www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/13/1...

What are the brain’s “real” tuning curves? Our new preprint "SIMPL: Scalable and hassle-free optimisation of neural representations from behaviour” argues that existing techniques for latent variable discovery are lacking. We suggest a much simpl-er way to do things. 1/21🧵

Now out in Neuron! We benchmark place cell models using a massive CA1 dataset—nearly 70,000 rate maps—collected as mice explore environments with different geometries BVC models perform remarkably well, but we hope this dataset/approach becomes a resource for testing/refining place cell models