Mark Nicholas

Mark Nicholas

@markolas.bsky.social

Postdoc at HHMI Janelia, retired footballer, maker of good food https://markolas11.github.io

302 followers239 following12 posts

Mark Nicholas reposted

CMU Neuroscience Institute
@cmu-neuroscience.bsky.social

New research from the Wood Neuro Research Group suggests sickle cell disease changes how the brain’s networks work together, with the brain calling on extra support from attention systems to keep thinking and decision-making on track. www.cmu.edu/ni/news-even...

cmu.eduNew study shows how sickle cell affects brain functionNew research from the Wood Neuro Research Group suggests sickle cell disease changes how the brain’s networks work together, with the brain calling on extra support from attention systems to keep thin...

Mark Nicholas reposted

Matt Geramita
@mattgeramita.bsky.social

Excited to share my postdoc work with @yttrilab.bsky.social and @ahmarilab.bsky.social where we show that the striatal indirect pathway mediates hesitation in mice (www.nature.com/articles/s41...). And I'm honored to have @ahmarilab.bsky.social introduce the findings with a musical abstract!

nature.comThe striatal indirect pathway mediates hesitation - Nature NeuroscienceHesitation—pausing in the face of uncertainty—is ubiquitous in daily life and disrupted in several psychiatric disorders. Unlike other forms of response inhibition, hesitation is mediated by indirect,...
Susanne Ahmari@ahmarilab.bsky.social

In other exciting news, @mattgeramita.bsky.social’s @natneuro.nature.com + Eric Yttri paper exploring the neural circuits underlying hesitation just dropped today! 🧠🎤 To summarize the findings, please see my musical abstract (with apologies to Peter Frampton 🎶) www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪

Mark Nicholas
@markolas.bsky.social

Interested in how cortex and striatum contribute to trained vs spontaneous behavior?? If you're at #sfn25, check out @braininspired.bsky.social talk Sunday at 1 #neuroskyence

Paul Middlebrooks@braininspired.bsky.social

If you're at SfN, stop by my teeny tiny nano talk Sunday at 1: "Neural population dynamics during naturalistic versus task-related behavior" w/ @yttrilab.bsky.social @markolas.bsky.social @adeneagle.bsky.social NANO017.01

Mark Nicholas reposted

Yttri Lab
@yttrilab.bsky.social

I hope this new-ish paper will challenge people to think about the interpretations of our models STRIATUM SUPPORTS REINFORCEMENT AND NOT ACTION SELECTION (!!!) tinyurl.com/HodgeAndYttri @cmuscience.bsky.social @cmu-neuroscience.bsky.social #neuroskyence

tinyurl.comStriatal modulation supports context-specific reinforcement and not action selectionHodge et al. used closed-loop optogenetic stimulation and naturalistic behaviors to determine that striatal activity does not select the action to perform but rather biases performance through reinfor...

Mark Nicholas reposted

Antonio Falasconi
@antofala.bsky.social

Happy to share our primer on Basal Ganglia - Brainstem interactions! From how the basal ganglia communicate with Brainstem motor circuits to how these activity patterns might come about! With Silvia Arber, now out in Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

cell.comBasal ganglia–brainstem interactionsOur body executes many different movements with precision. Falasconi and Arber describe how basal ganglia interact with brainstem circuits controlling body movements and propose a movement-specific li...
Mark Nicholas
@markolas.bsky.social

Thank you so much to @lauragrima.bsky.social for presenting her recent preprint today at @the-cnbc.bsky.social @cmu-neuroscience.bsky.social Super cool science and design www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #neuroskyence

biorxiv.orgA global dopaminergic learning rate enables adaptive foraging across many optionsIn natural environments, animals must efficiently allocate their choices across multiple concurrently available resources when foraging, a complex decision-making process not fully captured by existin...

Mark Nicholas reposted

Vinny Costa
@vincentcostaphd.bsky.social

Why do we go downstairs when we hear a scary noise at night? New #preprint by postdoc Kati Rothenhoefer shows how novelty seeking & explore-exploit decision making in #macaques resolves curiosity about whether choices will lead to appetitive or aversive outcomes. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.orgDissociable effects of curiosity and hedonic valence on reinforcement learningCuriosity and exploration support learning and adaptive decision-making in uncertain environments. While these processes are sensitive to motivational context, it remains unclear how outcome valence s...

Mark Nicholas reposted

Julie Fabre
@juliefabre.bsky.social

🚀 We are excited to share that bombcell is now available in Python! 🐍 Automatically sort your units into good/MUA/noise/non-somatic using quality metrics and interpretable & adjustable classification thresholds. pip install and play around with our toy dataset: 🔗 github.com/Julie-Fabre/...

github.comGitHub - Julie-Fabre/bombcell: Automated quality control, curation and neuron classification of spike-sorted electrophysiology dataAutomated quality control, curation and neuron classification of spike-sorted electrophysiology data - Julie-Fabre/bombcell

Mark Nicholas reposted

Antonio Falasconi
@antofala.bsky.social

Forelimb movement control at the basal ganglia - brainstem interface! Happy to finally share this work from me and @harsh-kanodia.bsky.social with Silvia Arber! @biozentrum.unibas.ch @fmiscience.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comDynamic basal ganglia output signals license and suppress forelimb movements - NatureBasal ganglia output neurons fire dynamically in bidirectional and movement-specific patterns to license forelimb movements. 

Mark Nicholas reposted

CMU Neuroscience Institute
@cmu-neuroscience.bsky.social

Tim Verstynen, Interim Director of the NI, has been awarded the 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship! 👏 Awarded annually to "trailblazing artists and scholars," Tim will be inducted into the 100th class of Guggenheim Fellows on June 2. Read more about his upcoming "exploration of exploration." 🌎 ⬇️

cmu.eduCMU Neuroscientist Has Big Plans for Guggenheim Fellowship - Neuroscience Institute - Carnegie Mellon UniversityTimothy Verstynen has always been fascinated by how organisms explore their environments — from the human quest to map the surfaces of distant planets to the itty-bitty journeys of single-celled bacte...

Mark Nicholas reposted

Tim Verstynen
@tdverstynen.bsky.social

🚨New lab preprint alert!🚨 Grab a drink, sit down, and let me walk you through the moment-by-moment process of how information loops through basal ganglia circuits during a decision. (Link at the end of the thread) 1/9

Mark Nicholas
@markolas.bsky.social

Having learned from Carl both as an undergraduate and graduate student, I continually go back to my notes and the topics studied in his course to help me think about concepts in cognitive neuroscience. Thank you, Carl

CMU Neuroscience Institute@cmu-neuroscience.bsky.social

Carl Olson, Professor of the Neuroscience Institute at CMU, died Nov. 23, 2024. Carl was a renowned neuroscientist who provided insights into fundamental issues in the neural basis of cognition. Read more about Carl's life and legacy in his published obituary. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Mark Nicholas
@markolas.bsky.social

Super proud of this work and as I finish up my #PhD studies I am actively looking for a #postdoc position. I am interested in studying learning and value-based decision making and how cortical and subcortical areas contribute to complex behavior tinyurl.com/LesionsOfM1 #neuroskyence

Yttri Lab@yttrilab.bsky.social

In an effort to bring #neuroskyence to @bsky.app I wanted to share our recent paper in Neuron tinyurl.com/LesionsOfM1 @markolas.bsky.social and I asked what forelimb M1 contributes to striatal and behavioral dynamics using joystick tasks and CFA lesions @cmuscience.bsky.social @the-cnbc.bsky.social

tinyurl.comMotor cortex is responsible for motoric dynamics in striatum and the execution of both skilled and unskilled actionsNicholas and Yttri find that in the absence of motor cortex, the stratum alone is not capable of producing goal-directed behavior. Lesions of motor cortex also produce a freezing of gait-like behavior...

Mark Nicholas reposted

Victoria Corbit, PhD
@victoriacorbit.bsky.social

It's a little surreal that this paper is finally out. My last paper from my PhD and likely my last mouse neuro publication ever! Ft. @ahmarilab.bsky.social @piantadosisean.bsky.social If you're into mouse behavior, optogenetics, and calcium imaging, here's this 🐀🔦🔬 www.cell.com/cell-reports...

cell.comDissociable roles of central striatum and anterior lateral motor area in initiating and sustaining naturalistic behaviorCorbit et al. studied patterns of activity in corticostriatal circuits during naturally occurring complex behavior in mice. In contrast to models in which cortex leads striatum, these findings suggest...

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