Michael Totty

science.orgTranscriptomic diversity of amygdalar subdivisions across humans and nonhuman primatesSpecialized cell types and links to psychiatric disorders are revealed by genetic mapping of primate amygdala neurons.

18 Sept 2025

Very excited to share my second postdoc, now out in Science Advances! We used targeted snRNA-seq to profile four major subnuclei of the primate across three species (including humans). 1/13 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

biorxiv.orgDevelopmental trajectories organize the assembly of valence circuits in the central amygdalaHow functionally specialized neural circuits emerge during development remains a central question. Here, we show that developmental trajectories act as organizing units for the assembly of valence-spe...

Developmental trajectories organize the assembly of valence circuits in the central amygdala www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Cool paper, but I'm confused how they are dividing CeA cell types into appetitive and aversive. Saying that CeA-SST neurons "can contribute to fear learning" but are predominately appetitive is certainly a stretch.

biorxiv.orgStressor Identity Shapes Reactivity To Subsequent StressExtensive work has established that exposure to a single acute stressor can have profound impacts on future reactivity to new stressors, including enhanced acquisition of new fear. The impact of stres...

Stressor Identity Shapes Reactivity To Subsequent Stress www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Michael Totty reposted

Robert Phillips

@rphillips3.bsky.social

Very excited to share our newest preprint, led by myself and Biostats PhD Student Jianing Yao, where we generate a three dimensional reconstruction of the human NAc to understand how cell type heterogeneity and topography change across the anterior-posterior axis. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Michael Totty reposted

Travis Goode

@travisgoode.bsky.social

1 Sept

🧪🧪🧪 (1/5) Beyond thrilled to announce that I’ll be starting my own lab as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (@uthsc.bsky.social) in Jan 2027! #NewPI My lab will study the neurobiology of learning, memory, and motivation! 🧠🐭⚡️🔬

Michael Totty reposted

@vincentcostaphd.bsky.social

Replying to @martinowk.bsky.social

There are supp figures like these for all the blocks used - but, her ability to score and tile 6-8 pieces with minimal damage so the amygdala could be reconstructed is just 🙌

Michael Totty reposted

Vinny Costa

28 Aug

Like I have mentioned before spatial neurobiology is very hard. @svitlanabach.bsky.social makes the impossible seem routine.

Keri Martinowich@martinowk.bsky.social

There are supp figures like these for all the blocks used - but, her ability to score and tile 6-8 pieces with minimal damage so the amygdala could be reconstructed is just 🙌

Michael Totty reposted

biorxiv.orgMultiscale spatial transcriptomics resolves the cellular and molecular architecture of the human amygdalaThe amygdala is a central hub for emotional learning that is dysregulated across numerous psychiatric disorders, yet its molecular architecture in humans remains poorly defined. We here present a spat...

I am very excited to see this work out and so proud of @mictott.bsky.social & @svitlanabach.bsky.social! Study is a great example of moving beyond generating spatial transcriptomics data simply to generate molecular maps, to using the data to answer longstanding questions about human 🧠 organization.

Michael Totty@mictott.bsky.social

Incredibly proud to share our newest work where we developed a multiscale spatial transcriptomic atlas of the human amygdala using three complementary technologies! 1/12 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This was a huge team effort, so special shout out to the wet lab biologist who generated all of this data. Namely co-first author @svitlanabach.bsky.social, as well as Madeline Valentine and Sarah Maguire. Also huge thank you to other in the neuropath and neural plasticity teams here at LIBD.

github.comGitHub - LieberInstitute/spatialAmygdalaContribute to LieberInstitute/spatialAmygdala development by creating an account on GitHub.

And of course a huge thanks to my postdoc mentors, @stephaniehicks.bsky.social and @martinowk.bsky.social for their support (and patience 😅) with this project!

We additionally developed web-based Vitessce apps for exploring each of these datasets freely on your browser! I'm a big fan, so please check them out! You can find them along with the analysis and links to raw data files on the landing page for our github repo. 11/12 github.com/LieberInstit...

This is a massive dataset and the first of it's kind, so I really was only able to scratch the surface of what insights it can provide. I'm excited to see how the community uses this resource, and for future projects in this space! 12/12

And we were able to discover considerable cell type heterogeneity in the central nucleus of the amygdala, revealing spatially distinct populations of PRKCD/PENK/CARPT vs SST/TAC3/CRH neurons that appear to resemble those found in mice CeA. 9/12

Finally, we wanted to ask how genetic risk for psychiatric disease localized within the human amygdala. gsMap revealed broad enrichment for brain-related traits in gray matter areas (in line with a highly polygenic architecture) whereas scDRS revealed nuclei specific enrichment. 10/12

This revealed that different amygdala nuclei contained completely distinct neuronal populations, and showed within nuclei heterogeneity such as the magnocellular and parvocellular divisions of the basal nucleus. 7/12

We next chose to use VisiumHD to provide full-transcriptome profiling at single cell resolution to characterize the intercalated cells and central nucleus. Combing this with reference atlases revealed at least 3 reproducible ITC cell types - two island and one non-island population. 8/12

Using the Xenium imaging-based technology, we were able to again reconstruct the known amygdala anatomy using a smaller targeted gene panel, while also providing validation for many novel marker genes at single cell resolution. 5/12

Several snRNA-seq references have recently been published describing the cell type diversity in the human amygdala. We were able to take these references (both Yu et al. and our previous dataset) and spatially map them into both our Visium and Xenium datasets. 6/12

Doing so allowed us to recover the known anatomy of the amygdala using unsupervised methods. This includes basolateral complex nuclei, medial and central nuclei, the cortical nucleus, and intercalated islands! As well as surrounding structures such as the hippocampus and claustrum. 3/12

Analyzing spatial co-expression networks allowed us to recover gene programs specific to distinct amygdala nuclei and identify core transcription factors that may play a central role in their molecular identity and function. 4/12

Our understanding of the molecular and cellular make up of the human amygdala has lagged far behind other structures. So we used Visium, Xenium, and VisiumHD to comprehensively profile the amygdala at full-transcriptome and single cell resolution across 9 total donors. 2/12

biorxiv.orgFine mapping of PTSD GWAS reveals a role for amygdala Foxp2 in regulation of fear and threat responsesPost-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating psychiatric condition caused by severe trauma exposure and characterized by ongoing dysregulation of fear processing, hyperarousal, and amygdala...

21 Aug

Fine mapping of PTSD GWAS reveals a role for amygdala Foxp2 in regulation of fear and threat responses www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

cell.comCell-type-specific APOE4 cascade across the Alzheimer’s disease continuumShostak et al. propose a cell-type-specific APOE4 cascade across the Alzheimer’s disease continuum, where neuronal APOE4 upregulation during aging initiates damage and triggers glial responses that, a...

20 Aug

Cell-type-specific APOE4 cascade across the Alzheimer’s disease continuum www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

@robinmagnard.bsky.social

3 Aug

It took 14 months, but I’m incredibly excited to share that my NIMH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) has officially been funded!

Michael Totty reposted

Robin Magnard

dx.doi.orgTranscriptional Response to Chronic Long‐Access Fentanyl Self‐Administration in Rat Habenula and AmygdalaChronic intravenous long-access fentanyl self-administration in rats produced transcriptional remodeling in the habenula and amygdala. Bulk RNA-sequencing identified 453 habenula and 3,041 amygdala d...

🧠🧬 What are the effects of intravenous fentanyl self-administration on the habenula and amygdala transcriptomes? In our new Addiction Biology paper, we addressed this question using a chronic long-access model in rats! Here are some highlights 🧵👇 Paper 👉 dx.doi.org/10.1111/adb....

Michael Totty reposted

Jeremy Day

@daylab.bsky.social

Very excited about this new preprint from @odrake.bsky.social, an incredibly talented MD/PhD student in the lab. 🧵 below, but the TL;DR: we found a rare striatal neuron subtype with unique transcriptional, spatial, and circuit properties that gates opioid reward.

Olivia Drake@odrake.bsky.social

Our new preprint from @daylab.bsky.social characterizes Chst9-MSNs, a specialized NAc population with high Oprm1 expression and opioid sensitivity that is required for fentanyl reward learning. Excited to share this work! 🧠🧬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.orgbiorxiv.org

Michael Totty reposted

Talia Lerner

@talialerner.bsky.social

@kaessmannlab.bsky.social

Replying to @odrake.bsky.social

Nice work! Congrats!

Michael Totty reposted

Kaessmann Lab

16 Oct 2025

Did transposable elements shape brain evolution — and if so, which ones, and in which cell states and lineages? Led by @tyamadat.bsky.social, we explored this question in cerebellum development using sequence-based deep learning models! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Michael Totty reposted

FMI science

@fmiscience.bsky.social

fmi.chForgotten memories can leave silent traces in the brainA forgotten memory is not always a vanished one. FMI neuroscientists investigating the fruit fly brain found that some memories become inaccessible while leaving a silent trace behind. The right remin...

Today in @natneuro.nature.com, researchers led by @felsenberg.bsky.social report that memories can persist as silent traces, recoverable with the right reminder. But misleading cues can distort recall and create false memories—showing how remembering can rewrite the past. www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

nature.comFull-length single-cell spatial transcriptomics reveals spatial and cell-type-specific transcript isoforms in the primate brain - Nature MethodsFullscope-seq combines a spatial transcriptomics approach (Stereo-seq) with long-read sequencing. The approach provides isoform information at single-cell resolution across a large field of view, as d...

Full-length single-cell spatial transcriptomics reveals spatial and cell-type-specific transcript isoforms in the primate brain www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comLight-activated tetanus neurotoxin for conditional proteolysis and inducible synaptic inhibition in vivo - Nature MethodsLATeNT is a light-activatable form of tetanus neurotoxin that can be used for spatiotemporally precise inhibition of exocytosis in neurons and other cells. It can inhibit synaptic transmission in vivo...

Light-activated tetanus neurotoxin for conditional proteolysis and inducible synaptic inhibition in vivo www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comSpike inference from calcium imaging data acquired with GCaMP8 indicators - Nature MethodsIn this Analysis, Rupprecht et al. investigate the behavior of GCaMP8 variants in spike inference using several different algorithms. They highlight the role of the indicators’ linearity in the infere...

Spike inference from calcium imaging data acquired with GCaMP8 indicators www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Michael Totty reposted

Jeremy Day

@daylab.bsky.social

29 July

Congratulations to the 2026 @acnporg.bsky.social travel award recipients! Good to see a lot of familiar names on this list, including @mictott.bsky.social, @jtuscher.bsky.social, @kmcostalab.com, @laurenmac.bsky.social, @chanjenerational.bsky.social, and @outraajeous.bsky.social!

28 July

Incredibly honored to have been selected for an ACNP Travel Award this year! I can’t wait to share some of the new projects we’ve been working on. See y’all in January! @acnporg.bsky.social

frontiersin.orgFrontiers | The thalamic nucleus reuniens orchestrates prefrontal-hippocampal synchrony in memory, emotion, and diseaseDecades of literature point to a critical role for prefrontal-hippocampal interactions in emotion and memory. Recent studies in both rodents and humans have ...

13 July

The thalamic nucleus reuniens orchestrates prefrontal-hippocampal synchrony in memory, emotion, and disease www.frontiersin.org/journals/beh...

@prashanthi-ravi.bsky.social

8 July

Dual thalamic drive defines the intra-amygdala wiring complexity biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Michael Totty reposted

Prashanthi Ravichandran

2 July

(1/10) We’re excited to share our recently published study www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... which uncovers the spatiomolecular landscape of the human NAc, a key reward structure by integrating snRNA-seq with Visium spatial transcriptomics. 🧠 #NAcLIBD #snRNAseq #10xVisium

sciencedirect.comSpatiomolecular mapping reveals anatomical organization of heterogeneous cell types in the human nucleus accumbensThe nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a key component of the mesolimbic dopamine system that is implicated in several neuropsychiatric disorders. The NAc con…

27 June

Probably one of the best pictures I’ll ever take here at Baltimore’s Sail 250 air show.

27 June

Perks of playing at the Baltimore City muni courses.

Michael Totty reposted

Caswell Barry

@caswell.bsky.social

23 June

Really excited about this work with the awesome Will de Cothi & @shipleysj.bsky.social, out in Nature Reviews Neuroscience. We propose acetylcholine is an analogue of dopamine — tracking not reward prediction errors but state-transition prediction errors. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-026-01058-w

Michael Totty reposted

22 June

Replying to @martinowk.bsky.social

I am very excited to continue working with @mictott.bsky.social thinking about translational potential of directly targeting this cell population, which continually remind us in dataset after dataset of their unique vulnerability across a number of neuropsych and neurodegenerative disorders!

Michael Totty reposted

22 June

Replying to @martinowk.bsky.social

Really nice thread from @mictott.bsky.social about the origin of the studies and the interpretation of the findings here when the preprint was posted: bsky.app/profile/mict...

Michael Totty@mictott.bsky.social

New paper out on cortistatin neurons and their role in regulating fear and cortical hyperexcitability in the prelimbic cortex! This one has been a fun ride 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.orgbiorxiv.org

Michael Totty reposted

22 June

Excited to see this paper in press! I am so excited for/ proud of @aaronsalisbury.bsky.social + @mictott.bsky.social who led this project, which arose from experiments in Michael's NIMH funded F32 award, and became the basis of Aaron's PhD thesis work. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Michael Totty reposted

Nicole Rust

@nicolecrust.bsky.social

17 June

Replying to @nicolecrust.bsky.social

I now have multifold confirmation: mouse studies at Janelia will wind down to be replaced by studies of fish. Wow.

5 June

Even with all the new imaging tech we have, nothing beats the old school neuroanatomy drawings. I particularly love the level of detail shown here of the various nuclei and cell types found in the human amygdala. Studies of the Vertebrate Telencephalon II. Crosby and Humphrey, 1941.

5 June

And here's another for all the ventral striatum / olfactory tubercle folks. It's hard not to love the Calleja and interface islands.

onlinelibrary.wiley.comStudies of the vertebrate telencephalon. II. The nuclear pattern of the anterior olfactory nucleus, tuberculum olfactorium and the amygdaloid complex in adult manClick on the article title to read more.

5 June

Paper link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

11 May

19 on my K99 resubmission! Massive thanks to my mentors and letter writers for all their support. Hard to tell if it will actually translate to funding in this climate, but I'll take the win regardless!