Very happy to share our new review on visual computation in the cephalopod brain, with @vangeliqueallen.bsky.social, out now! We discuss exciting recent advances in understanding how the radically different brain of cephalopods processes the visual scene. 🐙🔬👀 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Cris Niell
@crisniell.bsky.social
neuroscientist studying vision at Univ of Oregon nielllab.uoregon.edu
The latest result from a fun ongoing collaboration! @mbeyeler.bsky.social @michaelgoard.bsky.social @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social
Ecological Visual Processing in the Mouse - with @michaelgoard.bsky.social @crisniell.bsky.social @mbeyeler.bsky.social Visual computations that are engaged in ecological contexts: active sensing, motion processing, scene analysis, distance estimation, and spatial perception. doi.org/10.1146/annu...
Ecological Visual Processing in the Mouse - with @michaelgoard.bsky.social @crisniell.bsky.social @mbeyeler.bsky.social Visual computations that are engaged in ecological contexts: active sensing, motion processing, scene analysis, distance estimation, and spatial perception. doi.org/10.1146/annu...
New @annualreviews.bsky.social #neuroscience article 👁️🧠: bionicvisionlab.org/publications... w/ @crisniell.bsky.social, @michaelgoard.bsky.social, @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social Grateful to be part of this collaboration & learn from such a sharp group while rethinking vision in natural settings!
Ecological visual processing in the mouse | Bionic Vision Lab
We review computations that are engaged in ecological contexts, including active sensing, motion processing, scene analysis, distance estimation, and spatial perception.
bionicvisionlab.org
Call it #ExplainableAI or just making sense of complexity. We establish a direct link between DNNs fit to #AuditoryCortex and more intuitive subspace models from the 2000s. Congrats @jeremewingert.bsky.social @satyaparida.bsky.social & Sam Norman-Haignere! #NeuroAI #SensoryNeuroscience rdcu.be/e5gLY
Less than two weeks left to apply for the Cephalopod Neuroscience Gordon Conference! An exciting lineup of speakers and posters, and financial aid is available upon request. 🐙🦑 www.grc.org/cephalopod-n...
Can your AI beat a mouse? Mice still outperform our best computing machines in some ways. One way is robust visual processing. 10 years ago I decided to work on HARD behavior driven by COMPLEX visual processing. And that risk is paying off now. #neuroAI 1/n
Applications are open for the first Cephalopod Neuroscience Gordon Conference, to be held February 2026! Hope to see many of you there! 🐙🧠🔬 www.grc.org/cephalopod-n...
A very nice article about our research on the octopus visual system, by @callimcflurry.bsky.social @thetransmitter.bsky.social
The octopus brain has teased researchers since the 1960s, but recording from it seemed impossible. Cris Niell and his team’s calcium imaging experiments finally “showed that this brain could be studied,” says Sam Reiter. By @callimcflurry.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/vision/cepha...
Our first paper on altered states of consciousness induced by #breathwork is officially out now! It addresses four big questions: (1) Can simple breathing alter your consciousness? Most definitely! And in very similar ways to psychedelics! (1/4) www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Decreased CO2 saturation during circular breathwork supports emergence of altered states of consciousness - Communications Psychology
Circular breathwork induces altered states of consciousness similar to psychedelics, predicted by decreases in CO2 saturation. Acute physiological and psychological dynamics during breathwork in turn ...
nature.com
SO MANY STAND UP FOR SCIENCE EVENTS TO CHOOSE FROM—153 and COUNTING! To get more information on our local events and to register your own, head to www.standupforscience2025.org/local-event-information/ ☀️⬇️🌎
Recent studies found pronounced neuromodulation in the early visual cortex due to locomotion and spontaneous body movements in mice but not in non-human primates. We reconciled this dichotomy in this new open-access feature review @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Is the impact of spontaneous movements on early visual cortex species specific?
Recent studies in non-human primates do not find pronounced signals related to the animal’s own body movements in the responses of neurons in the visu…
sciencedirect.com
When we enter a new environment, we use visual input to rapidly build an internal model of the local spatial environment. How does our brain do this? We review past literature and suggest some new ways forward in our new review in @currentbiology.bsky.social: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.
authors.elsevier.com
Sniffing helps animals identify smells and connect them to places and events, but noses can’t sense time or place. How do brains connect odors with internal models of the world? Our preprint suggests that the olfactory bulb participates in this connection. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
More cephalopod content for your holiday reading! (don't be fooled by the title - there's some funky cuttlefish facts in there too) Thank you to @crisniell.bsky.social and all of the other researchers I interviewed for this! www.scientificamerican.com/article/octo...
Octopuses Are Colorblind. Here's How They See the World
Cephalopods have developed unique visual systems to deal with their underwater world
scientificamerican.com