Tamir Eliav
@tamir-eliav.bsky.social
Neuro postdoc @mpiforbi.bsky.social (Vallentin lab): Sleep replay, vocal learning. Previously, PhD @Ulanovsky lab: bat hippocampus
Our work on goal-directed theta sweeps is out! We found two different types of theta sweeps in the rat hippocampus. During random foraging, left-right alternating sweeps dominated (Vollan, 25). However, during memory-guided navigation sweeps pointing to hidden goal locations emerged with learning.
Very grateful for this beautiful short Journal Club piece 👇 It captures one of the main ideas behind our work: that studying the brain during natural behavior can reveal neural coding principles that are hard to see in more constrained settings. 🦇🧠
Jerome Beetz@beetzjerome.bsky.social · last mo.It was fun writing this piece for @natrevneuro.nature.com. It summarizes one of the most inspiring articles I read over the last years. Nachum Ulanovsky et al. @tamir-eliav.bsky.social beautifully show the relevance of studying the brain under naturalistic conditions. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It was fun writing this piece for @natrevneuro.nature.com. It summarizes one of the most inspiring articles I read over the last years. Nachum Ulanovsky et al. @tamir-eliav.bsky.social beautifully show the relevance of studying the brain under naturalistic conditions. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Heading into the wild: setting the course to natural neuroscience - Nature Reviews Neuroscience
In this Journal Club, M. Jerome Beetz highlights a study published 2021 that examined hippocampal representation of large environments in flying bats.
nature.com
And here is the original article by @tamir-eliav.bsky.social et al. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Multiscale representation of very large environments in the hippocampus of flying bats
For flying Egyptian fruit bats, variable-size place field coding is crucial for optimal positional representation in large spaces.
science.org
Something I should have read months ago. Ulanovsky's bats fly long tunnels and reveal CA3 as a single-field coder, CA1 as multi-field. Sparse in, dense out — really rather nice. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10537-0
Nature research paper: Sparse-to-dense coding transformation between hippocampal areas CA3 and CA1 go.nature.com/3Pr9zej
Sparse-to-dense coding transformation between hippocampal areas CA3 and CA1 - Nature
The hippocampus exhibits a CA3-to-CA1 coding transformation that combines fast learning with an efficient, compressed neural code.
go.nature.com
🚨 New paper in @nature.com We asked why two hippocampal areas with very different anatomy, CA3 and CA1, often seem to code space so similarly? By recording bats flying up to 200m, we found that the difference was hidden by scale! www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵 1/11
Sparse-to-dense coding transformation between hippocampal areas CA3 and CA1 - Nature
The hippocampus exhibits a CA3-to-CA1 coding transformation that combines fast learning with an efficient, compressed neural code.
nature.com
New paper from Ulanovsky's group: With brain recordings from🦇 flying in a 200m tunnel, the group discovered that place cells of CA1 exhibit dense spatial coding, i.e., multiple place fields, and cells of CA3 exhibit ultrasparse coding, i.e., one place field. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Sparse-to-dense coding transformation between hippocampal areas CA3 and CA1 - Nature
The hippocampus exhibits a CA3-to-CA1 coding transformation that combines fast learning with an efficient, compressed neural code.
nature.com
1/7 🧠 My journey into development begins with this work and question: how does the brain's spatial navigation system develop? We found that the neural networks for spatial navigation (tori and rings) are preconfigured and only later anchor gradually to the world with experience! 🧵
Edvard I Moser@edvardmoser.bsky.social · 5mo agoIs spatial navigation innate 🧠? Using #NeuroPixels we show that the #torus 🍩 underlying the #GridCell map exists already on day 10 in rats — before pups open eyes and ears and before they start upright walking. 🧵1:4 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Where does learning through imitation happen in the brain? In juvenile zebra finches, we pinpoint a synaptic locus of song learning in a cortico-basal ganglia circuit and leverage this localization to measure the timescale of consolidation and make birds learn faster! #neuroskyence (1/14)
A synaptic locus of song learning
Learning by imitation is the foundation for verbal and musical expression, but its underlying neural basis remains obscure. A juvenile male zebra finch imitates the multisyllabic song of an adult tutor in a process that depends on a song-specialized cortico-basal ganglia circuit, affording a powerful system to identify the synaptic substrates of imitative motor learning. Plasticity at a particular set of cortico-basal ganglia synapses is hypothesized to drive rapid learning-related changes in song before these changes are subsequently consolidated in downstream circuits. Nevertheless, this hypothesis is untested and the synaptic locus where learning initially occurs is unknown. By combining a computational framework to quantify song learning with synapse-specific optogenetic and chemogenetic manipulations within and directly downstream of the cortico-basal ganglia circuit, we identified the specific cortico-basal ganglia synapses that drive the acquisition and expression of rapid vocal changes during juvenile song learning and characterized the hours-long timescale over which these changes consolidate. Furthermore, transiently augmenting postsynaptic activity in the basal ganglia briefly accelerates learning rates and persistently alters song, demonstrating a direct link between basal ganglia activity and rapid learning. These results localize the specific cortico-basal ganglia synapses that enable a juvenile songbird to learn to sing and reveal the circuit logic and behavioral timescales of this imitative learning paradigm. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Institutes of Health, K99 NS144525 (DCS), F32 MH132152 (DCS), F31 HD098772 (SB), R01 NS099288 (RM), RF1 NS118424 (RM and JP)
biorxiv.org
Most of us are familiar with the nightingale's song, but did you know there's more to it than just a melody? Read more: doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... @danielavallentin.bsky.social @tpvogels.bsky.social @mpiforbi.bsky.social
Nightingales are masters of imitation! New research shows: During territorial contests, a male matches a rival’s song in real time by tracking and imitating both, pitch and syllable duration. This shows a remarkable precision in hearing and vocal control. 🔗More: www.bi.mpg.de/news/2026-01-vallentin
Made summer travel plans yet? How about a trip to Greece? This conference looks fantastic! conferences.weizmann.ac.il/NBNB2026/spe...
Confirmed Speakers
conferences.weizmann.ac.il
I am excited to share my PhD work on head-direction cells recorded in the wild, now published in @science.org, where we recorded neurons in bats flying outdoors on an island. doi.org/10.1126/sci... With @ray-neuro.bsky.social, Shir Maimon, Liora Las, Nachum Ulanovsky and many others
Excited to share our latest paper - now out in @science.org - we showed how oxytocin modulates maternally-directed behavior in young mice (P15).
Only a few days left to register for the India-EMBO Lecture Course on Neurethology meetings.embo.org/event/25-neu... taking place in Pune Dec 7-11, 2025. #EMBOneuroethology Fantastic speaker line up! Deadline July 31st.
Neuroethology: How the brain controls natural behaviours
Neuroethology, the study of the neural mechanisms underlying natural behaviours, has faced challenges due to the complexity of behaviours, limitations in genetic manipulation, and recording constrain…
meetings.embo.org
The new issue is out👉https://www.cell.com/cell/current On the cover, Eliav et al. reveal that hippocampal replays in bats flying in very large, naturalistic environments were highly fragmented and short, depicting trajectories covering only a small portion of the environment size.
🚨New in @cellpress.bsky.social We discovered that hippocampal replays in natural-scale environments are highly fragmented, not full-length. doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... 👇🧵
📖🧠Thrilled to see Natural Neuroscience by Nachum Ulanovsky! It argues for studying the brain in the complex environments it evolved to handle, not overly simplified setups. A perspective that deeply influenced me during my time working with Nachum. Highly recommend! @mitpress.bsky.social
In his new book, published today, Nachum Ulanovsky calls on the field to embrace naturalistic conditions and move away from overcontrolled experiments. #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...
‘Natural Neuroscience,’ an excerpt
In his new book, Nachum Ulanovsky calls on the field to embrace naturalistic conditions and move away from overcontrolled experiments.
thetransmitter.org
See more on the PhD position [here](www.activesensingcollectives.com/openings/) - and am also happy to receive informal queries. Please re-post and share in your circles!
Openings | Active Sensing Collectives
activesensingcollectives.com
Hello World! After almost a month of starting a research group - finally the announcement :) We are the 'Active Sensing Collectives' group (tinyurl.com/yckehxys) at the CASCB in the University of Konstanz. We're still growing, see PhD position ad below. @cbehav.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de z.de
Meet the Klaus Tschira Boost Fund Fellows 2025! 15 early-career researchers in Germany have been selected for the program, giving postdocs the freedom and funding to explore bold scientific questions and gain independence. More info about the fellows: gsonet.org/funding-prog...
How does sleep help birds learn songs? Tamir Eliav has now been awarded the Klaus Tschira Boost Fund grant of 120k to investigate how the sleeping brain of young birds shapes their learning! Congratulations! 🎉 @tamir-eliav.bsky.social @gso-forresearchers.bsky.social @klaus-tschira-stiftung.de
New from the lab!! 👉🏼 authors.elsevier.com/a/1kgT43BtfH... 📝 @cellpress.bsky.social We discovered that genetically-defined neuron types in the hippocampus form unique manifolds! Dual color imaging, chemogenetics and topological analysis all at once! With Juan Gallego @juangallego.bsky.social
Neuropixels and Optogenetics are delighted to announce the birth of Neuropixels Opto Combining high-resolution electrophysiology and optogenetics Today in bioRxiv 960 sites, 28 emitters, 2 colors By Lakunina, @karolinazsocha.bsky.social, Ladd, et al www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/2)
Excited to share that our paper is now published in Nature! In this study, we uncovered a grid-cell-based circuit in medial entorhinal cortex that probes the surrounding environment with theta-paced, sweeping spatial representations 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Edvard I Moser@edvardmoser.bsky.social · 2y agoGrid cells have a geometry in time. Thanks to @azvollan.bsky.social l & @rjgardner.bsky.social for this heroic discovery. @ercresearch.bsky.social #KiloNeurons @m-bmoser.bsky.social @kavlintnu.bsky.social @nature.com @kavlifoundation.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...