Flavio Donato
@flaviodonato82.bsky.social
Interested in all things memory, space, and the infant brain. @FensKavliNet Scholar. Assistant Professor @biozentrum @unibasel_en. Donatolab.com 🧠👨🏻🔬🏳️🌈
Announcing #engramsensembles '27, to be held at @tcddublin next May. Registration and abstract submission will open in autumn 2026.
Tomás Ryan@tjryan.bsky.social · last yr.Slán go fóill - we look forward to welcoming you all back to Dublin for the 3rd installment in May 2027 #engramsandensembles
🚀 New preprint 🥳 Fantastic work by our recent PhD graduate Daan ! How are mRNPs remodeled as they exit the nucleus? We identify PAIP1 as a factor that promotes exchange of the nuclear poly(A)-binding protein PABPN1 for cytoplasmic PABPC1, coupling mRNA export to cytoplasmic mRNP maturation.
bioRxiv Molecular Biology@biorxiv-molbio.bsky.social · 3d agoPAIP1 couples mRNA export to cytoplasmic mRNP remodeling and poly(A) homeostasis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.31.742013v1
The apical dendrite looks great, and does wonders in a slice. What does it do in the living cortex? It depends on the cell. A causal spatial role for apical dendrites in the cortex www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... by @anyiliu.bsky.social with @kenneth-harris.bsky.social and @fedrossi.bsky.social
Finally out in @natneuro.nature.com! A forgotten memory isn't always gone. We show that forgotten memories persist as silent memory traces, can be recovered by reminders, and can even be reconstructed into false memories. Excited to finally share this work! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Creating true and false memories from forgotten information in Drosophila - Nature Neuroscience
Forgotten memories in Drosophila persist as silent memory traces and can be recovered by reminder cues. Manipulating reminders can create false memories, showing that memory reconstruction flexibly in...
nature.com
🧠 A new paper from our lab is out! In this study, we explore how dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) circuits modulate forebrain activity and behavior. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Topographically organized dorsal raphe activity modulates forebrain sensory-motor representations and contributes to defensive behaviors - Nature Communications
Functional heterogeneity of dorsal raphe nucleus is not fully understood. Here authors show topographically organized sensory and locomotor responses from the zebrafish dorsal raphe and its forebrain ...
nature.com
I’m excited to share our latest preprint, and the main work from my PhD, on the role of the direct entorhinal input in hippocampus CA1 spatial coding. 1/9
bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 4w agoThe emergence of a novel CA1 spatial map requires direct entorhinal input https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.02.736055v1
Welcome to the 15 newly selected #FENSKavliScholars! Representing 12 European countries, they join a network of 30 Scholars across 21 countries and 25 nationalities. 🧠✨With thanks to @fens.org, @kavlifoundation.org, @alleninstitute.org and our partners for supporting FKNE. h1.nu/1t8Lw
📍 @fens.org Tuesday, 14:00 *Poster: PS02-07PM-070 📍 @infantstudies.bsky.social Thursday, 16:45 *Symposium 8.6: Development of memory encoding, consolidation and retrieval in infants 📍 @fitngin.bsky.social I am hiring at the PhD/postdoc level, if you might be interested please come say hey
Better late than never... an update on the recent work from the lab. First of all, the Foundation: @astridd93.bsky.social phenomenal paper on the evolution of layering in the cerebral cortex 🧵1/7 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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
Please RP! Excited to share our new preprint: “Single-cell chromatin tracing reveals multimodal molecular programs during memory formation” We built a single-cell multiomic atlas of aversive learning and used it to trace memory-linked molecular programs. doi.org/10.64898/202...
Might cerebellar disinhibition underlie Restless Legs Syndrome symptoms? Will Joo found that loss of the RLS-associated gene meis1b perturbs locomotion in zebrafish by disinhibiting cerebellar output. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Save the date: the 3rd biennial #engramsandensembles conference will be held from May 12 - 14, 2027 at @tcddublin.bsky.social 🧠🌐📈
Tomás Ryan@tjryan.bsky.social · last yr.Slán go fóill - we look forward to welcoming you all back to Dublin for the 3rd installment in May 2027 #engramsandensembles
Last weeks to register to the superb FENS Satellite about decision making organized by the @barccsyn.bsky.social community in Barcelona. The meeting will be on Sun July 5th, just before the FENS Annual Forum. Check the speakers line up! It is veery nice 😁 barccsyn.org/meetings/sat...
BARCCSYN FENS Satellite — BARCCSYN – Barcelona Computational, Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Community
barccsyn.org
Two brain circuits. Same learning problem. Shared learning outcomes. Different dynamical implementations. Our work shows that learning is not a single canonical solution but can emerge through distinct population dynamics shaped by circuit architecture. Excited to share our latest preprint! 🧵1/12
bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 2mo agoEquivalent volitional learning emerges through circuit-specific population dynamics in motor cortex and hippocampus https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.04.730137v1
Two brain circuits. Same learning problem. Shared learning outcomes. Different dynamical implementations. Our work shows that learning is not a single canonical solution but can emerge through distinct population dynamics shaped by circuit architecture. Excited to share our latest preprint! 🧵1/12
bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 2mo agoEquivalent volitional learning emerges through circuit-specific population dynamics in motor cortex and hippocampus https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.04.730137v1
Excited to share that our study on how cell-type-specific synaptic scaling mechanisms regulate memory representations in associative learning is now published! www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
Cell-type-specific synaptic scaling mechanisms differentially contribute to associative learning
Excitatory synaptic scaling regulates network dynamics by proportionally adjusting excitatory synaptic strengths after sensory perturbations. During associative learning, blocking excitatory scaling i...
jneurosci.org
🚨 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
Some more Brain-Machine Interface shenanigans: this time we think we found evidence that an animal's agency in a task modulates hippocampal maps of that task. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Join us as we explore where optogenetics is headed next at #OptoGRC2026 ⚡ With Megha Sehgal, Nicolo Accanto, @flaviodonato82.bsky.social, @logangrosenick.bsky.social, @sydneytrask.bsky.social, Hoda Shamsnajafabadi & Susoban Das 💡
Stunning, enduring effects of early-life oxytocin- from neuronal firing to behavior! by Gall & Lynch 🧪🧠 www.nature.com/articles/s41.... @npp-journal.bsky.social @oyiz.bsky.social @julielauterborn.bsky.social @dulaclab.bsky.social @flaviodonato82.bsky.social @svmahler.bsky.social
Lasting effects of early-life oxytocin treatment on LTP and episodic memory in a mouse model of Fragile X syndrome - Neuropsychopharmacology
Neuropsychopharmacology - Lasting effects of early-life oxytocin treatment on LTP and episodic memory in a mouse model of Fragile X syndrome
nature.com
Job alert! We are seeking a rodent in vivo electrophysiologist to work on coordination between anterior thalamus and hippocampus in rats using Neuropixels. Beautiful Scotland, leading university (Glasgow) and vibrant intellectual setting. Post is 23 months but hopefully extensible. Details here 👇
For nearly a century, we believed the therapeutic effect of ECT is the seizure. Our latest research suggests we may have been looking at the wrong event. A thread on why cortical spreading depression (CSD) might be the driver of therapeutic benefit. Work led by @therehugolad.bsky.social
How does the brain build a memory? A common assumption is that the neurons activated during an experience collectively form the memory engram. In our new Nature Neuroscience paper (finally out!), we show that this is not the case. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Deconstruction of a memory engram reveals distinct ensembles recruited at learning - Nature Neuroscience
Pouget et al. identified distinct CA1 neuron ensembles active during specific moments of fear learning and uncovered the core engram essential for memory formation.
nature.com
Is 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...
biorxiv.org
Our new preprint is out! A state-dependent neural circuit resolves approach–avoidance conflicts www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Fantastic work led by Devika Bodas, with key contributions from Marine Balcou, and a great collaboration with Lisa Scheunemann Lab, fearuting Şevval Demirci.
biorxiv.org
The hippocampal map has its own attentional control signal! Our new study reveals that theta #sweeps can be instantly biased towards behaviourally relevant locations. See 📹 in post 4/6 and preprint here 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵(1/6)
Attention-like regulation of theta sweeps in the brain's spatial navigation circuit
Spatial attention supports navigation by prioritizing information from selected locations. A candidate neural mechanism is provided by theta-paced sweeps in grid- and place-cell population activity, which sample nearby space in a left-right-alternating pattern coordinated by parasubicular direction signals. During exploration, this alternation promotes uniform spatial coverage, but whether sweeps can be flexibly tuned to locations of particular interest remains unclear. Using large-scale Neuropixels recordings in freely-behaving rats, we show that sweeps and direction signals are rapidly and dynamically modulated: they track moving targets during pursuit, precede orienting responses during immobility, and reverse during backward locomotion — without prior spatial learning. Similar modulation occurs during REM sleep. Canonical head-direction signals remain head-aligned. These findings identify sweeps as a flexible, attention-like mechanism for selectively sampling allocentric cognitive maps. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Research Council, Synergy Grant 951319 (EIM) The Research Council of Norway, Centre of Neural Computation 223262 (EIM, MBM), Centre for Algorithms in the Cortex 332640 (EIM, MBM), National Infrastructure grant (NORBRAIN, 295721 and 350201) The Kavli Foundation, https://ror.org/00kztt736 Ministry of Science and Education, Norway (EIM, MBM) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences; NTNU, Norway (AZV)
biorxiv.org
I am very happy (and a bit scared) to present to you what we have been working on over the last 4 years. This manuscript is exactly what I dreamt of when I started the lab and I could not be happier and prouder of the outcome!
bioRxivpreprint@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 7mo agoEvolutionary dynamics of temporal transcription factor series in the insect optic lobe https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.08.698497v1
New study on axon initial segment plasticity by Chloé Benoit and Dan Ganea. Using a deep brain imaging approach, we find that AIS length changes dynamically during associative learning. Thank you to the wonderful team and collaborators who made this work possible. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Axon initial segment dynamics during associative fear learning - Nature Neuroscience
Benoit, Ganea et al. show that changes in axon initial segment (AIS) length in the prefrontal cortex of mice accompany fear learning and extinction, revealing AIS plasticity as a key feature of neuron...
nature.com
Check this amazing resource by @octoscience.bsky.social !! Can’t wait to try it out!!
Horst Obenhaus@octoscience.bsky.social · 8mo agoDo you love quantifying animal behavior as much as we do? We have just the tool for you! Presenting #OCTRON - a pipeline that helps you create rich annotation data and enables training of custom segmentation models. Have a look, particularly if you work with non-model / invertebrate organisms!