Really excited to share our new preprint. Here we use our holographic optogenetics to ask a key question about how neurons need to fire to drive movements. We find a bunch of interesting things about what does, and doesn't drive movements. Brief summary below www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The Importance of Synchrony in the Neural Control of Movement

Throughout the mammalian cortex, populations of neurons must work together to enact behaviors. While population recordings in motor cortex have revealed many aspects of when neurons fire during behavi...

biorxiv.org

Excited to share this preprint from @ianoldenburg.bsky.social . To evoke movement with holo stim, you need the right pattern at the right time! Interestingly, the preparatory state before spont motion is not the same as the state permissive for evoked motion. Dig in! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The Importance of Synchrony in the Neural Control of Movement

Throughout the mammalian cortex, populations of neurons must work together to enact behaviors. While population recordings in motor cortex have revealed many aspects of when neurons fire during behavi...

biorxiv.org

We are hiring a postdoc! We study neural activity and movement using holographic optogenetics, imaging, and recordings in awake mice. My first postdoc, Masashi, is starting his own lab, so now we have an opening. Seeking candidates excited about circuits, optics, coding, or ephys. oldenburglab.com

Oldenburg Lab

Decoding the motor system through the use of multiphoton holographic optogenetics.

oldenburglab.com

Last summer @cshlaboratory.bsky.social I met their poet-in-residence Liza Katz Duncan, and we ended up talking about one of academia’s biggest problems: our lack of communication with the broader public. She wrote a great essay about it. www.strangepilgrims.com/p/we-need-to...

We Need To Tell Better Stories About Science by Liza Katz Duncan

"Why are stories of fear and violence so much more powerful, more memorable, than ones of gratitude and community, humility and learning? " | Essay #5

strangepilgrims.com

Rutgers Health put together a gorgeous new research video, with lots of shots from our lab throughout. They even lit our holography rig in wildly impractical but very snazzy colors! vimeo.com/1158839664?f... @rutgersupress.bsky.social @rutgersbhi.bsky.social

The Impact of Rutgers Research

This is "The Impact of Rutgers Research" by Rutgers University on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

vimeo.com

The Constitution is being shredded by this president and his Project 2025 team now in the White House- from abolishing agencies created by Congress, to seizing spending power, to accepting bribes (emoluments), to war and tariffs without Congress. We must not normalize this.

Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA@safa-science.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Federal workers are speaking out on how the Trump regime is harming Americans: "We stand here today at a moment of the greatest assault of our lifetimes on our freedoms. The US Constitution is being shredded... We are here to call on Congress to stand up and stop it." youtu.be/uw1KwIBgrCw?...

Proud to share that my first postdoc, Masashi Hasegawa, will be starting his own lab as a Chica and Heinz Schaller Research Group Leader at Heidelberg University! He’ll be continuing our holography-based work on cortical circuits. Phenomenal scientist, even better human.

Nature research paper: Connectivity underlying motor cortex activity during goal-directed behaviour go.nature.com/4pFLw7V

Connectivity underlying motor cortex activity during goal-directed behaviour - Nature

All-optical mapping of neural connectivity in motor cortex links network topology to network dynamics and computation underlying naturalistic goal-directed behaviour.

go.nature.com

A bad thing is unfolding at NIH this week: It looks like the Trump administration is trying to replace key civil servant scientific leaders, the Institute Directors, with political hires. These directors control the NIH budget, tens of billions. A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪

THIS IS IT! THIS IS HUGE!! PLAINTIFF'S WIN!! Judge Young rules that the NIH grant terminations at issue in these cases are illegal and therefore vacated. BOOM!

Scott Delaney@scott-delaney.bsky.social · last yr.

"This Court rules that the challenged directives . . . are arbitrary and capricious." "They are of no force and effect." "They are illegal and so are each of the terminations before this Court"

Riddle: When is an "optical invariant" is not so invariant? How can you get a larger field-of-view for free? No change in resolution or scan speed. No more stitching needed! For #MicroscopyMonday here's a new preprint to check out. 1/9

We're looking for another postdoc here at Oldenburg Lab. Interested in becoming a holographer? Let me know. oldenburglab.com jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/253...

Oldenburg Lab

Decoding the motor system through the use of multiphoton holographic optogenetics.

oldenburglab.com

We are hiring a new research assistant! Official job post to follow. Please reach out or visit markrossilab.org if you are interested.

They told me graduation is a formal event, I’m ready. #vaccinescauseadults

Excited to share my PhD paper! In it, we use targeted 2-photon optogenetic stimulation to determine how V1 activity is read-out in a detection task. We found that network influence, not visual coding properties, predicted the impact of ensembles on behavior - contradicting our expectations (1/5).

Neuron@cp-neuron.bsky.social · last yr.

Online now:

The Oldenburg lab is looking for another postdoc! If you want to use holographic optogenetics to answer questions about neural codes let me know. We like shooting lasers and thinking about movement. We're located at Rutgers in Piscataway NJ (its like ~45 min from NYC). oldenburglab.com/positions/

Positions

Join the lab We are looking for curious, motivated, and talented people from all different backgrounds to join our team at all levels. Mentoring is simply one of the best parts of being an academic sc...

oldenburglab.com

we're crowd-sourcing a searchable repository of tangible benefits stemming from federally-funded research. Come enjoy the great stories; or send in an idea; or volunteer to join the team. publicusaresearchbenefits.com please share and re-share so we get more great stories in there!

In 1981, PNI's John Hopfield received an NSF grant (~$300K) for the, then, obscure field of artificial neural networks. Today, that research powers a multibillion dollar AI economy and earned him a Nobel Prize. www.npr.org/2025/05/08/n...

Economists warn Trump's research cuts could have dire consequences for GDP

President Trump has proposed slashing federal scientific funding. Economists say the long-term consequences could be dire.

npr.org

The Oldenburg Lab is looking for another postdoc! The news these days is scary but we're pushing on. If you want to use Holographic Optogenetics to understand neural codes, the motor system, or something else fun let me know. We have federal and non-federal (aka stable) funds. oldenburglab.com

Oldenburg Lab

Decoding the motor system through the use of multiphoton holographic optogenetics.

oldenburglab.com

"Evidence suggests the local recurrent network encodes the structure of natural sensory input. & that it does so via active filtering, transforming network inputs to boost those associated w/ nat'l sensation" Amidst <waves hands> all this, I have a new review article that... arxiv.org/abs/2501.1...

Active filtering: a predictive function of recurrent circuits of...

Our brains encode many features of the sensory world into memories: we can sing along with songs we have heard before, interpret spoken and written language composed of words we have learned, and...

arxiv.org

"it's difficult to read this as anything other than an attempt to crush scientific research in the US. The harm that will be done to research (...) may be viewed as a bonus by a populist political movement that has shown a consistent disdain for expertise." arstechnica.com/science/2025...

National Institutes of Health radically cuts support to universities

Sudden and drastic change will make it hard for researchers to keep the lights on.

arstechnica.com

This is the end of science as we know it if it stands—15% IDCs for all NIH Grants. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Academic workers across the country are organizing to call on our congressional representatives on Thursday, 1/30, at 3pm ET / 12pm PT to demand these restrictions be lifted immediately. There will be a training over zoom at the beginning of the event. Join us! form.jotform.com/250226137228...

Join researchers across the country in fighting restrictions on the NIH

Please click the link to complete this form.

form.jotform.com

A coalition of states plans to file suit later today challenging the order to freeze all federal loans & grants. “My office will be taking imminent legal action against this administration’s unconstitutional pause on federal funding,” NY AG Letitia James said. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...

Update from Mattathias Schwartz

nytimes.com

All Democrats in Congress and the Senate will fight this—it’s illegal. But Republican lawmakers NEED to hear from their constituents! Priority order: call, then email. Be clear about how this will hurt education, the economy, and health! 🧪 www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...

White House Orders Pause in All Federal Grants and Loans

nytimes.com

This is legit - the organizers (including unions) are organizing. When I ask those in the know what we can do that will actually matter, the answer includes collective action of this type. I'm joining @nancykanwisher.bsky.social and all the others for this Thurs 3p ET effort. I hope you do too!

Academic workers across the country are organizing to call on our congressional representatives on Thursday, 1/30, at 3pm ET / 12pm PT to demand these restrictions be lifted immediately. There will be a training over zoom at the beginning of the event. Join us! form.jotform.com/250226137228...

President Trump's effort to freeze nearly all federal funding is lawless, reckless, and unconstitutional. And it will hurt people in Northeast Ohio.

If you are worried about the recent cessation of NIH communication, the canceling of programs and the politicization of science funding, now is the time to contact your congressional representatives! Link to find and contact your representative: www.house.gov/representati...

Where do people post advertisements for technicians? We're looking for someone who wants to be the all around 'pinch hitter' for lab projects (and whacky Ian ideas). Rutgers has its listing (jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/240...) but I'm not sure how most people would find it.

Want to live in bucolic NJ (I'm serious)? With a quick commute to NYC and Philly? Have collaborative colleagues, including yours truly? While this job posting is in psychology, the position is in behavioral neuroscience across systems. Including #drosophila 🧪 jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/152...