Jess Cardin
@jess-cardin.bsky.social
Systems neuroscientist / Cortical circuits researcher / Prof in Neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine https://cardinlab.org/
#NewPaperOut Here's a puzzle: when a songbird hears the same song repeatedly, its neurons adapt; they respond less and less to that song. But what's the network doing during that adaptation? How do excitatory and inhibitory neurons participate as a collective?
Redirecting
doi.org
Yale Neuroscience 🧠 @yaleneuro.bsky.social is hiring this year! We have 2 searches, one cell/molecular/systems neuro (apply.interfolio.com/190736) and one computational neuro (apply.interfolio.com/190740). Got questions about the searches, the department, or the process? Please ask, happy to chat!
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Applications are open for WTI Postdoctoral Fellowships! Calling experimental, computational + theoretical researchers working across disciplines to explore human cognition. Apply: apply.interfolio.com/189775 Learn more: wti.yale.edu/initiatives/postdoctoral #KnowTogether #ScienceAtYale
📢 Calling all senior neuro postdocs: SYNAPSES brings postdocs from around the world to Yale to share their work during an in-person symposium on October 22, 2026. Apply today! Deadline Sept 3. medicine.yale.edu/neuroscience...
Always sad to leave MBL after our cycle at NS&B is over! We had an awesome time doing mini2p imaging with a @thorlabs.bsky.social system to look at cortical neurons in freely moving animals. Can't even see the scope in the lab pic, tiny but powerful! 💪🔬🐭 @nsb-mbl.bsky.social @mhigley.bsky.social
Woods Hole sunsets, one of the highlights of the summer.
Back at the MBL for the 2026 NS&B course! Blue skies, water, 2p calcium imaging in freely moving mice...must be summer 😎@mblscience.bsky.social @nsb-mbl.bsky.social
Often a brake, sometimes a gas pedal. The neurotransmitter GABA typically inhibits brain activity. But in a new study published in #Neuron, researchers in the @mhigley.bsky.social lab show that GABA may, in certain circumstances, enhance neuronal activity.
The Brain’s Braking System Can Sometimes Become a Gas Pedal, Study Finds
A neurotransmitter known to quiet activity in the brain can sometimes do the opposite, researchers find, offering implications for psychiatric treatment.
medicine.yale.edu
Do brain circuits really sit in a 'soup' of neuromodulators? Are neurons like soggy bits of bread soaked in signaling factors? Is the whole brain just squelching around in one big pool of warm modulators?
Spatiotemporally dynamic noradrenergic regulation of cortical networks https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.11.724286v1
You know GABA as an inhibitor, but that’s not all! We found that tonic GABAergic signaling, mediated by SST-interneurons and alpha5-type receptors, paradoxically facilitates dendritic calcium signals! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
SST interneurons facilitate dendritic calcium signaling via tonic activation of α5-GABA receptors
Brain activity is highly regulated by GABAergic activity, which can suppress neuronal excitability and synaptic integration. Tonic GABAergic conductan…
sciencedirect.com
New preprint from the lab! Stefan Sun and @q-perrenoud.bsky.social collaborated to look at how sensory experience affects the adult cortex. Using ephys and 2-photon imaging, they found that varied visual experience reorganizes dendrite-targeting inhibitory circuits in V1.
biorxiv.org
Auditory neurons form ensembles in the songbird NCM, showing synchronized activity within ~6ms! And the ensemble show stimulus-specific adaptation. Remarkable dissertation work from Felipe Cini, who has just started his postdoc with @jess-cardin.bsky.social . www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Organization, Neuronal Composition, and Dynamics of Neuronal Ensembles in the Songbird Auditory Forebrain
Auditory learning is a key component of vocal learning and communication. Neurons involved in auditory learning are typically examined as single encoders, but there is increasing evidence that the coincident activity of groups of neurons, or ensembles, is important for the processing and transmission of sensory information. In songbirds, a forebrain region analogous to mammalian secondary auditory cortex, the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM), is crucial for representing and learning auditory signals. In the awake state, NCM neurons exhibit stimulus-specific adaptation in response to repeated presentation of song stimuli, considered a form of auditory working memory. Yet, how complex stimuli like song are encoded by networks of excitatory and inhibitory neurons is essentially unknown. Using in-vivo single-unit electrophysiology, we systematically unveiled neuronal ensembles that operate at high temporal precision (< 10 ms) across the NCM of awake zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Our data show that multiple ensembles are concurrently activated by song with high temporal precision, and that their neuronal composition is heterogeneous, topographically proximate, and biased towards excitatory members. NCM ensembles adapt to song playback and, notably, become more stimulus selective over tens of minutes, accompanied by fast remodeling (membership gain and/or loss) during adaptation. Altogether, our results suggest that song representations in the forebrain can be conveyed by multiple, dynamic network ensembles in parallel. These findings advance our knowledge of the composition, dynamics, and neuronal network reorganization of ensembles as complex sensory stimuli become increasingly familiar. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, https://ror.org/01s5ya894, R01NS082179
biorxiv.org
In a new @natbiotech.nature.com study, a team led by @yaleneuro.bsky.social’s @kuanawanda.bsky.social & Joerg Bewersdorf used pan-expansion microscopy to achieve a nanoscale view of the structure + molecular composition of brain circuits 🧠🔬 More 👇 news.yale.edu/2025/12/08/b...
Brain circuits, bioturbation, and a new physics doc
Yale researchers study a mass extinction from the distant past, uncover hidden brain networks, and share expertise at an international meeting on enhanced weathering.
news.yale.edu
Overall, visually-evoked ACh release in V1 reconfigures local GABAergic circuits to boost sensory responses and support conditioned behavior. Rather than being a simple gate for learning, cholinergic plasticity is actually the mechanism for expression of conditioned behavior! 5/5
Widefield imaging of cholinergic signaling revealed selective, visually evoked ACh release after visual fear conditioning. Local blockade of ACh muscarinic receptors in V1 disrupted both enhanced visual responses and conditioned behavior. ACh is required for neural and behavior plasticity! 3/5
In head-fixed mice, associating a visual cue with mild foot-shock resulted in conditioned cessation of licking (~freezing). Behavior required V1 activity, and wide field+2p calcium imaging showed learning-dependent increases in visual responses for V1 pyramidal neurons.
See our latest - collab with @jess-cardin.bsky.social, led by @andrewmoberly.bsky.social. We combined mesoscopic and 2p imaging to show that learning-dependent plasticity of ACh release in visual cortex drives enhanced visual representations and conditioned behavior. 1/5 tinyurl.com/3cfea6df
Learning-dependent cholinergic plasticity reconfigures cortical circuit dynamics
Neuromodulation by acetylcholine (ACh) plays a critical role in reshaping neural dynamics in the neocortex as a function of development, behavioral state, and learning [1][1]–[6][2]. Prior work sugges...
biorxiv.org
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/ 🧪
Thrilled to see this out! It was such a rewarding collaboration with Alex Wang, @jess-cardin.bsky.social, and an amazing team. We show that V1 SST interneurons integrate on a delayed developmental timeline, shaping how visual cortex processes and normalizes sensory input.
Jess Cardin@jess-cardin.bsky.social · 11mo agoA wild ride through the postnatal maturation of SST interneurons! Alex Wang and @katie-ferguson.bsky.social found that V1 SST cells exhibit a unique developmental trajectory, coming online over a few days after eyes open. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @yaleneuro.bsky.social @wutsaiyale.bsky.social
A wild ride through the postnatal maturation of SST interneurons! Alex Wang and @katie-ferguson.bsky.social found that V1 SST cells exhibit a unique developmental trajectory, coming online over a few days after eyes open. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @yaleneuro.bsky.social @wutsaiyale.bsky.social
Delayed integration of somatostatin interneurons into visual circuits - Nature Communications
The early postnatal roles of dendrite-targeting interneurons in primary visual cortex (V1) remain elusive. Here, the authors find that somatostatin interneurons in mouse V1 exhibit a uniquely delayed ...
nature.com
For those interested in methods for analyzing a specific frequency of neural activity as a series of discrete events, the CBASS code is posted here with an excellent wiki by @q-perrenoud.bsky.social: github.com/cardin-higle...
GitHub - cardin-higley-lab/CBASS: Clustering Band-limited Activity by State and Spectro-temporal features (CBASS)
Clustering Band-limited Activity by State and Spectro-temporal features (CBASS) - cardin-higley-lab/CBASS
github.com
Nature@nature.com · 12mo agoNature research paper: Flexible perceptual encoding by discrete gamma events go.nature.com/3VZ4tWa
New @nature.com article from the @jess-cardin.bsky.social lab: the team, led by @q-perrenoud.bsky.social, identified where gamma activity emerges and how it relates to behavior. "This could lead to an early biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease that is easily accessible in humans."
Flexible perceptual encoding by discrete gamma events - Nature
Using a new analytical method for tracking gamma band events in mouse visual cortex, flexible encoding of visual information according to behavioural context is shown.
doi.org
I thought we would never work on gamma oscillations again, but I was wrong 🤷♀️ So happy to see this work out in @nature.com! This was a truly epic project spearheaded by @q-perrenoud.bsky.social. Gamma isn't always an oscillation, but it's critical for sensory encoding and perceptual performance 🧠
Quentin Perrenoud@q-perrenoud.bsky.social · 12mo ago(1/8) My latest study is out in @nature.com ! Kudos to coauthors especially @jess-cardin.bsky.social and to @kavliatyale.bsky.social and @wutsaiyale.bsky.social for support. We find that gamma power in mouse visual cortex is caused by brief events of visual processing www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📢 Calling all senior neuro postdocs: SYNAPSES brings postdocs from around the world to Yale to share their work during an in-person symposium on October 23, 2025. Apply today to present your research, talk with faculty members in 1:1s, & interact with Yale postdocs! 🧠🧪 Deadline Sept 7. #neuroskyence
Traditional end-of-cycle lunch today with @mhigley.bsky.social and our fabulous @nsb-mbl.bsky.social students Peniel and Romana, along with heoric TAs Olivier and Hao. Some amazing 🧠 science happened over the past two weeks! Going home happy with more data than we can analyze 😎
Back in Woods Hole for cycle 3 🐭 @nsb-mbl.bsky.social. This year, we brought new tech developed by @mhigley.bsky.social for freely moving cortical imaging!
We're excited to welcome the Levenstein lab to Yale's Neuroscience Department!
Dan Levenstein@dlevenstein.bsky.social · last yr.Thrilled to announce I'll be starting my own neuro-theory lab, as an Assistant Professor at @yaleneuro.bsky.social @wutsaiyale.bsky.social this Fall! My group will study offline learning in the sleeping brain: how neural activity self-organizes during sleep and the computations it performs. 🧵