*Immediately inserting into my lecture on sensory processing*
Whichever of the purple dots you look at turns more purple.
Nick Audette (He/His)
@njaudette.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience at UConn Storrs. We study how the brain uses context and experience to make sense of the sensory world. I like music, birds, tacos, my cats, cycling, frisbees, and some other stuff too. www.AudetteLab.com
*Immediately inserting into my lecture on sensory processing*
Whichever of the purple dots you look at turns more purple.
Astrocytes do so much more than any of us thought - they even communicate among specific brain regions across hemispheres! The journey to this paper spanned nearly a decade, but I'm most excited to see what everyone else does with the tools we've built. There's so much for all of us to explore!
Astrocytes connect specific brain regions through plastic networks - Nature
Communication between distant brain regions is mediated by plastic networks of gap junction-coupled astrocytes.
nature.com
Excited to share our new J Neurosci paper showing how subcortical inputs are routed through ventromedial (VM) thalamus to layer 1 interneurons in the medial PFC, all done by my graduate student Sanne Casello: sannemcasello.bsky.social www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
📢📢 My lab at @utah.edu is officially open and I'm RECRUITING — especially techs/specialists and postdocs! Our research focuses on the neurobiology of interoception and learning & memory using tools from systems/comp neuro. Please share! 🧠🏔️🏜️ Apply/more info: zimmerman-lab.org#positions
First preprint from the lab! Using intracellular recordings & analysis of 2-photon imaging data, we show that spiking & neuromodulatory input during experience drive a reorganization of visuomotor inputs in V1 layer 2/3 neurons, consistent with enhanced visuomotor cancellation - bioRxiv link below.
Who are we? The truth is, it shouldn’t even matter that Alex was a peaceful and upstanding citizen behaving exactly how Americans should act. We were a nation of laws. A people governed by self-determination and overseen by facts and reason, equally applied. That was our greatness. Who are we now?
The Minneapolis protester fatally shot by a federal officer was 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, his parents say.
1/4 New preprint! We designed an open-source system for auditory brainstem response (ABR), a research & clinical auditory test. Costs $400 to build (vs $10K to buy a proprietary one) and works great! All open-source if you want to make one for your lab or classroom. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Super excited to share the first part of my thesis work! Perhaps how you might be able to both recognize someone’s voice *and* understand what they’re saying, we find that both social identity and vocalization category can be decoded from gerbil auditory cortex activity👂🧠 tinyurl.com/4fba6wk4
Big week! First neural recordings in the new lab and first common nighthawk photos
A new preprint from our lab with @zelechowski.bsky.social & @georgkeller.bsky.social ! Using wireless EEG + VR, we recorded visuomotor mismatch responses in freely moving humans. Huge thanks to all participants, Keller Lab members and FMI facilities! Read more: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thrilled to share our new Adesnik lab paper!! Using holography in excitatory & inhibitory neurons, we reveal how a single cortical circuit can both complete and cancel predictable sensory activity, sharpening representations 📄https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.02.668307v1 🧵
The lab is growing! Our team is seeking talented scientists to study flexible sensory processing. We design freely-moving and head-fixed acoustic behaviors alongside acute and wireless neural recordings. PD and grad roles available Please help spread the word 🙏🧠🎵🐭 neurojobs.sfn.org/job/38911/po...
Postdoctoral Neuroscience Researcher - Storrs Mansfield, Connecticut job with Audette Lab, University of Connecticut | 38911
Fully funded postdoctoral research position studying context-dependent sensory processing in the mouse motor and auditory thalamus and cortex.
neurojobs.sfn.org
It’s finally happening 🥹 save the date for our very first in-person event!! Fill out our interest form if you’ll be in SD for #sfn25 or otherwise, or fill it out even if you won’t be able to make it - we’re also gathering interest in a virtual streaming option!! Stay tuned for more details to come!!
✨EXCITING NEWS!✨We're hosting our first ever, in-person event! Join us immediately before #SFN for a keynote, panel discussions, networking & more! Interested in attending? Fill out the form below: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Nov 15 | 9am-1pm | Tata Hall at UCSD Help us spread the word!
I’ve had a tough time getting a camera on Great Crested Flycatchers in good lighting - until today when I found a nesting pair at Bent of the River Sanctuary.
A job ad, in this economy?That’s right! We’re looking for talented postdocs to join our growing team studying flexible sensory processing in the auditory system and beyond. Check out the ad or www.audettelab.com to learn more about our exciting directions! neurojobs.sfn.org/job/38911/po...
Postdoctoral Neuroscience Researcher - Storrs Mansfield, Connecticut job with Audette Lab, University of Connecticut | 38911
Fully funded postdoctoral research position studying context-dependent sensory processing in the mouse motor and auditory thalamus and cortex.
neurojobs.sfn.org
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE. This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
Cutting $20 billion to NIH over 25 years may save $500 billion on paper, but it’d end up costing $8.2 trillion in lost human health. But NIH isn't the only thing being cut. The budget also slashes all NSF-funded science by 73 percent. NASA faces “the biggest single-year cut to NASA in history."
Donald Trump’s proposed budget would gut American science
It would slash cancer research, drug trials, space exploration, and so much more.
motherjones.com
New preprint, w/ @predictivebrain.bsky.social ! we've found that visual cortex, even when just viewing natural scenes, predicts *higher-level* visual features The aligns with developments in ML, but challenges some assumptions about early sensory cortex www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Higher-level spatial prediction in natural vision across mouse visual cortex
Theories of predictive processing propose that sensory systems constantly predict incoming signals, based on spatial and temporal context. However, evidence for prediction in sensory cortex largely co...
biorxiv.org
The White House has relied on researchers’ unfamiliarity with political fights... what is required is to pull up stakes from those channels the White House has already shattered and move to the field of mass public opinion ... to meet them on ground where a decisive victory is possible.
A Path Forward to Save American Bio-Medical Research talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-pat...
Can confirm that my NSF grant "How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them" was cancelled today because it is "not in alignment with current NSF priorities" Shocking that understanding how people are misled by false information is now a forbidden topic. Our work will continue but at a smaller scale
NSF has posted an “update on priorities.” They’re canceling all “DEI and misinformation/disinformation” grants. And the guidance on how to fulfill the longstanding, legally mandated Broadening Participation requirement is utterly incoherent. www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...
(Plz repost) I’ve been receiving some good news lately and will be hiring at all levels to expand the lab. Please get in contact if you are interested in reinforcement learning, neural plasticity, neural circuit dynamics, and/or hearing rehabilitation. pierre.apostolides @ umich .edu Tyvm
Proud to have been a small part of this massive undertaking! This project brought together an array of expertise and perspectives to connect our knowledge of predictive processing in the brain.
How does our brain predict the future? Our review of predictive processing + research program is now on arXiv arxiv.org/abs/2504.09614 50+ neuroscientists distributed across the world worked together to create this unique community project.
Now there's a memorable stat! "Colleges and universities are among America’s most competitive international exporters. In dollar terms, last year, the United States sold more educational services to the rest of the world than it sold in natural gas and coal combined." wapo.st/3EvzMCI
Opinion | Trump is killing one of our strongest exports
The president wants to balance U.S. trade deficits? He can’t do it without this industry he hates.
wapo.st
Excited to share my latest work just out in @pnas.org! This NIH MOSAIC K99-funded project identifies a top-down cortical circuit—from cingulate to auditory cortex—that supports auditory perceptual performance in challenging listening conditions: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
The cingulate cortex facilitates auditory perception under challenging listening conditions | PNAS
We often exert greater cognitive resources (i.e., listening effort) to understand speech under challenging acoustic conditions. This mechanism can ...
pnas.org
How should you combine sensory inputs with your internal predictions? Well, use uncertainty directly computed by your prediction-error circuits. Cool? Check out our Nat. Com. paper with Loreen Hertäg and @k47h4.bsky.social . www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Uncertainty estimation with prediction-error circuits - Nature Communications
How the brain integrates sensory input and predictions to adapt to change is not fully understood. Here authors build a neural network model to show how prediction-error neurons compute uncertainty of...
nature.com
Who’s at #COSYNE2025 ? Excited to present my postdoc work on projection-specific and multi-area auditory processing of (mouse) baby cries on Friday:
"A terrified young student, snatched off the street by a masked police force taken thousands of miles across the country without anyone knowing. It is as flatly authoritarian as anything we have ever seen in this country," says @chrislhayes.bsky.social on Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk's detention.
Join our brand-new lab at UConn studying flexible sensory processing in mice! We're hiring a full-time lab tech - a great fit for recent grads looking to get experience with systems and behavioral neuroscience research. Apply here: jobs.hr.uconn.edu/cw/en-us/job...
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jobs.hr.uconn.edu
Let's start things off strong with some cat content, starring the Audette Lab mascots: Nimbus and Cirrus