WilluhnLab
@willuhnlab.bsky.social
A bunch of passionate neuronerds studying the brain origins of reinforcement learning and compulsive behavior at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience. Dopamine, serotonin, basal ganglia, PFC, DBS. https://nin.nl/research/researchgroups/willuhn-group/
Interested in working with us? 🤓 We have an open 6 year post-doc position. If you are interested in social & computational neuroscience 🧠, please apply until the 10th of August 🤞 See here for details: jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...
University Assistant postdoctoral
University Assistant postdoctoral
jobs.univie.ac.at
light-activated tetanus neurotoxin (LATeNT) by the @aliceyting.bsky.social lab. Includes a comparison with the light-switchable PdCO (www.nature.com/articles/s41...), showing a long lasting inhibition for 1h hour post illumination. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Light-activated tetanus neurotoxin for conditional proteolysis and inducible synaptic inhibition in vivo - Nature Methods
LATeNT is a light-activatable form of tetanus neurotoxin that can be used for spatiotemporally precise inhibition of exocytosis in neurons and other cells. It can inhibit synaptic transmission in vivo...
nature.com
Dopamine dips during unrewarded actions promote punishment-resistant reward seeking https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.01.742224v1
Adolescent stress recruits a latent amygdala-dopamine circuit to drive punishment-resistant reward-seeking https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.29.741478v1
Dorsomedial striatal dopamine ramps down during interval timing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.01.742215v1
Computational and causal dissociation in primate striatum during value-guided decision-making https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.29.741388v1
The final version of our amygdala dopamine paper is out! BLA dopamine dynamically tracks emotional salience and not value or reward prediction error. Congrats to Dr. Megan Brickner!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Basolateral amygdala dopamine transmits emotional salience - Nature Communications
The basolateral amygdala dopamine system has received little attention. Here, authors show that BLA dopamine plays a unique role in learning, by encoding the emotional salience of sensory cues to supp...
nature.com
Planning to join the 52nd EBBS Meeting in Dublin (29 June–2 July 2027)? More details are coming soon! Meanwhile, you can already meet our outstanding plenary speakers on the official meeting website. 🔗https://ebbs2027.azuleon.org/welcome See you in Dublin!
Methylphenidate enhances or impairs the cognitive control of Pavlovian bias depending on working memory capacity
Methylphenidate enhances or impairs the cognitive control of Pavlovian bias depending on working memory capacity
Catecholaminergic modulation by methylphenidate affects appetitive and aversive Pavlovian biases of approach and avoidance in humans depending on individual differences in working memory capacity.
buff.ly
Artificial intelligence is a democratizing force for those without graphic-design experience, as long as it is used conscientiously go.nature.com/3RtnKQM
How to use AI to make a graphical abstract in minutes
Artificial intelligence is a democratizing force for those without graphic-design experience, as long as it is used conscientiously.
go.nature.com
I am happy to announce my very first senior author paper! Serotonin is known to abolish UP-DOWN state dynamics, which occur during sleep and anesthesia. There are several outstanding questions: What happens at short latencies? How widespread across the brain is it? 🧠 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Serotonin induces DOWN states across the anesthetized mouse forebrain
Serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) project extensively throughout the forebrain, yet their influence on global network states remains controversial. Serotonin is implicated in regu...
biorxiv.org
Ventral tegmental area dopamine neuron activity mediates multi-valent outcomes during decision making under risk of punishment https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.14.738459v1
Distinct Orbitofrontal Feedback Signals Shape Sensory Behavioral Strategies during Flexible Learning https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.15.737076v1
Can we trust subthalamic local field potential? Geometrical and dynamical factors constraining the interpretability of extracellular recordings https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.08.737284v1
The unique value of zero prediction errors in reinforcement learning https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.13.738284v1
Nature research paper: Fourier pixels for bidirectional light control go.nature.com/4ao2xOG
Fourier pixels for bidirectional light control - Nature
A versatile platform of miniaturized Fourier-optics-based diffractive elements enables multifunctional pixels that fully control and sense the amplitude, phase and polarization of optical wavefronts for advanced photonic applications.
go.nature.com
⏰ Last-minute reminder! Only 48 hours left to submit your Poster abstracts and Travel Grant applications for the #BernsteinConference 2026! 🗓️ Deadline: July 1 All information 👉 bit.ly/4rQowo6... #CompNeuro #Neuroskyence #BernsteinNetwork
Congratulations to Felice Veen from the @willuhnlab.bsky.social on receiving the Carl Storm Fellowship to attend the Gordon Research Conference on the Frontal Cortex this August! We are so excited! #neuroscience #GRC-FrontalCortex
Excited to share our first red ACh sensor! 🔴 We developed GRAB_rACh1h, the first genetically encoded red fluorescent sensor for recording acetylcholine dynamics in vivo. (1/3)
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
Mu opioid receptor neurons in the habenula drive naloxone-induced aversion and withdrawal in mice, and pharmacological blockade of the co-localized orphan receptor GPR139 attenuates both somatic and affective withdrawal symptoms.
Targeting Mu opioid receptor neurons of the habenula to limit naloxone aversion
Opioid use disorder is a chronic, relapsing condition that continues to rise worldwide. Naloxone (Narcan®), an opioid antagonist, reverses overdose but triggers strong negative affect. The neuronal…
biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com
We're hiring a PhD Student! Under supervision of @sergedumoulin.net, you will investigate whether individual brain folding patterns reflect computational principles that optimize neural communication and brain organization. Learn more and apply on our website: nin.nl/vacancies/ph...
PhD Student in Biologically Inspired Computational Visual Neuroscience - Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience - Master the Mind
nin.nl
Want your mice to learn your task faster? 🐭 According to this paper giving a huge reward (10x typical size) in a subset of trials strongly shortens training times: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reward magnitude determines reinforcement learning efficiency
Standard animal learning studies minimize individual reward magnitudes to maximize the repetitions of reinforced behaviors. We investigated how reward magnitude influences initial learning across five...
science.org
🔥 Our latest work is state of the art 3D pose estimation, with video analysis from a single camera! 🎥 Just train with 3D data, and then only 1 camera is needed! 🖤 Presented this week at #CVPR2026 by lead author Ti Wang! Please repost🩵🙏🏼 xiu-cs.github.io/FMPose3D/ arxiv.org/abs/2602.05755
The @thetransmitter.bsky.social featured an awareness campaign by the Oregon Voices for Biomedical Research, alerting to the impact that the closure of the #ONPRC could have on biomedical research, amid negotiations to transform the facility into an animal sanctuary. 🔗 shorturl.at/IGBYA #NHP #US
EARA | News - Oregon researchers advocate for primate research
Researchers in the US have launched an awareness campaign on billboards, buses across Oregon and social media, alerting the public to the impact that the closure of the Oregon National Primate…
eara.eu
At #EICSummit2026, Prof. Amunts showcased how the HBP legacy continues through EBRAINS: SpiNNaker, The Virtual Brain, brainfm on JUPITER, NEST Simulator. From frontier research to lasting impact in neuroscience, healthcare, AI and next-generation computing. More: ebrains.eu/news-and-eve...
EBRAINS Highlights the Long-Term Impact of Frontier Research at the EIC Summit 2026
Representing EBRAINS, Europe's digital research infrastructure for brain research and brain-inspired technologies, Prof. Katrin Amunts, Joint CEO of…
ebrains.eu
🏆 Congratulations to the Early Career Training Programme awardees for #FENS2026! 🧠 #FENS is excited to share the researchers selected to visit and work in a host laboratory in Spain or Portugal ahead of the #FENSForum. 👉 buff.ly/grSyhzx @ibroorg.bsky.social @senc-neurociencia.bsky.social
Last Call! The individual-abstract deadline for the "Monitoring Molecules in Neuroscience" conference in Amsterdam (Sept 7-10, 2026) is tomorrow! Get the latest update on in-vivo neuro-methods from a brilliant lineup of keynote and symposia speakers: monitoringmolecules.org/speakers/. Please repost!
If LLMs are increasingly used for data analysis, should we worry that they might encourage p-hacking? A recent preprint suggests that the answer may be yes, at least in relatively complex analytical pipelines. I share some personal experience here 👇 www.linkedin.com/posts/stefan...
LLM p-hacking | Stefano Palminteri
If LLMs are increasingly used for data analysis, should we worry that they might encourage p-hacking? A recent preprint, also featured in Science Magazine, suggests that the answer may be yes, at lea...
linkedin.com