Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the projection neurons of the eye, cannot regenerate their axons once the optic nerve is injured and soon begin to die, precluding visual recovery after traumatic or ischemic nerve damage or in degenerative diseases such a...

This study addresses the question of how posture and movement are oriented with respect to the direction of gravity. It is suggested that neural control levels coordinate spatial thresholds at which multiple muscles begin to be activated in order to spe...

The mouse cortex contains a multitude of cell types segregated into layers and functionally distinct regions. To begin to understand the diversity of cell types across the mouse cortex, we have analyzed >11,000 neurons from the primary visual cortex (VI...

SfN’s Ongoing Response to Federal Policies on Biomedical Research 

The primary motor cortex (M1) is strongly engaged by movement planning and execution. However, the role of M1 activity in voluntary grasping is still not completely understood. Here we analyze recordings of M1 neurons during the execution of a delayed reach-to-grasp task, where monkeys had to actively grasp an object with either a side or a precision grip, and then pull it with a low or high amount of force. Single cell and neural populations analyses showed that grip type was robustly and specifically encoded by a large population of neurons, while force level was weakly and transiently encoded within mixed-selective neurons that also encoded grip type. Notably, the grip type was stably decoded from motor cortical populations during the preparation and execution epochs of the task. Our results are consistent with the idea that planning and performing specific grasping movements are high-level skills that strongly engage M1 neurons, while the execution of pulling force might be prominently encoded at lower...

Marker-based motion capture (MBMC) is a powerful tool for precise, high-speed, three-dimensional tracking of animal movements, enabling detailed study of behaviors ranging from subtle limb trajectories to broad spatial exploration. Despite its proven utility in larger animals, MBMC has remained underutilized in mice due to the difficulty of robust marker attachment during unrestricted behavior. In response to this challenge, markerless tracking methods, facilitated by machine learning, have become the standard in small animal studies due to their simpler experimental setup. However, trajectories obtained with markerless approaches at best approximate ground-truth kinematics, with accuracy strongly dependent on video resolution, training dataset quality, and computational resources for data processing. Here, we overcome the primary limitation of MBMC in mice by implanting minimally invasive markers that remain securely attached over weeks of recordings. This technique produces high-resolution, artifact-free...

The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) announces that Marty Saggese advised he will be stepping down as Executive Director effective January 31, 2026. During Marty’s 24 years of leadership at SfN he has guided, supported, and facilitated a series of extraordinary accomplishments, which have positioned SfN to fulfill its mission in perpetuity.

LSD alters the activity of brain regions involved in differentiating between oneself and another person.

Domestication is the process by which wild organisms are adapted for human use. Over time, isolated populations raised in captivity begin to phenotypically diverge from their wild counterparts in both morphology and behaviour. The lab rat, an important ...

Peak expression of the Pannexin 1 (Panx1) ion and metabolite channel in neurons coincides with critical periods in dendritic spine development. Foundational in vitro studies in our lab have established that Panx1 regulates neurite outgrowth. To begin to...