Alexander Heimel
@alexanderheimel.bsky.social
Group leader at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
Karl @farrowlab.bsky.social and I wrote a little opinion piece on the importance of comparative neuroscience
To identify fundamental neuroscientific principles that generalize across species, systems and circuits, neuroscientists must embrace an evolutionary perspective, argue Karl Farrow and @katjareinhard.bsky.social.
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...
Systems and circuit neuroscience need an evolutionary perspective
To identify fundamental neuroscientific principles that generalize across species, neuroscientists must frame their research through an evolutionary lens.
www.thetransmitter.org
July 16, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Karl @farrowlab.bsky.social and I wrote a little opinion piece on the importance of comparative neuroscience
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
June 5, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
This is the best team crossover video I've ever seen.
May 28, 2025 at 4:05 PM
This is the best team crossover video I've ever seen.
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
I semi-commissioned this artwork some time ago … you may have seen it on the wall behind me in zoom meetings. There is another (possibly even nicer) that will be revealed when I have had it framed. The artist, see below, is trying to drum up work to pay her school fees.
May 14, 2025 at 6:52 PM
I semi-commissioned this artwork some time ago … you may have seen it on the wall behind me in zoom meetings. There is another (possibly even nicer) that will be revealed when I have had it framed. The artist, see below, is trying to drum up work to pay her school fees.
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
For nearly 60 days, no food, fuel, medicine or other items has entered the Gaza Strip, blocked by Israel.
Aid groups are running out of food to distribute. Markets are nearly bare.
Palestinian families are left struggling to feed their children.
Aid groups are running out of food to distribute. Markets are nearly bare.
Palestinian families are left struggling to feed their children.
For nearly 60 days, Israel has blocked food from Gaza. Palestinians struggle to feed their families
For nearly 60 days, no food, fuel, medicine or other item has entered the Gaza Strip, blocked by Israel.
bit.ly
April 27, 2025 at 5:00 PM
For nearly 60 days, no food, fuel, medicine or other items has entered the Gaza Strip, blocked by Israel.
Aid groups are running out of food to distribute. Markets are nearly bare.
Palestinian families are left struggling to feed their children.
Aid groups are running out of food to distribute. Markets are nearly bare.
Palestinian families are left struggling to feed their children.
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
🧪 The Sjöström Lab in Montreal is looking for a postdoc! We study cortical circuits, synaptic plasticity, and NMDAR signalling using custom 2-photon microscopy and optogenetics. We seek candidates with strong patch-clamp and/or 2-photon imaging expertise, and a relevant publication track record.
April 14, 2025 at 3:49 AM
🧪 The Sjöström Lab in Montreal is looking for a postdoc! We study cortical circuits, synaptic plasticity, and NMDAR signalling using custom 2-photon microscopy and optogenetics. We seek candidates with strong patch-clamp and/or 2-photon imaging expertise, and a relevant publication track record.
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
I just attended a conference in the US. We had one speaker detained and two others turned away at the border.
There are great conferences and science in the US, but with the way things are right now, it’s too risky to attend.
Australian academics refuse to attend US conferences for fear of being detained
‘When academics fear travelling or partnering with US institutions, the impacts ripple through the entire global knowledge ecosystem,’ one says
www.theguardian.com
April 13, 2025 at 11:10 PM
I just attended a conference in the US. We had one speaker detained and two others turned away at the border.
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
Mehran collected mindboggling amounts of data and used many behavioural paradigms to get a holistic understanding of the function of median raphe cell types. Mehran will start his own lab in Oxford soon, watch out for this absolute neuroscience star!
March 5, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Mehran collected mindboggling amounts of data and used many behavioural paradigms to get a holistic understanding of the function of median raphe cell types. Mehran will start his own lab in Oxford soon, watch out for this absolute neuroscience star!
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
Should you stick to your goal, try something else, or give up? Your median raphe nucleus in the brainstem knows and will decide for you 😉. First foray of my lab into foraging, behavioural strategies and exploration. Amazing work from the one and only Mehran Ahmadlou: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A subcortical switchboard for perseverative, exploratory and disengaged states - Nature
Behavioural experiments in mice demonstrate that GABAergic (γ-aminobutyric acid-expressing), glutamatergic and serotonergic neurons in the median raphe nucleus have distinct and complementary function...
www.nature.com
March 5, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Should you stick to your goal, try something else, or give up? Your median raphe nucleus in the brainstem knows and will decide for you 😉. First foray of my lab into foraging, behavioural strategies and exploration. Amazing work from the one and only Mehran Ahmadlou: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people.
Be strong, be brave, be fearless.
You are never alone, dear President Zelenskyy.
We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.
Be strong, be brave, be fearless.
You are never alone, dear President Zelenskyy.
We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.
February 28, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people.
Be strong, be brave, be fearless.
You are never alone, dear President Zelenskyy.
We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.
Be strong, be brave, be fearless.
You are never alone, dear President Zelenskyy.
We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.
Awesome study about overcoming innate responses
Experience-dependent plasticity in a part of the subthalamus not previously associated with learning helps mice learn to suppress instinctive fear responses, a new study shows.
By @sydneywyatt.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/learning/sub...
By @sydneywyatt.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/learning/sub...
Subthalamic plasticity helps mice squelch innate fear responses
When the animals learn that a perceived threat is not dangerous, long-term activity changes in a part of the subthalamus suppress their instinctive fears.
www.thetransmitter.org
February 6, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Awesome study about overcoming innate responses
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
Professor Francesca Siclari was a guest on the most recent episode of the Sleep Science Podcast to talk about her work on non-REM parasomnias and their link to dreams.
Listen to the full episode by clicking this link: sleepsciencepodcast.buzzsprout.com/787211/episo...
Listen to the full episode by clicking this link: sleepsciencepodcast.buzzsprout.com/787211/episo...
S3E2 - Francesca Siclari - Parasomnias and dreaming - Sleep Science Podcast
Sleepwalking, sleep talking, night terrors - how do they occur and why do some people have them more than others?Join us as we discuss with Professor Francesca Siclari her work looking at non-REM para...
sleepsciencepodcast.buzzsprout.com
February 4, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Professor Francesca Siclari was a guest on the most recent episode of the Sleep Science Podcast to talk about her work on non-REM parasomnias and their link to dreams.
Listen to the full episode by clicking this link: sleepsciencepodcast.buzzsprout.com/787211/episo...
Listen to the full episode by clicking this link: sleepsciencepodcast.buzzsprout.com/787211/episo...
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
The unbearable slowness of being: Humans still clock in at just 10 bits/s. Even after peer review :) Share link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1kHVa3BtfH.... ArXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234
authors.elsevier.com
December 17, 2024 at 6:54 PM
The unbearable slowness of being: Humans still clock in at just 10 bits/s. Even after peer review :) Share link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1kHVa3BtfH.... ArXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
Registrations for the Brain Bee are open!
We welcome all secondary school students! It will be a fun day in the city heart of Nijmegen, including a live brain dissection, brain olympiad, workshops and more.
👉https://hersenolympiade.nl/inschrijven-hersenolympiade-2025/
We welcome all secondary school students! It will be a fun day in the city heart of Nijmegen, including a live brain dissection, brain olympiad, workshops and more.
👉https://hersenolympiade.nl/inschrijven-hersenolympiade-2025/
December 13, 2024 at 4:17 PM
Registrations for the Brain Bee are open!
We welcome all secondary school students! It will be a fun day in the city heart of Nijmegen, including a live brain dissection, brain olympiad, workshops and more.
👉https://hersenolympiade.nl/inschrijven-hersenolympiade-2025/
We welcome all secondary school students! It will be a fun day in the city heart of Nijmegen, including a live brain dissection, brain olympiad, workshops and more.
👉https://hersenolympiade.nl/inschrijven-hersenolympiade-2025/
Reposted by Alexander Heimel
An exhibit that opened last weekend at Yale shows drawings from the influential duo Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Camillo Golgi, recasting them as collaborators rather than rivals. It also reveals lessons for modern scholars.
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/art-in-scien...
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/art-in-scien...
December 10, 2024 at 4:04 PM
An exhibit that opened last weekend at Yale shows drawings from the influential duo Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Camillo Golgi, recasting them as collaborators rather than rivals. It also reveals lessons for modern scholars.
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/art-in-scien...
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/art-in-scien...
Today, I had an inspiring personal lesson about the claustrum and its potential role as the brains working memory from Alan Carleton. Awesome findings
Dive into our latest findings on this powerful structure here: “The claustrum is critical for maintaining working memory” biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
The claustrum is critical for maintaining working memory information
Working memory (WM) enables the mammalian brain to temporarily store and manipulate information, supporting cognitive tasks and communication processes. Rather than depending on a single specialized a...
biorxiv.org
December 2, 2024 at 10:43 PM
Today, I had an inspiring personal lesson about the claustrum and its potential role as the brains working memory from Alan Carleton. Awesome findings