Serena Riccitelli
@serenariccitelli.bsky.social
Researcher at San Martino Hospital in Genova, exploring how the retina makes sense of the world! / former IIT & WIS
Pinned
65 years after Lettvin’s bug detector neurons in the frog retina, we revisit how the retina drives behavior—from reflexes to prey capture to brain-state modulation
New review with @annaintegrated.bsky.social & @serenariccitelli.bsky.social in Annual Review of Vision Science 👇
tinyurl.com/ymp3vs4d
New review with @annaintegrated.bsky.social & @serenariccitelli.bsky.social in Annual Review of Vision Science 👇
tinyurl.com/ymp3vs4d
Honoured to collaborate with @katrinfranke.bsky.social & @annaintegrated.bsky.social on this review - great teamwork!! Thanks to @annualreviews.bsky.social 📚
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
🚨New Preprint!
How can we model natural scene representations in visual cortex? A solution is in active vision: predict the features of the next glimpse! arxiv.org/abs/2511.12715
+ @adriendoerig.bsky.social , @alexanderkroner.bsky.social , @carmenamme.bsky.social , @timkietzmann.bsky.social
🧵 1/14
How can we model natural scene representations in visual cortex? A solution is in active vision: predict the features of the next glimpse! arxiv.org/abs/2511.12715
+ @adriendoerig.bsky.social , @alexanderkroner.bsky.social , @carmenamme.bsky.social , @timkietzmann.bsky.social
🧵 1/14
Predicting upcoming visual features during eye movements yields scene representations aligned with human visual cortex
Scenes are complex, yet structured collections of parts, including objects and surfaces, that exhibit spatial and semantic relations to one another. An effective visual system therefore needs unified ...
arxiv.org
November 18, 2025 at 12:37 PM
🚨New Preprint!
How can we model natural scene representations in visual cortex? A solution is in active vision: predict the features of the next glimpse! arxiv.org/abs/2511.12715
+ @adriendoerig.bsky.social , @alexanderkroner.bsky.social , @carmenamme.bsky.social , @timkietzmann.bsky.social
🧵 1/14
How can we model natural scene representations in visual cortex? A solution is in active vision: predict the features of the next glimpse! arxiv.org/abs/2511.12715
+ @adriendoerig.bsky.social , @alexanderkroner.bsky.social , @carmenamme.bsky.social , @timkietzmann.bsky.social
🧵 1/14
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
Excellent work @victorcalbiagueg.bsky.social !!!
In this #TopicalReview, Victor Calbiague-Garcia of sorbonne-universite.fr et al. review current knowledge of #amacrine cells & discuss how emerging approaches are advancing our understanding of their function 👁️ 🐁
🔗 Read it here: physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...
🔗 Read it here: physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...
November 17, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Excellent work @victorcalbiagueg.bsky.social !!!
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
Proud to have contributed to @gaiabianchini.bsky.social and @flor-iacaruso.bsky.social new paper on how the superior colliculus temporally integrates multisensory information
Functional specialisation of multisensory temporal integration in the mouse superior colliculus - Nature Communications
Whether and how anatomically distinct regions of the superior colliculus (SC) exhibit specialisation in multisensory temporal integration to facilitate different behavioural responses are not fully un...
www.nature.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Proud to have contributed to @gaiabianchini.bsky.social and @flor-iacaruso.bsky.social new paper on how the superior colliculus temporally integrates multisensory information
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
a must read for anyone interested visual cortex plasticity - a fresh look at some textbook models and a fun read. congratulations to the authors!
A Critical Look at Critical Periods
Great review of the critical period in the visual cortex. Nice evolutionary perspective, covering the key papers and mechanisms, and proposing a continuous process of plasticity that already starts before eye opening.
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
Great review of the critical period in the visual cortex. Nice evolutionary perspective, covering the key papers and mechanisms, and proposing a continuous process of plasticity that already starts before eye opening.
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
A Critical Look at Critical Periods | Annual Reviews
Over the past decade and a half, a new understanding has emerged of the role of vision during the critical period in the primary visual cortex. Rather than driving competition for cortical space, visi...
www.annualreviews.org
September 28, 2025 at 11:24 PM
a must read for anyone interested visual cortex plasticity - a fresh look at some textbook models and a fun read. congratulations to the authors!
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
Macaque IT neurons may shift from low to high spatial frequencies over time, supporting a coarse-to-fine view of vision. Evidence is incomplete, but the study offers clues to how spatial frequency links to category signals in object recognition.
buff.ly/Lv3CQmq
buff.ly/Lv3CQmq
September 3, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Macaque IT neurons may shift from low to high spatial frequencies over time, supporting a coarse-to-fine view of vision. Evidence is incomplete, but the study offers clues to how spatial frequency links to category signals in object recognition.
buff.ly/Lv3CQmq
buff.ly/Lv3CQmq
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
Why do optical illusions work? The culprit may be a group of neurons in the visual cortex that help us fill in missing information.
@markjohnpost.bsky.social for @washingtonpost.com dives into the science and how it could help demystify visual hallucinations: www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
@markjohnpost.bsky.social for @washingtonpost.com dives into the science and how it could help demystify visual hallucinations: www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
The origins of hallucinations are traced in specialized brain cells
Researchers used lasers to record and stimulate the activity of neurons in mice to learn how the brain processes and interprets optical illusions.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 6, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Why do optical illusions work? The culprit may be a group of neurons in the visual cortex that help us fill in missing information.
@markjohnpost.bsky.social for @washingtonpost.com dives into the science and how it could help demystify visual hallucinations: www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
@markjohnpost.bsky.social for @washingtonpost.com dives into the science and how it could help demystify visual hallucinations: www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
The 2025 volume of the Annual Review of Vision Science is now online. The most read article so far is "Behavior-Specific Computations in the Vertebrate Retina" arevie.ws/46HMEjd @serenariccitelli.bsky.social @annaintegrated.bsky.social @katrinfranke.bsky.social
TOC: arevie.ws/3Wklava
TOC: arevie.ws/3Wklava
September 30, 2025 at 9:28 PM
The 2025 volume of the Annual Review of Vision Science is now online. The most read article so far is "Behavior-Specific Computations in the Vertebrate Retina" arevie.ws/46HMEjd @serenariccitelli.bsky.social @annaintegrated.bsky.social @katrinfranke.bsky.social
TOC: arevie.ws/3Wklava
TOC: arevie.ws/3Wklava
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
Some animals are able to use objects in their environment as tools, like 🐒, 🦜 and corvids. In this new report from the Nieder lab, they show that carrions crows, with no tool-use adaptations are able to use a stick as a tool and refine their precision through learning! 🐦⬛ www.cell.com/current-biol...
Learned precision tool use in carrion crows
Moll et al. show that carrion crows—which do not habitually use tools in the wild—can
be trained to use a stick tool as an extension of their body. Trained crows flexibly
adjust tool orientation and d...
www.cell.com
September 29, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Some animals are able to use objects in their environment as tools, like 🐒, 🦜 and corvids. In this new report from the Nieder lab, they show that carrions crows, with no tool-use adaptations are able to use a stick as a tool and refine their precision through learning! 🐦⬛ www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
👁️The retina — strikingly conserved across vertebrates, but an oddity among bilaterians!
So how did it evolve?
With @mikebok.bsky.social, @neurofishh.bsky.social and @denilsson.bsky.social, we argue that retinal complexity may 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n
So how did it evolve?
With @mikebok.bsky.social, @neurofishh.bsky.social and @denilsson.bsky.social, we argue that retinal complexity may 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n
a black and white dog is sitting on a couch with its tongue sticking out .
ALT: a black and white dog is sitting on a couch with its tongue sticking out .
media.tenor.com
September 12, 2025 at 12:58 PM
👁️The retina — strikingly conserved across vertebrates, but an oddity among bilaterians!
So how did it evolve?
With @mikebok.bsky.social, @neurofishh.bsky.social and @denilsson.bsky.social, we argue that retinal complexity may 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n
So how did it evolve?
With @mikebok.bsky.social, @neurofishh.bsky.social and @denilsson.bsky.social, we argue that retinal complexity may 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
Our EMBL Press office has a nice little article on our recent paper on how the pupil's dynamics shape visual responses in the mouse and human.
A new look at the pupil: more than just a gatekeeper www.embl.org/news/science...
A new look at the pupil: more than just a gatekeeper www.embl.org/news/science...
A new look at the pupil: more than just a gatekeeper | EMBL
New research from the Rompani and Asari groups at EMBL Rome suggests that the pupil does more than just respond to light and internal states — it may actively shape our vision.
www.embl.org
September 20, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Our EMBL Press office has a nice little article on our recent paper on how the pupil's dynamics shape visual responses in the mouse and human.
A new look at the pupil: more than just a gatekeeper www.embl.org/news/science...
A new look at the pupil: more than just a gatekeeper www.embl.org/news/science...
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
Seeing the world through the lens of oscillations - we are delighted to share our new paper where we demonstrate that anatomically resolved oscillatory bursts reveal dynamic motifs of thalamocortical activity during naturalistic stimulus viewing (doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...).
July 10, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Seeing the world through the lens of oscillations - we are delighted to share our new paper where we demonstrate that anatomically resolved oscillatory bursts reveal dynamic motifs of thalamocortical activity during naturalistic stimulus viewing (doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...).
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
Excellent end to the Italian Congress for Neuroscience (SINS) - our postdoc Lucia Zanetti chairing a fascinating session on the retina & beyond together with @serenariccitelli.bsky.social! Well done & thanks to the speakers Stefano Di Marco, @santiagorompani.bsky.social, Norma Kühn & Max Joesch
September 13, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Excellent end to the Italian Congress for Neuroscience (SINS) - our postdoc Lucia Zanetti chairing a fascinating session on the retina & beyond together with @serenariccitelli.bsky.social! Well done & thanks to the speakers Stefano Di Marco, @santiagorompani.bsky.social, Norma Kühn & Max Joesch
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
The two key studies of the International Brain Laboratory @intlbrainlab.bsky.social are out today!
A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Brain-wide representations of prior information in mouse decision-making
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Brain-wide representations of prior information in mouse decision-making
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour - Nature
The International Brain Laboratory presents a brain-wide electrophysiological map obtained from pooling data from 12 laboratories that performed the same standardized perceptual decision-making task i...
www.nature.com
September 3, 2025 at 3:46 PM
The two key studies of the International Brain Laboratory @intlbrainlab.bsky.social are out today!
A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Brain-wide representations of prior information in mouse decision-making
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Brain-wide representations of prior information in mouse decision-making
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
How do animals decide if they should forage for food or stay home to take care of newborn offspring? Whose needs come first? For my PhD work now out in Nature, we examined how hunger and parenting neurons interact and are reshaped postpartum in mice 🧵⬇️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A hypothalamic circuit that modulates feeding and parenting behaviours - Nature
Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of mouse hypothalamus and behavioural experiments show that specific hypothalamic networks regulate conflicting feeding versus parenting behaviours of female mice.
www.nature.com
July 30, 2025 at 4:35 PM
How do animals decide if they should forage for food or stay home to take care of newborn offspring? Whose needs come first? For my PhD work now out in Nature, we examined how hunger and parenting neurons interact and are reshaped postpartum in mice 🧵⬇️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
1/ Mapping synaptic connectivity between individual neurons is extremely laborious. We developed BRISC, a new method that makes it possible to map inputs onto 100s of neurons in the same animal in a matter of weeks! Led by Alex Becalick and @antblot.bsky.social. 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Barcoded Rabies In Situ Connectomics for high-throughput reconstruction of neural circuits
Sequencing of oligonucleotide barcodes holds promise as a high-throughput approach for reconstructing synaptic connectivity at scale. Rabies viruses can act as a vehicle for barcode transmission, than...
www.biorxiv.org
July 21, 2025 at 7:58 AM
1/ Mapping synaptic connectivity between individual neurons is extremely laborious. We developed BRISC, a new method that makes it possible to map inputs onto 100s of neurons in the same animal in a matter of weeks! Led by Alex Becalick and @antblot.bsky.social. 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
Our paper on NHP neuropixels is finally out in Nat Neuro! These probes have already been transformative and will usher in a new era of primate neuroscience. I am extremely proud to have played a very small role in this project. I can't wait to see what our community discovers. tinyurl.com/54u3hrj8
Large-scale high-density brain-wide neural recording in nonhuman primates - Nature Neuroscience
Neuropixels 1.0 NHP is a 45-mm, high-density silicon probe capable of recording large numbers of neurons with single-neuron resolution from most areas in a macaque’s brain.
tinyurl.com
June 23, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Our paper on NHP neuropixels is finally out in Nat Neuro! These probes have already been transformative and will usher in a new era of primate neuroscience. I am extremely proud to have played a very small role in this project. I can't wait to see what our community discovers. tinyurl.com/54u3hrj8
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
Come to Genova in October, 2-day Workshop on Social Behavior and its Dysfunctions. FREE registration, info in the attached Flyer:
June 16, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Come to Genova in October, 2-day Workshop on Social Behavior and its Dysfunctions. FREE registration, info in the attached Flyer:
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
My latest Aronov lab paper is now published @Nature!
When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️
The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar
bit.ly/3HvWSum
When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️
The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar
bit.ly/3HvWSum
June 11, 2025 at 10:24 PM
My latest Aronov lab paper is now published @Nature!
When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️
The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar
bit.ly/3HvWSum
When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️
The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar
bit.ly/3HvWSum
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
Sussex Visions is back!
Tune in on June 26th and onwards, see details below
Tune in on June 26th and onwards, see details below
The Sussex Vision Talk series is back! Join us to hear about all things vision, from retina to brain, from invertebrates to human.
www.youtube.com/@badenlab615...
Talks will be live-streamed (and stored) on YouTube, hope to see many of you there. Details on each talk coming soon.
www.youtube.com/@badenlab615...
Talks will be live-streamed (and stored) on YouTube, hope to see many of you there. Details on each talk coming soon.
June 4, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Sussex Visions is back!
Tune in on June 26th and onwards, see details below
Tune in on June 26th and onwards, see details below
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
New paper on bioRxiv: "Ambient Light Impacts Innate Behaviors of New-World and Old-World Mice" - together with @farrowlab.bsky.social, with data from NERF master students and two of my lab members! A study across 3 species: Mus musculus, Peromyscus maniculatus & P. polionotus doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Ambient Light Impacts Innate Behaviors of New-World and Old-World Mice
Animals encounter predators and prey under diverse lighting conditions that signal different risks and opportunities, yet how ambient illumination shapes innate approach and avoidance behaviors remain...
doi.org
May 19, 2025 at 6:55 AM
New paper on bioRxiv: "Ambient Light Impacts Innate Behaviors of New-World and Old-World Mice" - together with @farrowlab.bsky.social, with data from NERF master students and two of my lab members! A study across 3 species: Mus musculus, Peromyscus maniculatus & P. polionotus doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
Now with correct link: Preprint on how to create an equitable and healthy lab environment www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... ! During the SAFE Labs workshop 2024 we came up with concrete action points, summarised in these guidelines for Lab Handbooks github.com/SAFE-Labs-Do...
The SAFE Labs Handbook: community-driven commitments for group leaders to improve lab culture
Creating positive and equitable lab environments has become a growing priority for the scientific community and funders of scientific research. Research institutions typically respond to this need by ...
www.biorxiv.org
May 30, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Now with correct link: Preprint on how to create an equitable and healthy lab environment www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... ! During the SAFE Labs workshop 2024 we came up with concrete action points, summarised in these guidelines for Lab Handbooks github.com/SAFE-Labs-Do...
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
65 years after Lettvin’s bug detector neurons in the frog retina, we revisit how the retina drives behavior—from reflexes to prey capture to brain-state modulation
New review with @annaintegrated.bsky.social & @serenariccitelli.bsky.social in Annual Review of Vision Science 👇
tinyurl.com/ymp3vs4d
New review with @annaintegrated.bsky.social & @serenariccitelli.bsky.social in Annual Review of Vision Science 👇
tinyurl.com/ymp3vs4d
May 15, 2025 at 5:10 PM
65 years after Lettvin’s bug detector neurons in the frog retina, we revisit how the retina drives behavior—from reflexes to prey capture to brain-state modulation
New review with @annaintegrated.bsky.social & @serenariccitelli.bsky.social in Annual Review of Vision Science 👇
tinyurl.com/ymp3vs4d
New review with @annaintegrated.bsky.social & @serenariccitelli.bsky.social in Annual Review of Vision Science 👇
tinyurl.com/ymp3vs4d
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
This is a fantastic up-to-date summary of modern questions in retinal circuits, clearly presented and with great figures!. Required reading for anyone interested in the amazing computational capabilities of neural circuits. Congrats and a big thank-you to the authors.
It was great fun to write this review together with @katrinfranke.bsky.social and @serenariccitelli.bsky.social on behavior-specific computations in the moose retina.
65 years after Lettvin’s bug detector neurons in the frog retina, we revisit how the retina drives behavior—from reflexes to prey capture to brain-state modulation
New review with @annaintegrated.bsky.social & @serenariccitelli.bsky.social in Annual Review of Vision Science 👇
tinyurl.com/ymp3vs4d
New review with @annaintegrated.bsky.social & @serenariccitelli.bsky.social in Annual Review of Vision Science 👇
tinyurl.com/ymp3vs4d
May 16, 2025 at 4:17 AM
This is a fantastic up-to-date summary of modern questions in retinal circuits, clearly presented and with great figures!. Required reading for anyone interested in the amazing computational capabilities of neural circuits. Congrats and a big thank-you to the authors.
Honoured to collaborate with @katrinfranke.bsky.social & @annaintegrated.bsky.social on this review - great teamwork!! Thanks to @annualreviews.bsky.social 📚
65 years after Lettvin’s bug detector neurons in the frog retina, we revisit how the retina drives behavior—from reflexes to prey capture to brain-state modulation
New review with @annaintegrated.bsky.social & @serenariccitelli.bsky.social in Annual Review of Vision Science 👇
tinyurl.com/ymp3vs4d
New review with @annaintegrated.bsky.social & @serenariccitelli.bsky.social in Annual Review of Vision Science 👇
tinyurl.com/ymp3vs4d
May 16, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Honoured to collaborate with @katrinfranke.bsky.social & @annaintegrated.bsky.social on this review - great teamwork!! Thanks to @annualreviews.bsky.social 📚
Reposted by Serena Riccitelli
Motor and vestibular signals in the visual cortex permit the separation of self versus externally generated visual motion: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
Cells in the primary visual cortex receive running, translation, and visual motion signals to accurately process visual flow information.
Cells in the primary visual cortex receive running, translation, and visual motion signals to accurately process visual flow information.
April 27, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Motor and vestibular signals in the visual cortex permit the separation of self versus externally generated visual motion: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
Cells in the primary visual cortex receive running, translation, and visual motion signals to accurately process visual flow information.
Cells in the primary visual cortex receive running, translation, and visual motion signals to accurately process visual flow information.