Reposted by Chris J DallmannYichen Luo 骆奕辰 @camellyc.bsky.social · 03/08/20261/8 Breathing seems automatic. But it's a finely tuned motor behavior that has to be controlled. In this preprint, I map the circuits that match a fly's respiration to the metabolic demands of flight and mitigate the risk of dehydration. 🧵🪰 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 411943
Reposted by Chris J DallmannRune W. Berg @runewberg.bsky.social · 28/07/2026New paper: Spinal circuitry modeled for locomotion using spatial transcriptomics and cell-type projections. Local excitation, long-range inhibition, and a longitudinal skew—an asymmetric "Mexican hat"—give rhythm, rotational dynamics, and gait, with no pacemakers. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 03011
Reposted by Chris J DallmannWei-Chung Allen Lee @darbly.bsky.social · 09/06/2026Now published - the #BANC! A full central nervous system (CNS) connectome of a limbed animal at single-synapse resolution, enabling us to follow sensory-motor arcs and understand how the CNS controls the body. rdcu.be/fncjS. #neuroscience. Video by @quorumetrix.bsky.social 1/18 214984
Reposted by Chris J DallmannSalil Bidaye @salilbidaye.bsky.social · 04/05/2026Here’s our latest preprint on uncovering neural control of a coordinated walking pattern! doi.org/10.64898/202... (author-list jumbled, see pdf for corrected). Video shows the central paradigm in this study, we optogenetically induce walking in headless flies and sequentially reduce proprioception. 12811
Reposted by Chris J DallmannJohn Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 04/05/2026New preprint: Whole-body 3D kinematics of freely behaving 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑎 New tech from @blobology.bsky.social & others at @hhmijanelia.bsky.social, which @ispizua.bsky.social and @elliottabe.bsky.social used to gain insight into 3D structure of locomotion & courtship www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 412354
Reposted by Chris J DallmannJohn Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 01/04/2026New paper from Brandon Pratt, @chrisjdallmann.bsky.social, and colleagues on how hair plate proprioceptors sense joint limits and contribute to sensorimotor control of walking. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 0218
Reposted by Chris J DallmannJohn Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 24/03/2026🧵 New preprint led by @bingbrunton.bsky.social, @elliottabe.bsky.social, @lawrencehu.bsky.social We gave a worm brain control of a fly body and it walked What did we learn? Nothing, other than deep reinforcement learning is effective We call it the digital sphinx www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 10412151
Reposted by Chris J DallmannJohn Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 19/03/2026Sometimes failed experiments reveal gaps in how we are thinking about a problem, and digging into why an experiment didn't work can lead to discovery. This new preprint by Anne Sustar, in collaboration with Dion Dickman's lab, is one of those gratifying instances.🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 24617
Reposted by Chris J DallmannMatt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 18/02/2026Thrilled to share that my graduate work is officially published in Neuron! 🎉 www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...cell.comSpecialized parallel pathways for adaptive control of visual object pursuitCollie et al. show how adaptive control in Drosophila visual pursuit arises from two parallel pathways: one steers objects from the periphery toward the center, while the other maintains central fixat... 34810
Chris J Dallmann @chrisjdallmann.bsky.social · 05/01/2026How does the brain control locomotion? In our new preprint, we uncover a brain circuit in Drosophila that controls forward walking independently of turning. This dedicated locomotor circuit enables flexible motor control and might reflect a shared principle across species. doi.org/10.64898/202... 37927
Reposted by Chris J DallmannJan M. Ache @jan-ache.bsky.social · 19/12/2025How do animals channel sensory information into motor pathways to generate flexible behavioral output? Excited to share a new preprint addressing this question by leveraging the new #maleCNS connectome, behavioral experiments, and in-vivo recordings: doi.org/10.64898/202.... A long🧵... 37029
Reposted by Chris J DallmannJohn Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 09/12/2025How do neural circuits generate the walking rhythm? Using connectome simulations, @sarahpugly.bsky.social found a minimal central pattern generator (CPG) that produces oscillations in leg motor neurons. Same circuit motif for each 🪰 leg. w @bingbrunton.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 28637
Reposted by Chris J DallmannRune W. Berg @runewberg.bsky.social · 09/11/2025New preprint: Neural manifolds that orchestrate walking and stopping Here we develop a new theory for neural generation of walking and how it can stop- Next we test the theory using Neuropixels probes in the lumber spinal cord of freely moving rats. See more: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 37118
Reposted by Chris J DallmannGreg Jefferis @jefferis.bsky.social · 05/10/2025Exciting news for #drosophila #connectomics and #neuroscience enthusiasts: the Drosophila male central nervous system connectome is now live for exploration. Find out more at the landing page hosted by our Janelia FlyEM collaborators www.janelia.org/project-team....janelia.orgMale CNS ConnectomeA team of researchers has unveiled the complete connectome of a male fruit fly central nervous system —a seamless map of all the neurons in the brain and nerve cord of a single male fruit fly and the ... 214569
Reposted by Chris J DallmannSweta Agrawal @hokuba.bsky.social · 01/10/2025The Agrawal lab is moving! This January we will be setting up shop at #UBC in Vancouver, in the department of #Zoology! We are actively recruiting at all levels, especially masters and PhD students. These position are #funded! Please send anyone interested my way! 1711445
Chris J Dallmann @chrisjdallmann.bsky.social · 17/09/2025Now out in @nature.com: Our study discovering a neural circuit in Drosophila that predictively inhibits proprioceptor axons during voluntary leg movements, such as walking and grooming. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 47230
Reposted by Chris J DallmannJohn Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 02/08/2025The first full central nervous system connectome dataset of an adult fly, with the most comprehensive annotation of sensory and motor neurons to date. A heroic effort with contributions from many groups, a product of the collaborative spirit of the Drosophila neuroscience community. 14012
Reposted by Chris J DallmannJan M. Ache @jan-ache.bsky.social · 28/07/2025Preprint Alert! Walking mostly feels natural and easy to us - but the neuronal control of walking is actually incredibly complex. We leveraged the fruit fly as a genetically tractable animal model with a compact nervous system to ask how the brain controls walking direction: tinyurl.com/flywalk. 🧵..media.tenor.coma baby wearing a black space racer shirtALT: a baby wearing a black space racer shirt 14622
Reposted by Chris J DallmannThe Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 21/07/2025Embodiment is the concept that the function of the brain is inexorably shaped by the body, a lens that is often neglected when neuroscientists study specific brain subsystems, write @bingbrunton.bsky.social and @tuthill.bsky.social. #neuroskyence #neuroai www.thetransmitter.org/neuroai/brea...thetransmitter.orgBreaking the jar: Why NeuroAI needs embodimentBrain function is inexorably shaped by the body. Embracing this will benefit computational models of real brain function and the design of ANNs. 15930
Reposted by Chris J DallmannJohn Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 03/06/2025new preprint, led by @ellenlesser.bsky.social, on proprioceptive sensing of the Drosophila wing. tldr, there are a lot of proprioceptors out in the wing and they are wildly diverse and complex (eg, compared to the fly leg). just one example in this image...(1/4) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 13611
Chris J Dallmann @chrisjdallmann.bsky.social · 19/05/2025Excited to contribute imaging data to this project! The axons of these sensory neurons showed beautiful calcium signals in the nerve cord when the fly's leg joints reached the limits of their movement range. Check out the full story! 0172
Reposted by Chris J DallmannMert Erginkaya @merterginkaya.bsky.social · 02/05/2025Excited to share my PhD paper is out! We studied how motion vision is processed beyond the optic lobes to help flies walk straight. It has been a wonderful collaboration with @michaelreiser.bsky.social, @dddavi.bsky.social and many others not in bluesky! Paper + digest here: bsky.app/profile/cham... 44421
Reposted by Chris J DallmannSweta Agrawal @hokuba.bsky.social · 02/05/2025Happy to announce that our paper examining the function of leg mechanosensory neurons by way of their connectivity is finally officially published! rdcu.be/ekqVtrdcu.beDivergent neural circuits for proprioceptive and exteroceptive sensing of the Drosophila legNature Communications - Determining whether somatosensory neurons are involved in internal or external sensing remains a challenge. Here, the authors show that analyzing connectivity is a powerful... 25219
Reposted by Chris J DallmannJan M. Ache @jan-ache.bsky.social · 16/04/2025Yay - the extensive review Ansgar Büschges and I wrote on insect motor control and the many things insects can teach us about our own nervous systems just came out in Physiological Reviews @apsphysiology.bsky.social. Check it out - it's free: journals.physiology.org/doi/epdf/10....journals.physiology.orgMotor control on the move: from insights in insects to general mechanisms 0168
Reposted by Chris J Dallmannallen institute @alleninstitute.org · 03/04/2025The brain is incredibly complex. How do we analyze the growing and massive datasets to create a general model of neural computation? Eva Dyer and @tyrellturing.bsky.social share their perspective on what needs to happen next in @thetransmitter.bsky.social. www.thetransmitter.org/neuroai/acce...thetransmitter.orgAccepting “bitter lesson” and embracing brain’s complexityTo gain insight into complex neural data, we must move toward a data-driven regime, employing large models trained on vast amounts of data. Experts weigh in. 0114
Chris J Dallmann @chrisjdallmann.bsky.social · 25/03/2025Excited to present my #HorizonEU MSCA project with @jan-ache.bsky.social at the @neurowissg.bsky.social meeting in Göttingen. If you're interested in how brain circuits control locomotion, come chat with me at poster T23-6C on Friday. #NWG2025 #Drosophila 1174
Reposted by Chris J DallmannGraziana Gatto @ggatto.bsky.social · 26/02/2025Registration started for the Janelia meeting on spinal cord and brainstem circuits for sensorimotor adaptation across species. Spinal cord is more than a hub, it does supercomputing! www.janelia.org/you-janelia/...janelia.orgComputing Cords: Sensorimotor Control by Nerve Cord Circuits Across SpeciesOrganizers Salil Bidaye, Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience Ansgar Büschges, University of Cologne Graziana Gatto, University of Cologne Abdel El Manira, Karolinska Institutet Julie 12419
Reposted by Chris J DallmannJohn Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 13/01/2025I wrote a piece for @thetransmitter.bsky.social about why I love participating in experimental summer courses, particularly @nsb-mbl.bsky.social. www.thetransmitter.org/craft-and-ca... 27518