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Fabricio Nicola

@fabricionicola.bsky.social
68 followers 100 following 27 posts

Postdoc in Levine lab at NINDS studying the neural control of natural motor behavior. Close loop perturbations. Behavior x Circuits x Kinematics

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Reposted by Fabricio Nicola
Takuya Sasatani @takuyasasatani.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Miniscope Zero, the first fully wireless Miniscope, is on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social! Wireless power + data enable neural recordings in enclosed mazes, 3D environments & from two animals at once! @miniscope.bsky.social Paper: doi.org/10.64898/202... Wiki: miniscope.org/wiki/Minisco...
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Fred Hutch Basic Sciences Division @basicsci.fredhutch.org · 05/08/2026
Join @FredHutch.org's Basic Sciences Division as an Assistant or Associate Professor and help shape the future of fundamental biology. We welcome applicants whose work will complement, extend, or bring new directions to the division.
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Apply - Interfolio
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HHMI @hhmi-science.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
An animal’s body is in constant conversation with itself — & HHMI Janelia scientists have built a way to listen in. WHOLISTIC simultaneously records real-time activity from nearly every cell in a living larval zebrafish, a 1st step in understanding more complex bodies like ours: bit.ly/4xMR1Ww.
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Julia Kaiser, PhD @jkaiser87.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Still one of the coolest parts of this project: making whole brains transparent and seeing cortico-brainstem and corticospinal neurons in 3D! 🧠✨ Find out more about these pathways at shorturl.at/czmnb Huge shout-out to LifeCanvas Technologies for the incredible imaging and for featuring our work! 🔬
shorturl.at
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Dan Goodman @neural-reckoning.org · 27/08/2026
Lots of science happens at talks, and if you're not there you don't get to see what's happening. I find that this excludes lots of people, and isn't fair. So, from now on I'll try to upload all my talk slides at least to my website (videos when available): neural-reckoning.org/talks.html
neural-reckoning.org
Talks
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Nature @nature.com · 27/08/2026
Nature research paper: Granule cells reorient cortical trajectories to separate contexts go.nature.com/4cfNFmq
go.nature.com
Granule cells reorient cortical trajectories to separate contexts - Nature
Simultaneous imaging of premotor cortex and cerebellar granule cells in mice learning two skills in parallel shows that trajectories generalize in cortex but coherently reorient apart in granule cells, supporting generalization and separation between contexts.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
🚨Urgent appeal for Lito Sousa, fighting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Pls share/tag these institutions who could include him in life-saving trials: @ionis_pharma - Ionis Pharmaceuticals - ION717 trial @broadinstitute - PRISM trial (NCT07444580) @mayoclinic.org @harvard.edu
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UM-MIND - Institute for Neuroscience Discovery @um-mind.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
UM-MIND is hiring! We are recruiting several tenure-track neuroscience faculty members, preferably at the Assistant Professor level, to join our institute at the University of Maryland School of Medicine here in Baltimore, MD. Learn more here: umb.taleo.net/careersectio... @medschool.umaryland.edu
umb.taleo.net
Assistant Professor, University of Maryland – Medicine Institute for Neuroscience Discovery (UM-MIND)
Click the link provided to see the complete job description.
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Jess Cardin @jess-cardin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Yale Neuroscience 🧠 @yaleneuro.bsky.social is hiring this year! We have 2 searches, one cell/molecular/systems neuro (apply.interfolio.com/190736) and one computational neuro (apply.interfolio.com/190740). Got questions about the searches, the department, or the process? Please ask, happy to chat!
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Ran Blekhman @blekhman.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Huge faculty recruitment effort at the University of Chicago -- a division-wide, open-rank search looking to hire about 20 faculty across 5 research areas in biology. Come be our colleague! Full announcement: uchicago.app.box.com/s/ckih9zv3rj...
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Britton Sauerbrei @brittonsauerbrei.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
The Sauerbrei Lab at Case Western Reserve University is recruiting a postdoctoral scholar to work on neural dynamics and motor control: apply.interfolio.com/189987
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bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Whole brain mapping of spinal-projecting neurons in larval zebrafish www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Spinal rotational dynamics orchestrate locomotor recovery www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Thomas Zenkel @thomaszen.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
📣 Our paper introducing openretina, a collaborative framework for retina modelling across datasets and species, is now published as an eLife Reviewed Preprint. Paper: elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre... Code: github.com/open-retina/... Docs: open-retina.org
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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Two-photon calcium imaging. What makes for good data? How can we optimize experiments to get good data? New post labrigger.com/blog/2026/07... and new free web apps from @filip-tomaska.bsky.social (1/8)
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
What if muscles that work together aren’t controlled together? This study suggests the RF receives a partially distinct drive from the other quads. That may help coordinate two joints w/o sacrificing flexibility. Also a reminder that mechanical synergy doesn’t necessarily imply neural synergy.
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Reposted by Fabricio Nicola
bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Self-timed movement initiation requires rapid sequential coordination of circuits in prefrontal cortex and cerebellum www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Niccolò Zampieri @niccolozampieri.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Hypogravity reveals a proprioception-dependent mechanism for locomotor state expression
Animals must adapt locomotion to changing environmental conditions, but how the nervous system flexibly controls movement remains unclear. Gravity provides a powerful perturbation because it alters bo...
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Reposted by Fabricio Nicola
John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
My department, Neurobiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington (nbio.uw.edu), is hiring a new tenure-track Assistant Professor, application deadline 09/30/26. It's a broad search — molecular to organismal, all of neuroscience/physiology/biophysics welcome. apply.interfolio.com/187735
NBIO department logo
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Thank you, John!!
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Thank you, Jason!
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Sebastian! Thank you!! :)
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Thank you, Kelsey!
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Ariel Levine @ariellevine.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
To celebrate our new pre-print from @fabricionicola.bsky.social, a few of my favorite animal jumps… www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... youtu.be/OX9GTi-wQ6I
youtu.be
Jumping Bobcat Slow Motion | Planet Earth II
YouTube video by BAMBI
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Understanding these modular substrates may help reveal how the nervous system builds complex actions and open new avenues for restoring coordinated movement after neurological injury. You can read the full story here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
By showing that a spinal interneuron population can reliably reshape movement during an ongoing natural behavior by engaging a coordinated movement pattern, this work moves modular motor control from a descriptive concept to a circuit-level mechanism.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
We show that genetically defined spinal neurons can access coordination patterns characteristic of motor modules, which act as preconfigured templates that the nervous system can recruit and modulate to generate context-dependent movement.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Overall, these results suggest a hierarchical organization of movement: Behavior is organized into phases (temporal segmentation) Phases are expressed through motor modules Modules manifest as muscle synergies Muscle synergies are implemented by neural circuits
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Not all spinal interneurons can alter the ongoing natural behavior. However, dILB6 can reliably reshape movement at any point in the jump, revealing a spinal population capable of accessing a specific motor module during natural behavior.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
But can these neurons shape an ongoing natural behavior? Using closed-loop optogenetics, we briefly activated these interneurons during propulsion or flight. V3 had no effect on the movement. In contrast, dILB6 strongly altered hindlimb kinematics during propulsion and flight.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
We next asked whether these neurons can generate movement modules. Using optogenetic stimulation of genetically defined populations, we found that V3 evoked triple-joint hindlimb extension, while dILB6 evoked triple-joint flexion. These resemble the modules observed during propulsion and flight.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
To identify neurons potentially involved in jumping, we mapped cFOS activity across the lumbar spinal cord during the behavior. This revealed several candidate neuronal populations.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Are these modules driven entirely by neuronal activity? Inhibiting (L5) during jump. Propulsion failed. During flight, hip and ankle movements were disrupted, but knee motion remained intact. There is a hybrid neural-mechanical control, mediated by phase-specific, separable neural mechanisms.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
We next asked whether these modules adapt to task demands. Increasing jump distance scaled extensor activation during propulsion, while flexion during flight remained unchanged. Thus, propulsion and flight follow distinct tuning rules, consistent with separable neural control.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Two coordination patterns emerged. During propulsion, the hip, knee, and ankle extend together. During flight, all three flex. Muscle activity mirrored these joint movements, revealing a simple dual-module organization: an extensor burst for propulsion, and a flexor burst for flight.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
If jumping is organized into coordination modules, the joints and muscles that generate the movement should reflect this structure. We therefore examined hindlimb joint angles and muscle activity during propulsion and flight, the core phases of the jump.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
We used a dynamical model to track how body posture evolves during the jump. Three dominant movement modes emerged: one during preparation, one during propulsion, and one during flight. This shows that jumping unfolds through a modular sequence of coordinated body configurations.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Together, these results show that the jump passes through four constrained whole-body coordination states.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
To understand how posture evolves during the jump, we analyzed whole-body geometry across trials and over time. During propulsion, animals adopted a similar posture across trials, showing minimal variability. The similarity matrix further revealed blocks of stable body configurations.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
If jumping is built from components, how are they organized during the behavior? Jumping is often described as unfolding through phases: preparation, propulsion, flight, and landing. But are these phases intrinsic features of the full-body movement, or simply convenient labels?
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Evolution offers a clue. Early amphibians jump by simply extending their hindlimbs, landing in a belly flop. Later species added controlled landing. Reptiles, birds, and mammals added a preparatory countermovement. This suggests that jumping may be composed of separable movement components.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
All experiments were conducted under approved institutional animal care protocols.
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
This work was done during my postdoc in Ariel Levine’s lab at NIH/NINDS, with an incredible team of collaborators. Lily Li, Tiernon Riesenmy, Randall Pursley, @rbrianroome.bsky.social , @vulcnethologist.bsky.social , @ariellevine.bsky.social
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Mammals have hundreds of joints and muscles. Controlling them individually would be nearly impossible. How does the nervous system organize such complexity into coherent actions? Our new study explores this question through a natural behavior: jumping.
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Nature @nature.com · 12/02/2026
Exercise pumps up your muscles — but it might also be pumping up your neurons go.nature.com/4r94ftv
go.nature.com
Exercise rewires the brain — boosting the body’s endurance
The more mice exercise, the more connections form between some neurons in their brains, study finds.
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Gary Brannan @garybrannan.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
Anyone got a video of a hare having the shit scared out of it by a curlew — ah, don’t worry, got one anyway!
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Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 20/01/2025
Hup
Brown squirrel launching itself off of a tree
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Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 20/01/2025
Hup
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