iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Now that we have started looking for it, changes to the AL–PM domain structure pop up in surprising places. E.g. in three mouse risk models of schizophrenia and autism, the domain structure appears more pronounced, and the antipsychotic clozapine appears to reduce this again in these mice. 7/7

010

If AL is indeed a functional DMN analog despite cutting through motor and somatosensory cortex, it raises an intriguing evolutionary possibility: the human DMN may have originally evolved from ancient cortical circuits dedicated to controlling self-directed movements. 6/7

100

In mice, AL is preferentially innervated by dorsal raphe serotonergic projections, and 5-HT2A-dependent DOI selectively increases coupling between the DMN-like AL domain and sensory posteromedial (PM) areas. 5/7

100

This functional mapping aligns closely with psychedelic responses: In humans, 5-HT2A density correlates strongly with the DMN, and psychedelics drive increased functional connectivity between the DMN and sensory networks. 4/7

100

• It sits at the transmodal apex of the 1st functional cortical gradient • Its activity drops during spontaneous movements while sensory domains increase 3/7

100

The mouse AL domain does NOT map onto these anatomical areas—it cuts directly through primary motor and somatosensory cortices. Why speculate AL is a functional analog of the DMN? Because AL hits key functional criteria that define task-negative networks in humans: 2/7

100

Hugo Ladret @therehugolad.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

We think the anterolateral (AL) domain might be the mouse equivalent of the human Default Mode Network (DMN). In human neuroimaging, the DMN is defined by specific regions, key among these are posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex. 1/7

100

Reposted by Georg Keller

Thank you Georg! Very happy to have worked on this. Here is a short 🧵 on what ECT-triggered CSD looks like, and why we think it is going to help shape the future of ECT research. (1/12)

1178

Reposted by Georg Keller

IOB - Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel @iobswiss.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

💡What if we could reboot sick cells? IOB scientists @timayupov.bsky.social, @vmorenojuan.bsky.social and collaborators led by Botond Roska have developed #MitoCatch, a system that delivers healthy mitochondria directly to diseased cells. A step toward precision mitochondrial medicine. Pic©IOB 🧵👇

Targeted mitochondrial delivery: Extracellular donor mitochondria are delivered specifically to neurons via bispecific protein binders.

152

Reposted by Georg Keller

Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

I've been waiting for this particular flavor of naysayer review (it's in Swedish). TL;DR: Brain research has failed to deliver on its big promises in the past; ergo, we must be wary now too. Indeed. I was inspired to write Elusive Cures ... /1 lakartidningen.se/kultur/recen...

lakartidningen.se

Neurovetenskapens ständigt dyra löften

Enligt författaren till »Elusive cure« står vi på tröskeln till en helt ny era i hjärnforskningen.

285

This work was a collaborative effort between our lab and clinical experts at UPK Basel. The parallel approach of using mouse circuit and human patient data is likely the most promising approach we have to understanding the mechanism of psychiatric treatments. Full paper: doi.org/10.64898/202...

doi.org

252

If CSD is the primary driver of recovery, we can rethink ECT: • Can we trigger CSD without a generalized seizure? • Could we pharmacologically block CSD from entering the hippocampus to prevent amnesia? • CSD is currently unmonitored in clinics, would it be a better predictor of treatment outcomes?

150

In our study, if a mouse hemisphere had a seizure but no CSD, there was no increase in Fos. The plasticity only happened where the CSD traveled. We also saw that the EEG metrics clinicians use to predict patient success correlate with CSD in our mice.

141

Electroconvulsive therapy generates a postictal wave of spreading depolarization in mice and humans - PubMed

By combining widefield calcium imaging with EEG in mice, we find, consistent with previous work (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40383825/), that stimulation triggers a CSD. Crucially, the CSD perfectly predicts the expression of Fos, a key marker of neuronal plasticity.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a fast-acting, highly effective, and safe treatment for medication-resistant depression. Historically, the clinical benefits of ECT have been attributed to generatin...

130

FMI science @fmiscience.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

For nearly a century, we believed the therapeutic effect of ECT is the seizure. Our latest research suggests we may have been looking at the wrong event. A thread on why cortical spreading depression (CSD) might be the driver of therapeutic benefit. Work led by @therehugolad.bsky.social

14118

Reposted by Georg Keller

In this interview, @juliabatki.bsky.social, FMI’s newest group leader, reflects on the early curiosity that drew her to science, why FMI is the right home for her lab, how studying cell clearance could help us understand disease, and her love of improv. www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

fmi.ch

Curiosity, cell clearance, and improv: A chat with Julia Batki

In this interview, Julia Batki, FMI’s newest group leader, reflects on the early curiosity that drew her to science, why FMI is the right home for her lab, how studying cell clearance could help us un...

03613

“What if there is a parallel antipsychotic pathway via immunosuppressive D2 activation on glia?” in just a few years. Fascinating time to work in the field!

Finally, I am particularly excited about this paper as it is the first to come out of our lab since we pivoted entirely to studying the circuit mechanisms of psychiatric treatments.

010

If the therapeutic effect of the drug is a plasticity mechanism, rather than the acute effects of receptor occupancy, this could provide a mechanistic justification for further exploring extended interval dosing for antipsychotic treatments, with the hope of reducing side effects of the treatment.

Why might this be relevant? Based on receptor occupancy arguments, daily dosing is the default clinical choice. However, alternate-day regimens have only recently been explored clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT044... pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20868639/

clinicaltrials.gov

ClinicalTrials.gov

Georg Keller @georgkeller.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Very excited to share new work by Leonardo Lupori. In mice, a single dose of the antipsychotic clozapine results in changes to behavior and cortical activity patterns that remain detectable a week later. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

1198

Truly beautiful work. The first good evidence that prediction error driven plasticity actually functions to reduce prediction errors!

0144

Reposted by Georg Keller

Dinu F Albeanu @dinanthos.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Join us at TENSS 2026 to open black boxes, explain how things/brains work and debate the impact (or lack or it) of various new technologies on understanding of the brain and on society. tenss.ro Apply by: March 15th!

01817

Reposted by Georg Keller

Alex Schier @schierlab.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Deadline March 1. Join the new Dietschy Facility for Tissue Science. www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/open-positio...

biozentrum.unibas.ch

Research Specialist in Microscopy and Spatial Transcriptomics (80-100%)

176

Georg Keller @georgkeller.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

and the idea of internal models for motor control (Jordan, Rumelhart, Kawato, Wolpert) – combined with the beautiful music box spacetime attractor ideas coming out of @behrenstimb.bsky.social ’s lab are the most promising approach we currently have to try to understand how cortex works.

020

Georg Keller @georgkeller.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

We suspect, a model that combines the self-supervised learning of JEPA (@yann-lecun.bsky.social and team), the credit assignment and capacity to work on arbitrary graphs of predictive processing (work of the lab of Rafal Bogacz),

120

Georg Keller @georgkeller.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

We think cortex might function like a JEPA. It looks like prediction errors in layer 2/3 are not computed against input (as is the idea in predictive processing), but against a representation in latent space (i.e. like in a JEPA arxiv.org/abs/2301.08243 or RPL doi.org/10.1101/2025...).

arxiv.org

Self-Supervised Learning from Images with a Joint-Embedding Predictive Architecture

This paper demonstrates an approach for learning highly semantic image representations without relying on hand-crafted data-augmentations. We introduce the Image-based Joint-Embedding Predictive Archi...

24512

Reposted by Georg Keller

allen institute @alleninstitute.org · 12/01/2026

Join leading scientists for a 3.5-day #LakeConference discussion on: "The Neurobiology of Mental Health" at the level of genes, cell types, organoids, circuits, networks and brain systems. Learn more & apply by January 31: lakeconferences.org/conf/1ed63fdb-d…

The Neurobiology of Mental Health 2026 from May 17 – May 21 in Thun, Switzerland.

076

Reposted by Georg Keller

Lake Conferences @lakeconferences.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Join us this May to explore the biological mechanisms of mental health challenges and treatment strategies. Apply by January 31: lakeconferences.org

lakeconferences.org

Home - Lake Conferences

023

Reposted by Georg Keller

Friedemann Zenke @fzenke.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

1/6 New preprint 🚀 How does the cortex learn to represent things and how they move without reconstructing sensory stimuli? We developed a circuit-centric recurrent predictive learning (RPL) model based on JEPAs. 🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025... Led by @atenagm.bsky.social @mshalvagal.bsky.social

314242

Reposted by Georg Keller

FMI science @fmiscience.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

In this first-person account, FMI’s senior communications manager describes taking part in an early human trial that adapts previous experiments in mice to explore how the human brain responds when visual and auditory information suddenly fall out of sync. www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

fmi.ch

Inside the tunnel: Experiencing the brain’s response to sensory mismatches

021

Reposted by Georg Keller

allen institute @alleninstitute.org · 03/11/2025

Applications are open for the #LakeConference on the Neurobiology of Mental Health in Lake Thun, Switzerland. 📆 May 17-21, 2026 🏔️ All career stages welcome ⏳ Apply by January 31, 2026 Learn more and apply: t.co/WcuXHdWnFa @lakeconferences.bsky.social

064

Reposted by Georg Keller

Philipp Sterzer @psterzer.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Very much looking forward to this collaboration with @georgkeller.bsky.social at @fmiscience.bsky.social, using a cross-species approach in humans and mice to investigate the effects of antipsychotics on cortical circuit function.

0122

Reposted by Georg Keller

Lake Conferences @lakeconferences.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Join us for the second Neurobiology of Mental Health conference (May 2026) that will explore the biological mechanisms underlying mental health challenges and their treatment. Information and application on: lakeconferences.org. The deadline for applications is January 31st, 2026.

lakeconferences.org

Home - Lake Conferences

096

Reposted by Georg Keller

Philipp Sterzer @psterzer.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Please share: Postdoc position available in a new collaborative SNSF project with @georgkeller.bsky.social at @fmiscience.bsky.social using a cross-species approach in humans and mice to investigate the cortical circuit mechanisms underlying schizophrenia. Apply at karriere.upk.ch/Postdoctoral...

karriere.upk.ch

Stellenangebot Postdoctoral Researcher (PostDoc m/f) 100% Translational Psychiatry Lab for 2 Years bei Universitäre Psychiatrische Kliniken Basel UPK

Forschung in Klinik für Erwachsene (UPKE)

11512

Reposted by Georg Keller

Kris Jensen @kristorpjensen.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

I’m super excited to finally put my recent work with @behrenstimb.bsky.social on bioRxiv, where we develop a new mechanistic theory of how PFC structures adaptive behaviour using attractor dynamics in space and time! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

922286

Reposted by Georg Keller

FMI science @fmiscience.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

This year's Ruth Chiquet Prize goes to @solygamagda.bsky.social, who sent a video message, for her work on how the brain detects sensory mismatches. Read more at: www.fmi.ch/news-events/...

0113

Reposted by Georg Keller

FMI science @fmiscience.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

🚨 We're hiring, please share! The FMI seeks a tenure-track Group Leader (Assistant Prof) in Structural Biology 🔬 Innovative scientists in genome regulation, RNA metabolism, or protein homeostasis—especially using cutting-edge approaches—apply now at www.fmi.ch/education-ca...

06166

Georg Keller @georgkeller.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

I often get asked “do you think visuomotor mismatch responses are a mouse thing?” – it looks like at least humans have them as well. very excited by this!

0101

If so, this would mean - as you also propose - that the responses indeed won't always be easily interpretable.

010

My current best guess is that cortex implements something like a JEPA and uses local error computations to implement credit assignment (or backprop if the system is hierarchical) the way Rafal Bogacz has suggested.

230

I also think the predictive processing model is wrong, but for slightly different reasons. These pertain to the way superficial and deep layers in cortex appear to interact that are not consistent with predictive processing (@loghyr.bsky.social‬ will have a preprint on this soon).

210

i.e. if the coding space of your population can represent bimodal distributions (in a non-trivial way), so can the prediction errors. And regarding the role of prediction errors in driving plasticity, the problem is the same for gradient descent in backprop.

Good point, but I don’t think that is different from other models of cortical function? Regarding the role of prediction errors in updating internal representations, the coding space of predictions, prediction errors, and internal representation just needs to match.