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Jim Heys

@jim-heys.bsky.social
372 followers 461 following 32 posts

Prof @UUNeurobiology. Father, scientist. Lover of music, ethereal landscapes, and getting lost in both. He/him 🇨🇦

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Reposted by Jim Heys
Soledad Gonzalo Cogno @soledad-gcogno.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
📢🔥🎉🤩 New preprint from the lab, in collaboration with @clopathlab.bsky.social ! What network mechanisms generate a diversity of neural activity sequences within and across circuits? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵👇
biorxiv.org
A common structure in recurrent networks supports neural sequence generation locally and in downstream neurons
Neural sequences, characterized by neurons or groups of neurons that fire one after the other, have been observed in multiple brain regions, across species, and are known to underlie a diversity of br...
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I’m very excited to share our new paper, led by the very talented Jack Bowler, a postdoc in the lab! www.nature.com/articles/s41... We all know that the way we learn something matters. But how does a training curriculum actually shape how the brain learns to solve a problem? a 🧵 1/N
nature.com
Structured experience shapes strategy learning and neural dynamics in the medial entorhinal cortex - Nature Neuroscience
The authors use recurrent neural networks to predict how structured prior experience shapes neural dynamics as mice learn flexible timing strategies during complex context-dependent behavior.
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Andrew MacAskill @macaskillaf.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Congrats @jespass.bsky.social on her new paper! PFC is widely thought to talk to HPC via nucleus reuniens - but no one has tested if this actual connectivity exists. Turns out it's wired to block it: PFC inputs to reuniens contact only neurons projecting back to PFC, not ones projecting to HPC. 🧪🧠📈
biorxiv.org
Nucleus reuniens is organised as parallel circuits rather than a prefrontal-hippocampal relay
Interactions between the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus (HPC) are crucial for flexible and memory guided behaviour. Because there are no direct projections from PFC to HPC, it is widely presu...
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Big congrats to @cambria-jensen.bsky.social on being awarded an NIH F31 fellowship today! Her project brings together training in MTL circuits in our lab with expertise in sensory circuits from the Wachowiak lab. This award reflects her talent, hard work, and perseverance. Way to go, Cambria!!
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Chris Zimmerman @czimmerman.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Excited to join this community and very grateful for the support!
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Mazen Kheirbek @mazenkheirbek.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
New preprint from the lab. @markgergues.bsky.social and crew show that the PVT gates ventral hippocampal salience coding, shifting output between threat- and reward-weighted representations during associative learning and anxiety-related behavior. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Cristian Gutierrez-Ibañez @gallinaciega.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Proposed structures/ mechanisms for magnetic sensing in bird (so far): 1) In the beak/ trigeminal Nerve (biogenic magnetite) 2) radical pair-Cryptochrome mediated reaction in the retina 3) The lagena 4) Vestibular canals (electromagnetic induction) 5) Supermagnetic macrophages in the liver.
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Feeling energized after hearing this year’s Rising Stars in Neuroscience speak about their science. It has been a real pleasure getting to know this talented group over the last three days.
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Excited to share the upcoming 6th Annual Rising Stars in Neuroscience Symposium @utah.edu! great lineup of graduate students presenting exciting neuroscience research. Looking forward to a fun couple days of science and discussion with a fantastic group of early career scientists.
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Aaron Milstein @neurosutras.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
I am so proud to share @gritz122.bsky.social my first PhD student's first preprint! This #compneurosky #neuroscience study tackles a controversial question in hippocampal place cell research – do place fields require spatially tuned synaptic inhibition? (1/5) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Sam Gershman @gershbrain.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
To accompany my textbook (Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience) and the class I taught this semester, I'm open-sourcing my lectures slides: gershmanlab.com/lectures.html I'll continue to update these as I improve them.
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Emily A. Aery Jones @emilyaeryjones.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
My main postdoc work is now published: www.nature.com/articles/s41...! We (myself, Isabel Low, Frances Cho, and @lgiocomo.bsky.social) discovered task-relevant remote representations in entorhinal cortex independent of CA1. #paperthread below! 1/13
nature.com
Entorhinal cortex represents task-relevant remote locations independently of CA1 - Nature Neuroscience
Neurons in medial entorhinal cortex collectively represent discrete nonlocal positions during immobility. During this nonlocal coding, CA1 is uncoupled from entorhinal cortex. These representations ar...
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
My mom represents many people who haven’t typically been as politically active but recognize that this is such a critical moment for everyone to speak up. Go mom! #NoKings
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Constantinople lab @constantinoplelab.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Thrilled to share our new paper, which shows that the relative timing of cholinergic and dopamine release dynamically gates whether dopamine acts as an RPE for in vivo plasticity and reinforcement learning. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Acetylcholine demixes heterogeneous dopamine signals for learning and moving
Nature Neuroscience - Jang et al. measured dopamine and acetylcholine release in the striatum of rats performing a decision-making task and found that the relative timing of cholinergic and...
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Rafael Dai Prá @rdaipra.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
I had the wonderful opportunity to be part of Rising Stars Symposium this year and it was amazing! Great science, great people and a great place!! It was one of my highlights of this year! If you are a neuro grad student, I highly encourage you to apply! ✨
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Chunyu Ann Duan @annduan.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
New preprint from the lab! A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We use a novel task in mice, cortex-wide imaging and optogenetics, NPX recording and modelling to reveal a circuit mechanism that transforms abstract decisions to spatial actions.
biorxiv.org
A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions
Flexible behaviour requires transforming abstract cognitive representations, such as value preferences, into concrete motor actions. During economic decision-making, individuals evaluate options to gu...
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Neuro grad students! Applications for the 6th annual - Rising Stars in Neuroscience - due Jan 9! Don’t miss this chance to present research, sharpen science communication skills and connect with peers & faculty. Plus you’ll get to experience stunning Utah! medicine.utah.edu/neurobiology...
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Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
“Our findings challenge the conventional focus on low-dimensional coding subspaces as a sufficient framework for understanding neural computations, demonstrating that dimensions previously considered task-irrelevant and accounting for little variance can have a critical role in driving behavior.”
biorxiv.org
Neural dynamics outside task-coding dimensions drive decision trajectories through transient amplification
Most behaviors involve neural dynamics in high-dimensional activity spaces. A common approach is to extract dimensions that capture task-related variability, such as those separating stimuli or choice...
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Highly recommend checking out Thomas’ lab! Perfect for students and postdocs looking for rigorous training and a chance to help shape the next wave of the field.
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
That’s a wrap on #SfN2025 for our lab. Feeling grateful to do neuroscience with such an outstanding group — and to catch up with friends and colleagues across the community. SfN always reminds me how lucky we are to be part of this field.
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Today’s the day—our lab presents this afternoon at #SfN2025! Stop by and check out the new work.
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Excited to share new work from our lab at #SfN2025! @sfn.org Posters on how the brain learns about time and space—from foraging and MEC dynamics, to RNN + hippocampus in curriculum learning, to MTL vs striatal activity across learning, and cognitive aging in social isolation stress. Check them out!
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John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
thanks for speaking out @markhisted.org
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Thomas Luo @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
How does the brain decide? 🧠 Our new @nature.com paper shows that neural activity switches from an 'evidence gathering' to a 'commitment' state at a precise moment we call nTc. After nTc, new evidence is ignored, revealing a neural marker for the instant when the mind is made up. rdcu.be/eGUrv
nature.com
Transitions in dynamical regime and neural mode during perceptual decisions - Nature
Simultaneous recordings were made of hundreds of neurons in the rat frontal cortex and striatum, showing that decision commitment involves a rapid, coordinated transition in dynamical regime and neura...
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Congratulations to the Rising Stars in Neuroscience – Class of 2025! This is one of my favorite events each year, and this year was no exception. Keep an eye on this incredible group of scientists—they’re doing amazing things!
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Heading to #COSYNE2025? Don't miss our latest work, led by Jack Bowler, on curriculum learning! We've uncovered how recurrent networks in the entorhinal cortex and RNNs develop specific dynamical mechanisms for abstract learning, depending on how they are trained. Poster #1-058| Thursday Eve
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
Perfect day on the mountain with my little shredder! ❄️⛷️ Fresh snow, big smiles, and a well-earned après—hot chocolate for him, a beer for me. #DadLife #ApresSki
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Just spent 30 hours reviewing for an NIH study section set for Thursday—now postponed indefinitely. 20 other scientists did the same. This is happening across multiple sections. A huge waste of time, resources, and funding, with real costs for science and economy. Trump admin is bad for everyone.
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Jim Heys @jim-heys.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
Being a scientist in the U.S. feels especially stressful right now. Here’s a bit of early morning backcountry ski zen to share with you.
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anil oza @aniloza.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
BREAKING: Federal judge extends the restraining order on NIH capping indirect costs to 15% www.statnews.com/2025/02/21/t...
statnews.com
Federal judge extends restraining order on Trump administration's cap on NIH indirect costs
Judge Angel Kelley kept in place an order blocking the Trump administration from implementing a 15% cap on NIH indirect cost payments
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Scott Delaney @scott-delaney.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
NIH indirects case update: Hearing ongoing now, and I'll try to live tweet some notable exchanges. Prior to more detailed arguments, Judge Kelley starts off with a few point questions to both sides: (I'm paraphrasing here)
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