#PostdocJob from the #RuedigerLab at #UCL, London:

"I’m excited to share that we have an opening for a postdoctoral position in my lab at University College London. This role is funded by the Wellcome Trust and offers a unique chance to join our team as we work to understand how cortical and subcortical visual circuits work together to turn visual signals into learned actions in mice.
In this role, you will:
• Design and perform innovative experiments in head-fixed and freely moving mice
• Use advanced techniques like #Neuropixels recordings and two-photon calcium imaging to monitor and analyze brain activity
• Collaborate closely with a diverse team of experimentalists and computational neuroscientists
• Contribute to the preparation and dissemination of our research findings through publications and conference presentations

This is a fantastic opportunity to make original contributions to our growing research group. If you have a strong background in in vivo physiology, mouse behavioral studies, and relevant data analysis - and you’re eager to expand your skills while playing a key role in our projects - I’d love to hear from you.

For further details, including the full job description, please check out:
Job Ad

I look forward to the possibility of you joining our team.
Sarah"

#NeuroESC #JournalClub
Reading Mental exploration of future choices during immobility theta oscillations

If you've read it, will you let me know what you think?

The authors look at #ThetaSequences in a working memory task in a radial arm maze. They find theta during immobility (makes sense, e.g. we saw that in our two-goals task). They also find that theta sequences might preferentially represent the next goal (also makes sense, e.g. Hippocampal theta sequences reflect current goals)!

I have only done a quick reading so far, but am confused by a few points:

• the decoding is done on all cells (pyramidals and interneurons), shouldn't it be done on pyramidal or #PlaceCells only?
• the cell counts are quite low (often less than 40 pyrs) when I would have thought at least 50 place cells would be needed for this kind of maze. I guess that shows that #Neuropixels are not the best to record from dCA1!

• the decoded algorithm itself includes a ' position transition matrix' which seems like it would bias decoding towards realistic trajectories that the rat is about to do??? (but I probably missed something)

• also, this study is very related to this other paper, which is not discussed or even cited ( ):
  Assembly Responses of Hippocampal CA1 Place Cells Predict Learned Behavior in Goal-Directed Spatial Tasks on the Radial Eight-Arm Maze #CsisvariLab

Let me know what you think!