Christian Schnell
LightNews LightNews
neuroschnell.bsky.social
Christian Schnell
@neuroschnell.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.7K following 8 posts
Neuroscience Editor and Section Manager at PLOS Biology #OpenScience
How does the brain work and what's happening when things go wrong?
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Christian Schnell
anilseth.bsky.social
1/ "Hemispherotomy leads to persistent sleep-like slow waves in the isolated cortex of awake humans" - out now in @plosbiology.org, led by Michele Colombo, Jacopo Favaro, & Marcello Massimini. 🧠
October 17, 2025 at 7:57 AM
neuroschnell.bsky.social
A liability framework for high-risk neural devices | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A liability framework for high-risk neural devices
A no-fault compensation scheme may help balance innovation and patient protection
www.science.org
June 13, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
imagingneurosci.bsky.social
New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Britta U. Westner, Tim M. Tierney, et al:

Cycling on the Freeway: The perilous state of open-source neuroscience software

doi.org/10.1162/imag...
May 7, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
carlosbrody.bsky.social
we're crowd-sourcing a searchable repository of tangible benefits stemming from federally-funded research. Come enjoy the great stories; or send in an idea; or volunteer to join the team.

publicusaresearchbenefits.com

please share and re-share so we get more great stories in there!
Searchable database of tangible benefits that federally-funded research gave us.
A crowd-sourced site. Health and Well-being. National Security. Prosperity.
publicusaresearchbenefits.com
May 7, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
plosbiology.org
The directed motion of #CerebrospinalFluid #CSF in the #brain is key for the distribution & removal of solutes, but how is this flux modulated? @bzottlab.bsky.social &co show that changes in total cerebral #blood volume drive the flow of CSF in humans @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4lOrHKm
Coupled neuronal activity, gGM, PFI, and CSF fMRI signals during burst-suppression anesthesia. Top left: Experimental design: fMRI recording under deep sevoflurane anesthesia in a Philips Achieva 3.0T scanner. Bottom left: Example scan positioning in a representative subject. Schematic depiction of the fMRI volume superimposed on a sagittal T1-weighted image with representative slice positions for the gGM and PFI masks and slice 1, which contains the CSF mask. Middle: Simultaneous recordings of the EEG with an MRI-compatible, 64-electrode cap with equidistantly arranged electrodes (Easycap) and of three fMRI masks, depicted in representative slices: gGM (white), PFI (blue), and CSF (red). Right: Simultaneously recorded signal time courses from one subject under burst-suppression anesthesia: EEG (green), gGM fMRI (black), PFI fMRI (blue), and CSF fMRI (red). Suppression and burst periods are indicated in light blue and light orange, respectively.
April 28, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
plosbiology.org
What is the neural basis of attractive #SerialDependence? This study shows that a previous decision is reactivated during both sensory encoding and #DecisionMaking, creating a 2-stage “repulsive-followed-by-attractive” past-present interaction process @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/42JCYmq
Schematic of the two-stage operational mechanism for serial dependence. The past-trial goal-based report (upper panel), stored in distinct mnemonic formats in the sensory (purple box) and prefrontal cortex (green box) (middle panel), is reactivated during present-trial information processing (lower panel). The past–present interactions occur in two stages: early repulsion and late attraction.
April 28, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
plosbiology.org
Are action potentials in vertebrate muscle essential for contraction? This study of #zebrafish lacking #SodiumChannel NaV1.4 reveals that NaVs are dispensable for #muscle contraction, so the need for muscle #ActionPotentials can vary between vertebrates @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/42EXQwx
Top: Snapshots of the representative escape responses of WT (upper) and NaVDKO (lower) zebrafish at 4 dpf in normal water. Images were captured every 2 ms. Scale bar: 1 mm. Middle: Representative Ca2+ imaging of WT myocytes at 3 dpf embryos. Numbers below the images indicate time from the beginning of the recording. Fluorescent intensity is shown in color. Bottom: Ca2+ imaging of WT myocytes at 5 dpf in the presence of 1 μM TTX.
April 28, 2025 at 9:43 AM
neuroschnell.bsky.social
Feedback from an avatar has different effects on decision making than feedback from another human @plosbiology.org: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour... #neurosky #neuroscience
Feedback from an avatar facilitates risk-taking by modulating the amygdala response to feedback uncertainty
How does our brain process interactions with an avatar compared to real human being? This study shows that feedback from an avatar increases risk-taking behavior in humans and is associated with lower...
dx.plos.org
April 23, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
thepsychologist.bsky.social
Deadline extended to 28th April!! Summer School in Computational Social Cognition with fantastic keynotes by Matthew Rushworth, @dianatamir.bsky.social and @davidamodio.bsky.social. Come & learn more about computational modelling, make new friends, & explore the UK's 2nd largest city 🙂👇. Please RT!
thepsychologist.bsky.social Patricia Lockwood @thepsychologist.bsky.social · Feb 18
🌟 Join us for the 2nd Birmingham-Leiden Summer School in Computational Social Cognition! Amazing line-up of keynote speakers and instructors, new topics, and only £480 with 4 nights accommodation, social events and meals included! 🌟

www.compsoccog.com
lei-zhang.bsky.social Lei Zhang | 张磊 @lei-zhang.bsky.social · Feb 17
🚨 SUMMER SCHOOL!

Announcing the 2nd Birmingham-Leiden Summer School in Computational Social Cognition, Sep 2-5, 2025.

Fantastic line-up of keynote: Matthew Rushworth, Diana Tamir @dianatamir.bsky.social, and David Amodio @davidamodio.bsky.social .

👇
Apply by 18 April (compsoccog.com) and RT!
April 17, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
plosbiology.org
The cerebellum is known to control limb movements; does it also control the tongue? @rezashadmehr.bsky.social &co reveal how the #cerebellum controls the #tongue in marmosets, highlighting the role of #PurkinjeCells in terminating tongue movement at the target @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4lCK9Wj
Marmosets produced dexterous tongue movements during recordings from the cerebellar vermis. Left: Subjects made saccades to visual targets and received a small amount of food as reward via one of two tubes placed obliquely to the mouth. In the task-relevant licks, they directed their tongue to the edge of the tube to harvest food near the tip (trajectories 2, 4), or inside the tube to harvest food that was deeper (trajectories 1, 5). In task irrelevant licks, they groomed their face (trajectory 3). Top right: Subjects chose to work for consecutive trials, making saccades and allowing the food to accumulate, then harvested their cache in bouts of licking. Bottom right: The authors employed silicon probes to record from lobule VI and VII of the vermis.
April 15, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
arukon0.bsky.social
🔬 Want to improve research transparency?
Join this webinar with experts from
@plosbiology.org!

Learn how this format enhances reproducibility & benefits science.

🎤 Dr. @npariente.bsky.social & Dr. Nikki Osborne from
@rrr-research.bsky.social
📅 April 30, 3 PM CEST #OpenScience
April 16, 2025 at 10:27 AM
neuroschnell.bsky.social
Ten principles for reliable, efficient, and adaptable coding in psychology and cognitive neuroscience: www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Ten principles for reliable, efficient, and adaptable coding in psychology and cognitive neuroscience - Communications Psychology
Programming is essential for modern research in neuroscience and psychology, but it can quickly become a source of frustration and error. This Primer introduces ten practical principles guiding resear...
www.nature.com
April 16, 2025 at 8:28 AM
neuroschnell.bsky.social
I was pleased to this as a poster at Cosyne too!
plosbiology.org PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · Mar 24
How do worms navigate based on learned experience? @andrewleifer.bsky.social @jpillowtime.bsky.social &co reveal flexible behavioral strategies & distributed neural computations underlying learning-dependent odor #navigation in #Celegans @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4bYZs7c
Differentially modulated olfactory learning in C. elegans. Top left: Protocol for butanone associative training in worms. Top right: After exposure to different training regimens, worms’ olfactory navigation is measured in a controlled odor environment. Bottom: Example trajectory after three different training conditions.
March 31, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
plosbiology.org
How do worms navigate based on learned experience? @andrewleifer.bsky.social @jpillowtime.bsky.social &co reveal flexible behavioral strategies & distributed neural computations underlying learning-dependent odor #navigation in #Celegans @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4bYZs7c
Differentially modulated olfactory learning in C. elegans. Top left: Protocol for butanone associative training in worms. Top right: After exposure to different training regimens, worms’ olfactory navigation is measured in a controlled odor environment. Bottom: Example trajectory after three different training conditions.
March 24, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
droutledge.bsky.social
"after all, scientists are problem-solvers. If the solution was easy, wouldn’t we have figured it out by now?"

Check out my Editorial w/ @npariente.bsky.social discussing portable peer review, reviewer pools, AI, paying reviewers... &other solutions proposed for making peer review more sustainable🧪
plosbiology.org PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · Mar 26
The term "reviewer fatigue” has become familiar in scientific publishing. In this Editorial, @droutledge.bsky.social & @npariente.bsky.social discuss how we can make the peer review system more sustainable & ways that PLOS Biology is already helping to ease the burden on reviewers🧪
▶️ plos.io/41YKIRa
On improving the sustainability of peer review
The term “reviewer fatigue” has become only too familiar in scientific publishing. This editorial discusses how we can ease the burden on reviewers to make the peer review system more sustainable, whi...
plos.io
March 26, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
plosbiology.org
Sleep regulation in #Drosophila. @sdissel.bsky.social &co show that #cholinergic #neurons in the dorsal fan-shaped body (dFB) play a major role in #sleep modulation in this neurochemically heterogeneous region of the fly brain 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/42uPczp
Top left: Representative brain confocal stack of dFB-Split>UAS-mCD8GFP. Green, anti-GFP; magenta, anti-nc82. Top right: Representative brain confocal stack of dFB-Split>UAS-Kir2.1.EGFP. The authors observed 23.40 ± 0.75 (n = 5) dFB23E10Ո84C10 neurons in dFB-Split>UAS-Kir2.1.EGFP brains. Green, anti-GFP; magenta, anti-nc82. Bottom left: Representative confocal stack of a female VGlut-AD (84713); 23E10-DBD>UAS-mCD8GFP brain. Yellow and red arrows show non-dFB neurons. Green, anti-GFP; magenta, anti-nc82 (neuropile marker). Bottom right: Representative confocal stack of a female VGlut-AD (82986); 23E10-DBD>UAS-mCD8GFP brain. Yellow and red arrows show non-dFB neurons. Green, anti-GFP; magenta, anti-nc82 (neuropile marker).
March 28, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
sdissel.bsky.social
I am pleased to report that our paper on dFB neurons is available on Plos Biology. I am extremely grateful to Dave and Brandon, my grad students, Jen, our technician/lab manager and the many undergraduate students involved in this.

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
The dorsal fan-shaped body is a neurochemically heterogeneous sleep-regulating center in Drosophila
The role of the dorsal fan-shaped body in sleep regulation in Drosophila is contested. This study shows that cholinergic neurons in the dorsal fan-shaped body play a major role in sleep modulation in ...
journals.plos.org
March 27, 2025 at 2:14 PM
neuroschnell.bsky.social
Just arrived in Montreal yesterday night and look forward to attending my first #cosyne conference. Let me know if you are around and would like to chat about publishing your work in @plosbiology.org or just meet for a coffee #cosyne2025
March 27, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
thetransmitter.bsky.social
Neuroscience faces a unique problem: It is the only field of research in which the researcher’s understanding is generated by the very thing it is trying to understand, writes @markdhumphries.bsky.social in his latest column for The Transmitter.

www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...
The limits of neuroscience
Truly understanding the brain requires conditions we’re unlikely to meet: that knowledge of the brain is finite, accessible and understandable.
www.thetransmitter.org
March 13, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
plosbiology.org
We're in BPoD again! Fantastic images from @b-wink.bsky.social (you can see another pic of hers in pole position on our homepage this week: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/)
February 26, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
kordinglab.bsky.social
Sam Gershman writes beautifully about how theory-free neuroscience prevents the field from reaching its promise. Beautiful and true. Most folks do not test hypotheses. Running a NHST does not a hypothesis make. www.thetransmitter.org/theoretical-...
Breaking the barrier between theorists and experimentalists
Many neuroscience students are steeped in an experiment-first style of thinking. Let’s not forget how theory can guide experiments.
www.thetransmitter.org
February 24, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
plosbiology.org
The #BloodBrainBarrier (BBB) prevents immune cells & pathogens from entering the brain. @b-wink.bsky.social &co show that during #neuroinflammation in #Drosophila, immune cells can cross the BBB by degrading its ECM through a JAK/STAT-regulated pathway 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/4k1TTIG
Third instar larval brain of the genotype [repo-Gal4 UAS-PGRP-LE STAT92E::GFP mdr65-tdTomato] stained forSTAT activity (anti-GFP staining, green), subperineurial glial cells (anti-dsRed staining, magenta), and neural lamella (anti-Laminin staining, blue). Credit: Bente Winkler
February 21, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
plosbiology.org
PLOS has issued a statement on recent US Executive Orders and scientific integrity.

We are determined to stand firmly behind our mission, our values and our principles, and against any attempt at censorship or undermining of the core principles of scientific inquiry.

plos.io/3D4O8cH
PLOS statement on recent US Executive Orders and scientific integrity - The Official PLOS Blog
Since its founding over twenty five years ago PLOS has been dedicated to advancing open science, ensuring that knowledge is accessible to…
plos.io
February 21, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
plosbiology.org
How is SNARE-mediated synaptic vesicle release regulated in inhibitory #synapses? This study reveals that the #exocytosis regulator complexin controls spontaneous synaptic vesicle release in a CAPS-dependent manner in #Celegans inhibitory synapses 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/4jRm255
UNC-31 regulates enhanced spontaneous release in the excitatory synapses of cpx-1 mutants. The image shows representative body bending states (top) and color maps of curvature (bottom) in wild-type, cpx-1(ok1552), cpx-1(ok1552); unc-31(e928), cpx-1(Δ12), and cpx-1(Δ12); unc-31(e928) worms.
February 7, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by Christian Schnell
sampendu.bsky.social
We checked how easy it is to match up people's brain maps after spatial normalisation. Turns out very! Maybe that surprising to many in the field - but my impression has long been that people are a bit in denial about deidentifying data. #neuroskyence #visionscience

doi.org/10.1101/2024...
Retinotopic mapping data permit accurate matching of participants across different datasets
Public sharing of neuroimaging data is becoming increasingly common for the advancement and validation of scientific research. However, this sharing poses challenges regarding privacy and data safety,...
doi.org
February 3, 2025 at 9:42 PM