Desdemona Fricker
Neuroscientist and Research Director @CNRS. «Orientation&Coordination» team. Head direction, interneurons, memory. Saints-Pères, Paris 👩🔬🧠
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerWe had a lot of fun doing these experiments! Theta sweeps in MEC and internal direction signals in parasubiculum track moving objects during pursuit and reverse during backward movement. Simultaneously recorded HD cells in other areas remain locked to head direction across behaviors:
- The hippocampal map has its own attentional control signal! Our new study reveals that theta #sweeps can be instantly biased towards behaviourally relevant locations. See 📹 in post 4/6 and preprint here 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵(1/6)
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerIf you are a PhD student or post-doc who wants to learn everything about #electrophysiology or #imaging, consider registering to the Paris Spring school in optical imaging and electrophysiology, that will take place in the center of Paris 11-23 May 2026. Application deadline Feb 2nd parisneuro.ovh
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerActive locomotion predictively rescues head direction attractor dynamics in head-fixed mice biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerFantastic work!
- Coincidence of thalamic HD signal and retrosplenial visual input is detected in the Presubiculum! 🎯 This may be the neuronal basis for landmark anchoring of the HD signal. Pleased to announce the VOR is now available elifesciences.org/articles/92443 Congrats first author Louis Richevaux 🙌
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerI’m very happy to share the latest from my lab published in @Nature Hippocampal neurons that initially encode reward shift their tuning over the course of days to precede or predict reward. Full text here: rdcu.be/eY5nh
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker1/6: New publication from the lab: “Plastic landmark anchoring in zebrafish compass neurons” by Ryosuke Tanaka (@ryosuketanaka.bsky.social) and Ruben is available here: rdcu.be/eX1L4
- Coincidence of thalamic HD signal and retrosplenial visual input is detected in the Presubiculum! 🎯 This may be the neuronal basis for landmark anchoring of the HD signal. Pleased to announce the VOR is now available elifesciences.org/articles/92443 Congrats first author Louis Richevaux 🙌
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker1/n: A new collaborative preprint from the lab to start the year: "A multi-ring shifter network computes head direction in zebrafish" together with Siyuan Mei, Martin Stemmler and Andreas Herz from the LMU, Munich.
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker1. New preprint resolving a conundrum in systems neuroscience with an AI scientist, and humans Reilly Tilbury, Dabin Kwon, @haydari.bsky.social, @jacobmratliff.bsky.social, @bio-emergent.bsky.social, @carandinilab.net, @kevinjmiller.bsky.social, @neurokim.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker📢 We are organising the Senses in Motion conference for the third time, and we are now accepting abstracts for posters or talks. Deadline for abstracts: 19 December Conference dates: 18–21 May 2026 Location: Harnack House, Berlin Register via this page👇 sensesinmotion.org #neuroskyence #neurosky
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerNo GPS in the head? Path integration by entorhinal grid cells without the grid pattern. Interesting paper from Heidelberg. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerNeuroscience projects last several years, and you are usually a bit jaded by the time you wrap it up. Not this one– spending several months on an island in the middle of nowhere, away from all the craziness of the world reminds you how beautiful the world really is. www.youtube.com/watch?v=46sv...
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerReally excited to share this Opinion piece we've been working on with fellow head-direction cell geeks @apeyrache.bsky.social @desdemonafricker.bsky.social and (bsky-less?) Andrea Burgalossi! While head-direction cells pop up in many cortical regions, we think that one of them is quite unique (1/8)
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker🚨new paper: the head-direction circuit as a model of primary thalamocortical system. Check this out 👇 kudos to @adrian-du.bsky.social for the huge amount of work put into this opinion piece, starting with the beautiful figures comparing the different thalamocortical systems 🤩
- Really excited to share this Opinion piece we've been working on with fellow head-direction cell geeks @apeyrache.bsky.social @desdemonafricker.bsky.social and (bsky-less?) Andrea Burgalossi! While head-direction cells pop up in many cortical regions, we think that one of them is quite unique (1/8)
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerTravel awards are available for undergraduate students looking to attend #Cosyne25! The application is short, and the deadline is Nov 12. @cosynemeeting.bsky.social Application: shorturl.at/6NEyk More info: www.cosyne.org/travel-grants (1/2)
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerDear #ParisNeuroscience community, here is the schedule of the upcoming 'Neural Networking Night' season !
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker2/6 Recording in decision-making regions from many neurons at once revealed the neurons' collective evolution as decisions were made Each decision had two phases: first, neural state was sensitive to sensory inputs; then, trajectories in neural state space turned and became insensitive to inputs.
- Voir Montrer Regarder 👀 Observer Mesurer Vérifier #SciArt If you are in Paris in September check out our exhibit “Regards Croisés”: Come for the Art, stay for the Science ! This scientific outreach event is supported by @c-brains.bsky.social, @sppin-cnrs.bsky.social and the Capitainerie de l’Isle.
- 🎨🔬 Quand l’art rencontre la science ! Le SPPIN est heureux de vous annoncer l'Expo #SciArt “Regards Croisés” avec l’artiste Sophie Sainte-Marie-Heim et notre collègue @desdemonafricker.bsky.social 🗓 22–28 sept. 2025 📍 Capitainerie de l’Isle, 26 rue Chanoinesse, Paris 4e Venez nombreux !
- Thanks to the Capitainerie de l’Isle and to Nathalie for hosting our exhibit ✨
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerHow 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
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker🚨New preprint alert! The thalamus has long been seen as a relay of sensory signals to cortex. But could it also generate its own structured activity? Our study explores this question in the head-direction (HD) system. Some explanation 🧵👇 1/13 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker*New preprint from the lab* – “Granularity of thalamic head direction cells” doi.org/10.1101/2025... 🧠📈 🧪 1/11
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerHappy to share our new paper with Mathilde Nordlund and Julie Koenig out @currentbiology.bsky.social. We used virtual reality in mice to study hippocampal distance coding. Our results suggest a primary contribution of grid cells to distance over cue-dependent place cell coding. shorturl.at/63yFo
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerThrilled to share that our work is now published in Science! ✨ We found a preference for visual objects in the mouse spatial navigation system where they dynamically refine head-direction coding. In short, objects boost our inner compass! 🧭 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵1/
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerAnd the Valero / Buzsaki paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerTwo flagship papers from the International Brain Laboratory, now out in @Nature.com: 🧠 Brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour: doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09235-0 🧠 Brain-wide representations of prior information in mouse decision-making: doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09226-1 +
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerThe main project from my PhD, in collaboration with Manuela Allegra and @schlab.bsky.social is now available as a preprint! We wondered how the hippocampus and the visual cortex may differ in the way they refine sensory inputs into internal representations
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker🎨🔬 Quand l’art rencontre la science ! Le SPPIN est heureux de vous annoncer l'Expo #SciArt “Regards Croisés” avec l’artiste Sophie Sainte-Marie-Heim et notre collègue @desdemonafricker.bsky.social 🗓 22–28 sept. 2025 📍 Capitainerie de l’Isle, 26 rue Chanoinesse, Paris 4e Venez nombreux !
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker🚨PhD student position in #cognitive_psychology and #neuroscience, on a project directed by André Knops and in collaboration with the Dugué Lab! @upcite.bsky.social | @cnrs.fr Funded by the @agencerecherche.bsky.social (Agence nationale de la recherche) www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/42...
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker📣 We are expanding! Repost 🙏🏽 - Postdoc (funded by @simonsfoundation.org grant on synchronisation between cognitive representations and stepping) - Project Associates - Create your role! (Reach out if you are keen on these topics and these roles do not define you 👀🤗) www.neuroact.in
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerRemote activation of place codes by gaze in a highly visual animal www.nature.com/articles/s41... - very cool study with chickadees!
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker1/3) This may be a very important paper, it suggests that there are no prediction error encoding neurons in sensory areas of cortex: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... I personally am a big fan of the idea that cortical regions (allo and neo) are doing sequence prediction. But... 🧠📈 🧪
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerNew work! Learning is assumed to involve synaptic plasticity, but which specific synapses change to enable higher order cognitive functions? We actually find that cognitive flexibility involves potentiation of long-range GABAergic synapses from prefrontal PV neurons: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerGreat wave of @agencerecherche.bsky.social results for SPPIN ! Congrats to our researchers & their amazing partners! @desdemonafricker.bsky.social : HDNavigGO @npanayotis.bsky.social : ReGeNeRETT G. Caron: MNIONALS (JCJC) @brandonstell.bsky.social : AdaptingMovement @cnrs.fr @upcite.bsky.social
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerOur study is out in Nature! Using wireless Neuropixels we recorded hippocampal activity in freely flying bats and uncovered replay and theta(less) sweeps, revealing striking differences from classic rodent models. 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerOur new paper out now in Science explores how neural activity in the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) *drifts* over time - and *jumps* at key boundaries - to help organize events in memory. 🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Here's a quick summary of what we found 🧵👇
- Your brain doesn’t just passively track time ⏳ - it structures it. In @Science.org we show that activity in 🧠 memory circuits (LEC) drifts constantly, but makes sharp jumps at key moments, segmenting life into meaningful events. (1/2) 👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerYour brain doesn’t just passively track time ⏳ - it structures it. In @Science.org we show that activity in 🧠 memory circuits (LEC) drifts constantly, but makes sharp jumps at key moments, segmenting life into meaningful events. (1/2) 👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker🚶Aimlessly wandering around a city or exploring the new mall may seem unproductive, but new research led by @zh0ng0.bsky.social @marius10p.bsky.social @computingnature.bsky.social suggests it could play an important role in how our brains learn. 🧠 🔗 www.janelia.org/news/zoning-...
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker🚀 We are excited to share that bombcell is now available in Python! 🐍 Automatically sort your units into good/MUA/noise/non-somatic using quality metrics and interpretable & adjustable classification thresholds. pip install and play around with our toy dataset: 🔗 github.com/Julie-Fabre/...
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerI really recommend sending your students to the Paris Spring School, many imaging and ephys techniques are covered in pretty good depth and the atmosphere is consistently fantastic every year! And in such a setting! parisneuro.ovh
- Running Paris Spring School practicals this week! The fabulous @maxime-beau.bsky.social is teaching the ins and outs of Neuropixels recordings, with help from the brilliant Marin Dauguet and all the team. @upcite.bsky.social @sppin-cnrs.bsky.social #neuroscience 👩🔬🧠 parisneuro.ovh
- Running Paris Spring School practicals this week! The fabulous @maxime-beau.bsky.social is teaching the ins and outs of Neuropixels recordings, with help from the brilliant Marin Dauguet and all the team. @upcite.bsky.social @sppin-cnrs.bsky.social #neuroscience 👩🔬🧠 parisneuro.ovh
- Marin is also on bluesky! @mardau.bsky.social
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerI am at #NeuroFrance2025 in Montpellier 🇫🇷🥖🥳 Getting excited about our symposium on #Coordinating #vision, #orientation, and #navigation 👁️🧭🐾 with: @gbouvier.bsky.social @sepikeshavarzi.bsky.social @mayankmehta.bsky.social @socneuro.bsky.social #neuroscience 🧠
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerNew preprint out in eLife! Neurons in medical entorhinal cortex (MEC) develop responses to visual cues and reward as mice learn a visual Go/NoGo task. elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerMark you calendar! We will host Stephanie Rudolph from @einsteinmededu.bsky.social for her talk: "A Mechanism for Amplifying Sparse Neuromodulatory Signals in Electrically Coupled Interneuron Networks" 📍 SPPIN Seminar Room 📅 June 10th ⏰ 11 AM Join us @sppin-cnrs.bsky.social !
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerGABAergic neurons are major contributors of network inhibition in the neonatal hippocampus in-vivo biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerPostdoctoral opening in my lab thanks to @erc.europa.eu SyG Chronology w/ wonderful @bathellierlab.bsky.social S. Ostojic & M. Jazayeri Interested in characterizing temporal cognitive maps in the human brain? 👇 brainthemind.com/wp-content/u... @unicog.bsky.social @cea-joliot.bsky.social
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker
[This post could not be retrieved] - Reposted by Desdemona FrickerNeuropixels and Optogenetics are delighted to announce the birth of Neuropixels Opto Combining high-resolution electrophysiology and optogenetics Today in bioRxiv 960 sites, 28 emitters, 2 colors By Lakunina, @karolinazsocha.bsky.social, Ladd, et al www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/2)
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerGrid cells have a geometry in time. Thanks to @azvollan.bsky.social l & @rjgardner.bsky.social for this heroic discovery. @ercresearch.bsky.social #KiloNeurons @m-bmoser.bsky.social @kavlintnu.bsky.social @nature.com @kavlifoundation.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Desdemona Fricker🚨New article from the #DuguéLab in #PLOS_Computational_Biology, led by @lgrabot.bsky.social! We developed a new model-based neuroimaging approach to study Traveling Waves in visual cortex using MEG-EEG. @erc.europa.eu journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerMy lab @kinshiplab.bsky.social is recruiting a postdoc 🚨 with Sept start date Preference for in-vivo ephys / circuits experience / interest in applying quantitative methods to natural social behaviour. Funding & visa fees for 1-yr with possible extension. Send me your CV & visit kinshiplab.org
- Reposted by Desdemona FrickerExcited to share the sequel to our 2022 paper! In this follow-up, we show that the stable head direction (HD) signals we reported in blind mice rely on stereo olfaction—that is, the comparison of odor info. between the two nostrils. Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵highlights below
