Natalia Favila
Postdoc at DZNE Bonn | Computational Neuroscience | Data Science | Basal Ganglia | Border collies 🐶 🐶
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaTaking the #GRCBasalGanglia Oath ✋🏼 I acknowledge that the go/no-go model of the BG was useful but it is outdated and incorrect, or at least incomplete. I pledge not to use the go/no-go model as a strawman to motivate my work.
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaA study in Nature Neuroscience maps spontaneous and choice activity across mouse prefrontal cortex. The activity maps aligned with intrinsic connectivity rather than anatomical subregions, suggesting that connectivity, not cytoarchitecture, organizes prefrontal function. #Neuroskyence 🧪
- Reposted by Natalia Favila𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗸𝘀 More hidden markov models for cool behaviors and brain data #neuroskyence doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaI edited a special issue of Addiction Neuroscience on dopamine circuitry & heterogeneity in addiction - now complete!🧠🧪 Check out the full issue & my editorial (all open access) here: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaTo be clear, they're play-fighting and also: this video improved my day measurably and I wish I'd've watched it earlier. If you haven't, fix that now.
- Reposted by Natalia Favila#neuroskyence #glia very needed single cell map of the murine female brain as a function of estrous cycle Worth a read!
- Extremely excited & proud to share our new preprint - we provide for the first time a single cell map of the mouse brain across sex, the estrous cycle, and peripartum! Data are 🔥 👇 "Single-cell map of the female brain across reproductive transitions" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Natalia Favila
- Dorsal striatal dopamine integrates sensory and reward prediction errors to guide perceptual decisions biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
- Reposted by Natalia Favila"My New Year's Resolution is to find a principled way to think about all those cell types in the brain" Why friend, you are in luck, because @rgast.bsky.social has just the perspective for you: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaExcited to share latest study from the lab by an amazing RA, Dylan Flink. We solved a small (important) puzzle while in the trenches of a larger (wavy 🌊) puzzle. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵...
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaA study from the Baier Departement, published in Nature in February 2025, has now been selected for the Nature Highlights List 2025. Congratulations to all the researchers involved on this well-deserved recognition! 👉 Nature Highlights 2025: www.nature.com/articles/d41... @ishainer.bsky.social
- Neurons with identical transcriptomes can have different morphologies and functions! A new study by the Baier Lab published in @nature.com shows that temporal and spatial factors expand the repertoire of genetically similar neurons: www.nature.com/articles/s41... @ishainer.bsky.social
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaConsumer PSA: A lot of stores will advertise an Xmas tree, but the package actually *contains* a Ymas tree. DON'T BE FOOLED.
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaExcited to share my postdoc work with @yttrilab.bsky.social and @ahmarilab.bsky.social where we show that the striatal indirect pathway mediates hesitation in mice (www.nature.com/articles/s41...). And I'm honored to have @ahmarilab.bsky.social introduce the findings with a musical abstract!
- In other exciting news, @mattgeramita.bsky.social’s @natneuro.nature.com + Eric Yttri paper exploring the neural circuits underlying hesitation just dropped today! 🧠🎤 To summarize the findings, please see my musical abstract (with apologies to Peter Frampton 🎶) www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪
- Reposted by Natalia Favila**How distributed is the brain-wide network that is recruited for cognition?** That goes to the top of the list! #neuroskyence doi.org/10.1038/s415...
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaHunger increases exploration and risk-taking behavior, allowing an animal to forage for food despite risks Hunger-induced changes in exploration result from the modulation of dopamine signaling in the tail of the striatum via the following circuit: 1/2 www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaHappy to see that our recent work led by @nataliafavila.bsky.social and @jcmneuro.bsky.social on amygdala interneuron function for learning and memory was selected as an Editor’s Highlight by @natcomms.nature.com Check our work an many other great articles out here: www.nature.com/collections/...
- Reposted by Natalia Favila𝗗𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 Oldie but goodie. doi.org/10.1103/RevM... #neuroskyence
- Reposted by Natalia Favila1/2 S1 mice display impaired extinction and abnormally sustained VTA-DA activity during US omission. Surprisingly, optogenetic excitation of VTA or IL-terminals failed to rescue the deficit. www.eneuro.org/content/12/1... #RewardSignals #neuroskyence
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaHow do parabrachial nucleus 🧠 neurons relay threat ⚠️ information to ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons to influence long-term aversive memory 🤔 ?
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaI am really proud that eLife have published this paper. It is a very nice paper, but you need to also read the reviews to understand why! 1/n
- "The inevitability and superfluousness of cell types in spatial cognition". Intuitive cell types are found in random artificial networks using the same selection criteria neuroscientists use with actual data. elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre... 1/2
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaNew lab paper drop, this one has been a long time coming! Driven by Rob Aukema (now a postdoc with Kerry Ressler) this paper in Science Advances answered the lingering question of what role the amygdala plays in stress-induced neuroendocrine responses. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaSo excited to see our latest paper out today in @natcomms.nature.com! Studies led by the amazing @margestelzner.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41.... VTA GABA neurons have a unique role in economic decision making - they integrate reward seeking motivation and the current cost of seeking
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaOur paper on the counterintuitive effects of activating dopamine "reward" neurons is out now! Props to all the trainees, especially Fio Lozada-Perdomo and Yuzhen Chen who did most of the work. Yuzhen is applying for PhD programs now and you'd be lucky to get her! www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaJoin us on Dec. 2 for a webinar on the major advances in basal ganglia mapping, including cross-species cellular mapping and open-access visualization tools. 📅 Dec. 2, 9-10:30am PT 📍 Online 🔗 Register: alleninstitute.org/events/neuroscience… #studyBRAIN #neuroskyence
- Reposted by Natalia Favila@accumbenshelley.bsky.social re-writing the textbook on neural circuit function
- Reposted by Natalia Favila1/3 New Nature Neuroscience paper on estrogen & dopamine RPEs. Female rats in high-estradiol phase (proestrus) show stronger trial-by-trial adjustment of response vigor in a RL task: they start the next trial faster after better rewards. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #RewardSignals #neuroskyence
- Reposted by Natalia Favila
My paper is out! Computational modeling of error patterns during reward-based learning show evidence that habit learning (value free!) supplements working memory in 7 human data sets. rdcu.be/eQjLN - Reposted by Natalia FavilaIndependent NeuroScience Services INSS was registered as a company on 14th November 2016, which means it's our 9th birthday today! As a birthday present we've treated ourselves to an SfN exhibitor booth for the first time ever. Come and say hello at Booth #3327
- Reposted by Natalia Favila" 60 per cent of UK university libraries are considering dropping their big deals with the five major academic publisher" Many call for diamond open access. A new organisation with many partners, @ojcollective.bsky.social , is launching in January. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...
- Reposted by Natalia Favila[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaDelighted to see this finally out: rdcu.be/eO9oW We tested whether brief striatal dopamine release events influence the vigor of skilled movements. Despite popular belief, we did not find any evidence linking rapid dopamine dynamics to motor vigor on a moment-by-moment basis.
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaGenes, environment & aging all shape Parkinson’s but timing may be key. ⏳ New biomarkers like α-synuclein SAAs highlight when risk turns to disease, and why some never progress. #Parkinsons #NeuroSkyence Source: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaUsing containers for reproducible computing russpoldrack.substack.com/p/using-cont... - the latest in my Better Code, Better Science series
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaDopamine ≠ reward but turns out, also not the learning molecule we thought. If DA RPE is the emperor, this work SCREAMS it was running naked all the time. This paper got quite some attention recently. Let's simplify it a bit. A🧵with my toy model and notes: #neuroskyence #compneuro #NeuroAI
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaRank- and Threat-Dependent Social Modulation of Innate Defensive Behaviors biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaCheck out this #incredible work on #stability and #control during movement across #humans, #mice, and #flies. Congratulations @nidhise.bsky.social and @antoinecomite.bsky.social 👏🏽⭐
- Excited that this work discovering cross-species signatures of stabilizing foot placement control is now out in PNAS! pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @antoinecomite.bsky.social
- Reposted by Natalia Favila🚨Pre-print alert! 🚨https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.17.683171v1 Our new study tackles the question: do all neurons in motor cortices (MC) encode movement & coordinate as we move? Answering this question will be key for effectively targeting motor representations in BCIs.
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaNew paper from the lab 🚨 Led by Ali Golbabaei, this study explores the how the composition of prefrontal cortical engrams changes with memory age: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lzT-3BtfH...
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaGround breaking work here from my esteemed colleague @kelseytea.bsky.social ! Natural behavior + neural mechanism + genetics tell a beautiful story about the evolution of an adaptive behavior in wild mice Read it! #neuroskyence
- Reposted by Natalia Favila𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻?? Astrocytes in the regulation of fear memories! www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroskyence h/t @claeneuro.bsky.social
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaThe work with bats on barren, 7-acre Latham Island was Nachum Ulanovsky’s most complex undertaking yet. By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/neuroetholog...
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaNice preprint from Veronica Alvarez's group on cortically-evoked DA mediated by ACh! I We observed something quite similar in birds, and interesting to see the sensory/prefrontal distinction
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaFinally, someone has solved a real problem with AI! No more having to take a paper in the format for a journal that rejected you, and reformat it for a new journal. Well done!! formatmypaper.com
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaWhen part of a word is replaced by noise, humans still hear the whole word. How do brains do this? New from Meliza group in @natcomms.nature.com Le et al. study this in zebra finches, a model system for vocal learning www.nature.com/articles/s41... #prattle 💬 #neuroskyence 1/5
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaA model of rhythm production and rhythmic auditory stimulation in healthy and Parkinsonian basal ganglia biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by Natalia Favila🚨Our preprint is online!🚨 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... How do #dopamine neurons perform the key calculations in reinforcement #learning? Read on to find out more! 🧵
- Reposted by Natalia Favila🔵 I'm interrupting my social media hiatus to flag this important preprint from the Bruchas lab (is he not on Bluesky!?) together with @davidweinshenker.bsky.social. Very difficult experiments to show that dopamine release from LC terminals is independent of VTA 🔥 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaA far-red dopamine sensor unlocks multiplex views of in vivo neuromodulation — a Tools of the Trade article by Yu Zheng #neuroscience #neuroskyence www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Natalia Favilavery exciting to share the result of a collaborative effort to map the molecular changes in the mouse and human striatum in Parkinson’s, revealing new biological targets and vulnerability of specific cell types with disease progression
- Reposted by Natalia FavilaDopamine dynamics in the nucleus accumbens core reflected decision confidence during evaluation of decisions in an economic foraging task in mice, as well as both past and future value during re-evaluation and change-of-mind @perothwell.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Natalia Favila@ualberta.bsky.social’s Richard Sutton won the Turing Award — the Nobel Prize of computer science. 🧠💻 His work shapes how AI systems learn and reason — powering tools like chatbots — but he reminds us that AI is about “understanding humanity.” A big win for ethical, Canadian-led research.
