Changwan Chen

In collaboration with Reuben Saunders, @JswLab, and Xiaowei Zhuang, we are very excited to release Perturb-Multi: a platform for pooled multimodal genetic screens in intact mammalian tissue. Check it out! biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Excited that our paper on perceptual and memory codes in IT cortex, led by the phenomenal Liang She, in collaboration with Marcus Benna and @StefanoFusi2, is finally out: nature.com/articles/s4158… Research Briefing: nature.com/articles/d4158… Original thread on biorxiv paper: x.com/doristsao/stat… In a nutshell, we find that at long latency, IT face cells use a completely different code to represent familiar compared to unfamiliar faces. We speculate that such temporal multiplexing is the general mechanism by which the brain represents long-term memories alongside physical features. Since the biorxiv preprint, we: 1) Recorded in another face patch TP and found that it did not show axis change at long latency, demonstrating that the phenomenon is localized to specific regions of the temporal lobe. 2) Performed a new behavioral experiment confirming monkeys’ superior performance on familiar face identification. 3) Performed new recordings with a set of perfectly feature-matched unfamiliar faces to be 100% sure our results were not due to feature differences between familiar and unfamiliar faces. 4) Tested in two monkeys whether face patch TP shows a substantially stronger response to familiar than unfamiliar faces, as reported by Landi & Freiwald (Science 2021). We could not replicate their finding. See also Boyle et al. Neuron 2024 for related findings in mice: x.com/lorenzoposani/…

Congratulations to Yang Dan, PhD, for being awarded the 2024 Peter Seeburg Integrative Neuroscience Prize for her ground-breaking research on elucidating the brain circuits that control behavior with a special emphasis on neuronal networks that control sleep. Read the full press release: bit.ly/4b0cjnA #NeuroTwitter @HHMINEWS @FENSorg

It's hard to express how grateful and unworthy I feel to receive this honor. It feels embarrassing to be distinguished for discoveries that depend on the contributions of so many. I thank my mentors Marge Livingstone and David Hubel for their love and faith. I thank the students and postdocs in my lab for their creativity, brilliance, and perseverance. The greatest gift is to be able to dream together with them. I thank the field of macaque systems neuroscience for giving me my life as a scientist. I believe this award recognizes the irreplaceable role of our field in advancing understanding of the brain. It is especially gratifying to receive this together with @Nancy_Kanwisher, one of my scientific heroes. The story of how the brain represents faces is an ongoing dialogue between human and macaque neuroscience--a dialogue that has just begun. Though I started on this path by accident, I have come to realize that the humble problem of perceiving a face is a microcosm of the problem of perceiving the world.

1. New preprint on the neural basis of perseverative behavior. With @neurvanna, Yeqing Wang, Laura Funnell, Bex Terry, @JinOh555, and @kevinjmiller10. biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Neurons in the lateral #hypothalamus encode transitions to innate behaviors like feeding and social during beta oscillations @CurioNeuro @CChangwan @Mahsaaltafi @MPI_Metabolism @UKKoeln @UniCologne @UniFAU @LeibnizFMP @NeuroCureBerlin nature.com/articles/s4159…

Congratulations! 🎉🎉🎉Thanks to everyone who played a role in making this all possible!