Anders Nelson

Really neat study. I think it's time to rewrite some textbooks.

Mammals have hundreds of joints and muscles. Controlling them individually would be nearly impossible. How does the nervous system organize such complexity into coherent actions? Our new study explores this question through a natural behavior: jumping. 1/15 🧵

those were the days

Our paper on VTA dopamine neurons is finally published. A lot more to come. Dopamine is rather interesting, I promise. nature.com/articles/s4146…

The posting is now live. Apply today to join our group as a research assistant. Perfect for a recent grad looking to go to grad/med school. Message me for more info. Apply here: jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/256088

@VAbraira congratulations!

As of today I am a tenured professor in the dept of Cell Biology and Neuroscience at Rutgers University. First and foremost: our lab- thank you!!! I am so honored to be working alongside you everyday. Mentors, family and friends: thank you! It takes a village!!! Now…. Onwards!

@IshmailSaboor congratulations!

I am happy to share that I’ve been awarded tenure here at Columbia University. Alhamdulillah. I thank my wife, parents, mentors, colleagues, friends, & family. I thank my lab members, present and past, for entrusting their careers in my hands and making this a thrilling journey.

new preprint from our lab: Modular striatal dynamics and reciprocal inhibition orchestrate skilled action sequencing. Using high-resolution kinematics tracking and neural recordings in mice performing a water-reaching task, we found spatially distributed modules of striatal projection neurons whose activity corresponded to the generation of each element in the sequence (aiming, reaching, and drinking). They are activated sequentially and exhibit reciprocal inhibition, ensuring a strict serial order. Optogenetic activation of the direct pathway of the orofacial module promoted licking while suppressing reaching. Reaching could suppress stimulation-evoked licking, revealing bidirectional inhibitory interactions. Our findings demonstrate that the modular organization in the striatum, coupled with reciprocal inhibition, sculpts the temporal progression of actions.biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

myth of command neurons nature.com/articles/s4158…

Congratulations to Marcela and all others! I'm glad to have played a minor role. Find her new lab and the great things they are doing here: carmonalab.com/about nature.com/articles/s4146…

Excited to share our newest paper led by @kuldeepshrivas3 out now in @NatureComms nature.com/articles/s4146… 1/

@AllenInstitute free labor?

Have you ever used a genetic tool and wondered what transcriptomic cell types it actually labels in the brain? Now is your chance to help solve this problem, through our MapMySections data challenge! 🧠📈 Submit your algorithm by May 30. alleninstitute.org/events/mapmyse…

happy 30th birthday to Kirkland Signature

We are hiring! Please RT. Postdoctoral Associate: Corticospinal Circuits for Skilled Movement neurojobs.sfn.org/job/38767/post…

@SSebastianChoi congratulations!

Grateful for my lab’s first R01 award, especially in this uncertain time. I want to emphasize again that NIH funding advances science, improves disease therapies, and supports many jobs and the economy, and cutting these funds could severely undermine all these positive impacts.

@GDunnArt yes please

An atlas of the gray matter of the spinal cord. Let me know in the comments if you'd be interested in a release of this image as an instructional poster. Availalbe as a microetched print here: shorturl.at/Mqk4t #spinalcord #spine #chiropractic #physicaltherapy #sciart

We are now accepting applications for 2025 Connexins! This is an in person symposium for senior graduate students to share their works with the NYU neuroscience community. Please RT!!! wp.nyu.edu/connexins/