@LabPluta

To understand how the brain works, the brain must be working. We study active touch in a naive yet earnest struggle to solve the brain.

 West Lafayette, IN
plutalab.com/
Joined February 2019
  • Tweets520
  • Following300
  • Followers462
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~30 years of research in non-behaving animals argue that bilateral touch integration likely occurs downstream of primary somatosensory cortex. We reveal the state- and task-dependent logic that unlocks communication between S1s through the corpus callosum. nature.com/articles/s41593-0…
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My colleagues at Science published their work on a photovoltaic device for vision restoration in NEJM today The device, "PRIMA", has made it possible for some legally blind patients to do things like read and play the crossword again
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The 38th Barrels Meeting November 13–14, 2025 (just before #SfN) UC San Diego Registrants may submit requests for short talks and poster presentations. Invited speaker list and registration link in replies ⬇️
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The Oldenburg lab is looking for a postdoc! If you want to use holographic optogenetics to answer questions about neural codes let me know. We like shooting lasers and thinking about movement. oldenburglab.com/positions/

Positions

Join the lab We are looking for curious, motivated, and talented people from all different backgrounds to join our team at all levels. Mentoring is simply one of the best parts of being an academic...

oldenburglab.com
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Bilateral integration in somatosensory cortex is controlled by behavioral relevance @LabPluta @HayagreevKeri @Hyein_Park_ nature.com/articles/s41593-0…
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Very excited to share my PhD project, out today in Neuron! Check out the thread below for my best attempt at a high-level summary. cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S08…

Network influence determines the impact of cortical ensembles on stimulus detection

By photostimulating specific visual cortical ensembles, Bounds et al. discovered that an ensemble’s impact on local neural activity, not its visual encoding properties, predicts its impact on...

cell.com
Hayley Bounds@HayleyBounds22 Aug 2024
How is V1 activity read-out to determine the presence of a visual stimulus? Our study using targeted 2-photon optogenetic stimulation in a detection task found that mice use a simple unweighted read-out strategy (1/6) biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…

Network influence determines the impact of cortical ensembles on stimulus detection

Observation of neural firing patterns can constrain theories for the types of activity patterns that the brain uses to guide behavior. However, directly perturbing these patterns, ideally with great...

biorxiv.org
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New paper! Cognitive independence and interactions between cerebral hemispheres doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsych… #neuroscience – at Chicago, IL
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Neurons just keep mixing their selectivity. Whisking and locomotion are jointly represented in superior colliculus neurons journals.plos.org/plosbiolog… #neuroscience

Whisking and locomotion are jointly represented in superior colliculus neurons

To navigate the world, the brain needs to have internal models of self-motion, for example of whisker movement in mice. This study shows how neurons in the midbrain superior colliculus encode...

journals.plos.org
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Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Yuqi Liu@YuqiLiu957032615 Mar 2025
Super excited to share this new preprint, a project since I was with @ProfJaredMedina and in collaboration with @JeffMYau, @cogscimon, and H. Branch Coslett. We studied motor and somatosensory reorganization in two cases in which left S1 was severely damaged but M1 was intact.
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We must learn to showcase the practical significance of basic research, demonstrating how seemingly arcane investigations yield transformative applications, writes @tonyzador. thetransmitter.org/outreach/…

How to communicate the value of curiosity-driven research

The burden of proof is on us, as researchers, to explain why what we do is valuable to society.

thetransmitter.org
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I am thrilled to share my postdoc work from the Soohyun Lee Lab, nature.com/articles/s41586-0…. Huge thanks to the awesome PI Soohyun Lee and collaborators Yuan Zhao, Ka Chun Lam, @fpereira, and Charles R Gerfen.

Brain-wide presynaptic networks of functionally distinct cortical neurons

Nature - Behavioural-state-dependent pyramidal neurons have a distinct pattern of long-range glutamatergic inputs, with a larger proportion of thalamic versus motor cortex inputs compared with...

nature.com
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This week started with administration officials refusing to acknowledge that Russia started the war in Ukraine. It ends with a tense, shocking conversation in the Oval Office and whispers from the White House that they may try to end all U.S. support for Ukraine. I know foreign policy is not for the faint of heart, but right now, I am sick to my stomach as the administration appears to be walking away from our allies and embracing Putin, a threat to democracy and U.S. values around the world.
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NIH study sections are being canceled or postponed at the last minute, wasting countless hours of scientists' time and delaying critical research funding. This instability threatens scientific progress and patient care. @NIH needs to fix this - fast. #NIHStudySection @theNCI @nih_nhlbi @NIHFunding @NIHDirector
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I'm quoted in this article on how NIH is still blocked from funding new grants. This sabotage makes no sense. Nearly every medicine or treatment you've ever received has roots in NIH-funded research, and every $1 of NIH spending generates $2.46 in returns. wbur.org/news/2025/02/24/can…

Canceled meetings and confusion: NIH grant funding in limbo despite court injunction

Science researchers awaiting National Institutes of Health funding say their grant meetings are being canceled, despite a court order blocking the Trump administration from freezing federal funds.

wbur.org
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A large portion of grants awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health cannot be funded for the foreseeable future because of an indefinite hold on submissions to the Federal Register, according to an email reviewed by The Transmitter. By @avaskham thetransmitter.org/funding/f…

Federal Register hold makes ‘end run’ around court pause on NIH funding freeze

NIH-related updates to the Federal Register, which are required for the scheduling of study sections and advisory councils, are on hold indefinitely, according to an email reviewed by The Transmitter.

thetransmitter.org
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As we speak, scientisists across the country (including myself) are trying to to take care of simple administrative tasks related to the grants that we have recieved from the National Institutes of Health... 1/n
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Science is alchemy. It literally makes gold. Government investment in NIH turns $1 into $2.46 fiercebiotech.com/research/r…

Report: Every dollar of NIH research funding doubles in economic returns

Research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) generated $2.46 in economic activity for every $1 of funding in 2023, a total of $92.9 billion, according to an

fiercebiotech.com
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Pluta Lab retweeted
Tony Zador@TonyZador8 Feb 2025
NIH funding supported : *** 412,041 jobs *** *** $92.89 billion in new economic activity*** *** $2.46 for every NIH $1 spent.*** We are a $100B industry. Let's act like it ! How about, at a bare minimum, we all just call our congressional reps??
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Fresh off the press, our paper linking #TravelingWaves #Cortex #Dendrites #inhibition is online @ScienceAdvances. Brilliant effort by @dgonzales1990 @Hammad_FKhan @HayagreevKeri and others. A big thanks to @_mullerlab @LabPluta & @NIH_CommonFund @AFOSR science.org/doi/10.1126/scia…

Touch-evoked traveling waves establish a translaminar spacetime code

Translaminar spacetime patterns organized by feedback-dependent cortical circuits support sparse traveling waves.

science.org
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We're hiring! Join Meta Reality Lab's EMG Wristband foundational research team! ⚡️ We're seeking research scientists with systems neuro/ML/AI/BCI/EE backgrounds, with skills on a spectrum from modeling to experimental expertise, as well as generalists who excel in both areas. Work locations in SF Bay Area (Burlingame) or Manhattan. Job description for soon-to-be or recently graduated PhDs: metacareers.com/jobs/1154559… Job description for more senior candidates, e.g. senior postdocs: metacareers.com/jobs/1014462… Explore the details of our work in this bioRxiv paper: biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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