Thom Elston
@ThomElston
Asst Prof @UTAustin • NHP + Human ephys and cognition • #Humboldtian formerly @UCBerkeleyNeuro, @TueNeuroCampus, @otago
〰️🧠〰️Proud to announce our latest pre-print! @dixitsheron shows that high-gamma LFPs measured in orbitofrontal cortex have surprising properties that differ from concurrently-measured spiking activity. Congrats Dixit!👏
Excited to share my first lead-author study on #biorxiv! A quick🧵: We find that OFC LFPs have surprising value- & decision-coding properties that aren't found in spikes. This work is of interest to both neuroscientists studying decision behavior and engineers developing #BMIs 1/
The final version in @NatureNeuro is finally out - many thanks to the reviewers who made the paper better! nature.com/articles/s4159…
I'm pleased to share the 2nd big effort of my postdoc in the Wallis lab @UCBerkeleyNeuro: I found that hippocampal-prefrontal interactions enable contextual reasoning in non-human primates. Now, a 🧵biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
About to start a neuropixel recording and I'm realizing how deeply meditative recording really can be - it's nice when you know exactly what needs to be done and how to do it. The doing of science, at least temporarily, makes my mind feel like a solved Rubik's cube
Really exciting work showing a unique role for alpha oscillations as a mechanism underlying attentional enhancement/suppression of relevant/irrelevant sensory processing! Congrats to the authors!
Selective attention guides behavior through target enhancement and distractor suppression. Using human ECoG, we uncovered the complementary neural mechanisms enabling this gating process. pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn… Work with Sabine Kastner, Bob Knight, @OleJensenOHBA, @FiebelkornIan
Excited to share my neuropixel work on Monday at #sfn2024! Come visit my poster to see how the PFC and striatum interact to enable primates to overcome their impulses and exert self control! Also, come learn about opportunities in my lab at @UTAustin! abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/20433/p…
New preprint from @ThomasALanglois and @julie_charlton_ ! tinyurl.com/kfckzx8j We asked how prior expectations are combined with sensory signals to form a perceptual decision in macaque PFC.
🚨 I am looking for a postdoc! We'll get into multi-site neuropixel recordings and closed-loop stimulation in NHPs performing tasks related to attention, self-control, and decision-making. DMs/emails with questions are welcome. Please share and RT! utaustin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UTstaff/job/AU…
Interesting work that proposes a fundamental constraint on replay activity in the HPC - neurons which have recently been active seem unable to participate in replays which has the effect of biasing trajectories "away" from those of recent experience. Super cool work!
I’m excited to share my first preprint, with @john_widloski and @replayprof! We find that self-avoidance dominates the selection of hippocampal replay. biorxiv.org/content/10.110… #tweeprint below!
Not gonna lie, although I was v skeptical at first, I am really enjoying using Notion as a recording log and also as a tool to plan starting my lab. It's a bit overwhelming at first but it becomes very satisfying (and it looks beautiful!)
Just finished a new #neuropixel sorting/alignment pipeline for NHP users based on Kilosort4. KS4 is a major improvement, for sure. github.com/t-elston/ks4_p…
Big news! I've accepted an offer from @UTAustin @ut_neuroscience and will start my lab in January! We'll be doing NHP #neuropixel recordings and BCIs to understand the neural mechanisms of attention and self control. It's a dream come true and I am so thankful to my mentors 🥲
Alpha phase-coding supports feature binding during working memory maintenance biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
The fact that we can know stuff like this is just incredible - we're living in an amazing time to do science.
Turns out synaptic vesicles are absolutely packed with glutamate (around 8000 molecules on average). This is what that would look like in an average 40nm diameter vesicle! Also shown are some of the main vesicle proteins present in their reported average abundance. Thread (1/4)
Hot off the Press: "Abstract deliberation by visuomotorneurons in prefrontal cortex" - Julie A. Charlton & Robbe L. T. Goris has been published in Nature Neuroscience rdcu.be/dF7Kl @julie_charlton_ @NatureNeuro
I've been looking into in risk attitudes in NHPs and am finding substantial individual differences. Some NHPs love risk, others avoid it. Is this interesting enough for a short behavior+RL paper or should I take the learning and move on?
Working towards getting an NHP #neuropixel 3+ centimeters into the brain. Excited to see what primate hippocampus looks like on these
Looking forward to visiting @UCLA_BRI to give tomorrow's talk for the SYNCS series!
We are so excited to announce the @UCLA_BRI SYNCS speakers for the 2023-2024 series! Congrats to @IpshitaZ, @debo_Astrocyte, @EricaRodrig1, @kenyisama, @ThomElston, and @ChenSun92. We're looking forward to your seminars!