Mark A Nicholas

Postdoc in the @YttriLab at @CMU_Bio, retired footballer, maker of good food

[Mark A Nicholas @Markolas11]

Excited the bulk of my PhD work is now out in @NeuroCellPress
If you're interested in how motor cortex and striatum work together for behavior take a look at the tweet print or here
https://t.co/L6XCOj3V5H

#neurotwitter #phdlife #neuroscience @CMU_Bio

[The Yttri Lab @YttriLab]

1/5 NEW in NEURON! We asked what forelimb M1 contributes to striatal and behavioral dynamics. Short answer: almost everything*. @Markolas11 trained mice to perform a joystick reaching task, w/ and w/out a go cue, then lesioned CFA https://t.co/tYtCi5Vlgu
@cmuneurosci @CmuScience

[Mark A Nicholas @Markolas11]

Interested in how cortex and striatum contribute to trained vs spontaneous behavior??

If you're at #sfn25, check out @pgmid talk Sunday at 1

@SfNtweets #Neuroscience

[Paul Middlebrooks @pgmid]

If you're at SfN, stop by my teeny tiny nano talk Sunday at 1:
"Neural population dynamics during naturalistic versus task-related behavior" w/
@YttriLab
@Markolas11
@adenoeagle
NANO017.01

[The Yttri Lab @YttriLab]

Huh, it's been 8 months since I was on here. Better late than never. I hope this new-ish paper will challenge people to think about the interpretations of our models
STRIATUM SUPPORTS REINFORCEMENT AND NOT ACTION SELECTION (!!!)
https://t.co/l6GrB2c7Pb
@CmuScience @cmuneurosci

[Mark A Nicholas @Markolas11]

I started studying neuroscience back in 2012.
This week I will be defending my PhD from the @YttriLab at @CarnegieMellon

If you are interested in the Zoom option, please reach out.

[Ryan Cho @ryanjhcho]

Excited to share my postdoctoral work, with Ilana Witten and @scott_bolkan at @PrincetonNeuro.
TL;DR - we show that two basal ganglia pathways oppositely affect decision-making by very precise control of cortical subpopulations that encode accumulated sensory evidence.

[Mark A Nicholas @Markolas11]

Thank you so much to @BirnbaumJackie1 and @MunibHasnain for presenting their recent paper today at @CMU_Bio @cmuneurosci

Exciting approach to understand how to explain neural data and movement

https://t.co/oRzThiKjRo

[SfN Journals @SfNJournals]

#JNeurosci: @andrewpapale1, @hooks_mac, et al. mapped out connections between neurons in mice that form the cellular basis of coordinated movement planning across the two hemispheres of the frontal cortex. @PittMed
https://t.co/4Iuokc8NTD

[Laura Grima @LauraGrimaNeuro]

The first preprint of my postdoc with @jtdudman
is now online! Here we wanted to understand the algorithms mice use when learning to forage in large environments with many potential resources. 1/n https://t.co/2LHb6TMnbr

[The Yttri Lab @YttriLab]

Pls RT!! Do you study the brain and how we can make use of its signals? Come join our exciting faculty at CMU and @cmuneurosci.
As please feel free to reach out with any questions.
https://t.co/vWSaewPSHQ

[Vincent Costa @VincentCostaPhd]

26 years after Larry Swanson emphasized “the amygdala is neither a structural or functional unit” we used sn-RNAseq to answer the question:

“What is the [primate] amygdala?”

Check out the preprint 👇
https://t.co/qARasyT6J7

[Barbara Shinn-Cunningham @ShinnCunningham]

Neuro + Robotics at @cmuneurosci!
Who wants to come join our amazing community at CMU?

@SCSatCMU @CMUEngineering @CmuScience @CMU_DietrichHSS @CMU_Robotics @CMU_ECE @CMU_Bio @cmualumnihouse @NeuroMechLabX @CMUGroverLab @YttriLab @xaqlab
Please share!

[Mark A Nicholas @Markolas11]

Hey if you are still around #Sfn24 this afternoon and interested in cell type-specific cortex and striatum concurrent recordings during trial and error learning, come check out our work

@YttriLab @SfNtweets #sfn2024

[Hua Tang @hua_ibrain]

I am glad to share our @BrunoAverbeck @rbartolo_phd recent work published in @NeuroCellPress. We examined the neural mechanisms involved in learning from the gains and losses of symbolic reinforcers in the ventral frontostriatal circuitry. 🧠https://t.co/56zGW1udXK

[Mark A Nicholas @Markolas11]

@TrackingActions Although just behavior...
Using pupillometry and a rolling stimulus schedule, we found that NHPs could learn the difference in stimulus value within 20 trials of the session and this difference in pupil continued to increase with subsequent sessions.
https://t.co/ftSq2ELNXA

[Aaron Batista @aaronbatista]

When you fail to perform at your best right when it matters the most, what's going on in your brain? We can now provide an explanation: Exceptionally high stakes interfere with motor preparation. We can see this in motor cortex. Next up: finding out why.
https://t.co/gqB12kSTSG

[Adam @asmoulder3195]

After some lovely updates thanks to reviewer/editor feedback, this work is now published in Neuron!

https://t.co/bTEZgWrlOC

We find monotonic reward signals in M1/PMd, and interactions of reward value with neural reach signals that correlate with an inverted-U in performance

[Dr. Michele A. Basso @MicheleABasso1]

Hello all! Please give this a read - and amplify! #SimCo2024 #ThankAMonkey #EndSufferingThruScience
https://t.co/DlZErEaiXJ

[CMU Mellon College of Science @CmuScience]

Researchers in @YttriLab discovered how the motor cortex and striatum work together to create movement.
https://t.co/MWcQUYHIlT

[Jyotika Bahuguna @BahugunaJyotika]

*New preprint* - We (Tim Verstynen, Jonathan Rubin and I) show how cortico-basalganglia-thalamic networks can maximize reward rate 🙂 - https://t.co/HhPYK8x8ls

[Mark A Nicholas @Markolas11]

Yes there was a time in lab where I did have to care for slime molds...

[Paul Middlebrooks @pgmid]

When you ask your boss @YttriLab to come on your podcast to discuss neurobehavior, and all he wants to talk about are octopuses and slime molds...
Kidding. Mostly.
Eric and I chat about how brains do behaviors and why that's not a simple question.

https://t.co/hFUJS9IQDB