Flavio Donato

Is spatial navigation innate 🧠? Using #NeuroPixels we show that the #torus 🍩 underlying the #GridCell map exists already on day 10 in rats — before pups open eyes and ears and before they start upright walking. 🧵1:4
👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

So exciting to see this out!! Congrats Matteo and whole team for this heroic effort! Can’t wait to read!!

Our new preprint is out!

A state-dependent neural circuit resolves approach–avoidance conflicts

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Fantastic work led by Devika Bodas, with key contributions from Marine Balcou, and a great collaboration with Lisa Scheunemann Lab, fearuting Şevval Demirci.

The hippocampal map has its own attentional control signal!
Our new study reveals that theta #sweeps can be instantly biased towards behaviourally relevant locations. See 📹 in post 4/6 and preprint here 👉
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🧵(1/6)

I am very happy (and a bit scared) to present to you what we have been working on over the last 4 years. This manuscript is exactly what I dreamt of when I started the lab and I could not be happier and prouder of the outcome!

Thanks Matteo!

Axon initial segment dynamics during associative fear learning - Nature Neuroscience Benoit, Ganea et al. show that changes in axon initial segment (AIS) length in the prefrontal cortex of mice accompany fear learning and extinction, revealing AIS plasticity as a key feature of neuron...

New study on axon initial segment plasticity by Chloé Benoit and Dan Ganea. Using a deep brain imaging approach, we find that AIS length changes dynamically during associative learning. Thank you to the wonderful team and collaborators who made this work possible. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Check this amazing resource by @octoscience.bsky.social !! Can’t wait to try it out!!

Insular cortex predictions regulate glucose homeostasis Brain-body interactions are essential for physical and emotional homeostasis. The brain uses information from the external world to predict upcoming bodily changes. This process involves interoceptive...

lab preprint! Interopceptive predictions are central to many brain-body interactions theories, but it's unclear if/how they affect bodily physiology. We (fearless Einav Litvak et al) show that insular cortex predictions are essential for glucose homeostasis-THREAD.. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Ivan Dokmanić, Flavio Donato, Claudia Keller Valsecchi, Bence György

From artificial intelligence to memory and from gene regulation to treatments for blindness: four projects at the University of Basel will each receive around EUR 2 million over a five-year period to pave the way for new discoveries.

👉 www.unibas.ch/en/News-Even...

Thank you!

Thanks so much Ben!!

Thanks so much Antonio!!

Thanks so much Adrien!!

Thanks so much Lukas!

Thanks Julian!

Thanks so much Sarah!

Thanks Abraham!!

Thanks so much Liset!!

Thanks Jo!!

Thanks Joaquin!

This achievement belongs to every past and present member of the lab: you make the most ambitious projects feel possible and fill every day with excitement. Couldn't do this without you! 🧠✨ Looking forward to see what's next!!

Incredibly excited to share that we've been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant to reach new depths in our memory research! @erc.europa.eu #ERCCoG @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibas.ch

Happy to announce the 2nd Hippocampus Green Meeting
📍 Barcelona, Spain
🗓️ May 11–12, 2026
Organized together with Manu Valero, Lisa Roux and Dan Bendor
🎤 Keynotes: Nachum Ulanovsky & György Buzsáki
‼️ Call for abstracts now open
🔗 hippocampusgreen.net/wp/
#HippocampusGreen

Beyond the Adult Mind: A Developmental Framework for Predictive Processing in Infancy In this paper, we argue that Predictive Processing cannot be a unifying account of cognition until it can explain infant development. We show why development is crucial for understanding human cognit...

YES! "to explain all human cognition, we inherently must include development".
Beyond the Adult Mind: A Developmental Framework for Predictive Processing in Infancy - Ward - Topics in Cognitive Science - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Beautiful work - congrats!

Functional independence of entorhinal grid cell modules enables remapping in hippocampal place cells A systems-level understanding of cortical computation requires insight into how neural codes are transformed across distinct brain circuits. In the mammalian cortex, one of the few systems where such ...

1/5 How does the brain turn the low-dimensional, universal grid cell metric into the rich, diverse codes needed for memory in hippocampal place cells? 🧵
Preprint link 👇

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Looking forward to the #FRM25 @fens.org in Oslo! Excited to talk about the multi-laned hippocampus alongside @flaviodonato82.bsky.social and David Dupret. Great science and discussions ahead!

Super proud PI moment today when my first PhD student Vilde Kveim received the Shepherd price for her PhD work at today’s Biozentrum symposium. So lucky to have started my lab with you, Vilde!! @biozentrum.unibas.ch @biozentrum-phd.bsky.social

On Friday, June 6, we will welcome Carlos Ribeiro @ribeirocarlitos.bsky.social @champalimaudr.bsky.social as the next speaker in our #BiozentrumDiscoverySeminar series. He will talk on "The Metabolic Mosaic: Illuminating the Interplay of Diet, Microbiome, Brain, and Metabolism"