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Category Archives: Data analysis
CascadeTorch: a PyTorch version of Cascade for spike inference
I’m glad to share a PyTorch-based implementation of spike inference from calcium imaging data: CascadeTorch, now available on GitHub. The original Cascade repository remains fully supported. This post explains why I re-implemented Cascade in Torch, and what this means for … Continue reading
A clearing method for large human FFPE tissue blocks
During the lockdown in 2020, I was forced to stop my own experiments in the lab. This is when I turned to computational and analysis side-projects that since then have become quite central to my own work and approach to … Continue reading
Posted in Data analysis, Imaging, Microscopy, neuroscience
Tagged Dopamin, FFPE, Human brain, Light-sheet microscopy, Microscopy, Neuropathology, Pathology, Substantia nigra
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Annual report of my intuition about the brain (2025, part III)
How does the brain work, and how can we understand it? To approach this big question from a broad perspective, I want to report on some ideas about the brain that marked me most over the past twelve months and that, on the … Continue reading
Annual report of my intuition about the brain (2025, part I)
How does the brain work, and how can we understand it? To approach this big question from a broad perspective, I want to report on some ideas about the brain that marked me most over the past twelve months and that, on the … Continue reading
Interesting papers on astrocyte ultrastructure and function
Astrocytes are brain cells that are often completely overlooked and dismissed or, in the opposite extreme, presented as mysterious devices that somehow solve all problems of computational neuroscience. The truth is somewhere in the middle, but it is not clear yet where exactly. First of all, we still do not understand even the basic mechanistic rules by which individual astrocytes operate. For neurons, we have precise, often even mathematical ideas how they receive input via synapses, how they depolarize, and how depolarizations propagate to the soma and elicit action potentials. For astrocytes, this mechanistic book of rules is still missing – and this gap limits our ability to interpret experiments or build coherent theories. Continue reading
Posted in Astrocytes, Calcium Imaging, Data analysis, Microscopy, neuroscience, Reviews
Tagged Calcium Imaging, Microscopy, neuroscience, science
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Displaying the hippocampus as EM image on the office wall
One of the most amazing methods in modern neuroscience is dense volumetric electron microscopy of the brain. I have mentioned some openly accessible datasets before (see my previous blog post), but many additional datasets have been released since then – … Continue reading
Posted in Data analysis, hippocampus, Imaging, Microscopy, Network analysis, neuroscience
Tagged Data analysis, Microscopy
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Interesting papers on the role of cell organelles of neuronal dendrites in calcium signaling
Researchers utilize calcium imaging to track neuronal activity in the brain, highlighting the role of calcium as a signaling molecule. Recent studies investigate intracellular calcium dynamics, particularly its coupling between organelles and its influence on synaptic plasticity in dendrites. Findings emphasize the necessity of in vivo methods for accurate insights into neuronal behavior. Continue reading
Posted in Calcium Imaging, Data analysis, hippocampus, Microscopy, neuroscience, Reviews
Tagged Calcium Imaging, Microscopy
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Interesting papers on VIP interneurons in cortex and hippocampus
Interneurons are inhibitory neurons in the brain that are thought to shape the computations performed by principal cells. The effects of inhibition can be rather diverse, depending on which neurons – or which parts of a neuron (dendrites, soma, or … Continue reading
Posted in Calcium Imaging, Data analysis, hippocampus, Imaging, Neuronal activity, neuroscience, Reviews
Tagged Calcium Imaging, Data analysis
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Accurately computing noise levels for calcium imaging data
It is fascinating how much data quality can vary between different calcium imaging data sets. In this blog post, I will discuss a metric to quantify and compare data quality and in particular shot noise between calcium imaging datasets. This … Continue reading
Open PhD position in my research group
Are you a finishing Master’s student with a quantitative background and are interested in neuroscience? This is your opportunity. Project: You will be supervised by Dr. Peter Rupprecht and Prof. Fritjof Helmchen at the Brain Research Institute, University of Zurich. … Continue reading
A blog about neurophysiology 