Simon Schultz

Simon Schultz

@simonschultz.bsky.social

Australian expat neuron wrangler. Prof of Neurotechnology at Imperial College London. Investigates memory and cognition with photons. Runs and rides bikes a lot. Stray sheep.

3.2K followers4K following594 posts

Simon Schultz reposted

Hardik Rajpal
@h-rajpal.bsky.social

I am really glad this work from the Statistical Physics of Cognition project is finally out as a preprint. It settles a lot of confusion in the work on the Brain Criticality Hypothesis by separating out the impact of stimulus and arousal on driving brain activity towards or away from criticality.

Simon Schultz@simonschultz.bsky.social

1/4 Our new preprint is out on bioRxiv: Arousal-informed neuronal avalanches operate near criticality. We investigate whether neuronal activity in awake cortex operates near a critical point, and how this relates to sensory stimulation and arousal. doi.org/10.64898/202...

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Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

3/4 But cortical activity isn't well described by a single dynamical state. By separating overlapping patterns of neuronal activity, we find multiple coexisting avalanches operating at different distances from criticality. Those associated with pupil-indexed arousal are closest to critical.

Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

4/4 These near-critical avalanches also show greater dynamic range, information storage and temporal entropy, consistent with theoretical predictions about computation near criticality. Collaborative work led by Cédric Stefens, with colleagues at Imperial and UCSB (data from Spencer Smith's group).

Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

2/4 Using large-scale two-photon imaging of thousands of neurons in mouse visual cortex, we find that visual stimulation brings population dynamics closer to criticality — a regime long hypothesised to have favourable information-processing properties.

Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

My call for 2028: following the failure of the IPO round, Silicon Valley techbros will pivot and find religion. The resulting Jihad will see them swarm across the globe converting unbelievers to the worship of their machine gods.

Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

Francesco’s paper is now out in Nature Communications. Navigational strategy dictates hippocampal representation of space in an everyday memory task.

Francesco Gobbo@franzgbb.bsky.social

After a long journey it's finally out! My work on navigation strategy-dependent hippocampal representations during plnning with Richard Morris is out on @natcomms.nature.com ! rdcu.be/iS72dYSzBxya

Simon Schultz reposted

Ian Dunt
@iandunt.bsky.social

Lots of talk of growth ahead of the Budget, as if it were a baroque puzzle. Our problem is basic. It's that we no longer support the things which facilitate growth: Europe, immigration, higher education, tax simplification, policy stability. These are all choices and could stop making them anytime.

Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

Our latest paper is now online at Advanced Science. Li et al, Early spatial and contextual coding deficits in hippocampal CA1 precede performance decline in an Alzheimer’s disease model. advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.comEarly Spatial and Contextual Coding Deficits in Hippocampal CA1 Precede Performance Decline in an Alzheimer's Disease ModelTwo-photon calcium imaging in behaving 5xFAD mice reveals early CA1 coding deficits before behavioral decline. Task-related place cell activity and splitter cell trajectory coding are impaired, with ....
Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

New preprint from the lab: Jess Yu et al, Hippocampal information topology breaks down in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #neuroskyence

biorxiv.orgHippocampal information topology breaks down in a mouse model of Alzheimer's diseaseHippocampal spatial coding depends on coordination among neuronal assemblies, yet how network topology organises information processing across these assemblies, and how this is disrupted in disease, r...
Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

BioRxiv has been updated with a new version of one of our under-review papers: Mary Ann Go et al, Amyloid pathology compresses dynamic range and degrades spatial coding in an Alzheimer's mouse model doi.org/10.1101/2025...

doi.orgAmyloid pathology compresses dynamic range and degrades spatial coding in an Alzheimer's mouse modelAlzheimer's disease (AD) disrupts neural circuits vital for memory and cognition. Using two-photon calcium imaging in behaving 5xFAD mice, we examined how amyloid pathology alters hippocampal CA1 activity and spatial coding. We found elevated baseline activity but reduced locomotion-driven firing, leading to a diminished neuronal dynamic range. To our knowledge, this is the first direct experimental evidence for reduced dynamic range in an AD model. These abnormalities were strongest near amyloid plaques and became more widespread with age. We also observed altered network synchrony, degraded spatial coding and increased neuronal response variability. Furthermore, place fields emerged more slowly in both familiar and novel environments, indicating impaired recall and learning. By showing a link between local plaque pathology and impaired flexible modulation of CA1 activity and progressive deficits in spatial memory coding, our study offers new insights into the circuit basis of cognitive decline in AD. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

I wrote a report for the Center for the Governance of Change on the implications of neurotechnology for governance and policy, particularly focused around things moving from research and clinical into the consumer neurotech markets. My 2c as a neurotechnologist! www.linkedin.com/posts/medica...

linkedin.comMedical neurotech into non-clinical contexts | Center for the Governance of Change🧠 Neurotechnology is no longer confined to hospitals and research laboratories. Technologies originally developed for clinical care are increasingly moving into everyday life, from wearable brain sens...
Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

We spend a lot of time inside our academic domains looking out - it was good to be challenged to sit outside it and look in, and think about what the implications of neurotechnology are for governance and society. It certainly gave me a lot of things to think about.

Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

New preprint from the lab: Prefrontal activation predicts response latency and is shaped by age and lifestyle, by Rufus Mitchell-Heggs et al. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.orgPrefrontal activation predicts response latency and is shaped by age and lifestyleNeurological and neuropsychiatric conditions affect 43% of the global population, many shaped by modifiable lifestyle exposures, yet their relationship to cortical haemodynamics is poorly characterise...
Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

An updated version of one of our AD papers is available on biorxiv. Hopefully the last update :-). Li et al, Early spatial and contextual coding deficits in hippocampal CA1 precede performance decline in an Alzheimer’s disease model. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.orgEarly spatial and contextual coding deficits in hippocampal CA1 precede performance decline in an Alzheimer's disease model.Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by progressive memory decline, yet how hippocampal representations change at early AD stages remains largely unknown. In this study, we utilized a real-world ...

Simon Schultz reposted

Sainsbury Wellcome Centre
@sainsburywellcome.bsky.social

SWC & @gatsbyucl.bsky.social are inviting expressions of interest from early career researchers seeking to establish an independent research group in mechanistic theories of neural computation or learning via external fellowship. Please share with your networks and colleagues! Apply by 16 July.

sainsburywellcome.orgFellowship Sponsorship | Sainsbury Wellcome CentreThe Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour & Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College London, are looking to sponsor early career researchers in theoretical or c...
Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

A new preprint from a collaboration with Ben Fulcher et al on time series analysis. Interpretable model-free inference of parametric variation across time-series data through large-scale feature extraction BD Fulcher, CH Lubba, GF Gilestro, SR Schultz, NS Jones lnkd.in/eePU9sQE

Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

This work was begun by my then PhD student Carl Lubba on an internship visit to Ben. Carl's productive side-projects also included Catch22. dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1...

dl.acm.orgcatch22: CAnonical Time-series CHaracteristics: Selected through highly comparative time-series analysis: Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery: Vol 33, No 6AbstractCapturing the dynamical properties of time series concisely as interpretable feature vectors can enable efficient clustering and classification for time-series applications across science and ...
Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

KCL and Cranfield University to merge. Given the financial situation in Nottingham (and a few others who are being less proactive) I suspect this will kick off a round of university mergers across the UK. And associated job cuts probably. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

theguardian.comKing’s College and Cranfield hope to be stronger together in surprise mergerNews will come as a shock to staff, especially at Cranfield, but the institutions’ bosses say intention is growth
Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

Want to image the activities of many thousands of neurons over an 8mm diameter field of view, in behaving mice? Read our new paper, just published in Light: Science & Applications. Yang et al, Ultra-wide-field, deep, adaptive two-photon microscopy for multi-scale neuronal imaging. rdcu.be/fc57b

rdcu.beUltra-wide-field, deep, adaptive two-photon microscopy for multi-scale neuronal imagingLight: Science & Applications - ULTRA, an ultra-large-FOV two-photon microscope enabling cellular-resolution imaging across 50 mm² and 900 μm depth, facilitating comprehensive,...
Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

Our company Connectome Health comes out of stealth mode today, with the successful raising of US$2M in a pre-seed funding round. See the announcement on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/posts/lucass...

linkedin.comToday I’m excited to announce that our company Connectome Health is coming out of stealth with a $2M pre-seed round to build the future of brain measurement. A year or so ago I took a step away from…...Today I’m excited to announce that our company Connectome Health is coming out of stealth with a $2M pre-seed round to build the future of brain measurement. A year or so ago I took a step away from ...
Simon Schultz
@simonschultz.bsky.social

I was just interviewed on BBC Radio London by Jumoké Fashola, about neurotechnology (in general, but motivated by the recent London clinical trial of the neuralink implant and discussing ethics and future prospects). 15:42-15:57 or so, Fri 13th 2026.