Prof. Dr. Simon Musall

Head of the in-vivo neurophysiology lab.

Junior Professor of Neuromodulation, RWTH Aachen

Research Topics

Neural network function, Decision-making, Multisensory processing, Neuromodulation, Pathway-specific information transfer, In-vivo Neurophysiology

Contact

+49 2461/61-3539

E-Mail

https://www.fz-juelich.de/en/ibi/ibi-3/organization/in-vivo-neurophysiology-1

ORCID:0000-0002-9461-1042

Address

Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH
Wilhelm-Johnen-Straße
52428 Jülich

Institute of Biological Information Processing (IBI)

Bioelectronics (IBI-3)

Building 02.4v / Room 218

You can find us here

About me

Understanding how living neural networks integrate sensory inputs from many different senses to guide accurate behavior is crucially important to revealing the basic mechanisms of neural information processing in the healthy and diseased brain.

To address this question, we study the brain function of mice that perform different behavioral tasks. We use a combination of different methods, such as high-density electrophysiology and functional imaging, that allow us to monitor and manipulate the activity of large populations of individual neurons with high precisions.

Our main focus is to reveal how multisensory information is represented in cortical neural networks and which brain areas are particularly important to guide behavioral decisions. Moreover, we study how information is shared across brain regions through specific projection pathways and how information processing and transmission are governed by neuromodulation.

Vita

Group leader - Forschungszentrum Jülich, 2021 – current

Postdoctoral fellow, Laboratory of Anne K. Churchland

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, 2015 – 2020

Doctoral student, Laboratory of Fritjof Helmchen

UZH/ETH Zürich, Switzerland, 2010 – 2015

Data analysis consultant, Laboratory of Renate Drechsler

Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Zürich, Switzerland, 2015

Visiting scientist, Laboratory of Stefano Panzeri

Istituto italiano di tecnologia, Genova, Italy, 2010

Master student, Laboratory of Nikos Logothetis

MPI for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, 2009 – 2010

Publications

Abu Shihada J, Jung M, Decke S, Koschinski L, Musall S, Rincón Montes V, Offenhäusser A. (2024) "Highly Customizable 3D Microelectrode Arrays for In Vitro and In Vivo Neuronal Tissue Recordings". Advanced Science, 10.1002/advs.202305944

Koschinski L, Lenyk B, Jung M, Lenzi I, Kampa B, Mayer D, Offenhäusser A, Musall S*, Rincon-Montes V* (2023) “Validation of transparent and flexible neural implants for simultaneous electrophysiology, functional imaging, and optogenetics“. Journal of Materials Chemistry B. doi: 10.1039/D3TB01191G; *Shared last author

Musall, S*, Sun XR, Hemanth M, An X, Gluf S, Drewes R, Cravo E, Lenzi I, Yin C, Kampa, BM, Churchland AK* (2023) Pyramidal cell types drive functionally distinct cortical activity patterns during decision-making. Nature Neuroscience. 23:1-11. doi:10.1038/s41593-022-01245-9; *Shared corressponding author

Hemanth M, An X, Xu H, Kondo H, Zhao S, Matho KS, Musall, S, Mitra P, Huang ZJ (2023) Cortical glutamatergic projection neuron types contribute to distinct functional subnetworks. Nature Neuroscience. 23:1-11. doi:10.1038/s41593-022-01244-w

Daiyo Y, Musall S, Churchland A, Padilla-Coreano N, Saxena S (2023) Disentangled multi-subject and social behavioral representations through a constrained subspace variational autoencoder (CS-VAE) eLife. doi:10.7554/eLife.88602.1

Wiesbrock, C, Musall, S, Kampa, BM (2022) A flexible python-based touchscreen chamber for operant conditioning reveals improved visual perception of cardinal orientations in mice. Front. Cell. Neurosci. doi:10.3389/fncel.2022.866109.

Srikantharajah K., Quintela RM, Doerenkamp K, Kampa BM, Musall S, Rothermel M, Offenhäusser A. (2021) “Minimally-invasive insertion strategy and in vivo evaluation of multi-shank flexible intracortical probes.” Scientific Reports 11, 1-11

Couto J*, Musall S*, Xiaonan RS, Khanal A, Gluf S, Saxena S, Kinsella I, Abe T, Cunningham JP, Paninski L, Churchland AK. “Chronic, cortex-wide imaging of specific cell populations during behavior”, Nature Protocols (IF: 13.49), June 2021; *Equal author contribution

Huang L., Krebschull J, Furth D, Musall S, Kaufman MT, Churchland AK, Zador A. “BRICseq bridges brain-wide interregional connectivity to neural activity and gene expression in single animals.” Cell 1, 177-188 (IF: 36.21), July 2020

Saxena S, Kinsella I, Musall S, Kim SH, Meszaros J, Thibodeaux DN, Kim C, Cunningham J , Hillman E, Churchland AK., Paninski L. “Localized semi-nonnegative matrix factorization (LocaNMF) of widefield calcium imaging data.” PLOS Computation Biology 16, e1007791 (IF: 4.43), April 2020

Batty E, Whiteway M, Saxena S, Biderman D, Abe T, Musall S, Gillis W, et al. “BehaveNet: Nonlinear Embedding and Bayesian Neural Decoding of Behavioral Videos.” Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 32, 15680-15691 (IF: 7.79), December 2019.

Musall S, Kaufman MT, Juavinett AL, Gluf S, Churchland AK. “Single-Trial Neural Dynamics Are Dominated by Richly Varied Movements.” Nature Neuroscience 22, 1677-1686 (IF: 21.13), October 2019

Musall S, Urai AE, Sussillo D, Churchland AK. “Harnessing Behavioral Diversity to Understand Neural Computations for Cognition.” Current Opinion in Neurobiology 58, 229-238 (IF: 4.01), October 2019

Wahl AS, Büchler U, Brändli A, Brattoli B, Musall S, Kasper H, et al. “Optogenetically Stimulating Intact Rat Corticospinal Tract Post-Stroke Restores Motor Control through Regionalized Functional Circuit Formation.” Nature Communications 8, 1-16 (IF: 11.88), October 2017

Musall S, Haiss F, Weber B, von der Behrens W. “Deviant Processing in the Primary Somatosensory Cortex.” Cerebral Cortex 27, 863-876 (IF: 6.31), November 2015

Musall S*, von der Behrens W, Mayrhofer JM, Weber B, Helmchen F, Haiss F. “Tactile Frequency Discrimination Is Enhanced by Circumventing Neocortical Adaptation.” Nature Neuroscience 17, 1567-1573 (IF: 21.13), November 2014, *Corresponding author

Mayrhofer JM, Skreb V, von der Behrens W, Musall S, Weber B, Haiss F. “Novel Two-Alternative Forced Choice Paradigm for Bilateral Vibrotactile Whisker Frequency Discrimination in Head-Fixed Mice and Rats.” Journal of Neurophysiology 109, 273-284 (IF: 2.89), January 2013

Musall S, von Pföstl V, Rauch A, Logothetis NK, Whittingstall K. “Effects of Neural Synchrony on Surface EEG.” Cerebral Cortex 24, 1045-1053 (IF: 6.31), December 2012

Last Modified: 16.09.2024