Author Archives: jvoigts

A lack of reviewers can lead to more polarized review outcomes

Posted on June 21, 2022 by jvoigts

I recently was part of a manuscript review where the editors had to invite 12 reviewers to finally get 3 of them to agree to review, over a two-and-a-half-month process. This got me thinking about what kind of sample the … Continue reading →

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Basic techniques for making mechanical structures for systems neuroscience

Posted on December 8, 2020 by jvoigts

In systems neuroscience, a lot of times we need to build or modify mechanical support structures to keep devices in place. This could be cameras, electrode manipulators, slides, lenses, headposts, etc. Almost universally, these structures need to keep relatively light … Continue reading →

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Review: Hot glue

Posted on December 3, 2020 by jvoigts

This is part of a series in which I review various glues etc. (Epoxy, Superglue). Today we’re looking at an arts and crafts favorite: Hot glue. Hot glue is surprisingly useful for quickly building large, temporary, non-precise structures and tacking … Continue reading →

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Review: Superglue

Posted on October 18, 2020 by jvoigts

This is the second part of a series (I did epoxy before) in which I will review various glues etc. Superglue / cyanoacrylate is a staple in almost all neuroscience labs. While there are some applications for super glue, in … Continue reading →

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Review: Epoxy

Posted on January 30, 2020 by jvoigts

This is the first part of a series in which I will review various glues etc. This is a fairly shallow and boring topic, but systems neuroscience is a field in which we often have to build things and and … Continue reading →

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The case for scientific consulting in neuroscience

Posted on October 28, 2019 by jvoigts

This blog post lays out arguments for why we should build and support organizations and/or businesses that offer technical scientific consulting. Many of the ideas here arose from discussions with the people at the Open Ephys and Miniscope projects, with … Continue reading →

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Use teensy microcontrollers instead of arduinos

Posted on April 9, 2019 by jvoigts

This post is mostly just an advertisement for the teensy family of microcontrollers (MCUs). People like to use ‘arduino’ as shorthand for easy to use MCU (and wherever you go you see arduinos with ratsnets of loose wires stuck in … Continue reading →

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Visualizing recording pipettes with quantum dots

Posted on March 15, 2019 by jvoigts

Here’s a quick description/’review’ of the method for making pipettes fluorescent by quantum dot coating described in Andrásfalvy et al 2014. We used the protocol for some in-vivo 2p guided sharps recordings a while ago and really liked how cheap, simple … Continue reading →

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Low cost laser cut syringe pump

Posted on March 2, 2019 by jvoigts

Here’s a yet another design for a cheap-ish open source syringe pump. There are many designs for these out there already, including 3d printed ones, and ones made from lego. This one is designed to be fast to build, robust, … Continue reading →

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Preprint: Free head rotation while 2-photon imaging

Posted on March 3, 2018 by jvoigts

We just posted the preprint for a method that allows 2-photon imaging while mice  freely rotate horizontally and  run around a real (or virtual) 2-D environment. The system allows attaching other instruments (ephys, opto, etc.) to the headpost. We think … Continue reading →

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