Qualifications and Career
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Diploma |
Biology with focus in Neurophysiology
2004-2010, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany
Electrophysiological recordings in awake primates to study visual processing and neural sources of EEG. |
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Doctorate |
16 July 2015, Prof. Fritjof Helmchen / Prof. Bruno Weber
UZH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Neural recordings and optogenetic stimulation of task-per-forming rats to study somatosensory perception. |
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Stages of academic/professional career |
04/2022, W1 junior professor for Neuromodulation Department of Biology II, RWTH Aachen University
01/2021, Group leader Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany
The group focuses on brain-wide signatures of multisensory perception, decision-making, and state-dependent modula-tion of neural processing
2015 – 2020, Postdoctoral fellow, Prof. Anne Churchland, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York
Cortex-wide imaging and optogenetic inhibition focusing on transformation of sensory information into decisions |
Activities in the Research System
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2025 |
Co-organized Bernstein meeting workshop, Berlin, Germany ‘Conceptual consistency in systems neuroscience’ |
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2023-2024 |
Selection committee member, Cooperative Doctoral Projects Program Research center Jülich |
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2023 |
Outreach event ‘Ask me anything (AMA)’ for students and postdocs, AMA series iBehave network, digital & in-person, Aachen, Germany |
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since 2022 |
Steering board committee member: iBehave technology platform iBOTS |
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2022 |
Repeated speaker Workshop “Build your own research group”, Jahrestagung German Academic International Networks (GAIN22), Bonn, Germany |
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2021,2023, 2024, 2025 |
RTG2416 Symposium ‘Meet the PI’ with subsequent discussion of professional development for students and postdocs, Aachen, Germany |
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2021 |
Faculty Search Committee member, W2/W3 Professorship for Neuroelectronic Interfaces, RWTH Aachen, Germany |
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2021-2023 |
Mentor at IHRS-BioSoft mentoring program for international master students with monthly personal meetings for 1 year. Jülich, Germany |
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since 2016 |
Regular reviewing activity: Current Biology, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Communications, eLife, Cell reports, Neurophotonics, Epilepsia, Cerebral Cor-tex, Scientific Reports, Frontiers, BSF, NSF, ISF, COSYNE |
Research Focus Areas
Our main focus is to understand how neural circuits transform sensory information into cognitive decisions and adaptive behavior. In our experiments, we combine quantitative behavioral paradigms with large-scale functional imaging, electrophysiology, optogenetic perturbations, and computational analyses. We are particularly interested in multisensory integration, perceptual decision-making, learning-dependent changes in behavioral strategies, and the influence of behavioral state on neural processing. By linking detailed behavioral measurements to brain-wide circuit dynamics, our work seeks to identify the neural mechanisms that support flexible, sensory-guided behavior.
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Awards and Honors
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2021 |
Helmholtz Young Investigator Award, Helmholtz Association |
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2017 |
Advanced Postdoc Mobility Grant, Swiss National Science Foundation |
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2015 |
Early Postdoc Mobility Grant, Swiss National Science Foundation |
Selected Publications
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Reichard J, Wolff P, Xie S, Zuo K, Fullio CL, Du J, Graff S, Linde J, Yildiz CB, Pitschelatow G, Nabbefeld G, Dorp L, Vollmer J, Biemans L, Kempf S, Singh M, Mohan KN, Kuo C-C, Vogel T, Carloni P, Musall S, Zimmer-Bensch G. (2025) DNMT1-mediated regulation of so-matostatin-positive interneuron migration impacts cortical architecture and function. Nature Communications 16:6834. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62114-0
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Balla E, Wiesbrock C, Linde J, Musall S*, Kampa BM* (2025) Broadband visual stimuli im-prove neuronal representation and sensory perception. Nature Communications 16 (1), 2957. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58003-1. *Shared last author
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Yin C, Melin MD, Rojas-Bowe G, Sun XR, Couto J, Gluf S, Kostiuk A, Musall S & Churchland AK (2025) Spontaneous movements and their relationship to neural activity fluctuate with la-tent engagement states. Neuron 896-6273 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2025.06.001
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Musall S, Sun XR, Mohan H, An X, Gluf S, Li S-J, Drewes R, Cravo E, Lenzi I, Yin C, Kampa BM, Churchland AK (2023) Pyramidal cell types drive functionally distinct cortical activity pat-terns during decision-making. Nature Neuroscience 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01245-9
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Mohan H, An X, Xu XH, Kondo H, Zhao S, Matho KS, Wang B-S, Musall S, Mitra P, Huang ZJ (2023). Cortical glutamatergic projection neuron types contribute to distinct functional sub-networks. Nature Neuroscience 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01244-w
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Koschinski L, Lenyk B, Jung M, Lenzi I, Kampa B, Mayer D, Offenhäusser A, Musall S*, Mon-tes VR* (2023) Validation of transparent and flexible neural implants for simultaneous electro-physiology, functional imaging, and optogenetics. Journal of Material Chemistry B https://doi.org/10.1039/D3TB01191G. *Shared last author
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Couto J, Musall S*, Sun XR, 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 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-021-00527-z. *Shared first author
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Musall S, Urai AE, Sussillo D, Churchland AK (2019) Harnessing behavioral diversity to un-derstand neural computations for cognition. COIN. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2019.09.011
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Musall S, Kaufman MT, Juavinett AL, Gluf S, Churchland AK (2019) Single-trial neural dy-namics are dominated by richly varied movements. Nature Neuroscience 22:1677–1686. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0502-4
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Musall S, Von der Behrens W, Mayrhofer JM, Weber B, Helmchen F, Haiss F. (2015) Tactile frequency discrimination is enhanced by circumventing neocortical adaptation. Nature Neu-roscience 17:1567–1573. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3821
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