Out today in @natneuro.nature.com is (a highly evolved version of) the second chapter of my dissertation (with @eblissmoreau.bsky.social) assessing the comparative anatomy of the insula across 🐁mice, 🐀rats, 🐒monkeys, and 🚶humans! rdcu.be/fyd7T

Comparative insights into insula structure and function

Nature Neuroscience - Charbonneau et al. compare how the insula is structured and functions in humans, monkeys and rodents, revealing similarities and differences across species that are likely to...

rdcu.be

Computational models are a key part of science but discovering new ones is hard! DataDIVER discovers concise models from data, which surface new mechanistic ideas and clear predictions for future experiments From Google Deepmind Neuroscience Lab + collaborators www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to share our recent review, which highlights algorithmic and implementational degeneracy in studies of cognition: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Addressing degeneracy in rodent studies of cognition

In order to relate neural dynamics to cognitive computations, it is critical to determine whether subjects are employing behavioral strategies that ac…

sciencedirect.com

Thrilled to share our new paper, which shows that the relative timing of cholinergic and dopamine release dynamically gates whether dopamine acts as an RPE for in vivo plasticity and reinforcement learning. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Acetylcholine demixes heterogeneous dopamine signals for learning and moving

Nature Neuroscience - Jang et al. measured dopamine and acetylcholine release in the striatum of rats performing a decision-making task and found that the relative timing of cholinergic and...

nature.com

A study from Rockefeller's @danielkronauer.bsky.social in @currentbiology.bsky.social finds that ants continually update their sense of nestmate identity and tolerance for outsiders, a discovery that opens the door to studying the neural circuits behind social recognition. 🔗:https://bit.ly/4sukQIR

Want to match neural representations from different days and get more trials for analyses? Interested in multi-scale neural dynamics in decision variability? Visit our #cosyne2026 poster today afternoon (Sat)! 3-161: Dynamics-based alignment across sessions reveals latent neural computation

Come be our colleague! The Center for Neural Science at NYU is accepting applications at the Assistant Professor level in computational neuroscience and/or neural engineering apply.interfolio.com/182074

Thank you for the great summary, @thetransmitter.bsky.social, and the shout-outs from scientists we admire. There is so much we don’t know about how sex hormones modulate behavior and we’ll keep exploring!

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 9mo ago

“It’s giving mechanistic insight into how estrogen modulates reinforcement learning—all the way down to the molecular mechanism,” says Ilana Witten. By @avaskham.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/sex-hormones...

“It’s giving mechanistic insight into how estrogen modulates reinforcement learning—all the way down to the molecular mechanism,” says Ilana Witten. By @avaskham.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/sex-hormones...

Sex hormone boosts female rats’ sensitivity to unexpected rewards

During the high-estradiol stages of their estrus cycle, female rats learn faster than they do during other stages—and than male rats overall—thanks to a boost in their dopaminergic response to reward…

thetransmitter.org

Who wore it better? Our new paper shows that rat OFC supports Bayesian inference of hidden states! With neural correlates of inferred state transitions at the level of single neurons and population-level latent factors. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

To study how animals understand the physical world (and the rules that govern its dynamics), @jinyao-y.bsky.social trains rats to play fetch with robots 🐀🤖🎾 To learn more, come to our poster Tuesday morning! [Board W11] Rats learn and use intuitive physics knowledge to solve fetch tasks. #SfN2025

Foraging as an ethological framework for neuroscience From the amazing @lauragrima.bsky.social and colleagues - definitely looking forward to reading this! #neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition

Foraging as an ethological framework for neuroscience

The study of foraging is central to a renewed interest in naturalistic behavior in neuroscience. Applying a foraging framework grounded in behavioral …

sciencedirect.com

Come say hello and check out some cool science from folks in the lab!

Constantinople lab@constantinoplelab.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Check out our posters at #SfN25 this Saturday! @aqperkins.bsky.social @adiraj95.bsky.social @goldenneurons.bsky.social

Thrilled to share our new paper, out now in @natneuro.nature.com, uncovering how estradiol, the most potent estrogen, modulates reinforcement learning and reward prediction errors across biological levels. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #blueprint 1/7

Estrogen modulates reward prediction errors and reinforcement learning - Nature Neuroscience

Dopamine encoding of reward prediction errors naturally fluctuates over females’ reproductive cycles with estrogenic signaling due to reduced expression of dopamine reuptake proteins.

nature.com

Ecstatic to announce our exciting new paper! Rat-mon y Cajal found a new friend to help him learn. Introducing, Dr. Tutor-us!

Carla Golden@goldenneurons.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Thrilled to share our new paper, out now in @natneuro.nature.com, uncovering how estradiol, the most potent estrogen, modulates reinforcement learning and reward prediction errors across biological levels. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #blueprint 1/7

1/ Hello Drosophila-philists and braino-maniacs! 👋🪰🧠🧪 The Caron lab has a new preprint, and it is about 🥁🥁🥁 democracy! Neuro-democracy, to be precise. So: drop EVERYTHING and listen up — a 🧶! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our paper on foraging is now published in Neuron! Read it here: www.cell.com/neuron/fullt... This project was co-led by Michael Bukwich (not on Bluesky) and me, with major contributions from all co-authors. Huge thanks to the whole team!

Competitive integration of time and reward explains value-sensitive foraging decisions and frontal cortex ramping dynamics

Bukwich and Campbell et al. show that mice integrate elapsed time and reward intake, scaled by a latent patience variable, to decide when to leave virtual “patches.” Frontal cortex ramping activity ma...

cell.com

🚨Registration for Mechanistic Basis of Foraging 2025 closes October 20th 🚨 Speakers @mkflugge.bsky.social @aaronbornstein.bsky.social @benhayden.bsky.social @ellileadbeater.bsky.social @davidrobbe.bsky.social @dlbarack.bsky.social @becketebs.bsky.social uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...

'Foraging as an ethological framework for neuroscience' by @LauraGrima.bsky.social, @Hannah-Haberkern.bsky.social, Rishika Mohanta, @MaimMorimoto.bsky.social @adiraj95.bsky.social @EmmavScholey.bsky.social www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

Had a lot of fun co-writing to this review! Discussing #foraging through the lens of neuroscience.

Laura Grima@lauragrima.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Pleased to have this review out in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social. In it we discuss various aspects of the intersection between foraging behaviors and neuroscience, and offer some future directions: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Really excited to share a review I contributed to, out now in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social. We explore how foraging can offer a framework for studying brain and behaviour in natural contexts. It’s been a pleasure working with colleagues across species and disciplines on this. Check it out! 👇

Laura Grima@lauragrima.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Pleased to have this review out in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social. In it we discuss various aspects of the intersection between foraging behaviors and neuroscience, and offer some future directions: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Plus, there's now a related conference organized by some wonderful people @unibirmingham.bsky.social in the UK, including @brainapps.bsky.social, @markdhumphries.bsky.social, and others. (Registration for this conference is still open until the 20th October!) uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...

A little backstory on this one: sometime during the pandemic @hannah-haberkern.bsky.social and I were chatting in the servery at @hhmijanelia.bsky.social about how to encourage interactions between people working on foraging (+ neuroscience) across different species and perspectives... 1/n

Laura Grima@lauragrima.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Pleased to have this review out in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social. In it we discuss various aspects of the intersection between foraging behaviors and neuroscience, and offer some future directions: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Years ago @lauragrima.bsky.social talked about what a pity it is when scientists who work on #foraging miss out on fruitful interactions because they work with different animals. Together with collegues we started a virtual seminar series, which grew into a conference and now a review!

Inspired by discussions at several recent foraging-related seminar series and conferences, our review in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social explores an expanded role for foraging as a framework in neuroscience and discusses future directions for the field. Do check it out. doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...

Laura Grima@lauragrima.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Pleased to have this review out in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social. In it we discuss various aspects of the intersection between foraging behaviors and neuroscience, and offer some future directions: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

defector.com/sure-we-gain... While I agree that @taskmaster.tv is indeed close to "the absolute zenith of humanity's artistic development". I would like to refer the author and anyone who follows my bluesky to @dropout.tv's incredible @gamechangershow.bsky.social.

Sure, We Gained Our Independence, But We Lost The Ability To Make Anything As Good As ‘Taskmaster’ | Defector

The Fourth of July is always there to remind us that we aren’t the country we fancy ourselves being, but this year’s national try-not-to-blow-your-hand-off munitions festival was even grimmer given th...

defector.com

I am delighted to announce registration and abstract submission is open for "The Mechanistic Basis of Foraging 2025" to be held at the Edgbaston Park Hotel, University of Birmingham, UK on 3-5th November 2025. uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...

Do register for what is going to be a very exciting conference! uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...

Laura Grima@lauragrima.bsky.social · last yr.

Super excited to announce a follow-up to the Janelia 'mechanistic basis of foraging' conference - this time held in Birmingham, UK! Join us from the 3rd - 5th November to discuss all things foraging: uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...

🧠Zoning out could be beneficial—and may actually help us learn faster. 🥼New research led by @zhong-lin.bsky.social @marius10p.bsky.social @computingnature.bsky.social 🔗 www.janelia.org/news/zoning-...

Zoning out could be beneficial—and may actually help us learn faster

Actions that may seem unproductive – like aimlessly wandering around a city or exploring a new mall – could play an important role in how our brains learn, according research from HHMI’s Janelia...

janelia.org

Rat-mon y Cajal, our lab mascot, is a pro at our task because he went to kindergarten first. His nemesis, Le Chat GPT, just copied off everyone else’s homework. www.nature.com/articles/s42...