Does problematic social media use involve the same dopamine-related reward mechanisms as addiction? That’s the question motivating the research I presented at the @bapsych.bsky.social Summer Meeting, involving a dopaminergic manipulation to probe the involved mechanisms. #BAP2026

Excited to be chairing/presenting at our post-doc symposium discussing the advancements (and challenges 🤫) of computational psychiatry with a ⭐️ line-up of @saramehrhof.bsky.social @yanivabir.bsky.social & Alicia Rybicki. If at #BAP2026, come join us today at 2pm ‼️

British Association for Psychopharmacology@bapsych.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Three high quality Post-Doc symposia will be running in parallel on Monday afternoon, 20th July, with subjects including computational psychiatry, long-term effects of stopping antipsychotics and antidepressants, and challenges of psychosis prediction modelling #BAP2026

#TWiNPP Finally, Mehrhof et al., metabolic dysfunction is linked to an energy-conserving motivational phenotype that may overlap with neuropsychiatric symptoms @camillanord.bsky.social @saramehrhof.bsky.social @hugofleming.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Computational phenotyping of effort-based decision-making in type-2 diabetes on and off semaglutide - Neuropsychopharmacology

Neuropsychopharmacology - Computational phenotyping of effort-based decision-making in type-2 diabetes on and off semaglutide

nature.com

Excited to share our new paper asking a simple question: Why do mental and metabolic health so often go hand in hand? We (@camillanord.bsky.social @hugofleming.bsky.social) tested whether shared neurocognitive signatures play a role in this relationship www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Computational phenotyping of effort-based decision-making in type-2 diabetes on and off semaglutide - Neuropsychopharmacology

Neuropsychopharmacology - Computational phenotyping of effort-based decision-making in type-2 diabetes on and off semaglutide

nature.com

🚨 Does social media use show established neurocognitive signatures of addiction? Concerns about social media addiction are widespread, yet whether platforms' design features actually engage the same neurocognitive pathways as established addictions has remained untested. doi.org/10.31234/osf...

What's the relationship of apathy to depression and anhedonia? Sijia Zhao led our work on this to show that many individuals qualify for the diagnostic criteria of 2 or even 3 of these syndromes. But factor analysis reveals that the syndromes are highly dissociable jnnp.bmj.com/content/earl...

So many inspiring talks (here by @saramehrhof.bsky.social, Sameer Alladin, @studenova.bsky.social) and discussions on the first day of the #MindBrainBody Symposium 2026! #MBB2026

This Wednesday February 25! Dr. Michael Treadway (Emory University) is presenting in @motcogmeet.bsky.social series: "Effort-Based Decision-Making and Its Discontents: Precision medicine approaches for understanding the pathophysiology and treatment of motivational deficits in mental illness" 1/

We are recruiting! Postdoctoral research fellow at www.sdn-lab.org, studying the computational & neural basis of social decision-making. Birmingham is a fantastic & affordable place to live, with one of the youngest populations in Europe & over 600 parks. Please share! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQO275/p...

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Social Decision Neuroscience at University of Birmingham

Explore an exciting academic career as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Social Decision Neuroscience. Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

jobs.ac.uk

How does metabolic learning shape human behaviour? In our recent study www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti..., we found that it shapes flavour preferences but, surprisingly, not action. Thread 🧵

With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world: gershmanlab.com/textbook.html It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class. My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.

I have an early Christmas present for you! 🎅 Happy to announce that we have three excellent keynote speakers at Psychology and Brain 2026 in Heidleberg! Professors Shamay-Tsoory, Schönauer and Allen will cover topics from empathy over memory to interoception! pug2026.org

Are you curious about electrogastrography, but keep getting chicken-related results when googling "EGG"? We have the preprint for you! In this tutorial, we describe how to acquire and analyse gastric data from human participants. Plus FREE software! Read it here: arxiv.org/abs/2509.17260

🚀 Excited to announce that I'm looking for people (PhD/Postdoc) to join my Cognitive Modelling group @uniosnabrueck.bsky.social. If you want to join a genuinely curious, welcoming and inclusive community of Coxis, apply here: tinyurl.com/coxijobs Please RT - deadline is Jan 4‼️

Lilian Weber@lilweb.bsky.social · 12mo ago

In other news, I am now a ✨ COXI ✨ (cognitive scientist in Osnabrück, Germany) www.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/campus-li... I'll be looking for PhD students & postdocs later this year, so watch this space if combining cognitive modelling, EEG & tFUS to study flexible cognition sounds exciting to you 🚀

Congratulations to MRC CBU’s PhD student Annalise Whines, who won the runner-up prize at the MRC Max Perutz Science Communication Awards in the video category. ‘Does motivation change across the menstrual cycle?’ https://www.ukri.org/publications/mrc-max-perutz-science-writing-award-2025/

Out now in Translational Psychiatry! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Model-based planning is unaffected by ketamine, antidepressant and internet delivered cognitive behavioural therapy treatments in depression - Translational Psychiatry

Translational Psychiatry - Model-based planning is unaffected by ketamine, antidepressant and internet delivered cognitive behavioural therapy treatments in depression

nature.com

Kelly Donegan@kellydonegan.bsky.social · 2y ago

Null findings are important ‼️ Excited to share my latest work finding model-based planning does NOT improve following ketamine 💉, antidepressant 💊, or iCBT 👩‍💻 treatments 🧵👇🏻

I updated a blog which I wrote a few years ago about PhD applications. There's a mix of reflections and practical tips which should be useful for anyone thinking about applying for a PhD (at predominantly UK institutions). Please share if it could be helpful! timothysandhu.github.io/blog/phd_blog/

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

It’s not the thought that counts: Allostasis at the core of brain function www.cell.com/neuron/fullt... #neuroscience

It’s not the thought that counts: Allostasis at the core of brain function

The authors review evidence that the primary function of the brain, supported by distributed neural systems, is the predictive regulation of physiology (i.e., allostasis). An example from Alzheimer’s ...

cell.com

🚨 New Preprint 🚨 Some people are at greater risk of experiencing negative mental health outcomes of social media use than others, but why? 🧵 We examined whether individual differences in cognitive processes shape risk and resilience to mental health effects on social media: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Nice things for the **13th #MindBrainBody Symposium 2026** happening under the hood 😊 Save the date: 📆 March 9-11, 2026 (Berlin and virtual) Stay tuned for the call and announcement! (For info about the last 12 MBBSymposia: mindbrainbody.de) #interoception #neuroskyence

In some way, it's trivial: The #brain & the rest of the #body (e.g. the #heart) are coupled. Yet, we spelled it out w/ A. Villringer & V. Nikulin for current scientists (below) w/ @martager.bsky.social @agatapatyczek.bsky.social @el-rei.bsky.social for future scientists bsky.app/profile/mart...

Trends in Neurosciences@cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social · 11mo ago

'Brain–body states as a link between cardiovascular and mental health' by Arno Villringer, Vadim Nikulin & Michael Gaebler @mbe-lab.bsky.social @michaelgaebler.com @mpicbs.bsky.social sky.social www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

Mental and metabolic health are closely linked - but what drives this connection? In our new theory paper, we (w/ @camillanord.bsky.social & @hugofleming.bsky.social g.bsky.social) propose dysregulation of interoceptive energy allostasis as a key mechanism. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵 1/n

An interoceptive model of energy allostasis linking metabolic and mental health

Interactions between metabolic interoception and regulation may drive comorbidity between mental and metabolic ill-health.

science.org

Why menstrual cycle irregularities belong in brain research www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Why menstrual cycle irregularities belong in brain research - Nature Medicine

The menstrual cycle requires tight orchestration between the brain and body, and irregularities can be both the cause and the consequence of wide-ranging health issues. Embracing this complexity, inst...

nature.com

Very happy to share my first preprint from @oxexppsy.bsky.social @oxneuro.bsky.social ! We (me + co-first authors @lilweb.bsky.social @mirunarascu.bsky.social + PI @mkflugge.bsky.social + many others) used transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (TUS/tFUS/LIFU) of the human amygdala ... (1/15)

Does altered energy homeostasis contribute to distinct symptom profiles in depression? A polygenic score capturing the genetic liability of the homeostatic system shows promising associations with symptoms. Great work by @ymilaneschi.bsky.social +team #neuroskyence 🩺 jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Energy Homeostasis in Depression Pathophysiology and Heterogeneity

This study examines whether the genetic liability of metabolic, interoceptive, and motivational pathways involved in energy homeostasis regulation is associated with specific symptoms of major depress...

jamanetwork.com

Thanks for such a fantastic conference!

Tobias Hauser@tobiasuhauser.bsky.social · last yr.

Congratulations to all the Travel Award Winners at #CPConf2025 - we were very fortunate to have so many fantastic young scientists at our conference!

Brilliant work by @saramehrhof.bsky.social on shared neurocognitive signatures of psychiatric and metabolic disorder at #cpconf2025

Excellent thread on dopamine culture. We have some work in the pipleline that is highly relevant to this!

Braydon Dymm, MD@befast.bsky.social · last yr.

As a neurologist, I see the term "dopamine" everywhere: dopamine fasting, dopamine hits, dopamine culture. It's become a cultural shorthand for pleasure. But the real story is far more complex and fascinating. Here’s a thread on what we actually know 🧠

Finally, the amazing Professor Camilla Nord presents on interoception - including some cool lived experience work on body sensations, and work on disgust and gastric rhythms, alongside work on energy conservation. #BAP2025