I am super grateful and honored to have been selected for an ACNP travel award! This will have an important impact for me and my lab. Looking forward to exciting conversartions in San Diego next year! @uabneuro.bsky.social @acnporg.bsky.social
Kauê Machado Costa
@kmcostalab.com
Neuroscientist 🧠 Brazilian Assistant Professor at UAB Dept. of Psychology Allen Institute Next Generation Leader Interested in dopamine, cortex, learning, cognition, and more kmcostalab.com
Matéria na @folha.com sobre minha nomeação para o grupo de Young American Scientists da @sciam.bsky.social 🇧🇷🇺🇲 Agradeço à Ana Bottallo pelo trabalho no artigo, e espero que outros jovens brasileiros também venham a se interessar pelo meu tópico de pesquisa. www1.folha.uol.com.br/ciencia/2026...
www1.folha.uol.com.br
Story from @sciam.bsky.social on CNC faculty member Dr. Kauê Costa (@kmcostalab.com), who was included in the 2026 "Young American Scientists" selection of groundbreaking researchers that represent the future of science, technology and medicine! www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/epis...
This young neuroscientist is challenging what we know about learning
Neuroscientist Kauê M. Costa talks about surprising results that are changing how we think dopamine works and how the brain really learns
scientificamerican.com
I'm honored to be one of the first @sciam.bsky.social Young American Scientists! Big thanks to Geoff Schoenbaum and other mentors, colleagues, and trainees. Science is a group effort and I'm lucky to have had great collaborators! @uabneuro.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/kaue...
Kauê M. Costa
Applying new tools to behavioral tests to discern how we learn
scientificamerican.com
I'm so happy to have my work featured as cover article in the Journal of Neuroscience!!! It is a fantastic honor! Big thanks to all the co-authors, especially Tamara Müller, and the journal editors. www.jneurosci.org/content/46/1... @sfnjournals.bsky.social @sfn.org @uabneuro.bsky.social
NEW PAPER! Here, my postdoc, Biru Dudhabhate, and I review the history of one of the most famous neuroscience hypotheses, the dopamine reward prediction error, and reflect on what made it such a major advance for the field. @uabneuro.bsky.social www.frontiersin.org/journals/com...
Frontiers | A brief history of dopamine prediction errors
Dopamine signaling has become closely associated with reward prediction errors (RPEs)–the difference between expected and experienced value. Although not wit...
frontiersin.org
NEW PAPER! Our study, in the pipeline for years and now out in #JNeurosci, shows that a channel subunit called KChIP4a is a biophysical amplifier of inhibition and controls learning from negative experiences! @uabneuro.bsky.social @sfnjournals.bsky.social www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
KChIP4a is a biophysical amplifier of inhibition in atypical dopamine neurons and controls learning from negative prediction errors
Dopamine neurons projecting to distinct brain regions have unique biophysical properties, which is thought to reflect functional specialization. One defining feature is the duration of hyperpolarizati...
jneurosci.org
This Sunday I'll be at @sidewalkfilm.bsky.social , doing a a post-screening discussion of "Ratatouille". This is part of the Science on Screen initiative (scienceonscreen.org). I am more than happy to get to talk about how rats are cool and smart 😁 sidewalkfest.com/events/ratat...
Science on Screen® 2026: Ratatouille (2007) with Dr. Kauê M. Costa – Sidewalk Film
sidewalkfest.com
Late announcement (due to distraction), but I am happy to share that the lab, together with our great collaborator Nuria Vendrell-Llopis, was awarded an NIMH R21! We are super excited to test some new ideas about how dopamine drives learning in brain computer interfaces! 🧠🖥️ @uabneuro.bsky.social
In this month’s “Liftoff,” @shawnrhoadsphd.com talks about how he’ll implement hackathons to foster community in his lab, and @zurisullivan.bsky.social shares how weekly discussions about unfamiliar topics can encourage curiosity in a lab. bit.ly/3ZkMQl8 By @franciscorr25.bsky.social #neuroskyence
Big News! I am beyond honored to have received the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions to Psychology in animal learning and behavior! I am so grateful to my lab, mentors, colleagues, and institutions for all the support over the years!
@thetransmitter.bsky.social’s “New Lab Directory” features a list of new neuroscience labs that opened in 2024-2025, and some set to launch in 2026. Check out the list to learn about the work of more than 50 new neuroscience labs. www.thetransmitter.org/community/th... #StateOfNeuroscience
The Transmitter’s New Lab Directory
Learn about neuroscience labs launched in the past two years, plus a few opening their doors in 2026.
thetransmitter.org
Happy to be featured by the @parkinsondotorg.bsky.social! Their Impact Award has been transformative for the lab and setting us on an exciting new research direction! www.parkinson.org/living-with-...
Kauê M. Costa, PhD
Kauê M. Costa, PhD, recipient of a Parkinson’s Foundation Impact Award, is diving into the complex neuroscience of PD to better understand what causes cognitive PD symptoms to occur before movement sy...
parkinson.org
Out in @elife.bsky.social! Lora and the Roeper lab discovered a new mechanism by which surviving dopamine neurons recover their function in a model of Parkinson's - a key step for understanding this disease! @goetheuni.bsky.social @uabneuro.bsky.social elifesciences.org/articles/104...
Recovery of the full in vivo firing range in post-lesion surviving DA SN neurons associated with Kv4.3-mediated pacemaker plasticity
elifesciences.org
Alright rat #neuroskyence community, lock in! We have an #OpenScienceWeek treat for you. You've asked for it in our DMs, comments, and SfN booth. 🥁🥁🥁 MapMyCells can now map rat data and map it onto any of our mouse or human taxonomies! More info: community.brain-map.org/t/new-featur...
New features in MapMyCells: Basal Ganglia taxonomy and cross-species mapping
We are pleased to announce two new features in MapMyCells. MapMyCells now allows users to map data onto the Consensus Basal Ganglia taxonomy, a multi-species (human, macaque, marmoset) taxonomy of ...
community.brain-map.org
I'm super happy to have the lab featured on @thetransmitter.bsky.social, my favorite place for neuroscience news! #neuroskyence @uabneuro.bsky.social
The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 11mo agoIn this month’s “Liftoff,” @matthiasnau.bsky.social talks about the importance of making quick decisions as a PI, and @kmcostalab.com shares how lab members being mad at a PI can sometimes be a good thing. By @franciscorr25.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/liftoff-new-...
I am extremely grateful to the @pfresearchteam.bsky.social for this great opportunity!
Parkinson's Foundation Research@pfresearchteam.bsky.social · 11mo ago📢 Congratulations to 2025 Impact Awardee, Dr. Kauê Costa from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, whose project focuses on uncovering the dopaminergic mechanisms of early cognitive deficits in #Parkinsons disease. @kmcostalab.com @parkinsondotorg.bsky.social
The lab has received a Parkinson's Foundation Impact Award! Together with @poonamthakur.bsky.social, we will explore how dopamine signaling changes in early PD impacts cognition. We are honored and grateful for this opportunity! proposalcentral.com/Insights/E_E... @parkinsondotorg.bsky.social
GREAT NEWS! Our paper on dopamine signaling of valueless prediction errors is out in Science Advances @science.org! I found that striatal dopamine tracks cue-cue prediction errors in sensory preconditioning, which goes against model-free ideas of dopamine function www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Striatal dopamine signals errors in prediction across different informational domains
Dopamine reflects prediction errors not only about reward but also about valueless stimuli, challenging many current theories.
science.org
Funding updates coming soon, and the lab is looking to recruit motivated postdocs, grad students, or postbacs with expertise in rodent behavior, stereotactic surgery, and neural data analysis. Come help us figure out the neural mechanisms of learning and cognition! See link: www.kmcostalab.com/join
K.M. Costa Lab - Join
Join
kmcostalab.com
This one is special - through my collaborator Anderson Herculano, we received a special grant from Brazil for collaborations with expat Brazilian PIs like me. I am beyond thrilled to start working with my alma mater @ufpa.bsky.social on Amazonian research applied to the brain and mental health🥳
This is a fantastic program. I learned quite a lot. Strongly recommend applying!
allen institute@alleninstitute.org · last yr.Open call for Next Generation Leaders! Our NGL program recognizes early career scientists with fresh and innovative perspectives. For 3 years, NGLs contribute to ongoing research and initiatives at the Allen Institute. Apply by June 3. alleninstitute.org/about/people...
Thrilled to see this great work by Bsky-less Wenhui Zong out in @natneuro.nature.com! It was a pleasure to contribute to this! The findings are wonderfully counterintuitive and provide surprising insight on the circuit bases of abstract representations in learning. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Hippocampal output suppresses orbitofrontal cortex schema cell formation - Nature Neuroscience
Inactivation of the ventral subiculum does not change existing schema cells in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) but aids their formation during new learning. This challenges the idea that the OFC relies...
nature.com
Wonderful stand up for science rally in Birmingham! Well attended, gorgeous weather, and great thoughts!!
Love this - it reflects many things that I had thought about and debated heatedly with others. I will print this out for future arguments. 🧐
Nencki Open Lab@openlab.bsky.social · last yr.We are super happy to present our first preprint - the effect of our Rethinking Naturalistic Behaviour Workshop - where we look more critically at the term "naturalistic behaviour" and point to its vagueness and inconsistency in its use! osf.io/preprints/os...
We are super happy to present our first preprint - the effect of our Rethinking Naturalistic Behaviour Workshop - where we look more critically at the term "naturalistic behaviour" and point to its vagueness and inconsistency in its use! osf.io/preprints/os...
I am happy to share my latest (NIH funded) work, out in @currentbiology.bsky.social ! We show that task demands define the correlations between accumbal dopamine and acetylcholine, in a pattern that supports a tripartite coincidence model of striatal plasticity. sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Dopamine and acetylcholine correlations in the nucleus accumbens depend on behavioral task states
Dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) changes quickly in response to errors in predicting events like reward delivery1,2,3 but also slowly …
sciencedirect.com
In these turbulent times, I am happy to share our NIH-supported paper in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social Led by Zhewei Zhang, we discuss the rigor needed to rule out TDRL models of dopamine function - after all, when you aim at the king, you better not miss🎯 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The devilish details affecting TDRL models in dopamine research
Over recent decades, temporal difference reinforcement learning (TDRL) models have successfully explained much dopamine (DA) activity. This success ha…
sciencedirect.com