Our paper has been accepted at Cell Reports (@cp-cellreports.bsky.social). Huge thanks to Will Fan, who spearheaded this work, and to Paula To for her contributions. See the graphical abstract below, and thread for the story behind the figures: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

Natale R. Sciolino, PhD@sciolinolab.bsky.social · 5mo ago

1/ New preprint from our lab: “Locus coeruleus activation transforms cortical taste representations” We asked how a major neuromodulatory system reshapes cortical taste coding toward behaviorally meaningful features. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Happy to share the version of record of our locus coeruleus paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Prior thread on some of our discoveries in this study: bsky.app/profile/jere...

Topographic structure and function of locus coeruleus noradrenaline neurons - Nature

Dorsal and ventral noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus form topographic subpopulations whose projection patterns and activity encode choice switching, reward-prediction errors and disregard o...

nature.com

Jeremiah Cohen@jeremiahycohen.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Delighted to share our discoveries about one of the brain's neurotransmitter systems: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Together with colleagues at the @alleninstitute.org, we have learned a lot about a tiny cluster of neurons in the brainstem locus coeruleus (LC) that releases norepinephrine (NE). 1

1/6 Opioids trigger a dopamine surge that can create dangerous reward associations—yet that same dopamine signal may help shape central pain perception. Can the dopamine surge and reward associations be separated? Our recent Nature study says yes www.nature.com/articles/s41...

My department, Neurobiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington (nbio.uw.edu), is hiring a new tenure-track Assistant Professor, application deadline 09/30/26. It's a broad search — molecular to organismal, all of neuroscience/physiology/biophysics welcome. apply.interfolio.com/187735

First Castro Lab paper, brought to you by the hard work of Dr. Kathryn Braden @katybraden.bsky.social In this manuscript we investigate the role of endogenous enkephalin or dorsal raphe nucleus. We find that it is incredibly important for buffering negative affect 😱 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Dorsal raphe nucleus enkephalin peptide modulates behavioral preference - Neuropsychopharmacology

Neuropsychopharmacology - Dorsal raphe nucleus enkephalin peptide modulates behavioral preference

nature.com

Thrilled to share our work out in @nature.com today! Linking flexibility modeling, single-cell imaging, and targeted optogenetics allowed us to characterize how some prefrontal neurons, and mPFC-VTA neurons in particular, drive contingency degradation behavior. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Prefrontal to ventral tegmental area dynamics drive contingency degradation - Nature

This work provides a mechanistic understanding of how certain prefrontal circuits in the rodent brain permit flexibility to selectively stop learned behaviours through interactions with core subcortic...

nature.com

If you're interested in emerging ideas in neural interfaces, I humbly suggest my lab's latest: www.nature.com/articles/s42... Neural interfaces create dynamic interactions between the brain & devices. This means mean we need new engineering approaches beyond typical ML to "decode" a static brain

Computational framework to predict and shape human–machine interactions in closed-loop, co-adaptive neural interfaces - Nature Machine Intelligence

Madduri et al. introduce a computational framework grounded in control and game theory to model co-adaptation between users and decoders in neural interfaces. This framework enables a principled desig...

nature.com

Check out our latest research drop! We show BLA dopamine signaling encodes the emotional weight of sensory transitions, but not the associative strength or value of stimuli. These signals dynamically rescale when the learning context changes: "this matters most!" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How does the brain generalize past experiences without confusing memories? 🧠 Our lab's newest preprint reveals a fundamental division of labor between the cortex and cerebellum that solves this problem. (Check out the cortex-cerebellum video below! 👇) 🧵

The most sensitive green and red #norepinephrine #sensors engineered to date are out in #naturemethods! Deeply grateful to all our funders and contributors who made this work possible. A true team effort. @erc.europa.eu @snsf.ch doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Next-generation multicolor indicators for in vivo imaging of norepinephrine - Nature Methods

Improved red and green indicators for norepinephrine and their characterization are reported. These indicators allow detection of norepinephrine release in awake behaving mice in dual-color fiber phot...

doi.org

Thrilled this is out, led by former PD Cameron Ogg (now with her own lab at @rhodescollege.bsky.social!). It was a driven by a desire to see, in real-time, how LC activity/NE release influences downstream targets in behaving animals. SO hard to do, but Cameron did it! www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Locus coeruleus norepinephrine neurons facilitate orbitofrontal cortex remapping and behavioral flexibility

Ogg et al. use in vivo imaging techniques to record activity in the locus coeruleus (LC) and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) during a reversal learning task in freely moving rodents. They show that man...

cell.com

This new ERC study uses an overlapping set of human 🧠 donors as our just dropped locus coeruleus preprint. Availability of data from both regions in the same donor facilitates our current efforts to analyze molecular signaling across the circuit, which is highly vulnerable in Alzheimer's disease.

Louise Huuki-Myers@lahuuki.bsky.social · 11mo ago

This dataset is paired with a spatial transcriptomic analysis of the locus coeruleus from the same donors. This work led by @berniejmulvey.bsky.social is also now in pre-print! bsky.app/profile/berniejmulvey.bsky.social/post/3m4isvuqabm2v www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Happy to share our study “Noradrenergic tuning of arousal is coupled to movement transitions” from my time at Michael Bruchas' lab. www.cell.com/cell-reports... Highlights: 1. Anesthetic emergence dissociates arousal components; LC-NE activation is coupled to the return of organized behavior.

Noradrenergic tuning of arousal is coupled to movement transitions

Li et al. characterize the locus coeruleus (LC)-norepinephrine system in movement-arousal coupling during anesthetic emergence and awake-movement transitions. They find that LC activity correlates wit...

cell.com

The Gowrishankar lab will be opening its doors @neuro_MUSC on Dec 1, 2025! We will be hiring at all levels. I will also be at @SfNtweets presenting my lab's vision on Wednesday, Nov 19, 8AM-12PM at poster board GG7. If you're interested, please reach out! www.raajgowrishankarlab.org

I’m extremely honored to be a recipient of the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award!

Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute@zuckermanbrain.bsky.social · last yr.

Congratulations to @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social on receiving the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, celebrating “scientists with outstanding records of creativity.” His lab will explore how the sense of touch can help build relationships. 🫶🧠💡 See zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/zuckerman-in...

🔵 I'm interrupting my social media hiatus to flag this important preprint from the Bruchas lab (is he not on Bluesky!?) together with @davidweinshenker.bsky.social. Very difficult experiments to show that dopamine release from LC terminals is independent of VTA 🔥 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Reposting this as a reminder that we have an open Research Assistant position - appreciate reposts and passing along to colleagues who may know people who are interested! Details and link to apply are in the second post!

Keri Martinowich@martinowk.bsky.social · last yr.

New posting for a Research Assistant in our division. Ideal position for recent graduate looking for experience in molecular neurobiology and microscopy. Team-oriented environment working across projects generating spatial transcriptomics data in human 🧠 tissue and human-derived neuronal cell models

Far from being a passive neighbor to the locus coeruleus, the pericoeruleus appears to act as a kind of micromanager of arousal, selectively inhibiting different subgroups of locus coeruleus neurons, writes @macshine.bsky.social. #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/attention/th...

The brain’s quiet conductor: How hidden cells fine-tune arousal

New research published today suggests that the pericoeruleus acts as a kind of micromanager of arousal, selectively inhibiting different subgroups of locus coeruleus neurons depending on the…

thetransmitter.org

NIH's work saves lives—& Trump is gutting it. Straight from D.C. I headed to Seattle Children's to hear from researchers & patients alike about the importance of NIH funding—it's not just about lines in a budget, it's about lifesaving discoveries. We ALL need to speak up to save it.

It finally happened, the Castro lab's first paper! Congrats to @katybraden.bsky.social !! In this review we examine what we know, and more importantly, what we DON'T know about neuropeptides in the dorsal raphe/ventromedial PAG. Here we go! www.frontiersin.org/journals/beh...

a drag queen wearing a blue dress with the word iconic on the front

ALT: a drag queen wearing a blue dress with the word iconic on the front

media.tenor.com

Our latest study identifies a specific cell type and receptor essential for psilocybin’s long-lasting neural and behavioral effects 🍄🔬🧠🧪 Led by Ling-Xiao Shao and @ItsClaraLiao Funded by @NIH @NIMHgov 📄 Read in @nature.com - www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/12

Psilocybin’s lasting action requires pyramidal cell types and 5-HT2A receptors - Nature

A pyramidal cell type and the 5-HT2A receptor in the medial frontal cortex have essential roles in psilocybin’s long-term drug action.

nature.com

Wanted to share this story about my colleague Bryant Lin. We’re working together on bringing art and science together but his story runs much deeper. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/u...

When This Stanford Professor Got Cancer, He Decided to Teach a Class About It

Dr. Bryant Lin, who teaches medicine at Stanford University, was given a terminal diagnosis. He wanted his students to understand the humanity at the core of medicine.

nytimes.com

Call to End Freeze on Federal Grants The White House's pause on federal grants threatens our nation’s scientific progress. Read SfN's full statement urging this Administration to lift the freeze to protect the health and security of our nation: bit.ly/4gq9i2I

If you are still at #ACNP2024 and are interested in the locus coeruleus and/or the amygdala, please stop by my poster from the @mbruchas lab examining how both nodes of this circuit mediate stress-induced anxiety-like behavior tonight (W169)!

The Juarez lab at University of Maryland, Baltimore is hiring a PD! We combine gene editing, neurophysiology and behavior to understand the basis of disordered behaviors 🧠🧬✂️🔬🐭. Check us out and apply at thejuarezlab.com .

jobRxiv@jobrxiv.org · 3y ago

Postdoctoral Fellow- Behavior and Circuit Neuroscience jobrxiv.org/job/univ... #ScienceJobs #AcademicSky