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...

**Four** positions in AI/ML for biology at @dukemedschool.bsky.social, including in Neurobiology. @scottsoderling.bsky.social and David Page are leading a tremendous initiative in Discovery AI. Wonderful colleagues, wonderful place.

AI/ML for Biology - 4 tenure-track assistant professor positions - Durham, North Carolina job with Duke University - Biochemistry & Cell Biology | 12862109

Discovery AI Initiative and Departments of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Integrative Immunobiology, Neurobiology, and Pharmacology & Cancer Biology

nature.com

Our new review paper lead by CNAP PhD Student Jim Zhang and @tobiasegner.bsky.social is now published in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews: “Insights into the neural mechanisms supporting cognitive stability and flexibility from human intracranial EEG.” doi.org/10.1016/j.ne... 1/5

You may have read that the OMB is proposing dozens of changes to grant selection, oversight, termination, etc. 📢 Public comments accepted through July 13! Nearly 70k so far. If you are at Duke, you can contact OR&I at vpri@duke.edu for basic guidance. Be heard! www.regulations.gov/docket/OMB-2...

Congratulations Minel Arinel @minelarinel.bsky.social and the Naumann lab at Duke for this epic work on development of gut-brain communication!

Minel Arinel, Ph.D.@minelarinel.bsky.social · 2mo ago

My PhD paper (and my first research article👀) is out in @cp-iscience.bsky.social!🎉 Is gut-brain communication present in early development, and if so, how are these signals encoded in the brain? We tackled this question using larval zebrafish 🐟 www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

What a fantastic visit I had. Thanks so much @martinowk.bsky.social for hosting me and excited for future collaborations!

Keri Martinowich@martinowk.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Was stoked to host @debbysilver.bsky.social at @lieberinstitute.bsky.social today! Fantastic talk on her lab's work on molecular features that make the human 🧠 unique and how RNA localization shapes early neurodevelopment. Great conversations + exciting ideas for future collaborations - thx Debby!

SSNAP always ends with a final conference, open to the public--both in person and online. Here are the zoom links for this afternoon, for those who want to connect. Feel free to share widely! Jorge Morales (Northeastern): duke.zoom.us/j/99919297471 Zoe Drayson (UC Davis): duke.zoom.us/j/91565535456

Timely new Gordon Research Conference, organized in part by Vice-Chair and DIBS faculty member Dr. Anne West @ennatsew.bsky.social !

Anne West@ennatsew.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Join us this July for the inaugural Gordon Research Conference on Neural Genetics and Epigenetics! Great science and good friends.

Very excited about this landmark study led by Drew Schreiner @schreinerdrew.bsky.social along with DIBS faculty network members John Pearson @jmxpearson.bsky.social and Rich Mooney! Opto & chemogenetic exploration of birdsong circuits guided by a computational framework. 🤩 Congratulations!

Drew Schreiner@schreinerdrew.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Where, exactly, does learning happen in the brain? Out today in @nature.com, we identify a synaptic locus of birdsong learning and show that the circuit can be tuned to make birds learn faster - but at a cost. Read on👇 #neuroskyence 🧪 #prattle 💬 #bioacoustics Shareable link: rdcu.be/fiyrS

Introducing the Duke Psychedelic Community of Scientists! 🍄 A space for students, postdocs & faculty to connect and explore psychedelic science together. Exciting meetings ahead, scan the QR code to join, and reach out if you or anyone you know would be interested in presenting.

Two more newly minted PhDs!! Hope for the future of science.

Letters of Intent due this coming Wed., May 13! tinyurl.com/DIBS-DreamTeams

Duke Institute for Brain Sciences@dukebrain.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Duke colleagues: is there a new development in your field of brain studies that captivates you, but you feel alone in your excitement? Do you want to grow a community at Duke to explore it? DIBS wants to help you! Announcing the new, 3-yr DIBS Dream Team awards: dibs.duke.edu/request-prop...

Congratulations to our Ph.D. Fellowship awardees! DIBS has awarded 19 fellowships to PhD students across Duke who are conducting research on brain-themed topics. The new Fellowship program covers much of their training costs for up to two years. dibs.duke.edu/news/phd-fel...

Ph.D. Fellowships Provide Valuable Support for the Duke Brain Sciences Community | Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

DIBS has awarded 19 fellowships to support Ph.D. students across the university who are engaged in doctoral research on brain-related topics.

dibs.duke.edu

📢‼️🧠 The Duke School of Medicine is searching for a new Chair of Neurology. Letter of Interest and CV due May 22. Come join us in beautiful North Carolina! medschool.duke.edu/about-us/lea...

📢‼️🧠 The Duke School of Medicine is searching for a new Chair of Neurology. Letter of Interest and CV due May 22. Come join us in beautiful North Carolina! medschool.duke.edu/about-us/lea...

Forthcoming in October, at MIT press! mitpress.mit.edu/978026205590...

Duke colleagues: is there a new development in your field of brain studies that captivates you, but you feel alone in your excitement? Do you want to grow a community at Duke to explore it? DIBS wants to help you! Announcing the new, 3-yr DIBS Dream Team awards: dibs.duke.edu/request-prop...

Request for Proposals: DIBS Dream Teams | Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

We are looking for visionary collectives of scholars who aspire to integrate ideas across disciplines to foster a new, energetic community in a field of brain studies. Co

dibs.duke.edu

The Duke Institute for Brain Sciences recently awarded grants of $25,000 to six graduate students and postdoctoral fellows through its Germinator Award program. Turning visionary insights into new advances requires the courage to take a risk. dibs.duke.edu/news/germina...

Germinator Awards provide critical support for promising research | Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

The six recipients of 2026 Germinator Awards from the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences talk about their projects, their career pathways and what the $25,000 grant means

dibs.duke.edu

The NIH is accepting comments on its Strategic Plan for FY 2027–2031. Make your voice heard! Doesn't need to take long, and doesn't need to be the most scholarly text you've ever written. Comments close May 26. For details see grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Science peeps! Excited to share first of two preprints just uploaded. This one concerns a person who hears sounds when she moves her eyes! We could actually record these sounds and verify they were connected to eye movements 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to announce I will be moving on from my Duke post-bacc position to be a Duke PhD! I will be starting my PhD in the Psychology & Neuroscience department this fall in Dr. Kevin LaBar's lab. #Neuroskyence #AcademicSky #GradSchool

Delighted to share that our study is now out @cp-cellstemcell.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-stem-ce... Congrats to Dr. @federicamosti.bsky.social for the culmination of a beautiful thesis!

Species-specific chromatin architecture and neurogenesis mediated by a human enhancer

How human-specific DNA changes shape brain development is poorly understood. Mosti et al. discover a human enhancer, HAR1984, which drives ETV5 and TRA2B expression via human-enriched chromatin intera...

cell.com

Debby Silver@debbysilver.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Sharing our newest study led by the incredibly talented @federicamosti.bsky.social investigating new molecular mechanisms of human brain development. We discover a human-specific enhancer HAR1984 that influences chromatin looping to promote cortical size and folding! www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

New paper out in JEP:General, led by uber-productive grad student Ricardo Morales Torres (@rmt93.bsky.social): We use behavior and RNNs to show that object semantics protect visual WM against visual interference but increase susceptibility to semantic interference. psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...

New lab paper! 🧠 Human hippocampal & MTL theta activity is linked to eye movements, but only during memory-guided navigation. Theta is also strongest during longer, more exploratory eye movements. plos.io/4dwJhR8 Huge congrats to Humza & team! 👏

Eye movements reflect memory-related theta activity in the human brain

Theta oscillations in the medial temporal lobe support memory, but how they relate to eye and body movements during human navigation is unclear. This study shows that theta power increases during sacc...

journals.plos.org

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org · 5mo ago

How do MTL theta oscillations relate to eye & body movements during navigation? @suthanalab.bsky.social &co show that #theta power increases during #saccades under memory demands, linking exploratory gaze & planning to memory‑related dynamics during #navigation @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4dwJhR8

Happy Spring Break!

Drew Schreiner@schreinerdrew.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Daffodils certainly think it's spring

New paper from the lab now out online! @changrun-huang.bsky.social asked whether people use informative pre-cues to up-regulate cognitive control in the spatial Stroop task. Surprisingly, they do not, and we rule out some possible reasons why. Enjoy!

I can highly recommend the NIH Outstanding Scholar in Neuroscience Award Program (nice backronym for OSNAP)! Need to be 2 years before/after PhD, due March 23. Great opportunity to visit and present at NIH and meet some amazing colleagues. www.nimh.nih.gov/research/res...

Another reminder as we've crossed into the second half of February. There's still time to apply for the Neurobiology Chair position at Duke University! Just send in a letter of interest and CV by Feb 28. Love of Duke basketball is not required.

Marc Sommer@neurocircuits.bsky.social · 7mo ago

The search for a new Chair of Duke Neurobiology is kicking off! Ad below. I've lived all over the country, but I'm glad I put my roots down here. Great people, great school, great area to live. Feel free to DM with any questions.

The biggest problem holding neuroscience back right now isn’t data or tools, thanks in large part to the BRAIN Initiative. It’s fragmentation across species. I wrote this to hopefully spark discussion around an issue that can only be solved as a community👇 www.thetransmitter.org/animal-model...

Neuroscience has a species problem

If neuroscience is serious about building general principles of brain function, cross-species dialogue must become a core organizing principle.

thetransmitter.org

Last week, Jim Zhang (4th year PhD student, @DukeBrain ) presented Sina Tafazoli’s paper on building compositional tasks with shared neural subspaces. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)