Finally a stream of good news on this fucking hellsite for once

🚨Happy to share a new preprint from Lerner Lab led by graduate student @nadelneurosci.bsky.social! 🚨 “Adolescent stress recruits a latent amygdala-dopamine circuit to drive punishment-resistant reward-seeking” This has been a wholly impressive effort by Jacob; summary below 👇 #neuroskyence🧪

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 2d ago

Adolescent stress recruits a latent amygdala-dopamine circuit to drive punishment-resistant reward-seeking https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.29.741478v1

Dopamine dips during unrewarded actions promote punishment-resistant reward seeking https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.01.742224v1

The final version of our amygdala dopamine paper is out! BLA dopamine dynamically tracks emotional salience and not value or reward prediction error. Congrats to Dr. Megan Brickner!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Basolateral amygdala dopamine transmits emotional salience - Nature Communications

The basolateral amygdala dopamine system has received little attention. Here, authors show that BLA dopamine plays a unique role in learning, by encoding the emotional salience of sensory cues to supp...

nature.com

A conserved population of genetically defined striatal neurons gates opioid reward https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.28.741269v1

How does the brain represent the value of knowledge? In our paper--out now at Nature Neuroscience--we identify a representation of intrinsic information value within neural population structures in the orbitofrontal cortex in mice. www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02377-y #neuroskyence 🧠🧪 (1/8)

Representations of the intrinsic value of information in mouse orbitofrontal cortex - Nature Neuroscience

Mice are motivated to seek information of no extrinsic value. Recording neural activity in orbitofrontal cortex reveals a representation of the value of information that is distinct from the value of ...

nature.com

Excited to share this paper led by two undergrads in the lab, out now in Neurobiology of Stress! Temporal reorganization of maternal care during early life stress in mice doi.org/10.1016/j.yn...

I so love this project and this team! Congrats to Fede Sánchez Vargas and Marcela Benitez! In This Costa Rican Forest, Monkeys Come Face-to-Face With A.I. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/s...

In This Costa Rican Forest, Monkeys Come Face-to-Face With A.I.

CapuchinAI, a portable testing station equipped with a touch screen and facial recognition software, could help scientists study primate intelligence in the wild.

nytimes.com

Rapidly decreasing phasic dopamine responses precede a hedonic switch during satiation of sodium appetite https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.16.738888v1

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Psilocybin asymmetrically modulates outcome-based choice and cortical processing under uncertainty

Emerging clinical research with psilocybin highlights the value of the psychedelic experience on successful treatment of a multitude of psychiatric disorders. While the psychedelic trip or clinical su...

biorxiv.org

Fresh from the Castro Lab! We characterize how mu opioid receptors on pancreatic alpha cells regulate ingestive phenotypes. Surprise! Mu can act both inside and outside the brain😱 Congrats to our technician Diego De Gregorio! @ssibsociety.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Pancreatic mu opioid receptors regulate metabolism and ingestive behaviors

The mu opioid receptor system has long been recognized for its role in regulating ingestive behaviors and food palatability. However, beyond their rob…

sciencedirect.com

Enkephalin constrains fear learning via volume transmission to the lateral amygdala https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.17.739254v1

Alcohol Cues Invigorate Aversion-Resistant Alcohol Drinking https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.14.738545v1

Looking to work with a postdoc. Prior experience with fMRI and computational modeling required, interest in psychiatry desired. Fellowship provides three years salary plus independent travel/equipment funds. Send CV and 2-3 manuscripts (preprints OK).

🚨Postdoc position available in computational/theoretical neuroscience at NIMH! The intramural NIH research community is great (amazing collaborators, no worrying about grants, lots of opportunities for professional development). Please repost! www.training.nih.gov/jobs/pd-0931...

Our labs first paper! Some 😳 surprising effects. Turns out everything comes back to context 🤓

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 4w ago

Ventral tegmental area acetylcholine generates appetitive and aversive incentive motivation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.09.737546v1

Are you a senior postdoc with a complete scientific story to tell? Apply for our Yale Molecular Psychiatry MAPS program and tell us about your work at our weekly neuroscience seminar series. PLEASE REPOST!

Our labs first paper! Some 😳 surprising effects. Turns out everything comes back to context 🤓

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 4w ago

Ventral tegmental area acetylcholine generates appetitive and aversive incentive motivation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.09.737546v1

Ventral tegmental area acetylcholine generates appetitive and aversive incentive motivation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.09.737546v1

I joined the Sohal lab with one major hypothesis: psychedelic drugs can be powerful psychiatric treatments, depending on underlying neurobiology. Indeed, psilocybin restored cognitive flexibility in one circuit model of dysfunction, but not another! Then, we had to find out how! 🧠🍄🧪

Vikaas Sohal@vikaassohal.bsky.social · 4w ago

New preprint led by @christineliu.art! How do psychedelics improve cognitive flexibility? Psilocybin prevents inflexibility caused by aberrant mesocortical error signaling (but not inflexibility due to other mechanisms); this is tied to plasticity of PFC-MD neurons: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New preprint led by @christineliu.art! How do psychedelics improve cognitive flexibility? Psilocybin prevents inflexibility caused by aberrant mesocortical error signaling (but not inflexibility due to other mechanisms); this is tied to plasticity of PFC-MD neurons: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Psilocybin selectively rescues cognitive flexibility impairments caused by aberrant prefrontal error signaling

Psychedelic drugs show remarkable potential for treating psychiatric disorders, but the mechanisms underlying their therapeutic effects remain relatively unknown. Here, we demonstrate that psilocybin ...

biorxiv.org

thrilled to share our latest work from the lab, led by the amazing @fernandezpenac.bsky.social (now a PI at @unmc.bsky.social!) where we found a new role for a tiny group of adrenergic neurons in RVLM, the C1 cells. www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

I am happy to share our latest manuscript, led by newly-minted PhD Justin Wang, identifying a neural population that selectively controls hedonic, but not homeostatic, feeding. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Ventral pallidal GABAergic neurons control hedonic feeding and obesity

Food intake is governed by two interacting drives. The homeostatic hunger drive regulates food intake to fulfill caloric needs while the hedonic drive promotes intake of palatable foods outside of cal...

biorxiv.org

Basal forebrain projections to the lateral habenula sex-dependently regulate ethanol and sucrose consumption https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.02.736151v1

Levi just found out today is secretly a Friday

Headbutting goats self-inflict traumatic brain injury https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.26.734585v1

Levi decided to start his work day at 130 PM is that okay with yall?

Could AI do this

Albino squirrel in my yard this morning. Is that a blessing or an omen?

Sensor sensibility: Divergent measurements of dopaminergic signaling to acute morphine administration via fiber photometry https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.19.733408v1