Pleased to share a new Addiction Neuroscience Special Issue "The ventral pallidum as an orchestrator of reward seeking behavior" edited by Meaghan Creed with contributions from her, Anushree Karkhanis, @bensaunders.bsky.social, Asheeta Prasad, and Yvan Vachez www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Incredibly grateful to have been selected by the @simonsfoundation.org as a recipient of the 2026 SCPAB Fellows-to-Faculty award! A special thanks to @neurozoe.bsky.social and the rest of my mentors for their incredible support up to this point in my career.

Simons Foundation@simonsfoundation.org · 3w ago

We're pleased to announce the 2026 class of our Fellows-to-Faculty program! This fellowship supports talented early-career scientists and their research visions as they transition into tenure-track faculty positions in autism and #neuroscience research. See the new class: https://bit.ly/4yXUjrd

Studying norepinephrine? Have cool results to share? Want to join an online community of norepinephrine researchers? We are organizing our fall schedule for the Blue Spot Slack! We have monthly virtual seminars where you can share your work and get feedback in a supportive environment. Apply/join ⬇️

Hot off the press, we're back with another roundup of #ThisWeekinNPP #TWiNPP 👇

#TWiNPP Up next, a Hot Topics article exploring spousal relationships as an understudied determinant of cognitive aging and resilience @mikekelberman.bsky.social @neurozoe.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New hot topics piece in @npp-journal.bsky.social where @neurozoe.bsky.social and I argue for the importance of studying the role of social bonds (as opposed to just loneliness/isolation) in determining clinical trajectories during aging. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Interested in how dysregulation of locus coeruleus-norepinephrine circuits contribute to neuropsychiatric symptoms in early Alzheimer's disease? Check out our new review article from freshly minted Dr. Anu Korukonda! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A new hope: locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system at the nexus of neuropsychiatric symptoms - Molecular Psychiatry

Molecular Psychiatry - A new hope: locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system at the nexus of neuropsychiatric symptoms

nature.com

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...

New methods book chapter with @shellakeilholz.bsky.social and @davidweinshenker.bsky.social focused on the potential of combined optogenetics and fMRI for understanding disease processes. link.springer.com/protocol/10....

Leveraging Optogenetic fMRI for Understanding Disease Processes in Neurological Disorders

Optogenetics and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are two tools that have become indispensable for neuroscientists, though they have traditionally been used to ask distinct questions regar...

link.springer.com

New manuscript from undergrad Alexia and @davidweinshenker.bsky.social on the molecular and behavioral effects of early locus coeruleus lesions in the TgF344-AD rat model alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Impact of early locus coeruleus lesions in the TgF344 Alzheimer's disease rat model

INTRODUCTION In murine models of Alzheimer's disease (AD), lesioning the locus coeruleus–norepinephrine (LC-NE) system with DSP-4 exacerbates AD-like neuropathology and cognitive impairment. However...

alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

New review on the role of neuromodulatory subcortical system dysfunction in dementia, this time with a specific focus on sex differences. alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Sex differences in neuromodulatory subcortical systems and their implications for Alzheimer's disease

Neuromodulatory subcortical systems (NSSs) are uniquely susceptible to dementia-related pathology, leading to frequent molecular and behavioral impairments associated with altered function of these n...

alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Excited to share newly minted PhD Anu Korukonda's tour de force thesis work describing the impact of pathogenic tau on #locuscoeruleus function in a mouse model of early #Alzheimers. A must for #BlueSpot researchers! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/3

Pathogenic tau in the mouse locus coeruleus induces noradrenergic hyperactivity and neuropsychiatric phenotypes reminiscent of early Alzheimers disease https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.30.702923v1

The Neuromodulatory Subcortical Systems PIA within @istaart.bsky.social is requesting nominations for the best paper of 2025 on neuromodulatory subcortical systems in Alzheimer's disease!! ISTAART members: promote the work of your colleagues (or yourself) here: alz.surveymonkey.com/r/Publicatio...

Publication of the Year Award - Nomination

Thank you for submitting your Nomination!

alz.surveymonkey.com

New paper from @neurozoe.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41.... We uncover a role for nucleus accumbens calcium permeable AMPA receptors (CP-AMPARs) in pair bond formation. Congrats to first author Mostafa and all the other amazing co-authors!

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

New pre-print led by the talented undergrad Alexia with @davidweinshenker.bsky.social We used chronic DSP-4 treatment to lesion the LC-NE system in young TgF344-AD rats to see whether early degeneration led to accelerated onset of pathology and behavioral deficits. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Impact of early locus coeruleus lesions in the TgF344 Alzheimer’s disease rat model

INTRODUCTION In murine models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), lesioning the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system with DSP-4 exacerbates AD-like neuropathology and cognitive impairment. However, ...

biorxiv.org

At #SFN2025 and interersted in the 🔵? Check out posters from Leslie Hassanein (D52; neuromelanin in the mouse locus coeruleus) and Maggie Tish (C59; human 3D locus coeruleus organoids) today from 1:00-5:00!

With 2 postdocs moving on to faculty positions🥳, we're looking to hire someone new. If you're interested in norepinephrine and neural circuits, please apply! tinyurl.com/42bfe24k

Abstract deadline extended for the Integrative Neuromodulatory Subcortical Systems 2025 meeting! Supported by @ISTAART and hosted by @NSS_PIA & @SleepPIA 🧠💤 Boston, MA USA or online | July 17-18 📅 Abstracts due 4/15 11:30pm EST ✅ Registration & more info: education.martinos.org/inss2025/

Check out the amazing line up of speakers for the Catecholamines GRC! Apply for GRC www.grc.org/catecholamin... & GRS www.grc.org/catecholamin.... In these uncertain times we appreciate any donation to support the participants in the GRC my.grc.org/p/contributi... & GRS my.grc.org/p/contributi...

For anyone studying catecholamines please consider applying for the GRC and GRS (trainees only!) Catecholamines being held in August of this year. I'll be coordinating the GRS portion of the meeting with Darshana, so please reach out with any questions.

For LC researchers on BlueSpot Slack but haven't checked it, @mikekelberman.bsky.social and Ellen Rodberg will present their work on LC ephys tomorrow at 11 am EST. Link on General channel. If you are not on BlueSpot and want to attend, email me dweinsh@emory.edu. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Diversity of ancestral brainstem noradrenergic neurons across species and multiple biological factors

The brainstem region, locus coeruleus (LC), has been remarkably conserved across vertebrates. Evolution has woven the LC into wide-ranging neural circuits that influence functions as broad as autonomi...

biorxiv.org

Introducing myself on here! I'm a Post-Doc in Zoe Donaldson's lab at CU Boulder interested in using prairie voles to understand social deficits in Alzheimer's disease, with a side interest in the coolest brain region, the locus coeruleus 🔵. Check out two of my most recent publications below: