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

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...

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

Are ultrasonic vocalizations a window into the subjective effects of drugs of abuse, and VTA dopamine neuron manipulations, in rats? 🤔 New answers to these questions, & intriguing new questions raised! urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

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

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

Our paper was accepted in Biological Psychology, and it's the first first-author publication for Christopher Thomas. Chris led the innovative modeling work behind this study, and I couldn't be prouder of what he accomplished. #Psychophysiology #BiologicalPsychology doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

#OTD in 1903, Marie Curie--the legendary Polish-French physicist & chemist--defended her doctoral thesis on radioactive substances at the U. de la Sorbonnes becoming the first woman in France to earn a doctorate in #physics. She won Nobel Prize in Physics (1903) & in Chemistry (1911). #WomenInSTEM

🧠 Turns out microglia—the brain's immune cells—are key partners in memory. In this UC Irvine ICAL study, depleting them disrupted endocannabinoid-dependent plasticity and episodic memory; boosting 2-AG signaling rescued both. 🔗 www.jneurosci.org/content/45/2... #Neuroscience #Microglia

Microglia Support Both the Singular Form of LTP Expressed by the Lateral Perforant Path and Episodic Memory

We report here that microglia exert a surprisingly discrete but functionally critical influence on synaptic plasticity in the mouse hippocampus. Treatment of adult male mice with colony-stimulating…

jneurosci.org

I'm looking to hire a research technician/lab manager. This role is ideal for someone looking to gain experience and independence after undergraduate research on their way to graduate school. Please encourage anyone interested to apply: hr.myu.umn.edu/jobs/ext/374... (job code 374183)

Careers

The Fraser Lab at the University of Minnesota (https://fraserlab.psych.umn.edu/) is recruiting a full-time research technician to support the lab. As a part of the Department of Psychology we are involved in the greater neuroscience research community at the University of Minnesota which provides excellent access to training and professional development. The Fraser Lab is interested in the neurobiological basis of motivated behavior and investigates how defined brain circuits contribute to behavioral regulation. We make use of modern neuroscience approaches to record and manipulate neural activity in real-time as rodents perform complex behavioral tasks to relate precise aspects of neural activity to well-defined psychological processes. To do so, we regularly use optogenetics, chemogenetics, calcium imaging, biosensors, pharmacology, and immunohistochemistry. Our ultimate goal is to decipher the neural mechanisms regulating behavior and to characterize how these are altered in psychiatric illness, such as addiction, or by differences in lived experience, such as after early life adversity, to potentially identify novel therapeutics. We seek a team member who can play a lead role in lab operations, collaborate closely with the PI, and engage in team-building and growth.Duties:Laboratory logistics, maintenance and operations (30%):

hr.myu.umn.edu

The Seven Social Sins are: Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Worship without sacrifice. Politics without principle. -Frederick Lewis Donaldson in Westminster Abbey, London, on March 20, 1925

Congratulations to Oswald Steward of UC Irvine, recipient of the 2026 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience for discoveries revealing how local protein synthesis in neurons shapes brain development, plasticity, learning, and recovery from injury. #Neuroscience @kavliprize.bsky.social @ucicncm.bsky.social

New lab preprint! Dr. (x2) @biancaleonard.bsky.social leads a multidisciplinary team investigating the opposing effects of early-life unpredictability and anhedonia on foraging under threat of predation. Her results suggest that anhedonia may sometimes be an adaptive response to experience. 🧵 below!

Bianca Leonard@biancaleonard.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New preprint! “Anhedonia buffers the effects of early-life unpredictability on threat-reward decision making” w\ @malejandra.bsky.social, Yifan Zhang, @mikeyassa.bsky.social, @aaronbornstein.bsky.social & many more! 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Check out our latest profile! Dr. Megan Peters (@meganakpeters.bsky.social) studies how the brain represents & uses uncertainty and she also co-founded the online summer school, Neuromatch Academy. Learn more at the link below! #WomenInNeuroscience #StoriesOfWiN www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...

Dr. Megan Peters — Stories of WiN

studies how the brain represents and uses uncertainty and she also co-founded the online summer school, Neuromatch Academy

storiesofwin.org

Proud to see some of Luise Pickenhan’s (not yet on BlueSky) PhD work published in @psychopharmacology.bsky.social

Come work with us! UC Irvine Cognitive Sciences is looking for a new Assistant Professor to join our team: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09896 I'm not on the committee, but happy to talk if you're interested.

Assistant Professor - Cognitive Sciences

University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!

recruit.ap.uci.edu

Brimming with pride for my lab, and especially Bri Morales, Selen Dirik, and Erica Ramirez, who won grad student awards from the @ucirvine.bsky.social CNLM today, along with lab alum Jorge Mendoza. What an honor to work with them, and everyone else who makes our lab work! @ucicannabis.bsky.social

Psilocybin in the Treatment of Cocaine Use Disorder jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... Some really cool findings from Peter Hendricks of UAB Psychiatry!

Psilocybin in the Treatment of Cocaine Use Disorder

This randomized clinical trial evaluates whether, compared with placebo, the use of psilocybin in the treatment of cocaine use disorder yields a higher percentage of cocaine abstinent days, a greater ...

jamanetwork.com

A true legend of behavioral neuroscience, and exceptionally kind man. His generous mentorship touched many of us who never even worked with him. The field he helped shape mourns him today.

Josh Johansen@jojolab.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I’m very sad to share that Howard Fields has died. He made seminal discoveries in pain modulation, placebo, and addiction. He was also a wonderful mentor and friend who taught me how to think about the brain and the joy of scientific discovery. www.iasp-pain.org/publications...

Quite amazing that the @uofcalifornia.bsky.social forced faculty and staff to install super-invasive cybersecurity software as a preventive measure but has had zero interest in dealing with the massive risks that they assumed with, for example, Canvas. Bravo... www.dailycal.org/news/campus/...

Cybercrime group ShinyHunters seizes UC Berkeley Canvas in nationwide attack, 600K student, staff records at risk

UC Berkeley’s learning management platform bCourses, the software that all 43,000 students use to access their class materials, has been seized by hackers. When students attempt to log in, they

dailycal.org

Canvas is down just ahead of finals at @ucirvine.bsky.social. This makes at least 3 occasions where my data have been stolen via companies hired by my employer. This time the students are affected too, cool!

Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦@merz.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Canvas/Instructure ransomware breach compromising info for 200M+ students (231M unique emails) at 9,000 institutions. my inner hater is absolutely unleashed. Great job, every admin who inked an Instructure contract.

Happy 100th Birthday to global treasure David Attenborough ❤️

David Attenborough's Bird Encounter

ALT: David Attenborough's Bird Encounter

static.klipy.com

Check out this very cool new paper on rat ultrasonic vocalizations emitted in a naturalistic habitat--some surprising findings, and cool quantitative analyses done by Jordan Saltzman in the Ron Frostig Lab in Neurobiology & Behavior @ucirvine.bsky.social www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Correlating ultrasonic communication with behavior in a small-scale rat colony living in a naturalistic habitat

Rodent behavior; Biological sciences; Zoology

cell.com

Stunning, enduring effects of early-life oxytocin- from neuronal firing to behavior! by Gall & Lynch 🧪🧠 www.nature.com/articles/s41.... @npp-journal.bsky.social @oyiz.bsky.social @julielauterborn.bsky.social @dulaclab.bsky.social @flaviodonato82.bsky.social @svmahler.bsky.social

Lasting effects of early-life oxytocin treatment on LTP and episodic memory in a mouse model of Fragile X syndrome - Neuropsychopharmacology

Neuropsychopharmacology - Lasting effects of early-life oxytocin treatment on LTP and episodic memory in a mouse model of Fragile X syndrome

nature.com

Officially out today! Long-running project, many thanks to give - in particular to my mentors & collaborators, the postbacs who worked so hard on each experiment, and the reviewers. If you love the amygdala, give it a read. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Risk reshapes amygdala representation of choice

Modifying behavior in response to changing environmental conditions is a crucial adaptive function. This capacity is evident when animals curtail the …

sciencedirect.com

Patrick Piantadosi@ppiantad.bsky.social · 10mo ago

for anyone interested in the amygdala and risky decision-making, check out our new preprint: biorxiv.org/content/10.1... amygdala neurons track reward-seeking actions, and punishment risk dramatically alters this function. lots of other (BLA-accumbens!) data included.

Join me online today at 1pm ET to hear how the @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social Public Programs team built our Teacher Institute for Neuroscience and Society program for NYC middle school teachers: cnlm.uci.edu/connect Thank you to @danafoundation.bsky.social for making this program possible! 🧪🧠

CONNECT Initiative - Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory | UCI CNLM

CONNECT SEMINAR SERIES 2025-26 CONNECT is an initiative supported by UC Irvine’s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory to build networks and share resources and expertise in the…

cnlm.uci.edu

Dana Foundation@danafoundation.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Join @ucirvine.bsky.social Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory on April 15 at 1pm ET for the next CONNECT session that will highlight the work of the Dana Foundation Education Program. Register here: cnlm.uci.edu/connect #neurosociety #neuroscience #neuroscienceeducation

Happy to report mine and Kent’s paper exploring cortical hedonic hotspots is officially out! 🐀🐀🐀

SfN Journals@sfnjournals.bsky.social · 4mo ago

#JNeurosci: Morales and Berridge explored the role of the orbitofrontal cortex and insula in enjoying sweet tastes, discovering that these directly activating these brain regions enhanced how much rats enjoy sweetness. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0865-25.2026

Notification of the end of continuous submission and updating the late submission policy. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Mechanistic insights into the therapeutic properties of delta opioid receptor | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Mechanistic insights into the therapeutic properties of delta opioid receptor

Integrated structural and dynamic analyses uncover strategies to target the δ-opioid receptor for improved analgesic efficacy.

science.org

Yes! We literally cannot shut up about our work.

tomate 🍅@jascha.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 5mo ago

When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.