Do you work or study in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, computer science, artificial intelligence, or philosophy? What does the term 'representation' mean to you? We invite you to participate in a brief survey on key conceptual questions across fields. eu.surveymonkey.com/r/VX9GNXM

Blocking microglia activity in young mice prevents infantile amnesia and enhances memory, indicating these brain immune cells play a key role in early memory formation and forgetting. doi.org/hbkphs

Blocking immune cells in the brain can prevent infantile amnesia

Scientists have found that blocking microglia (specialist immune cells in the brain) prevents infant forgetting ("infantile amnesia") and improves memory in mice, suggesting that microglia may actively manage memory formation and dictate what, and when, we forget.

medicalxpress.com

Last weekend to apply!

Stephen Montgomery@ebablab.bsky.social · 9mo ago

🚨RA/PhD position available in evolutionary neurobiology 🚨 Working on a deep dive into circuit changes during mushroom body expansion in Heliconius butterflies @camzoology.bsky.social - employment benefits - 4 years funding - 1000% fun Deadline: 14/1/2026 Details: www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

Starting 2026 with a thread a very recent manuscripts at Ryan Lab @tcddublin.bsky.social @tbsi-tcd.bsky.social "Extinction and subsequent updating of innate fear responses to a visual looming stimulus rely on hippocampus-dependent mechanisms" journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... @PLOSBiology

Extinction and subsequent updating of innate fear responses to a visual looming stimulus rely on hippocampus-dependent mechanisms

How does the brain balance innate responses with adaptive learning when reacting to threats? This study shows that repeated exposure to looming stimuli reduces innate defensive responses via hippocamp...

journals.plos.org

Interested in the neurobiological basis of social behaviour and its dysfunction? Join the Ferreira and @wolfhuette.bsky.social groups at Northumbria University for a fully funded PhD opportunity studying group behaviour in flies. Further details are available here: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Neuronal circuit-level action of genes underlying social behaviour dysfunction in Drosophila melanogaster (Ref: RDF26/SE/GNS/FERREIRA) at Northumbria University on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Neuronal circuit-level action of genes underlying social behaviour dysfunction in Drosophila melanogaster (Ref: RDF26/SE/GNS/FERREIRA) at Northumbria University, listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

🚨RA/PhD position available in evolutionary neurobiology 🚨 Working on a deep dive into circuit changes during mushroom body expansion in Heliconius butterflies @camzoology.bsky.social - employment benefits - 4 years funding - 1000% fun Deadline: 14/1/2026 Details: www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

We have two advertised fully-funded PhD positions to work on memory or disease models in Drosophila! Please check the SWBio DTP website for more information and reach out if you are interested: www.swbio.ac.uk/molecular-me...

Great week in the lab, including the Carver College of Medicine Investiture. Thank you to the Roy J. Carver Charitable Foundation for supporting our research. It was an honor to reflect on, and speak about, the influence of my mentors, and the work of our lab members, past and present (pictured).

How do we balance innate responses & adaptive learning when reacting to threats? @tjryan.bsky.social &co show that repeated exposure to looming stimuli reduces innate defensive responses via #hippocampal modulation, revealing a vCA1 engram needed for learned #fear @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4pNSnNp

An absolutely awful turn of events. I am heartbroken over the firing of the Flybase staff. Thanks to @claudia-lopez.bsky.social for covering this important story.

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 12mo ago

FlyBase, a Drosophila database, will lose a third of its team in early October because the Harvard grant that covered the employees’ salaries was canceled. Scientists warn that losing FlyBase could devastate fly research. By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...

🧠 Our latest paper is out! Here, we show that Ataxin-2 is essential for memory formation via RNP granule dynamics in Drosophila. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0167... #Neuroscience #Memory #RNA #Drosophila #NewPaper @tamaraboto.bsky.social @simon-sprecher.bsky.social

The ataxin-2 protein is required in kenyon cells for RNP-granule assembly and appetitive long-term memory formation

Ribonucleoprotein granules (mRNP granules) are thought to contribute to the control of neuronal mRNA translation required for consolidation of long-term memories. Consistent with this, the function...

doi.org

📣 Recruiting a PhD Student! 🇪🇸 Join our new lab at @universidadjaen.bsky.social to study how memories are regulated at the molecular level. Collaborative team, southern Spain, funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación @ageinves.bsky.social Apply by early Sept. #PhD #Memory #Neuroscience

Latest preprint from our lab, describing how cellular signaling changes in neurofibromatosis type 1 affect two behavioral and metabolic phenotypes. Loss of Nf1 increases Ras, but these phenotypes differ in their dependence on downstream signaling. #neuroskyence www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New Preprint from the lab, and the second half of Elizabeth Hodge’s masters project - we dived into whether shifts in visual #foraging behaviours and spatial #memory in #Heliconius involved changes in sensory systems🧪 1/n

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · last yr.

Conservation of sensory pathways implies a localised change in the mushroom bodies is associated with cognitive evolution in Heliconius butterflies https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.08.663516v1

We're hiring! Two exciting opportunities in our Lab @unibirmingham.bsky.social Come work with us on decision-making and neural circuits in Drosophila. Please share! Senior Research Technician + Postdoctoral Research Fellow Deadline: 10 July More info here: www.rezavallab.org