We're hiring! UTEP seeks two Research Assistant Professors studying neural circuits underlying substance use disorders. • Behavioral Neuroscientist • Brain Circuit Imaging & Atlas Mapping Behavior: tinyurl.com/3wkrsrw3 Imaging: tinyurl.com/8fefztm3 #Neuroscience #AcademicJobs

New paper from lab on how VTA dopamine neurons + GABA inhibition contribute to punishment learning. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Disinhibition of ventral tegmental area during initial punishment learning causes enduring punishment insensitivity - Neuropsychopharmacology

Neuropsychopharmacology - Disinhibition of ventral tegmental area during initial punishment learning causes enduring punishment insensitivity

nature.com

Excited that our new paper is out today in the Journal of Neuroscience. www.jneurosci.org/content/46/6...

Aberrant Medial Prefrontal Cortex Activity and Flexible Behavior in the TgF344-AD Rat Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Executive dysfunction can precede the accumulation of canonical neuropathological markers and severe dementia in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients often characterized by memory changes. Deficits in ex...

jneurosci.org

New preprint from the lab! We identified Vipr2-expressing BNST neurons as a distinct subpopulation of the oval nucleus that promotes feeding, is activated by food restriction, is non-overlapping with appetite-suppressing PKC delta neurons, and projects to PSTN & PVN hypothalamic feeding centers.

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 9mo ago

A Distinct Subpopulation of Extended Amygdala Neurons Drives Food Intake https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.07.685941v1

Overexpressing nuclear-localized HDAC5 in the anterior insula of 🐀 = ⬇️ cognitive control by ⬆️ prepotent responses & ⬇️ behavioral inhibition - suggesting targeting insular HDAC5 could help executive control & impulsivity-related deficits

Epigenetic manipulation of anterior insular cortex alters neural signals and cognitive control

Neuropsychopharmacology - Epigenetic manipulation of anterior insular cortex alters neural signals and cognitive control

nature.com

Interested in investigating the neuroscience of motivation, stress, and drug use? Our lab is recruiting a grad student to start in Fall 2026. Please see our website for more information! moschaklab.org

New article from blueskyless Marina Smoak et al. in our lab on prelimbic neurons tracking anxiety-like behavior! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...

Looking for a postdoc or staff scientist with brain slice electrophysiology experience. If you or someone you know is interested in, message me.

We’re excited to share our new preprint from the lab! PhD student @armorningstar.bsky.social demonstrated how Early Life Stress shapes sex-specific vulnerability to alcohol behavioral sensitivity, alcohol drinking, and alcohol's effects on social behaviors in mice.

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · last yr.

Early life stress modulates behavioral sensitivity to alcohol and promotes escalation of alcohol drinking https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.27.661986v1

Ever wonder what the enduring side effects of Prozac are? Check this out! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Prozac exposure during adolescence increases heat pain sensitivity in adulthood

Psychotropic medication prescription rates, particularly of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine (FLX), are on the rise in the female…

sciencedirect.com

The University of Puerto Rico has built a strong neuroscience community via federally funded programs. Carmen Maldonado-Vlaar explains how funding cuts threaten minority-serving institutions’ progress toward becoming premier research institutions. www.thetransmitter.org/funding/the-...

The future of neuroscience research at U.S. minority-serving institutions is in danger

Cuts to federally funded programs present an existential crisis for the University of Puerto Rico’s rich neuroscience community and for research at minority-serving institutions everywhere.

thetransmitter.org

So a former postdoc from our department had just started as a PO at NIH and was terminated in the wave of terminations last week. He is in the research triangle and a phenomenal scientist with expertise in stress and glia. If anyone in the RTI is hiring asap please let me know! #neuroskyence

We’re excited to join Bluesky, along with @acnporg.bsky.social & @npp-journal.bsky.social! Follow us for the latest on digital methodologies that advance the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and modeling of mental illness. And of course, we will be posting #ACNP2024 updates! #neuroskyence

Just in time for Thanksgiving, we're grateful for the publication of our paper in #eLife doi.org/10.7554/eLif... We measured dopamine and behavioral responses to intraorally delivered sucrose across acquisition and extinction of a conditioned taste aversion. 1/n

It Tastes Bad Melissa GIF

ALT: It Tastes Bad Melissa GIF

media.tenor.com

Join #UNCResearch as part of our Catalyst Faculty Research Cluster Program. We’re seeking up to four researchers for tenure-track assistant professor positions to build a team that will advance substance use disorder treatment. Apply here by December 15: go.unc.edu/Rt9b7

Compulsion derived from incentive cocaine-seeking habits is associated with a downregulation of the dopamine transporter in striatal astrocytes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.19.624285v1

Compulsion derived from incentive cocaine-seeking habits is associated with a downregulation of the dopamine transporter in striatal astrocytes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.19.624285v1

The development of compulsive cue-controlled -incentive- drug-seeking habits, a hallmark of substanc

biorxiv.org