Kurt Fraser
@kurtfraser.bsky.social
📤 2513
📥 650
📝 1302
Brain scientist, tall human, dog owner in the twin cities
Summer means Levi gets to swim in the Mississippi
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2 minutes ago
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Zoe McElligott
3 days ago
the technician position in my lab is now posted! Please pass this along:
unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/319...
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Laboratory Research Technician
The Research Technician will assist with lab management operations and assist the Principal Investigator and members of the laboratory with experiments involving molecular biology, behavior, biochemis...
https://unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/319342
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Someone has had it with grant writing
3 days ago
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Laura Bradfield (she/her)
4 days ago
New preprint from the lab "Contingency degradation overwrites initial learning and depends on lateral orbitofrontal cortex":
url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/pos5CjZ1N7...
Highlights: * Degradation reduces responding that does not spontaneously reover * Degradation does not reinstate and... 1/2
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https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/pos5CjZ1N7i32jkk6SWf8UmDx35?domain=biorxiv.org
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Sydney Trask
5 days ago
Our new *entirely null results* paper is out. Here, we ran a series of experiments that we think convincingly demonstrate the stimulus specificity of behavioral reduction achieved through weak shock presentations.
link.springer.com/article/10.3...
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Unconditional stimulus deflation is stimulus specific - Learning & Behavior
Previous work has demonstrated that repeated presentations of a conditional stimulus (CS) with a weak shock following training with a strong shock can reduce later conditional responding to that CS. W...
https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13420-026-00714-6
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Frog and Toad Bot
8 days ago
Toad and Frog went for a long walk. They walked across a large meadow. They walked in the woods. They walked along the river.
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Robin Magnard
9 days ago
Thrilled about our new
@janaklab.bsky.social
paper now out in
@npp-journal.bsky.social
🧠⚡ Action-sequence termination cues evoke mesolimbic dopamine activity that drives habit-like behavior. Thanks to Tricia Janak,
@younavandaele.bsky.social
, and
@yfcheng.bsky.social
!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Sequence termination cues drive automated habit-like strategy via dopamine-mediated processes - Neuropsychopharmacology
Neuropsychopharmacology - Sequence termination cues drive automated habit-like strategy via dopamine-mediated processes
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-026-02420-3
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Easily the largest dataset of neurons recorded in the central amygdala during sucrose and alcohol self administration to date - super cool! More evidence the CeA is a motivational amplifier (but I’m biased bc it’s from
@janaklab.bsky.social
)
add a skeleton here at some point
10 days ago
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bioRxiv Neuroscience
10 days ago
The Central Nucleus of the Amygdala Encodes the Motivation to Pursue Ethanol
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.11.724330v1
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Bita Moghaddam
11 days ago
Out today! A truly team effort and one of my favorite lab projects The findings connect NMDA/Grin2A malfunction to dopamine dynamics and related behaviors, and provide a futuristic model to develop and test "course altering" treatments for schizophrenia
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Grin2a knockout in adolescent dopamine neurons disrupts prediction error signaling and produces a phenotype relevant to schizophrenia - Molecular Psychiatry
Molecular Psychiatry - Grin2a knockout in adolescent dopamine neurons disrupts prediction error signaling and produces a phenotype relevant to schizophrenia
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-026-03632-1
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the semester is finally over
11 days ago
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Abby Polter
13 days ago
FINALLY HR has the posting up for a postdoc opening in my lab ! Particularly interested in folks with electrophysiology, photometry, or behavioral experience.
www.gwu.jobs/postings/125...
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Postdoctoral Associate
The George Washington University Department of Pharmacology & Physiology is an active research department with federally funded programs in neuroscience and development, cardiovascular pharmacology an...
https://www.gwu.jobs/postings/125759
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Laura Grima
16 days ago
Really pleased that this work with
@dudman.bsky.social
is now out in Neuron: A global dopaminergic learning rate enables adaptive foraging across many options
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Howard used to visit Lammel Lab and was always so kind and generous with his time (rare trait!) in addition to being a fellow very tall guy. What a lasting impact he will have.
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17 days ago
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My favorite sign of spring is here at last
20 days ago
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In Baltimore for the day and had to see the old haunts
22 days ago
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They did behaviorism to basketball what’s next, surgery on grapes
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23 days ago
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Zoe McElligott
23 days ago
I am looking for a new reserach technician. This is an entry level position ideal for a graudating senior. Please re-post and send candidates my way!
[email protected]
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the solution to gun violence in this country is to build a ballroom <3
28 days ago
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Working hard or hardly working, am I right Levi?
30 days ago
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SJo
about 1 month ago
Anyone who has seen me talk lately knows that i have a fascination with Taylor Swift. I was introduced to her music by my daughter & her friends. So when
@sfn.org
asked me to write a review... Engrams and Memory: My Scientific "Eras Tour"
www.jneurosci.org/content/jneu...
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Alicia Izquierdo
about 1 month ago
📋 Great papers in the queue for a special collection on the Neurobiology of Associative Learning! It’s not too late to contribute- the submission deadline is June 15. Get in touch with me or
@kurtfraser.bsky.social
💡✅
academic.oup.com/oons/pages/c...
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https://academic.oup.com/oons/pages/call-for-papers-neurobiology-of-associative-learning@kurtfraser.bsky.social
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JP
about 1 month ago
the gays keep discovering louder songs
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Better Things Are Possible
10 months ago
It's Friday night baby
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Shared the bad grant news because it’s the reality. But I’m tall, hot and young and the NIH can’t take that from me (yet)
about 1 month ago
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Katz R01 ND 🫡
about 1 month ago
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Better Things Are Possible
about 2 months ago
This is the first website built entirely on the purity of the user's soul. I'm having no trouble accessing it. If you are then you must look within
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bioRxiv Neuroscience
about 1 month ago
Topographic structure and function of locus coeruleus norepinephrine neurons
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.10.717727v1
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Bita Moghaddam
about 2 months ago
Sharif University in Tehran was just bombed Founded in 1965, it is one the most elite science and engineering institutions in the world. Alumni include the mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, first woman to win the Fields Medal Here is the list of other alumni
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
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List of Sharif University of Technology people - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sharif_University_of_Technology_people
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allen institute
about 2 months ago
The Orange Cat Brain Atlas is here. 🧠🐈 Today, we published the first comprehensive cellular map of the orange cat brain. The new atlas reveals a single, specialized neuron responsible for behaviors like staring at walls, knocking objects off tables, and the 3am "zoomies."
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Abby Polter
about 2 months ago
As a reminder: I am hiring a postdoc and at least one research assistant for a project on VTA circuits and cognitive function that starts this summer. Get in touch if interested!
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Shelly Flagel
2 months ago
Our article examining the effects of chronic
#GLP-1
receptor agonist (#semaglutide
#ozempic
) treatment on the incentive motivational value of a small
#food
reward and the cue that predicts it is now out in Psychopharmacology. Open access article 👇
link.springer.com/10.1007/s002...
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Ashley Kopec
2 months ago
Hey folks, CSR has undergone a massive reorganization. The macro framework is in place and can be viewed online, and the micro details will come in the next couple of rounds. The new framework will structure your application review starting next (summer) round. Worth a peak for applicants!
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Ranch Devereaux
2 months ago
The way straight people feel about Veep is the way gay people feel about The Comeback
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Austin Kocher, PhD
2 months ago
ICE detention deaths are now occurring at a rate of roughly one every four days. Three weeks ago that rate was one every six days. The pace is accelerating, and Congress has not launched a single investigation.
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Tara Raam
2 months ago
Excited to share my postdoc work is out in
@natneuro.nature.com
today! We examined how the brain enables social groups to collectively coordinate their behavior in the face of environmental challenge ❄️🐭🐭🐭🐭❄️ :
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Cortical regulation of collective social dynamics during environmental challenge - Nature Neuroscience
Raam, Li, Gu and colleagues identify neural mechanisms underlying group huddling in mice during cold exposure. They find that the prefrontal cortex encodes decisions to huddle and that silencing neura...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02224-0
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Tara Raam
2 months ago
get past the paywall here:
rdcu.be/e8LrV
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Cortical regulation of collective social dynamics during environmental challenge
Nature Neuroscience - Raam, Li, Gu and colleagues identify neural mechanisms underlying group huddling in mice during cold exposure. They find that the prefrontal cortex encodes decisions to huddle...
https://rdcu.be/e8LrV
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it's Friday that's all there is to say
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkO9...
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Gwen Guthrie - Ain t Nothin Goin On But The Rent(NT1-HD-16/9)
YouTube video by belonuts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkO9us2ZmGg
2 months ago
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Ben Saunders
3 months ago
Check out our latest research drop! We show BLA dopamine signaling encodes the emotional weight of sensory transitions, but not the associative strength or value of stimuli. These signals dynamically rescale when the learning context changes: "this matters most!"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.15.654323v2
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Amy Maxmen, PhD
3 months ago
Newly released footage shows an ICE agent killing Rubin Ray Martinez, 23, in his car in Texas. "He was shot at point-blank range through his side window by an ICE agent who was in no danger."
www.bbc.com/news/article...
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Ruben Ray Martinez: Footage shows US citizen shot by ICE agent in Texas traffic stop
The Department of Homeland Security did not disclose Martinez was shot by one of its agents until almost a year later.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cedzep6gp07o
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Ron Keiflin
3 months ago
New preprint 🚨🧠🔬
@sophiepeterson.bsky.social
+
@margole.bsky.social
dissect the roles of 2 major OFC subcortical pathways in context-dependent reward prediction. TLDR: OFC→CDS: critical for hierarchical gating of predictions. OFC→MDT: more modest role, possibly limiting non-hierarchical predictions
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bioRxiv Neuroscience
3 months ago
Orbitofrontal circuits for context-gated reward predictions
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.05.709962v1
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Friday
3 months ago
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Keep forgetting that this app is designed to beam the horrors directly into your brain
3 months ago
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Chris Geidner
3 months ago
"Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a nearly blind refugee from Burma who Border Patrol agents dropped off at a doughnut shop Thursday and left to find his way home, 5 miles away, has been found dead." To read the words is to damn all involved, from Trump on down.
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Blind refugee abandoned by Border Patrol dies in Buffalo.
A nearly blind refugee abandoned by Border Patrol miles from his home dies in Buffalo after having been missing for nearly a week.
https://www.investigativepost.org/2026/02/25/blind-refugee-abandoned-by-border-patrol-is-dead/
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Dr. Julia Lemos
3 months ago
As promised at the
#GRC
Basal Ganglia, here is our recent review on striatal cholinergic heterogeneity. I hope people find it useful and inspiring.
www.frontiersin.org/journals/cel...
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Frontiers | Regional heterogeneity of striatal cholinergic interneurons: setting the stage for diverse behavioral repertoires
Cholinergic interneurons (ChIs) constitute only a small fraction of striatal neurons, yet their dense axonal arborizations and widespread acetylcholine relea...
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fncel.2026.1718947/full
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UBC Psychology
3 months ago
We're thrilled to welcome Dr.
@zachtpennington.bsky.social
and Dr.
@milanium.bsky.social
as Assistant Professors in our Behavioural Neuroscience area and members of the
@dmcbrainhealth.bsky.social
. Read their Q&As:
psych.ubc.ca/news
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bioRxiv Neuroscience
3 months ago
Hippocampal trace coding dominates and disrupts place coding
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.17.706430v1
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Folks, -80 we have may have already bit the bullet and we need to evaluate options. What is the hivemind consensus of best -80 that doesn't die after 1 year and also wont cost me 50K.
3 months ago
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Chris H
3 months ago
"ICE operations in Pa. surge under the radar, destroying communities and lives" Harrisburg, Scranton, Erie, Norristown. Even if ICE leaves Minnesota, they still need to be stopped
www.pennlive.com/news/2026/02...
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ICE operations in Pa. surge under the radar, destroying communities and lives
In recent weeks, scores of immigrant communities have been targeted by ICE, resulting in arrests and even swift deportations. They are mostly happening under the radar but they are upending communitie...
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2026/02/ice-operations-in-pa-surge-under-the-radar-destroying-communities-and-lives.html
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