Summer means Levi gets to swim in the Mississippi

the technician position in my lab is now posted! Please pass this along: unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/319...

Someone has had it with grant writing

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

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...

Toad and Frog went for a long walk. They walked across a large meadow. They walked in the woods. They walked along the river.

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...

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 )

The Central Nucleus of the Amygdala Encodes the Motivation to Pursue Ethanol https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.11.724330v1

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...

the semester is finally over

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...

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

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.

My favorite sign of spring is here at last

In Baltimore for the day and had to see the old haunts

They did behaviorism to basketball what’s next, surgery on grapes

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]

the solution to gun violence in this country is to build a ballroom <3

Working hard or hardly working, am I right Levi?

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...

📋 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...

the gays keep discovering louder songs

It's Friday night baby

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)

Katz R01 ND 🫡

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

Topographic structure and function of locus coeruleus norepinephrine neurons https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.10.717727v1

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...

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."

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!

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...

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!

The way straight people feel about Veep is the way gay people feel about The Comeback

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.

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...

get past the paywall here: rdcu.be/e8LrV

it's Friday that's all there is to say www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkO9...

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...

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...

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

Orbitofrontal circuits for context-gated reward predictions https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.05.709962v1

Friday

Keep forgetting that this app is designed to beam the horrors directly into your brain

"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.

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...

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

Hippocampal trace coding dominates and disrupts place coding https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.17.706430v1

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.

"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...