Ron Keiflin
@ronkeiflin.bsky.social
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📥 489
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Behavioral Neuroscientist • Associative learning • Decision-making @UC Santa Barbara KeiflinLab.com
pinned post!
ICYMI:
@sophiepeterson.bsky.social
work comparing OFC and hippocampus in the retrieval and inference of context-dependent predictions is now out in Current Biology
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Also check out the great summary by (bsky-less?) Matt Gardner:
www.cell.com/current-biol...
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Neuroscience: Setting the neurobiological occasions for hierarchical learning and inference
Hierarchical associations help animals navigate the environment by using contextual and latent states to guide learning and behavior. Chemogenetic inactivation in an occasion setting task reveals that...
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(24)01455-6
over 1 year ago
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Constantinople lab
14 days ago
Thrilled to share our new paper, which shows that the relative timing of cholinergic and dopamine release dynamically gates whether dopamine acts as an RPE for in vivo plasticity and reinforcement learning.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Acetylcholine demixes heterogeneous dopamine signals for learning and moving
Nature Neuroscience - Jang et al. measured dopamine and acetylcholine release in the striatum of rats performing a decision-making task and found that the relative timing of cholinergic and...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02227-x.epdf?sharing_token=A381CAlAnIRJBODuL-yPRNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0OC3rXlFW58DrJ2kzezlHt7_VZRr1kz9ZpB6He68KpSxccZoqYSN8FPevDB6Zt6K7RBgpaFnYCXtvKTxYkOPpoosjt6i1Kknh2OfwTbaXSxX_A9OVNz3DlK0ig7gMRr9rI%3D
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Shelley Warlow
23 days ago
Are you or someone you know graduating soon and looking for an exciting Post Bac opportunity? Come join us at Dartmouth!
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andy alexander
27 days ago
Come check out our poster "[2-018] Predictive pursuit emerges in high dimensions" Friday from 1-4p if you are at
#cosyne2016
! This work was led (and is presented) by the amazing
@wtredman.bsky.social
alongside an awesome team incld.
@xiaoxiao-lin.bsky.social
,
@fatihdinc.bsky.social
, and May Chan.
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Mark Haselgrove
28 days ago
Back translation of value-modulated attentional capture from humans to mice (experiment 1) and rats (Experiment 2). Very nice work by
@bradfield-neuro.bsky.social
et al.
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
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APA PsycNet
https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2027-29569-001.html
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Ron Keiflin
Ben Saunders
about 1 month 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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Rural Drug Addiction Research Center
about 1 month ago
The deadline to submit a poster for the 73rd Annual Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (NESOM) is quickly approaching! ⏳ The poster submission portal closes Tuesday, March 17, 2026, at 11:59 PM CT. 🔗 Submit a Poster:
ow.ly/1tW050YqsJj
🔗 NESOM Info:
ow.ly/Uvzk50YqsJh
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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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about 1 month ago
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Ron Keiflin
Kate Wassum
about 1 month ago
🚨📃New Wassum Lab Paper 📃🚨 Out today, Melissa Malvaez, Nick Griffin, Andrea Suarez & team discovered that dopamine can enable reward predictions to shape how we pursue reward. Surprisingly, we find that dopamine can constrain instrumental reward seeking.
www.jneurosci.org/content/46/8...
🧵👇🏻
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Dopamine Supports Reward Prediction to Shape Reward-Pursuit Strategy
Reward predictions not only promote reward pursuit, they also shape how reward is pursed. Such predictions are supported by environmental cues that signal reward availability and probability. Such cue...
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/46/8/e1636252026
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Ron Keiflin
Shrew
2 months ago
People outside of Minnesota, in case you are wondering how to help the current situation, this website has many current opportunities to donate and support people who need help in Minnesota. Help pay rent, get groceries, and provide other support for people in hiding.
www.standwithminnesota.com
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Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory
Stand With Minnesota is a hub for supporting, learning, and taking action to support Minnesotans impacted by ICE and federal enforcement.
https://www.standwithminnesota.com/
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Stand Up for Science!
2 months ago
This is Alex Pretti. This morning he was murdered by ICE. Six ICE agents held him down and shot him at point blank range. Alex was a nurse and researcher at the VA. Our thoughts are with his loved ones and we stand united in action calling for the abolishment of ICE.
#ScientistsAgainstICE
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Shauna Parkes
4 months ago
We recently posted a new review preprint: “Ventral hippocampus and the contextual control of Pavlovian and instrumental behavior”, written with fantastic collaborators Samantha Moriarty (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and Travis Todd (University of Vermont).
lnkd.in/dJ5ydAaZ
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Ron Keiflin
Ben Saunders
5 months ago
So excited to see our latest paper out today in
@natcomms.nature.com
! Studies led by the amazing
@margestelzner.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
. VTA GABA neurons have a unique role in economic decision making - they integrate reward seeking motivation and the current cost of seeking
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Ventral tegmental area GABA neurons integrate positive and negative valence - Nature Communications
The role of ventral tegmental area GABA neurons in behavior is unclear. Here, authors show that VTA GABA but not dopamine neurons integrate positive and negative valence to encode motivational conflic...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65345-3
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Ben Saunders
5 months ago
#SfN25
attendees - make sure to head to the posters when you get to the meeting on Saturday afternoon (V7-V11: Gretchen, Megan, Margaret, Louisa, Bella) and Sunday morning (KK17: Micaela) to hear about our work. We're printing the posters now and they look rad.
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Kurt Fraser
5 months ago
Folks at SfN come see the first Fraser Lab poster ever at FF6 on Tuesday Nov 18, 8am. Serena Miller has oodles of data to share on a new direction for us. Also, that day happens to be my birthday so you have to come say hi or else
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Ron Keiflin
Ben Saunders
6 months ago
Check out our latest, online now at
@sfnjournals.bsky.social
www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
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Superior colliculus projections drive dopamine neuron activity and movement but not value
To navigate dynamic environments, animals must rapidly integrate sensory information and respond appropriately to gather rewards and avoid threats. It is well established that dopamine (DA) neurons in...
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2025/10/13/JNEUROSCI.0291-25.2025
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Ben Saunders
6 months ago
Really excited to have this paper accepted for publication now in
@natcomms.nature.com
- stay tuned for the final version and huge congrats to
@margestelzner.bsky.social
!!!!
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🧠 Curious about grad school in Psych & Brain Sciences? Join UC Santa Barbara’s PBS Department for a virtual open house on Oct 14 — meet faculty, connect with grad students, and learn more about the program!
6 months ago
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Ron Keiflin
Alicia Izquierdo
6 months ago
🎇 Excited to finally share JL Romero Sosa’s publication! Results are from single-cell imaging in different subregions of rat frontal cortex during ✨de novo learning. Spoiler: everything is not everywhere all at once
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Neural coding of choice and outcome are modulated by uncertainty in orbitofrontal but not secondary motor cortex - Nature Communications
Neural mechanisms underlying flexible learning and decision-making are not fully understood. Using single-cell calcium imaging, authors here found that neurons in orbitofrontal and secondary motor cortex exhibit complementary roles in reward learning, with neurons in the former exerting a sustained role in conditions of uncertainty.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63866-5
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Stephanie L. Grella, PhD
6 months ago
First lab paper out today! Student authors: Mikayla Cutler and Abhi Thati 🎉🤩 Hippocampus | Neuroscience Journal | Wiley Online Library
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
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Drug‐Related Engrams and Their Role in the Persistence and Recurrence of Drug‐Related Behaviors
Memory is a cornerstone of human behavior, and addiction offers a compelling model of its persistence and plasticity. The scope of engram research has rapidly expanded to include addiction-related ph....
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hipo.70040
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Mark Laubach
6 months ago
I'm recruiting a PhD student to study how enkephalins affect cognitive processing in the rodent frontal cortex. The project uses pharmacology, multi-electrode recordings, and fiber photometry, and is funded by NIDA. Please share with trainees applying this cycle. Thanks!
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Sean Ostlund
6 months ago
We have an open NIH-funded postdoc position in the lab to study circuit and neurochemical mechanisms of cognitive and motivational deficits in opioid withdrawal. Apply here:
recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09885
or message/email for more information.
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Postdoctoral Scholars - Ostlund Laboratory - Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care
University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!
https://recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09885
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Ron Keiflin
Ben Saunders
7 months ago
Honored to be elected to serve as the next vice co-chair, along with the amazing
@sciolinolab.bsky.social
, for the Catecholamines Gordon Research Conference. I first came to this meeting in 2011 as a grad student and it was transformative for my career. Excited to help cultivate that for others.
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Kauê Machado Costa
8 months ago
If you are a highly motivated grad student (
@uabneuro.bsky.social
) or a prospective postdoc with experience in behavior, neural recordings, or programming, and would like to contribute to this project, just contact me. Details on
kmcostalab.com
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K.M. Costa Lab
https://kmcostalab.com
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Ron Keiflin
Kurt Fraser
8 months ago
My hero!!!!
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OneNeuro Initiative
8 months ago
We are thrilled to announce that OneNeuro Co-Director Patricia Janak, Ph.D., has been elected as the 2026-2027 President of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN).
@janaklab.bsky.social
View the official announcement:
www.sfn.org/publications...
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Ron Keiflin
Shauna Parkes
8 months ago
New Dispatch in
@currentbiology.bsky.social
w/ @RobinPiquet &
@dryacinetensaouti.bsky.social
highlighting elegant work from the
@iordanova.bsky.social
lab that formally disentangles whether dopamine signals reward prediction errors or value.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1ldGk3QW8S...
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Ron Keiflin
Ben Saunders
8 months ago
Very excited to share this major update to our paper delineating VTA GABA neuron encoding of valence and decision conflict. Studies led by the amazing
@margestelzner.bsky.social
. We leaned in here, taking the opportunity to add a lot of cool new data.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Catching up on announcements — huge congrats to
@sophiepeterson.bsky.social
on a successful defense! Proud PI moment!
9 months ago
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Ron Keiflin
Steve Maren
11 months ago
🚨New paper alert! 🚨 Inactivation of the nucleus reuniens causes relapse of extinguished fear. Here we show this “circuit-induced relapse” depends on hippocampal fear memories and is mediated by hippocampal engrams. Congrats to the team!
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Hippocampal ensembles regulate circuit-induced relapse of extinguished fear
Molecular Psychiatry - Hippocampal ensembles regulate circuit-induced relapse of extinguished fear
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://rdcu.be/enulI__;!!DZ3fjg!4WTTn91dOHoOe1cBqHrKGrhe3zcbKCVveTwEAZCruquL5HfW7Sz8G238dSxm8-xiqrGNnbxhGxuSS0XeWAnerRlikeMArwW7cmI$
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Ben Saunders
11 months ago
Check out our latest! Studies led by the amazing Megan Brickner - she finds really interesting patterns of dopamine signaling in the basolateral amygdala that report the emotional salience of sensory state transitions. These are largely non-associative, value-free signals, in contrast to classic DA.
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Rhiana Simon, PhD
11 months ago
Thrilled to announce that our paper is now finally out! 🎉We combine scRNAseq, 2p imaging, ephys, and behavior to understand the role of lateral septal Nts neurons in opioid withdrawal. Curious about the septum and addiction? Give it a read👇
www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
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Opioid-driven disruption of the septum reveals a role for neurotensin-expressing neurons in withdrawal
Opioid withdrawal produces a dysphoric state that can lead to relapse. Simon et al. reveal that lateral septal neurotensin-expressing neurons are selectively activated by naloxone and drive changes in...
https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(25)00307-1
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Will Redman
11 months ago
Very surprised (but very excited) to announce that I’ll be officially starting as an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and as part of the new Data Science and AI Institute in July 2026!
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Ron Keiflin
Josh Johansen
11 months ago
I’m excited to share a new paper from the lab. The study led by Xiaowei Gu reveals how the mPFC encodes complex emotional memories, using an internal model to infer emotional associations and memories via projections to the amygdala. a🧵(1/8)
rdcu.be/el19t
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Prefrontal encoding of an internal model for emotional inference
Nature - Neurons in the rodent dorsomedial prefrontal cortex encode a flexible internal model of emotion by linking directly experienced and inferred associations with aversive experiences.
https://rdcu.be/el19t
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Paul Frankland
11 months ago
Sharing a new paper from the lab. This paper, led by Sangyoon Ko, represents a merging of two longstanding research themes in the lab-- adult neurogenesis and systems consolidation.
rdcu.be/el18q
A short thread follows for those interested. 1/n
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Systems consolidation reorganizes hippocampal engram circuitry
Nature - A study shows that loss of memory precision associated with systems consolidation can be explained by neurogenesis-dependent reorganization of engram circuitry within the hippocampus over...
https://rdcu.be/el18q
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Michael Goard
11 months ago
🚨Very excited to share a new paper from our lab in Neuron (
@cp-neuron.bsky.social
) on the influence of the estrous cycle on structural and functional plasticity in the hippocampus:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Thread below 🧠🧪🧵:
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The estrous cycle modulates hippocampal spine dynamics, dendritic processing, and spatial coding
Histological evidence suggests that the estrous cycle exerts a powerful influence on CA1 neurons in the mammalian hippocampus. Decades have passed sin…
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627325002971
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Emily G. Jacobs
11 months ago
Join us in beautiful Santa Barbara! We're hiring a full-time junior specialist/research technician to play a central role in data collection & analysis of brain imaging studies of pregnancy & menopause. Learn more & apply at:
recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02974
Or help us spread the word 💫
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Ben Saunders
about 1 year ago
Our latest! We measure dopamine signals as rats disambiguate cues that predict reward or threat. We find that dopamine flexibly tracks the changing salience and value of cues, but according to region-specific scales, rapid within-trial dopamine fluctuations prioritize different stimulus features.
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Striatal dopamine represents valence on dynamic regional scales
Adaptive decision making relies on dynamic updating of learned associations where environmental cues come to predict valenced stimuli, such as food or threat. Cue-guided behavior depends on a network ...
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2025/03/14/JNEUROSCI.1551-24.2025
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Ron Keiflin
Neil M. Dundon
about 1 year ago
Thanks
@danacobblewis.bsky.social
and
@asapresearch.bsky.social
for supporting and showcasing our work!
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Jill Becker
about 1 year ago
Sex Differences Research Saves Lives!
#OSSD
#BoSD
#SBN
#SWHR
#science
please share
rdcu.be/ecZXa
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Sex differences research is important!
https://rdcu.be/ecZXa
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Ron Keiflin
Ben Saunders
about 1 year ago
#standupforscience2025
at the St Paul Capitol with my lab and many others this afternoon
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Ron Keiflin
Brandon Woo
about 1 year ago
Proud to
#standupforscience
with students, postdocs, and colleagues today
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Kauê Machado Costa
about 1 year ago
I am happy to share my latest (NIH funded) work, out in
@currentbiology.bsky.social
! We show that task demands define the correlations between accumbal dopamine and acetylcholine, in a pattern that supports a tripartite coincidence model of striatal plasticity.
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Dopamine and acetylcholine correlations in the nucleus accumbens depend on behavioral task states
Dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) changes quickly in response to errors in predicting events like reward delivery1,2,3 but also slowly …
https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225001277
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Mihaela
about 1 year ago
Interested in knowing more about conditioning? It’s not what you think it is.
#rescorla
Check this webinar out on March 5 at 2pm
apa-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
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Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Essentials of Conditioning and Learning: Using Everyday Experiences to Teach Complex Topics. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about ...
Explore how Essentials of Conditioning and Learning serves as an accessible and affordable resource for teaching foundational concepts in behavior and learning. This webinar will highlight why this to...
https://apa-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/4917285759519/WN_oJM1i5ztSmyZi5hK-WWJVg?fbclid=IwY2xjawIsn4RleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHQftzaBeV-SdtpuakZL_ht_kuxmOCx-70n1XIL1tesI85oc0943thbxYyw_aem_aA-7aWP3Yy2_HttOkqavsw#/registration
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Ron Keiflin
Rick Huganir
about 1 year ago
Reaching out to all Americans through the media to explain how decreasing funding of the NIH will have irreversible harm for developing therapies for all diseases. Please spread the word to your families and friends and contact your congressional representatives.
www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...
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Science under siege: Trump cuts threaten to undermine decades of research
Sweeping layoffs, funding freezes and executive orders have provoked outcry among federal researchers and their university partners, who fear that science itself is under siege.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/trumps-nih-budget-cuts-threaten-research-stirring-panic-rcna191744
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Kate Wassum
about 1 year ago
🚨📃New Wassum Lab Paper📃🚨 Out today,
@jackiegio.bsky.social
discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free full text:
rdcu.be/eaxEv
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A dual-pathway architecture for stress to disrupt agency and promote habit - Nature
Adaptive decision-making often requires an understanding of our agency in a situation; however, chronic stress can disrupt agency and promote inflexible, habitual behaviour by turning off a brain path...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08580-w
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Dr. Becca
about 1 year ago
If the block on the Federal Register isn’t removed in the next few months, I fear a majority of labs will close within a year. This small procedural wrench has the power to kill US science indefinitely, losing an entire generation of discovery and innovation.
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Rick Huganir
about 1 year ago
I have been talking to the media, Time, Fortune, NBC, etc., to explain how the onslaught on science and NIH will impact the health of all Americans. Everyone knows someone who has cancer, heart disease, or depression. Spread the word about how cutting science impacts all.
time.com/7216299/nih-...
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Experts Call NIH Budget Cuts an 'Apocalypse' for Science
The reductions target indirect costs that cover administrative and equipment costs.
https://time.com/7216299/nih-budget-cuts-science-research-funding/
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I had this key for years. Today I learn that *everyone* in the lab thought this was John Snow… Fuck I’m old
about 1 year ago
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about 1 year ago
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Ron Keiflin
A/Prof Kelly Clemens
about 1 year ago
www.linkedin.com/posts/kelly-...
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Kelly Clemens on LinkedIn: Genes, Brain and Behavior
Join us at the Genes, Brain and Behaviour Meeting, May 19-22, 2025 at the Shangri-La Resort, Fiji https://lnkd.in/gu-nXaZF 🧠 🧬 First time for the Southern…
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kelly-clemens-45414137_genes-brain-and-behavior-activity-7285795977859362817-VMhw
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