Grateful to receive a ✨K99/R00✨ after much uncertainty! Still worried about scientific funding and the future of our work. Excited to reveal how estrogen modulates neuromodulator and neural dynamics, de novo protein synthesis, and temporal discounting with a novel task the rats are already crushing.

📢📢 My lab at @utah.edu is officially open and I'm RECRUITING — especially techs/specialists and postdocs! Our research focuses on the neurobiology of interoception and learning & memory using tools from systems/comp neuro. Please share! 🧠🏔️🏜️ Apply/more info: zimmerman-lab.org#positions

📢📢 Announcing this year's conference on the Mathematics of Neuroscience & AI (Rome, 9-12th June). We’ve got a stellar line-up and venue, and invite everyone to join: www.neuromonster.org

Can electrical microstimulation be used to steer cortical population activity on- and off-manifold? Our new preprint says yes — using data-driven control in macaque PFC. Joint work with @gbarzon.bsky.social, Anandita De, Isaac Moran, Conner Carnahan, and Luca Mazzucato.

NYU's Center for Neural Science is seeking a faculty candidate that would be jointly appointed with our Tandon School of Engineering. We are looking for post-doc applicants with neuroengineering or computational backgrounds. apply.interfolio.com/182074

In the first systematic, multi-node recordings of spiking activity across the human basal ganglia–thalamic circuit, @dennislondon.bsky.social explains how this pathway integrates cognitive variables with ongoing action. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

News from central Jersey: I'm running to represent New Jersey's 12th Congressional District. By entering the fray, I hope to bring ideas of repairing our frayed republic. Not only to defend it in 2026, but to build something stronger, for generations to come! samwang.substack.com/p/entering-t...

Our lab will be boycotting biotech vendors that have contracts with ICE (e.g., Fisher, Agilent), and telling them why. If you google “vendorname usa spending”, you can see purchases for specific depts including ICE on usaspending.gov. Please talk to your labs and email your vendors!

currently reading: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Excited to share our new study showing how subcortical inputs are routed through ventromedial (VM) thalamus to layer 1 interneurons in the medial PFC, all done by my graduate student Sanne Casello: sannemcasello.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Joint junior faculty position in Computational Neuroscience, between Ctr for Computational Neuroscience at @flatironinstitute.org and the CUNY Graduate Center @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social . Application deadline: 16 Jan 2026! www.simonsfoundation.org/flatiron/car... cuny.jobs/new-york-ny/...

Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins is inviting applications for 3 open-rank tenured/tenure-track positions in (1) Behavioral Neuroscience, (2) Cognitive Neuroscience, and (3) Cognitive Psychology. pbs.jhu.edu/about/jobs/

A new study led by Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain investigator @carlosbrody.bsky.social tracked decision-making in rats to pinpoint the precise moment the animals commit to a decision: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/scientists-pinpoint-the-moment-of-decision-in-the-rat-brain/ #science

Thank you for the great summary, @thetransmitter.bsky.social, and the shout-outs from scientists we admire. There is so much we don’t know about how sex hormones modulate behavior and we’ll keep exploring!

“It’s giving mechanistic insight into how estrogen modulates reinforcement learning—all the way down to the molecular mechanism,” says Ilana Witten. By @avaskham.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/sex-hormones...

NaTuRaL BeHaViOR

Thanks, Adrian! I’m excited to be starting a lab at the University of Utah (theluolab.org)! We’re recruiting at all levels. If you’re excited about neural computation, large-scale multi-region recordings, and machine learning, let’s talk! And yes, the mountains are as incredible as they say!

Who wore it better? Our new paper shows that rat OFC supports Bayesian inference of hidden states! With neural correlates of inferred state transitions at the level of single neurons and population-level latent factors. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Check out our posters at #SfN25 this Saturday! @aqperkins.bsky.social @adiraj95.bsky.social @goldenneurons.bsky.social

Ecstatic to announce our exciting new paper! Rat-mon y Cajal found a new friend to help him learn. Introducing, Dr. Tutor-us!

Inspired by discussions at several recent foraging-related seminar series and conferences, our review in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social explores an expanded role for foraging as a framework in neuroscience and discusses future directions for the field. Do check it out. doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...

What happens in your brain when you make up your mind? Postdoc (soon faculty at U. of Utah) @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social and ex-grad student (now Shanahan Fellow at Allen Institute) @timkimd.bsky.social have some answers in this new paper out in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵 1/6

Rats vs. Chats, round 1: bomb safety

Happy to have some good science news - our new study with @aqperkins.bsky.social is out in @plosbiology.org! dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Rat-mon y Cajal, our lab mascot, is a pro at our task because he went to kindergarten first. His nemesis, Le Chat GPT, just copied off everyone else’s homework. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Scientists based in New York - do you want to help raise awareness about attacks on science & science funding? We are organizing low-effort outreach events in the city. Some amazing NYUers did a test run in Washington Square Park already. Sign up for more info here! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Wild! Stephen, Praneel and their team use fluorescence lifetime imaging and various manipulations to show that, in male mice, both mating drive and hypothalamic tonic dopamine release drop after a successful mating and gradually recover over the next week, paralleling the recovery in sperm count.

The war on science in the US is already having an effect on private sector research like AlphaFold. Bears repeating but the private sector builds on top of things created by academic research for the public good. This hurts everyone.

Common reviewer comment: "Why do they have so many rats?" Because it's NYC b*tch.

During Q&A, whenever someone asks a question about our "mice."

David Hocker’s paper about compositional pretraining for RNNs that efficiently produces animal-like behaviors! Modeling cognitive tasks in RNNs requires thinking about latent abilities that animals bring to an experiment. Funded by NIH/CRCNS. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

This is such a mistake - these alternative ways of testing aren't good enough "models" to evaluate new drugs. People will suffer and die because of this. I never thought that I wouldn't be able rely on the US FDA for safety and effectiveness. What a sad era ...

Groundbreaking work by Dr. Soohyun Lee from the National Institute of Mental Health at NIH The brilliant young scientist faces termination. Science like this leads to discoveries that can revolutionize how we understand the brain. doi.org/10.1038/s415... #neuroscience #neuroskyence

hello world. we have an opening for a strong theory postdoc to work in my lab on a exciting collaboration with Josh Berke and Loren Frank labs modeling and analyzing data on rat hipp-pfc-bg-da involvement in spatial maze foraging, replay, value etc. apply here: www.princeton.edu/acad-positio...

SHARE WIDELY. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. With mass deportations starting today across the country, it is vitally important - for both citizens and non-citizens - to know your rights. You have the right to remain silent. Assert it. You have the right to a lawyer. Ask for one. (1/3)

It's official, the Rich lab is now part of the Center for Neural Science at NYU! I'm thrilled to be joining CNS! At the same time, I'll miss my amazing colleagues at Sinai (even though we're not going far). Here's to new adventures in the new year!🥂

We are hiring at NYU! An Assistant Professor position between the Department of Biology and the Center for Neural Science. apply.interfolio.com/160048 Deadline Jan 8th Please re-post / re-Sky / re-Blue...just tell people

The Undergrad Travel Grant Program (deadline: Dec 6th) provides an opportunity for undergrads to learn more about comp systems neuro. It’s especially suited for students considering neuro graduate study! Apply here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... More info: www.cosyne.org/travel-grants

The Center for Neural Science at NYU is aiming to add another computational neuroscientist to our community: apply.interfolio.com/157767 Come join us! Deadline 31 Dec 2024

🚨 PhD opportunity alert! 🚨 Join our lab @sidb-edinburgh.bsky.social in beautiful Edinburgh! We study the neural mechanisms underlying flexible decision-making using cutting-edge experimental and computational approaches. We’re recruiting for two fully funded PhD positions. Details below 👇

Sharing this wonderful collaboration led by @yashsmehta.bsky.social and @janfunkey.bsky.social seems like a great way to introduce myself to bluesky. So check it out! It was a pleasure to work with this amazing team of scientists!

Excited to be here in this quest for simpler times! Here’s where you can find what I’ve been working on the last five years: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...