New paper in PNAS! When the mind wanders, it often drifts to the body. We call this "body-wandering". These thoughts are often negative, but are associated with reduced ADHD & depression symptoms, driven by a distinct interoceptive-allostatic brain signature. pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2520822123

1/8 New preprint alert! How are signals from the heart encoded in the brain? What could be the functional implications of cardioception? We found that neurons in the posterior insular cortex are precisely tuned to heartbeats, and that this cardio-insular coupling supports emotion coding in mice.

Is there a single "interoceptive sense"? Our new study in @commspsychol.nature.com says: probably not. In 241 participants, cardiac and respiratory interoception were completely uncorrelated — only subjective confidence was shared across domains. www.nature.com/articles/s44... #psychscisky 🧪

WOW this is exciting. @yoavlivneh.bsky.social and crew have developed an optogenetic framework for studying interoceptive psychophysics IN MICE! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New lab preprint! Can we study conscious perception of gut sensations in mice to reveal its neuronal basis? Can we train mice to report their gut sensations? Omer Rafael and Stav Shtiglitz in the lab teamed up to discover that…YES! Thread…1/6 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our new preprint is out! A state-dependent neural circuit resolves approach–avoidance conflicts www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Fantastic work led by Devika Bodas, with key contributions from Marine Balcou, and a great collaboration with Lisa Scheunemann Lab, fearuting Şevval Demirci.

New lab preprint! Can we study conscious perception of gut sensations in mice to reveal its neuronal basis? Can we train mice to report their gut sensations? Omer Rafael and Stav Shtiglitz in the lab teamed up to discover that…YES! Thread…1/6 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This is cool. Complex behavior is built from subcomponents. Building compositional tasks with shared neural subspaces www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroscience

Excited to share our study in Neuron led by @travisgoode.bsky.social, a K99 PDF (interviewing for Faculty) and Sahay lab team with collaborators at BROAD, Hopkins, and UW Seattle, defining a neural circuit that links prior experience with feeding behavior. Open Access: sahaylab.com/publications

New paper alert! 🚨 We found that the brain's compass is remarkably stable at two scales 1️⃣ the system maintains its internal organization for weeks 2️⃣ It "remembers" its orientation for weeks, even after a single visit This may be key to how the brain aligns its other maps. Paper: rdcu.be/e3waP

🐭🧠 Can fUSI truly map canonical mouse resting-state networks — and how does it compare to fMRI? I’m excited to share the work of my PhD in our new preprint!👉 doi.org/10.64898/202... Go check it out — it’s time to expand your neuroimaging toolkit 🧠🚀

In an accompanying editorial, my UCLA cardiology colleague Dr. Noel Boyle and I argue that ICD aftercare must change: 🫀 Cardiac electrophysiology (EP) ≠ only wires & shocks 🧠 Mental health must be core clinical infrastructure. 🫀+🧠 www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/...

Can we make brains “smarter”? By boosting mitochondrial metabolism in neurons of memory circuits, we improved memory in flies and mice. Thrilled to see this work out - congrats to @amrapalianjali.bsky.social for spectacular work, and to all lab members for invaluable contributions!

Send us nominations for the FKNE Mentoring Prize 2026!The award will be presented at FENS Forum 2026 in Barcelona to a scientist who has demontrated leadership in fostering the careers of neuroscientists. Deadline: 15 February 2026 2cm.es/1gh-m

The representation of omitted sounds in the mouse auditory cortex www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroscience

"These findings challenge the traditional brain-centric view of reward processing, supporting a more integrated model in which vagus-mediated interoceptive signals intrinsically shape motivation and reinforcement." Awesome work by @peppeganga.bsky.social & his team 👏 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... beautiful work from Stephen Liberles’ lab on neural mechanisms of sensing blood volume.

Reward as drive reduction, the return! This opinion piece on the explanatory and unifying power of the homeostatic reinforcement learning framework is amazingly accessible, despite its technical nature, and extremely insightful 👏 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/2

The video abstract is amazing. And very cool work - tool use in cows! Certainly challenges a lot of uniqueness arguments. Always lots to learn. Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol... #neuroscience #science

New in Nature Neuroscience: We developed a flexible model that reveals how animals learn tasks—uncovering stages, sudden insights, and gradual improvements unique to each animal. Learning isn't monotonic, and our model captures that complexity 🐭📊 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New @naturemedicine.bsky.social The power of our mind to shape immune response, as seen in a randomized trial of trained neurofeedback for increased reward activity. More positive expectation-> more antibody response nature.com/articles/s41... nature.com/articles/s41...

Step into a Europe-wide community of neuroscience leaders. Junior & mid-career group leaders: apply by 30 Jan to become a FENS-Kavli Network Scholar and connect, collaborate, and contribute to shaping neuroscience in Europe. rb.gy/havqur

📣First preprint of the lab📣 Did that really happen?😅 Enteric neurons, aka somatic postmitotic cells, must hold on to their sex identity tight, to deliver a tuned response to signals from the ovary that instruct the animal to engage sex-matched behavioural programmes. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

For aficionados of timing, prediction, psychophysics-and anyone who wants to look at something other than the news to be distracted-a new study by Matthias Grabenhorst and Georgios Michalareas: The anticipation of imminent events is time-scale invariant www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.... #neuroskyence

Hot off the @nature.com press!! Our A-SOiD behavior library developed specifically for pain to quantify a new chemogenetic gene therapy that targets opioid circuit in ACC without addictive properties @flybottleescape.bsky.social @cmu-neuroscience.bsky.social @cmu.edu www.nature.com/articles/s41...

What is the computational role of dendritic excitations? Byung Hun Lee and team mapped voltage dynamics throughout the dendritic trees of CA1 pyramidal neurons in mice navigating in virtual reality. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to share new work from our lab showing, for the first time, a link between breathing dysregulation, stress responses, and energy metabolism via a neuropeptide receptor mechanism. This opens new ways of understanding #brainbody interactions! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Just published my review of neuroscience in 2025, on The Spike. The 10th of these, would you believe? This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more Enjoy! medium.com/the-spike/20...

From sensory to perceptual manifolds: The twist of neural geometry doi.org/10.1126/scia... #neuroscience

I am excited to share our new paper, where we developed and used a new approach that allows us to dynamically monitor autophagy in the intact mouse brain! biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

**Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization** New paper I anticipate will become a classic in neuroscience and a must-read for students at all levels. Understanding brain function beyond brain areas. #neuroskyence www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Sequences are everywhere! In every brain region. And are written in stone. Invariant Activity Sequences Across the Mouse Brain. Out today, by Célian Bimbard, with @kenneth-harris.bsky.social. Based on data by Célian and by @intlbrainlab.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New study on axon initial segment plasticity by Chloé Benoit and Dan Ganea. Using a deep brain imaging approach, we find that AIS length changes dynamically during associative learning. Thank you to the wonderful team and collaborators who made this work possible. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How do biological agents learn for the future? Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Last preprint 🎶(of the year). If vagus nerve stimulation alters motivation by amplifying internal signals, then bodily states should matter. Using milkshake vs. water loads, we show that tVNS-induced changes in Pavlovian bias are dependent on hunger. #neuroskyence 🩺 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

lab preprint! Interopceptive predictions are central to many brain-body interactions theories, but it's unclear if/how they affect bodily physiology. We (fearless Einav Litvak et al) show that insular cortex predictions are essential for glucose homeostasis-THREAD.. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How do gut signals shape motivation? After years of hard work led by the fabulous @corcerebrum.bsky.social, we show that ghrelin infusions increase hunger, food motivation, and FC between the hypothalamus and the striatum. This is driven by more pulses in the NAcc. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Check out this incredible paper! Proud of my wife and her lab (and very happy that I could make a minor contribution)

A high #fat #diet increases risk taking and suppresses escape neurons in🐁🐁🐁 #neuroscience www.cell.com/current-biol...

I’m proud to have helped launch the #PITraining survey of FKNE @fkne-scholars.bsky.social We ask PIs to share what really matters for effective research leadership. Your feedback = better support, better science. Take part or share: fenskavlinetwork.org/fkne-pi-surv... Deadline: 29 Dec 2025

This study maps distinct enteric neuron subtypes and shows how each shapes key intestinal functions, from fecal output to feeding. A big step forward in understanding gut–brain neural circuits. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @karapedsgastrodoc.bsky.social

The basal forebrain plays the cortex like a piano.

Might explain much about the weight gain following C-19 www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Thrilled to share our new paper! With @tomtom-auer.bsky.social team, we asked how #evolution reshapes what animals #eat to match their ecological niches. Using pan-neuronal Ca2+ imaging, we show that the changes are in how the brain processes #taste. Link @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nature research paper: Connectivity underlying motor cortex activity during goal-directed behaviour go.nature.com/4pFLw7V

More detailed functional interrogation of enteric neuron subpopulations www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

(1/n) We are excited to share our new paper in Nature Communications, by Hagar Lavian (@hlavian.bsky.social) and team, revealing how the zebrafish brain integrates visual navigation signals! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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

Call for junior or mid-career group leaders in neuroscience! Apply by 30 Jan to join the FENS-Kavli Network. We are looking for excellent and engaged future scholars who are committed to exchanging scientific ideas & improve neuroscience in Europe. fenskavlinetwork.org/who-we-are/a...