R00 paper drop, 2/2. Grateful to have this chapter wrapped! Gentle CT brushing reduced heat pain regardless of chronic pain status, between spinal segments. Trauma history and depression- but not pain intensity- emerged as the strongest predictors of touch-pain modulation! doi.org/10.1113/JP29...

If you are one of the nearly 1000 scientists who took our survey: Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I hope we did you justice.

I’m very sad to share that Howard Fields has died. He made seminal discoveries in pain modulation, placebo, and addiction. He was also a wonderful mentor and friend who taught me how to think about the brain and the joy of scientific discovery. www.iasp-pain.org/publications...

R00 data drop (paper 1 of 2)! doi.org/10.1113/JP29... Gentle stroking, deep pressure and heat pain were rated as less pleasant and more intense by FM pts than controls. Chronic pain intensity predicted ⬇️ touch pleas, while affective symptoms predicted ⬆️ affective touch preference and pain unpleas.

doi.org/10.1016/j.ne.... First time leading a review/theory paper! We review how trauma and stress can alter the somatosensory system towards threat prediction, and propose ways that touch-based therapies may normalize pain and threat sensing, through a lens of predictive coding.

Congrats to my team (all first time at SFN) on their successful poster presentations! Sorry to all the folks who traveled from afar for the rain!

Wowow 😮 This is indeed one of the greatest paper endings of the century. Scientists: if you outsource writing to LLMs, you will end up filing off and blunting the good parts of writing — and thus science.

It’s not the thought that counts: Allostasis at the core of brain function www.cell.com/neuron/fullt... #neuroscience

soft money folks, how are we surviving?? things i am required to do but not paid for: -write grants -serve on committees -guest lecture -review papers -editor for journals -dissertation committees -annual trainings -faculty meetings -mentor undergrads -raise money for supplies what am I missing?

This week’s #PAIN Featured Image is an overview of microneurography recording technique. Namer et al. highlight new data on the potential for high threshold mechanosensitive Aβ fibers to code for physiological mechanical pain and allodynia bit.ly/4gEVMJW 

Dr. Tristen Inagaki and I found that warmth and pressure interact to boost feelings of social connection with close others. Everyone enjoyed this study, including the participants! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This morning, NASA released the #VoyagerDeclaration. This afternoon, NIH #BethesdaDeclaration signers met w/ Jay Bhattacharya. Earlier, EPA staff were terminated for their act of resistance. I made this in solidarity. @altnih4science.bsky.social @altnasa.bsky.social @alt-epa-workers.bsky.social

You get about 100 million breaths. So does every other animal big or small. Don't waste them. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Friends, rates of severe malnutrition and dehydration—particularly among children—have reached catastrophic levels in that politically complex place I will not name for the algorithm. Please urgently sign and share this petition for humanitarian aid from my colleague: chng.it/Mbqh4gXFpC

(5/5) 🚨 It’s time to flood the zone. NIH scientists just took a huge risk speaking out. Now it’s our turn. 📜 Read the Bethesda Declaration ✍️ Sign the Public Letter of Support 👯‍♀️Follow NIHers doing the work: @nihvigils.bsky.social Read and sign here 👉 www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...

Our new paper is out. We point out that large brained (and often smart) mammals and birds have evolved very different distribution of neurons numbers in the brain. This means that similar cognitive abilities have evolved in very different brains. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Not to show bias, but this symposium from @sirileknes.bsky.social featuring one of my all-time favourite people, India Morrison, is going to be epic!!!

Published an op-ed for @cnn.com: “Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger.” A personal reflection on what’s at stake as science funding gets slashed. I’d be grateful if you could amplify both in and beyond the science world. www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...

Some good news from NIH - they have restarted the intramural training programs for postbacs and postdocs. www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...

what a massive effort. an incredible resource for anyone studying the claustrum.

We have slots for 2-3 postbacs! Get in touch if you’re interested in joining the Affective Neuroscience and Pain lab & contributing to our studies of pain, emotion, and social processing in the 🧠

This is a good explainer! But I want to be even more blunt: You can't cure cancer in the dark. Federal (F&A) funding is what pays to keep the lights on so that doctors and scientists can do this work.

As a Jewish faculty member at one of these institutions, I am saying right now, in the clearest tones possible: not in my name. This violent exploitation of Jews as an alibi for achieving Fascist ends is itself textbook antisemitism.

Rallying for Science @ucsdhealthsci.bsky.social !

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

March 26, free to register Webinar: Experimental pain versus clinical pain in mechanistic research music4pain.org/event/webina...

so cool and highly relevant for social touch research!

This new Atlantic piece on the timeline of the NIH shutdown reads like the script to a new Soderbergh film. It is so, so dark and perfectly captures the evil and intentional chaos behind everything we've experienced over the last month www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Luke Farritor has been given access, by NIH civil service leadership, to the NIH business systems. That will allow him to do this to NIH grants, and to purchasing for research and clinical trials. 🚨 🧪

Two dueling sets of hypothalamic neurons—one that responds to isolation and one to reunion—help maintain a mouse's social homeostasis, a new study reveals. By @avaskham.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/social-behav...

On March 7, STAND UP FOR SCIENCE! Rally and protest. Washington DC and nationwide. Get more info here: standupforscience2025.org Please forward to spread the word. #standupforscience2025 #sciencenotsilence #scienceforall #WomenInSTEM @standupforscience.bsky.social

Studies show that funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) contributed to 354 of 356 drugs (99.4%) approved by the FDA from 2010 to 2019. Recklessly slashing NIH funding will mean that patients will be waiting much longer for life-saving treatments.

NIDA has announced it, but all the NIH summer internship programs are likely cancelled. Sorry college students interested in STEM jobs, sorry high school students looking at science 🧪 careers. Trump and Musk are cancelling your futures.

In a new editorial from Editor-in-Chief of PAIN @karenddavis.bsky.social reaffirms the journal’s commitment to considering #diversity, #DEI, and #GenderIdentity in pain research and management. bit.ly/3D5WgJO 

EIS is the best of the best. It's an incredibly competitive fellowship that recruits outstanding medical researchers. They are often the first ones on the scene trying to make sense of mystery outbreaks and public health emergencies. This is not who we want to be firing right now

😳🤯. Dr. Laurer was the coauthor of the memo yesterday acknowledging that the NIH funding freeze was illegal and directing staff to resume issuing grants.

interesting account to check out!

Hard same ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

Tesla's stock is ridiculously overvalued, and even a modest consumer boycott could tank the company, which accounts for the majority of Elon Musk's wealth. The divestment movement weakened apartheid South Africa. Let's do that again. slate.com/business/202...

Ok, found the original source. He goes through methodology in this post. And yes these are estimates and may be different than the true # for a variety of reasons so if your uni gives you a number that is likely right and you should use that. jamessmurphy.com/2025/02/09/t...

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

🧬🦠🧠🥼🧪📈🟦 @ebi.embl.org: Many scientists are worried that vital biomedical data housed in U.S. government databases is at risk. Which aspects of NCBI are mirrored on EMBL-EBI? Do you plan to back up more U.S. data? @altcdc.bsky.social @altnih4science.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

During the last six months there’s been a substantial increase in academics approaching me to ask about leaving #academia… This article articulates many of the reasons why they’re doing that…

Please contact journal editors and ask them to follow BMJ, reject censorship! And choose journals to submit to accordingly! www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Censor CDC scientists and ask them to withdraw papers from medical journals? This is not how it works, Mr President. Our response @bmj.com on the Trump Executive Order and his "forbidden words" www.bmj.com/content/388/...