Eric Garr
@garrface.bsky.social
đ€ 789
đ„ 457
đ 100
Postdoc @ Johns Hopkins. Behavior, brains, biking, bagels. ericgarr.com
pinned post!
Iâm excited to share my latest paper, in which we used latent state modeling to reveal how fentanyl shapes decision-making dynamics in rats. Hereâs a summary of what we found (thread).
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Modeling hidden cognitive states reveals acute and chronic effects of fentanyl on decision-making
The cognitive mechanisms underlying behavior are often dynamic, shifting gradually or abruptly over time scales spanning years, to weeks, to minutes. Whether drug-induced changes in learning and decis...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.04.668448v1
7 months ago
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Here's a quick analysis I did on data I've been collecting on psych/neuro faculty applicants. I don't have data on unsuccessful applicants, but my inference is that women mentored by women have to rely more on bringing in $ to get a faculty job than men mentored by men.
3 days ago
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Vijay Mohan K Namboodiri
8 days ago
Very excited to post our paper led by
@daburke.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
where we uncover a simple mathematical rule underlying how brains learn that a cue predicts a reward. 1/26
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Duration between rewards controls the rate of behavioral and dopaminergic learning - Nature Neuroscience
Cueâreward learning rate scales proportionally with the time between rewards. Consequently, learning over a fixed duration is independent of the number of trials. This challenges trial-based dopamine ...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02206-2
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Now published in Neuropharmacology!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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24 days ago
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Greg Folkers
27 days ago
Science: U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office By Jeffrey Mervis, Monica Hersher
@science.org
@policyhound.bsky.social
@mghersher.bsky.social
bit.ly/3M8yf9B
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U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office
A Science analysis reveals how many were fired, retired, or quit across 14 agencies
https://bit.ly/3M8yf9B
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Since the Namboodiri lab isnât on Bluesky (I think?), Iâd like to amplify this cool paper which I and others in the Janak lab made a small contribution to.
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 month ago
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Jeremy Berg
about 1 month ago
The conference (agreement between House and Senate) appropriations bill that includes HHS and NIH was released this morning.
www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majorit...
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Committee Releases Conferenced Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Bi...
United States Senate Committee on Appropriations
https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majority/committee-releases-conferenced-defense-homeland-security-labor-health-and-human-services-education-and-related-agencies-and-transportation-housing-and-urban-development-and-related-agencies-bills
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Crawford Kilian
about 1 month ago
A long, absolutely must-read article from Cory Doctorow:
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
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AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage | Cory Doctorow
AI is asbestos in the walls of our tech society, stuffed there by monopolists run amok. A serious fight against it must strike at its roots
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/18/tech-ai-bubble-burst-reverse-centaur
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Roddy Grieves
about 2 months ago
Can humans & animals really use internal maps to take shortcuts? Tolman famously said yes - based largely on his Sunburst maze. Our new review & meta-analysis suggests evidence is far weaker than you might think. đ§”đ
doi.org/10.1111/ejn....
@uofgpsychneuro.bsky.social
@ejneuroscience.bsky.social
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Tolman's Sunburst Maze 80âYears on: A MetaâAnalysis Reveals Poor Replicability and Little Evidence for Shortcutting
In 1946, Tolman et al. reported that rats could take a novel shortcut to a goal after training on an indirect route, supporting the Cognitive Map theory. However, a review of subsequent Sunburst maze...
https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.70365
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Dr Kathleen Millen
about 2 months ago
I don't think you non-science people realize what it takes to get a grant funded by NIH. Started experiments in Sept 2021 to generate 3 new mouse mutants to model human disease. Prelim dara shows they have relevant disease phenotypes worthy of study. Need a small grant first to characterize /1
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Arif A. Hamid, Ph.D.
about 2 months ago
Excited to share latest study from the lab by an amazing RA, Dylan Flink. We solved a small (important) puzzle while in the trenches of a larger (wavy đ) puzzle.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
đ§”...
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Dual cholinergic mechanisms for sculpting striatal dopamine in vivo
Striatal dopamine (DA) and acetylcholine constitute a computationally powerful neuromodulatory dyad that orchestrates action selection, motivational vigor, and reward learning. Striatal cholinergic in...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.19.695021v1.abstract
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Tim Verstynen
2 months ago
Sleep dependent consolidation and replay that doesnât require the hippocampus? Very beautiful work by Marcus Stephenson-Jonesâ lab on sleep driven sequential skill consolidation in the striatum.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.05.597547v1
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Munir âGunesâ Kutlu
2 months ago
đšNew Kutlu Lab preprint! Excited to share our latest work led by Oyku Dinckol and Noah Wenger. đ
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
We find that ACh shapes DLS neural ensembles for outcome learning but is biased toward signaling threats over rewards đ
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Dorsolateral striatal acetylcholine reorganizes neural ensembles to anticipate threat
Adaptive behavior requires flexible encoding of emotional valence. Although striatal acetylcholine (ACh) signaling is critical for reinforcement learning, its contribution to aversive learning has rem...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.10.693585v1
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Drug Monkey
3 months ago
22% fewer NIH grants
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Dan Goodman
3 months ago
Nature Sci Rep publishes incoherent AI slop. eLife publishes a paper which the reviewers didn't agree with, making all the comments and responses public with thoughtful commentary. One of these journals got delisted by Web of Science for quality concerns from not doing peer review. Guess which one?
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Ben Saunders
3 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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Mel Sharpe
3 months ago
Good morning everyone! Suitably following the
#dopamine
dinner, we have our
#dopamine
symposium at 9:30am in SDCC room 6B! âBeyond Value: Non-canonical roles for dopamine in aversion and rewardâ Come join us! đ§ đ§Ș
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If you're at SfN on Monday, come by poster board II10 to see how fentanyl changes cell type-specific encoding of choice outcomes in the striatum to influence decision-making phenotypes. Looking forward to seeing some cool science and supporting SfN during these difficult times!
3 months ago
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If you're at SfN on Monday, come by poster board II10 to see how fentanyl changes cell type-specific encoding of choice outcomes in the striatum to influence decision-making phenotypes. Looking forward to seeing some cool science and supporting SfN during these difficult times!
3 months ago
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Nicolas Tritsch
3 months ago
Delighted to see this finally out:
rdcu.be/eO9oW
We tested whether brief striatal dopamine release events influence the vigor of skilled movements. Despite popular belief, we did not find any evidence linking rapid dopamine dynamics to motor vigor on a moment-by-moment basis.
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Subsecond dopamine fluctuations do not specify the vigor of ongoing actions
Nature Neuroscience - Liu and colleagues show that the vigor (that is, speed and amplitude) of dexterous movements is not controlled by ongoing fluctuations in extracellular dopamine within the...
https://rdcu.be/eO9oW
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bioRxiv Neuroscience
4 months ago
VTA dopamine neuron activity produces spatially organized value representations
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.04.685995v1
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Tomer Ullman
4 months ago
Nature suggests you use their "Manuscript Adviser" bot to get advice before submitting I uploaded the classic Watson & Crick paper about DNA structure, and the Adviser had this to say about one of the greatest paper endings of the century:
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I first heard Jack DeJohnette as part of the Keith Jarrett trio when I was ~14. I didnât like his drumming and thought it sounded sloppy. For whatever reason, it clicked with me much later. Hereâs a đ„ clip I discovered recently. RIP JD
youtu.be/a3CZHr5uiNM?...
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Jack DeJohnette, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock and Dave Holland - Shadow Dance (live)
YouTube video by SafaJah
https://youtu.be/a3CZHr5uiNM?si=gMaAW6KyCEwvjB-I
4 months ago
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Eric Garr
Phil Corlett
4 months ago
Some great consideration of differences in learning and performance during blocking (the sine qua non of PE phenomena) in sign vs goal trackers here:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Behavioral determinants in the expression of the Kamin blocking effect: Implications for associative learning theory
Associative learning makes important contributions to our behavior and decisions. The Kamin blocking effect is an associative learning phenomenon thatâŠ
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763421000257
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Eric Garr
Drew Schreiner
4 months ago
Nice preprint from Veronica Alvarez's group on cortically-evoked DA mediated by ACh! I We observed something quite similar in birds, and interesting to see the sensory/prefrontal distinction
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Cholinergic-dependent dopamine signals in mouse dorsal striatum are regulated by frontal but not sensory cortices
Everyday decisions depend on linking sensory stimuli with actions and outcomes. The striatum supports these sensorimotor associations through dopamine-dependent plasticity. Thus, the timing and magnit...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679538v1
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Sean Ostlund
5 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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Eric Garr
Mark Laubach
5 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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Eric Garr
Drug Monkey
5 months ago
This may be the most important paper ever published about NIH funded research.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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What if NIH had been 40% smaller?
Replaying history with less NIH funding shows widespread impacts on drug-linked research
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aeb1564
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Eric Garr
bioRxiv Neuroscience
5 months ago
A mechanistic theory of planning in prefrontal cortex
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.23.677709v1
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Ali Mohebi
5 months ago
Today 1-2 pm CST
bit.ly/3VOJrcy
Join us!
add a skeleton here at some point
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Eric Garr
Malcolm Campbell
5 months ago
đšOur preprint is online!đš
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
How do
#dopamine
neurons perform the key calculations in reinforcement
#learning
? Read on to find out more! đ§”
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Serge Ahmed
5 months ago
This article is truly impressive, both for the significance of its findings and the enormous amount of work it represents! Briefly, it demonstrates that the gut-brain vagal axis exerts a considerable influence on dopamine-dependent reward-related processes... 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Thomas Luo
5 months ago
How does the brain decide? đ§ Our new
@nature.com
paper shows that neural activity switches from an 'evidence gathering' to a 'commitment' state at a precise moment we call nTc. After nTc, new evidence is ignored, revealing a neural marker for the instant when the mind is made up.
rdcu.be/eGUrv
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Transitions in dynamical regime and neural mode during perceptual decisions - Nature
Simultaneous recordings were made of hundreds of neurons in the rat frontal cortex and striatum, showing that decision commitment involves a rapid, coordinated transition in dynamical regime and neura...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09528-4
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Gregg Gonsalves
5 months ago
Though itâs traumatic for me to bring this up, I was targeted by a group allied with Turning Point USA in 2018, with the help of Tucker Carlson on Fox. My home address circulated online and I got death threats. 1/
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Ian L Morgan
6 months ago
Director Bhattacharya says there are no banned words at the NIH. The data suggest otherwise.
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Ali Mohebi
6 months ago
I am beyond excited to host a stellar group of scientists for the first installation of our series: Brain Talks on The Isthmus. Thank you to everyone who contributed by spreading the news, submitting abstracts, reviewing the submissions, and offering kind words of support. I am grateful and smiling
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Kishore Kuchibhotla
6 months ago
đš Weâre hiring a postdoc! đš Excited for our new NiCE grant with
@lauerlab.bsky.social
@batwoman123.bsky.social
đWe use a comparative approach, two-photon imaging & optogenetics to identify why batsđŠ and deer mice resist noise but lab mice don't. If you're interested, please DM or e-mail me!
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Siri Leknes
6 months ago
What can *genetic insensitivity to opioids* teach us about endogenous opioid function in humans? Fully funded position in Oslo (PhD student or postdoc) Interested in pain, mu/kappa opioids, behavioural genetics, RCTs, or related? Apply here:
2411.webcruiter.no/Main2/Recrui...
Please RT for reach
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Phd candidate or postdocâ Genetic determinants of opioid responsiveness
The Department of Research and Development at the Division of Emergencies and Critical Care, Oslo University Hospital in collaboration with Leknes Affective Brain lab (www.affectivebrains.com) and the...
https://2411.webcruiter.no/Main2/Recruit/Public/5008017264?link_source_id=0
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Steve Vladeck
6 months ago
TL;DR: 5 justices say Trump doesn't have to immediately restore the funding, but 5 *also* signal that the underlying directives are unlawful. That sends a fairly strong (if mixed) message that Trump will lose these cases *eventually,* but only once they're brought in the Court of Federal Claims.
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Stand Up for Science!
6 months ago
đšBREAKING NEWS: RFK Jr. is a danger to this nation. Donât give in to Trump & his cronies: we are NOT trading innovation for ideology. We demand the immediate IMPEACHMENT and REMOVAL of RFK. Stop the quack. Protect Science. Protect Democracy Sign & share here:
zurl.co/PEPyD
#StandUpForScience
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Dave Levitan
6 months ago
This op-ed from NIH director Jay Bhattacharya is *infuriating*. He says we have to stop funding mRNA vaccine research because it hasn't "earned public trust." Motherfucker, WHO DID THAT.
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Opinion | Jay Bhattacharya: Why the NIH is pivoting away from mRNA vaccines
As a vaccine for broad public use, mRNA technology has failed to earn the publicâs trust.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/08/12/nih-mrna-vaccines-jay-bhattacharya/
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Iâm excited to share my latest paper, in which we used latent state modeling to reveal how fentanyl shapes decision-making dynamics in rats. Hereâs a summary of what we found (thread).
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
loading . . .
Modeling hidden cognitive states reveals acute and chronic effects of fentanyl on decision-making
The cognitive mechanisms underlying behavior are often dynamic, shifting gradually or abruptly over time scales spanning years, to weeks, to minutes. Whether drug-induced changes in learning and decis...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.04.668448v1
7 months ago
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Eric Garr
Sam Gershman
7 months ago
A landmark volume, The Handbook of Dopamine, is now online:
www.sciencedirect.com/handbook/han...
Big kudos to the editors, Stephanie Cragg and Mark Walton, for putting this together.
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Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience | Volume 32: The Handbook of Dopamine | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
Read the latest chapters of Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevierâs leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature
https://www.sciencedirect.com/handbook/handbook-of-behavioral-neuroscience/vol/32/suppl/C
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Max Kozlov
7 months ago
The NIH budget will INCREASE by $400 million â not slashed by 40%, as Trump proposed â according to a proposal by Senate appropriators, says Sen Murray. "Some have asked if there will even be an NIH by [2029]. The commmittee's resounding message is yesâCongress has your back", she says.
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Tracy Bale
7 months ago
NIH and FDA hosted a workshop on July 7 on efforts to reduce the use of animal models in research, NIH has formally announced a policy change. The agencies have invited comments through the workshopâs webpage. PLEASE COMMENT. The portal will be open until 5pm ET on Monday, July 14 (TODAY).
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Serge Ahmed
8 months ago
Navigating the value space during choice Rhesus macaques represent choices as navigation trajectories in a value space using a grid-like code
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
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Sam Gershman
8 months ago
The sycophantic tone of ChatGPT always sounded familiar, and then I recognized where I'd heard it before: author response letters to reviewer comments. "You're exactly right, that's a great point!" "Thank you so much for this insight!" Also how it always agrees even when it contradicts itself.
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Angie Rasmussen
8 months ago
I sometimes struggle to identify what my biggest issue is with NIH Director Bhattacharya: his lying, lack of qualification, corruption, sycophancy, or extremism. But this is a big one: Heâs so ignorant about how NIH works that itâs completely and totally embarrassing.
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Anne Urai đ„
8 months ago
My latest: a short review on latent variable models to help uncover trial-to-trial structure in perceptual decision-making strategies
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lMiv4sIRv...
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Eric Garr
Narayanan Lab
8 months ago
Our latest work:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We show that corticostriatal ramping activity can't readily be explained by movements using motion tracking, and that ramping can't readily be explained by reward anticipation in mice performing timing and Pavlovian tasks.
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Timing, movement, and reward contributions to prefrontal and striatal ramping activity
Across species, prefrontal and striatal neurons exhibit time-dependent ramping activity, defined as a consistent monotonic change in firing rate across temporal intervals. However, it is unclear if ra...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.02.662841v1
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Miguel Ă. LujĂĄn
8 months ago
Hiring: Research Technician and Postdoctoral opportunities! My lab is looking for candidates to join or research in systems neuroscience at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago @uofilsystem.bsky.social. See details below. Please share!
lujanlabuic.squarespace.com/joinus
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