Good shabbos from #acnp2026 (The calm before the science)

"Untangling the multifaceted VTA responses to stress" http://dlvr.it/TPKFpf @dralexharris.bsky.social @ampolter.bsky.social & Urszula Skupio @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social #SfN2025

מי יתן ה׳ מלך מלכי המלכים דורש הליכה בדרכיו נעשה עולם בלי רעב ומלחמה ימצא שפע טובה ומעדנים כעפר

Isn’t it interesting that at least once a week we say ומפני חטאינו גלינו מארצינו? Not מפני שאבותינו חטאו , not מפני שאויבינו חטאו The tefilla seems to encourage an internal locus of control

Sh’niyihe l’roast v’lo l’zanav

Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Computational Ecology and/or Evolution @columbiauniversity.bsky.social. Deadline to apply September 30. Reach out if you have questions. apply.interfolio.com/172496

Make sure double check that patient’s name before giving a vaccine so it’s not a זריקה שלא לשמה

דרך ישראל סבא אלה בנצחנימו, ואלה ברצחנימו הבטחות ואנחנו בשם נצח ישראל כפינו שטוחות 🕊️ 🤲

מוסיפין מחול על הקודש ומקודש על החול

R. Meilich Biderman tells an awesome story about the Ruzhiner Rebbe that subverts the expectation of a miraculous happy ending

I find this video fascinating youtube.com/watch?v=hrVQ... The Vurka Rebbe tells his chossid that he can’t perform a miracle to cure his child but he can he cry with him. That would be a lesson about the interpersonal power of empathy, BUT the chossid walks away dejected. 1/n

Thrilled to join this amazing panel to talk consciousness, psychosis and the biology of experience 🧠 🧬 Get your tickets and submit your questions 👇

Does anyone have any insight into how היפיש גוט came to mean decent? Hübsch means pretty

ChatGPT is like Zeresh: a cheerleading loved one before the fact, a wise scold after the fact.

This blew me away!

I still get chills Meet Mike *30+ years severe depression *first hospitalized @ 13y *20 meds *3 rounds of ECT *2 near-fatal suicide attempts Mike felt joy for the first time in decades after we turned on his new brain pacemaker or PACE see videos, read paper, follow thread doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Here’s my top line overview:

Today’s daf!

Yeah dopamine encodes reward but what about when contingencies shift and behavior needs to be flexible? Turns out VTA GABA neuron activity plays a role, check it out in my first postdoctoral research article here!👇

'Untangling the multifaceted VTA responses to stress' by Urszula Skupio, Alexander Harris & Abigail Polter @ampolter.bsky.social @dralexharris.bsky.social www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

So this happened... Useful if you want to make economic (and health) arguments about the importance of NIH.

A sesame chicken & a balsamic-ginger-peach chicken. Wishing for peace. Gut Shabbos

Have you ever wondered why it’s called “The Three Weeks” but sefira isn’t called “The 7 weeks”? Sefira is literally about the 7 weeks, bain hamitzorim just happens to be 3 weeks long!

“With these considerations, we expect to fund through the 4th percentile.” There it is, in black and white, the destruction of cancer research in the US.

Well then. Glad we sorted that out.

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Kate Fitzgerald @KDFitzgerald_MD, professor at @columbiapsych.bsky.social and expert in child and adolescent psychiatry, as the newest Associate Editor at NPP! "Meet the Editor" with Dr. Kate Fitzgerald youtu.be/zDnOFSm9kxg?... via @YouTube @npp-journal.bsky.social

This FDA hearing is a sham. There is enough stigma and confusion about treatment for medically-based psychiatric issues. These lies will result in deaths of people who have treatable illnesses.

Do I know anyone who has worked with Peter Carruthers, Joshua Knobe, Hakwan Lau, or Thomas Metzinger? I am looking for who would be a good collaborator on an experimental philosophy project.

Who does America First Legal (founded by Stephen Miller) hate more: poor people or minorities? www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/hi...

Me vs. ChatGPT

New from @dralexharris.bsky.social, Ula Skupio, and myself in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social: a long in the works review trying to untangle what stress is doing in the VTA, and what the piles of confusing data might teach us about what the VTA is doing at all. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Stress is complicated, right? Ula Skupio @ampolter.bsky.social & I had a hard think about the way acute & chronic stress impacts the different neural populations in the VTA & I’m really pleased with what we came up with. Just published in TINS. Check it out! authors.elsevier.com/c/1lRWibotq7...

Folks, the video abstract on this paper is a masterpiece www.cell.com/current-biol... H/t Urszula Skupio

Since it is so ambiguous whether the new policy will exclude animal research or include non-animal research proposals, folks might want to email Dr. Kleinstreuer [email protected] to explain the need for animal research & ask for clarification

I have seen a clarification that it means that all new NIH funding opportunities will no longer exclusively require animals-only proposals, but will also fund proposals that use non-animal methods. (My ignorance: I didn’t know that the NIH currently issues proposals that require animals)

In this entire 4.5 hour video from the FDA and NIH about reducing animal models, I didn't hear any discussion about conducting research developing new treatments for mental health disorders with behavioral symptoms

At 2:38:55 of this video is when the NIH component of the workshop begins. 2:49:11 is where the announcement of no new NIH funding of proposals relying exclusively on animals youtube.com/live/vz1uF42...

At the bottom of this page, there is a space for the public to comment about this NIH direction. I would like the FDA and NIH to think about how multi-system and behavior questions are going to be answered without animal models fda.gov/news-events/...

I'll be presenting at this science fair: I've done many a poster presentation, but never one quite like this!

How are folks planning on adapting to this?

Anyone wanna put in a WCBR panel for next year? Topics could include sex diffs, stress-related disorders, circuit interrogation, addiction, serotonin, or lateral habenula. Lmk!

If you tax millionaires, won’t they flee the city? Turns out, this has been studied & the answer is that yes, a tiny fraction (0.2) will leave for a tax hike of 2%. That means that 99% of the ~3.2 billion dollars raised will remain to make the city a better place to live!

Have I ever pitched my show Pilpula Charifta? Bocherim will have to defend their chaburas from lomdishe kashes while eating increasingly spicy fire poppers 🤓 🔥 😭 😂

Thrilled to announce I'll be starting my own neuro-theory lab, as an Assistant Professor at @yaleneuro.bsky.social @wutsaiyale.bsky.social this Fall! My group will study offline learning in the sleeping brain: how neural activity self-organizes during sleep and the computations it performs. 🧵

Soviet style science

Job is up, consider joining us! psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_St...

Am I overthinking these differences in the descriptions of Jewish and Muslim students?

Looking good 😋

Making potato tahdig for the first time

הרה״ג ר׳ שמשון רפאל הירש זצוק״ל