Stimulants helped children with ADHD or poor sleep (ABCD n=11k) with cognitive tasks. They counter the effects of fatigue and elevate the perceived salience of goal-oriented actions, facilitating boring tasks without directly affecting capacity to pay attention. Illustration by @sonhita.bsky.social

These drugs were not stumbled upon or borrowed from traditional remedies. They were born out of a long arc of studies in the lab, writes @alexkwan.bsky.social. #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/drug-develop...

fMRI signals “up,” but neural metabolism might be going “down.” In our @natneuro.nature.com paper, we demonstrate that about 40% of voxels with robust BOLD responses exhibit opposite oxygen metabolism, revealing two distinct hemodynamic modes. rdcu.be/eUPO8 funds @erc.europa.eu #neuroskyence 🧵:

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...

Our new paper "Inconsistent outcome measurement in depression psychotherapy trials: A systematic historical and meta-analytic review over the past 50 years" led by @antoniasprenger.bsky.social is out now in JAD. 🧪 #PsychSciSky www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🧠💸 Launching the RewardSignals feed RewardSignals is a custom feed collecting posts about reward processing and decision making. To appear in the feed, tag your post with #RewardSignals. You can find and pin the feed from the Feeds tab as “RewardSignals”. #RewardSignals

Excited to share our new GLP-1 receptor agonist study! Chronic semaglutide potentiates motivation for small food rewards and associated cues, but reduces intake when food is freely available—surprising twist! #GLP-1, #behavior #neuroscience #pharmacology 1/ 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Excited to share our new publication out in Depression and Anxiety! A network analysis of dimensions of anhedonia, depression symptoms, and social anxiety symptoms in university students 🧵 doi.org/10.1155/da/5... (1/10)

Soapbox time: the problem with metabolic efficiency arguments in neuroscience is that they often confuse energy efficiency with energy expenditure. Biological systems are optimized for energy efficiency, but that does NOT imply they are optimized for low energy expenditure 🧵 1/

Your stomach called – your striatum picked up! But does this actually happen in humans? Using simultaneous dopamine PET/fMRI, we show that the gut hormone ghrelin helps the brain adjust motivation to current metabolic need. Here’s what we found👇 Preprint: shorturl.at/pq4A3 #neuroskyence #🩺

A small study helps explain why some people taking Wegovy and similar weight-loss drugs cut back on alcohol, offering insight into potential new addiction therapies

We are currently accepting suggestions for symposium at the 2026 @ssibsociety.bsky.social annual meeting in Philadelphia next year. Check out the link below or DM/email if you have questions 👊 www.ssib.org/2026/symposi...

Extinct Pleistocene carnivores were diurnal and had high metabolic rates: "Only basal metabolic rate and diurnality are robust predictors of extinction, even after accounting for phylogenetic and trait uncertainty" nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec... 🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #Macroecology

Even after recovery, relapse is heartbreakingly common in anorexia nervosa. Could the answer lie in the gut’s hidden signals? 🧵

Fascinating article (long read) from the New Yorker about psychosis and psychiatry, and more broadly about identity

New preprint! 🧠 Our mind wanders at rest. By periodically probing ongoing thoughts during resting-state fMRI, we show these thoughts are reflected in brain network dynamics and contribute to pervasive links between functional brain architecture and everyday behavior (1/10). doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝘁, 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? What are the most developed frameworks of the brain basis of motivation? Older ideas, new ideas, etc. #neuroskyence

Does anyone have recommendations for neuroscience books or other non-fiction available on Audible? I enjoyed listening to Elusive Cures (read by the author @nicolecrust.bsky.social) and Innate (from @wiringthebrain.bsky.social), and I was wondering what other good audiobooks are out there?

Postdoc job alert! I’m looking for someone with a PhD in neuroscience/psychology, psychiatry, biomed engineering, computational modeling or a related field to join my NIH-funded team at UCLA studying the neural & computational mechanisms of #interoception in anorexia nervosa 1/2

Site note: Sometimes, it is easy to summarize a paper in one figure and the posterior distributions of the modulatory effects on stress-induced cortisol release work quite well here.

Final day of #SSIB2025 after I had a chance to present yesterday. Lots of impressive work and great scientific exchange. I really loved the atmosphere.

Very happy I could share the heart of my PhD project - simultaneous PET-fMRI with ghrelin infusions - at #SSIB2025 today! And in such a beautiful location - Oxford!

It's SSIB time next week, so @akuehnel.bsky.social, @corcerebrum.bsky.social, & I will be traveling to Oxford. I will talk about how we can combine task fMRI with electrogastrography & tVNS to understand how internal + external signals are integrated in the brain. Happy to meet other SSIBlings!

Very happy to see this published open-access in Behavior Research Methods now 🤗 #neuroskyence doi.org/10.3758/s134...

Pulsed taVNS elicits pupil dilation. However, if sham feels as intense, there is not much left. Based on our comparatively large sample (94 participants, single-blind crossover), we show that a highly variable sham response explains this. #neuroskyence 🩺 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

You can find the underlying materials (code and PowerPoint file) on my website at the very bottom of the Resources page: juliarohrer.com/resources/.

Sex differences are often claimed based on faulty comparison of statistical significance status rather than direct comparison. That's the upshot of an amazing talk I got to hear this week from Donna Maney @ Emory based on this paper & others: elifesciences.org/articles/70817 #stats #neuroskyence

Dutch academia at a crossroads: Academic communities - not politicians - should decide teaching languages. Language barriers will damage world-class psychology programs. International education breeds innovation and develops future talent. Please consider supporting #AcademicFreedom !

Re-posting is appreciated: We have a fully funded PhD position in CMC lab @cmc-lab.bsky.social (at @tudresden_de). You can use forms.gle/qiAv5NZ871kv... to send your application and find more information. Deadline is April 30. Find more about CMC lab: cmclab.org and email me if you have questions.

Everything is trash but science still rocks. Concluding this project is bitter sweet, it’s my last collaboration with the late great Warren Bickel. It started at a faculty retreat and if you are also interested in the effects of glp-1s on alcohol consumption take a 👀. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

⛔ NIH ended ALL of my grants mid-project, given LGBTQ health focus 🏳️‍🌈 ⚖️ So what am I doing? Suing RFK, Jr. As one team member shared in this story👇: "The threats to our work don’t just make me fear for my career — they make me fear for my safety.“ #SaveDemocracy #SupportScience #PublicHealth

Reminder! SSIB abstract submission deadline is this Friday! Don't miss your chance to share your research, network, and compete for awards at #SSIB2025. 🔗 Submission details: shorturl.at/uWuqb 📢 Spread the word! #IngestiveBehavior #NewInvestigators

A tour de force review of the connections between between the nervous and immune systems www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Out now in Psychol Med 🍪 We show that depression-related changes in food wanting and liking are associated with the macronutrient content of the food. #neuroskyence 🩺 Work w/ @corcerebrum.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

"79 Prozent von 183 Migranten, die in den vergangenen 80 Jahren nach Schweden gezogen sind, haben Urlaub in ihrem Heimatland gemacht. Das sind die Fakten. Der Rest ist gezielte Irreführung der Öffentlichkeit." www.rwi-essen.de/presse/wisse...

Playing Possum by @susanamonso.com @princetonupress.bsky.social is a really outstanding book. The science is fascinating but the meta-science is maybe even better. If you need a distraction right now (and I'm pretty sure you do) this is an engrossing read, highly recommended!

Does the culture you grow up in shape the way you see the world? In a new Psych Review paper, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I tackle this centuries-old question using the Müller-Lyer illusion as a case study. Come think through one of history's mysteries with us🧵(1/13):

We are recruiting a new postdoc to the Brain, Body, and Self Lab at Karolinska Institutet. Check out the link for more information. ki.varbi.com/what:job/job...

Did art save Homo Sapiens? Prof. Nicholas Conard shares how creativity gave us an edge in KEY TO MY RESEARCH. “Every group of human beings we know has art.” uni-tuebingen.de/exzellenzstr... #Podcast #Archaeology #HumanEvolution

Where do the dopamine hits does from? A new reward center in the brain is discovered (yes, single cell, spatial omics at work again) @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Lots of good discussion on this compelling new paper this week: www.cell.com/neuron/abstr... I'd like to offer my $0.02 along with some historical background that the article didn't give. 1/ #Neuroskyence #PsychSciSky

Interesting examples and beautiful visualisations!

These essays offer the neuroscience community a place to explore the culture and practice of the field; to debate major questions; to examine the craft of neuroscience; and to trace its evolution over time. Download the book now: www.thetransmitter.org/transmitter-...

Ever wondered why walking around museums is weirdly tiring? At normal speed our legs act like pendulums, swinging forward from the hip & saving us a huge amount of energy. In "museum shuffle" our muscles must do ALL the work of constant readjustment. So cake in the cafe is scientifically justified 🥳

Hello #Bluesky! My first post here is about a fascinating discovery that challenges a long-standing model in #neuroscience, revealing a third player in the #hunger -satiety network. Read my story for @thetransmitter.bsky.social 👇

Inspired by Mariam Aly's "lab-manual", we wrote our own version: ncs-group.pages.uzh.ch/lab-manual/ We spent a huge effort on it. I hope it can be helpful for others as well 😊

Honoured to share that I received a poster award at #DGPPN presenting some of my PhD work on the role of ghrelin in motivated behaviour! #gutbrain Thanks to @nbkroemer.bsky.social for always making sure we celebrate the wins!

For anyone using @psychopy.bsky.social and #pavlovia, I created a proof-of-concept demo for using the "shelf" system to do synchronous multiplayer experiments: discourse.psychopy.org/t/online-mul...

I'm on my way to DGPPN with @corcerebrum.bsky.social. Corinna will present an update from our recently completed ghrelin infusion study tomorrow. Spoiler: we have beautiful connectivity changes (and the draft of the paper is coming along nicely).