Laura Bradfield (she/her)

Oooh interesting. I'd love to know how you did it.

Just between you and me (and anyone reading this post, lol), we have some more recent data in which we've induced neuroinflammation in NAC core which prevents rats from showing sign-tracking, but they still show a VMAC effect on measures.

Very cool!

Oh sorry!

co-authors that are on bluesky:

@poppywat.bsky.social, @karlyt.bsky.social

New preprint from the lab, produced in collaboration with Simon Killcross' lab:

Modelling compulsive actions in rats and mice: The back-translation of value-modulated attentional capture from humans to rodents

doi.org/10.31234/osf...

I will be presenting some of this work at Pavlovian next week!

Now on bioRxiv! Astrocytes in one brain region (cyan) communicate in expansive networks (magenta). Through tool development, tissue clearing, and many hours on our @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social Z1, we now know these networks are repeatable across mice, plastic, and specific.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Value-modulated attentional capture depends on awareness - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Value-modulated attentional capture (VMAC) refers to a process by which a priori neutral stimuli gain attentional priority when associated with reward, independently of goal or stimulus-driven attenti...

New paper out! Here we show that attentional biases induced by reward history depend on awareness of such reward history (w/ @jlupiane.bsky.social and @mavadillo.bsky.social).
link.springer.com/article/10.3...

👇🧵

What? Noooo! This is the main way I keep up to date with news in the USA. Hopefully Seth Meyers and Jon Stewart will continue

Quality of scientific papers questioned as academics ‘overwhelmed’ by the millions published Widespread mockery of AI-generated rat with giant penis in one paper brings problem to public attention

I would add to this that journals are increasingly asking more of reviewers (e.g. format reviews in a specific way, long consults on top of reviewing) which I understand the reasoning for, but it does increase burden, and increase difficulty to find reviewers.

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

doing Concur reports

Perfection 😅

I know right. Traditional Phillipines dress. Both of them way out-styled me (check out Kiruthika's shoes)

Couldn't be more proud of these two who graduated today, Drs Abiero and Ganesan.

Medial Orbitofrontal, Prefrontal, and Amygdalar Circuits Support Dissociable Component Processes of Risk/Reward Decision-Making The medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) has been implicated in shaping decisions involving reward uncertainty, in part by using memories to infer future outcomes. This region is interconnected with oth...

💥GIF THREAD ALERT – pleased to share our latest paper @sfnjournals.bsky.social in J Neurosci- an epic over 5 years in the making examining amygdala and prefrontal interactions with the medial OFC in risk/reward decisions by Nicole Jenni and Deb Bercovici

www.jneurosci.org/content/45/1...

It's gonna be epic!

Don’t forget to submit your data blitz or poster abstracts for PAVLOVIAN in SYDNEY!🧪🧠

Due April 11th, including 5 x travel awards to help our buddies from the 🇺🇸 and elsewhere get to 🇦🇺

Our line up is 🔥 Check out our website, registration, and hotel block below 👇

Fair enough. It is scary. Anyway, I still hope to go. Hopefully they let me in!

But then it's like Trump wins!

I was hoping to see you all at SfN this year... !

French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found France’s research minister said the scientist was traveling to Houston for a conference when his phone was searched

👀

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Exciting new science from the lab led by @melcooperphd.bsky.social.
More to come soon!

My data’s strong, my goals are clear,
Yet still, I wait, year after year.
What must I prove, what must I show,
To make you see my work and grow?

Oh ARC, why leave me in the dark?
Can’t you see my research spark?

For those hurting after DP EOI outcomes today, courtesy of ChatGPT (I prompted with the first line, it will have to go over 2 posts as it's too long):

Oh ARC, why won't you fund me?
I’ve written papers, set them free,
With research deep and insights bright,
Yet still, no grant, no guiding light.

Screenshot of a tweet from the ARC saying the following: "DP26 EOI applicants: tomorrow all lead CIs will receive an email with their outcomes and all applicants will be able to get their results in RMS. Due to the volume of applications, emails may be staggered throughout the day. Stay tuned for an update.".

The ARC have tweeted that they will released Discovery Projects Expression of Interest outcomes tomorrow.

Jon Stewart's take on DOGE, in case you feel like laughing and crying at the same time 🫤:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=utl2...

You're so awesome!

Diversity is our greatest asset, even if the government disagrees… They not like us! POC in STEM are here to stay.

They tried to rig the game but you can’t fake influence!
Mustard on the [Be][At] bro.

Happy Black History Month!

Congratulations! Glad to see the famous Wassum gif threads have transferred over to bluesky 😁

A dual-pathway architecture for stress to disrupt agency and promote habit - Nature Adaptive decision-making often requires an understanding of our agency in a situation; however, chronic stress can disrupt agency and promote inflexible, habitual behaviour by turning off a brain path...

🚨📃New Wassum Lab Paper📃🚨

Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv

Brain inflammation affects behavior differently in males and females, study finds Inflammation in the hippocampus alters motivated behavior in mice, but in opposite ways for males and females regarding food seeking and memory.

I know everything is falling apart so this may not be the best time to post this, but know that we are watching on in horror in Australia and will do what we can to help.

Anyway, Psy post wrote an article about our article: www.psypost.org/brain-inflam...

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...