Brianna George, PhD

a scarecrow sits next to a carved pumpkin in the dark ALT: a scarecrow sits next to a carved pumpkin in the dark

Its Halloween season 🎃 and since the world is hellfire, what better way to distract ourselves then with horror movies!

The 2020s have already proven to be one of the best eras for horror ever. To fill your October with some viewing ideas, this is my list of the top 30 horror movies of the 2020s.

Intrinsic dendritic integration features of prefrontal layer 5 pyramidal cell subclasses Prefrontal cortex (PFC) is an associative center in the brain and integrates various inputs to support cognition. Layer 5 pyramidal cells are themselves associative centers, as their dendrites span al...

Fresh off the press! @selinsch.bsky.social discovered some really cool features of mouse frontal cortex pyramidal cells that co-vary with dopamine receptor expression. D3R+ cells appear very responsive to AP bursts, producing Ca transients across dendritic arbors.

www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...

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Promising Targets at @acnporg.bsky.social ! 💊 This a great way to ensure your late breaking pharmacology - clinical trial unblinding, drug study or preclinical pharmacological study gets attention! Was a very hot session last year. 👏

Thank you! ☺️

Haha eye of the tiger always! Thank you TK for the constant support 🫶

Thank you so much!!

Thank you!!! 🫶 Let's catch up at ACNP conference in Jan?

Thank you so much Keri!! Yes, it’s such an incredible group of people! I’m so excited to learn from them and hopeful to give something back 💕

The effect of methamphetamine and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine on peripheral endocannabinoid concentrations: a study in healthy adults - Psychopharmacology Rationale Stimulant drugs such as methamphetamine (MA) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) can impact neurobiological systems implicated in stress, reward processing, and drug use. Although recent preclinical evidence implicates the endocannabinoid (eCB) system in these processes, little is known about the acute effects of stimulants on eCB levels in humans. Objectives The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of acute administration of the prototypical psychostimulant MA and the psychostimulant-empathogen MDMA on circulating eCB levels in healthy adults. Methods Using a within-subject, double-blind design, this study assessed the acute effects of MA (20 mg), MDMA (100 mg), and placebo on plasma eCB levels in healthy human participants (N = 22) during three separate sessions. Blood samples assessing concentrations of the eCBs anandamide (AEA) and 2-Arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) were collected between 150- and 180-minutes post-drug administration, and subjective measures of drug effects were collected at regular intervals. Results MA, but not MDMA, was associated with significantly lower 2-AG plasma concentrations compared to placebo. Neither drug impacted AEA concentrations. However, during the placebo condition, higher AEA concentrations were correlated with disliking the ‘drug effects’, suggesting a possible relationship between AEA levels and negative expectations of subjective drug effects. Conclusions These findings provide novel insights into how stimulant drugs act on the eCB system and may help to develop treatments for SUDs.

Congrats to @pact-lab.bsky.social PhD student @anadeutsch.bsky.social on her 1st first-author paper from the lab! 🎉

She explored how MDMA & methamphetamine impact cortisol, endocannabinoids, & BDNF levels in healthy humans and how this relates to the subjective drug experience 💊👇

Thank you!!! 😊

Thank you Becca! 🤗

Thank you!! 😊

So incredibly excited to join the NPP team!!

Yes, I’ll be at ACNP! Let catch up then! 🫶🏽

I’m hiring at all levels and accepting graduate students through Psychology and the Graduate Program in Neuroscience. Reach out if you’re interested in joining a collaborative, fun, creative, and supportive team in beautiful Vancouver! 🏔️ ⛷️ 🏖️ 🌆

The best news!!! Congrats Zach!!! So excited for you!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉

Excited to share that I landed my dream job!🎉🎉🎉 The Pennington Lab will be opening at the University of British Columbia in January 2026!
@ubcpsych.bsky.social @dmcbrainhealth.bsky.social

Ah apologies, I was comparing to other imaging I use MATLAB for. I haven’t needed to process any 2P data outside of IDEAS yet. However, I will say my 2P data is in pilot stage so can’t say if Matlab is needed. It may be context dependent on what you’re measuring and trying to capture in a dataset.

I’ve truly like it. I use matlab a lot & I’m always update code/fixing errors constantly.. IDEAS is super user friendly! easy to edit analysis parameters and reprocess and have graphs of data rapidly. also nice having options to integrate the behavior data from nearly source and process it through

Is anyone using the IDEAS platform from #inscopix to analyze single-unit calcium data? 🔬🧪🧠

I’ve used it for 2P data..Not sure if that’s helpful or if I could help?

Nixon Lab is hoping to recruit a postdoctoral fellow interested in alcohol-microglia and/or alcohol-neural stem cell interactions in recovery from alcohol-induced brain and behavioral damage/dysfunction. Open fellowships on our NIAAA-funded T32! Please spread the word!

Official lab 📸 #VamosLobos

Super excited to share the first cooperative foraging paradigm in freely interacting mouse pairs! Stable leader and follower roles emerge spontaneously and predict learning. Well-trained mice show stereotyped, role-specific “behavioral motifs” absent in naive animals (1/5)
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Lawyers would argue it was broken BEFORE it even hit the foot. Is this evidence of an attack?? 😆

to the PIs, is it advisable going on job market this fall when things are seemingly falling apart, or riding the postdoc wave for longer (while funding lasts) for some semblance of stability?

Join us in Congratulating the 2025 ACNP Travel Award Class! 🙌🎉

STEM isn’t a pipeline—it’s a braided river. Verónica Segarra offers a new model to support inclusion and rethink how we view scientific careers. www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/... #ASCB #CellBiology

SO MANY fantastic Travel Awardees will be joining us for #ACNP2026 in the Bahamas 🧠 🏖️

...but I'm extra excited that our very own @pact-lab.bsky.social postdoc @ryanntansey.bsky.social will be among them 🤩

Congratulations to this year's cohort of travel awardees. The committee had an incredibly hard job with over 100 applications! We look forward to seeing you all in Spain next month. Attendees, the data blitz highlighting the awardee's work is on Day 1 at 15:10. #EBPS2025