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Alison Adcock

@ralisonadcock.bsky.social

Psychiatrist Neuroscientist of memory, motivation, and the architecture of hope. Committed to joy, courage, and mental flourishing as outcomes for graduate research training! adcocklab.org dibs.duke.edu

2,877 Followers  |  1,220 Following  |  228 Posts  |  Joined: 27.09.2023  |  1.7541

Latest posts by ralisonadcock.bsky.social on Bluesky

Yep

02.12.2025 06:19 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Remember: Almost all of us are the descendants of immigrants who fled persecution, or were brought to America under duress, or sought better lives for themselves and their descendants.

Politicians who stoke fear and hatred over immigration want you to forget this.

Do not.

01.12.2025 16:15 β€” πŸ‘ 14566    πŸ” 4438    πŸ’¬ 409    πŸ“Œ 151
Ratings buttons in academic recommendation portal that switch polarity from one item to the next.

Ratings buttons in academic recommendation portal that switch polarity from one item to the next.

Dear Rec Letter Portals designers: Please explain this choice.

02.12.2025 01:31 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Our python workshop is returning! Undergraduate educators, join us on July 27-30 for "Coding with Allen Institute Data."

No prior coding experience needed. Travel, meals, & stipend included.

Apply by Feb. 2 at: https://alleninstitute.org/events/educator-coding-workshop-2026/

#iTeachBio #EduSky

25.11.2025 23:11 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2
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Two Hundred Years to Flatten the Curve How generations of meddlesome public health campaigns changed everyday life β€” and made life twice as long as it used to be

Shameless plug:

For a year, I've been working on a series about the vast systems that underlie our lives. Built up over decades, these systems are the cathedrals of our time--but all too few of us know about them, and they're all at risk. Here's the latest:

25.11.2025 02:49 β€” πŸ‘ 86    πŸ” 24    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 4

Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to β€œyou didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea

25.11.2025 01:57 β€” πŸ‘ 15561    πŸ” 3366    πŸ’¬ 297    πŸ“Œ 278

Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.

Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.

20.11.2025 15:33 β€” πŸ‘ 32778    πŸ” 10641    πŸ’¬ 608    πŸ“Œ 677

β€œSurvival of the fittest”
is often used to justify capitalist society, but this wasn’t a phrase that Darwin used.
He described it as β€œbetter designed for an immediate, local environment" and wrote of groups that survived through empathy and sharing rather than greed.
We must change
Or die

20.11.2025 13:18 β€” πŸ‘ 3756    πŸ” 881    πŸ’¬ 28    πŸ“Œ 7
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So the Border Patrol announced that they arrested >250 people in their North Carolina invasion, but that only 44 had any criminal record at all.

Some of those "criminal" records include shoplifting and driving with an expired registration. Some were U.S. citizens.
www.wunc.org/2025-11-19/b...

20.11.2025 12:59 β€” πŸ‘ 48    πŸ” 21    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 2
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Epstein survivor: "Today we stand in a moment that will decide whether our government still belongs to the American people or to those who prey on them."

18.11.2025 14:51 β€” πŸ‘ 23114    πŸ” 7112    πŸ’¬ 417    πŸ“Œ 258
Meme: a quirky hand-drawn cat beneath the script "AHEM - please don't give billionaires more of your money this holiday season - buy something cool and handmade from some fun weirdo instead & help them eat. Shop small, y'all."

Image credit: "Small businesses need your support more than ever πŸ’—
By Sugarhouse Ceramic Co."

Meme: a quirky hand-drawn cat beneath the script "AHEM - please don't give billionaires more of your money this holiday season - buy something cool and handmade from some fun weirdo instead & help them eat. Shop small, y'all." Image credit: "Small businesses need your support more than ever πŸ’— By Sugarhouse Ceramic Co."

Love this so much. πŸ’œ

15.11.2025 04:17 β€” πŸ‘ 4305    πŸ” 2185    πŸ’¬ 14    πŸ“Œ 44

Breaking: An Epstein survivor just silenced press conference attendees when she delivered the following remarks:

β€œToday we stand in a moment that will decide whether our government belongs to the American people, or to those who prey on them.”

18.11.2025 21:43 β€” πŸ‘ 38529    πŸ” 9990    πŸ’¬ 438    πŸ“Œ 322

How do we help wankers like this understand that just
not being an asshole and doing their share of the dishes is their β€œbest shot”

17.11.2025 03:43 β€” πŸ‘ 102    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0
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NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen.

Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.

16.11.2025 23:43 β€” πŸ‘ 59282    πŸ” 36337    πŸ’¬ 1298    πŸ“Œ 2870
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Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump's Mass Deportation Effort Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable gr...

Don't be evil?

"Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, and tell local cops whether to contact ICE about the person, while simultaneously removing apps designed to warn local communities about the presence of ICE officers..."

www.404media.co/google-has-c...

16.11.2025 02:41 β€” πŸ‘ 5076    πŸ” 2736    πŸ’¬ 399    πŸ“Œ 246

! I hope they are nice to her.

13.11.2025 23:43 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

She seems unfazed :)
I don’t regret it after all
Thank you!

13.11.2025 23:37 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I bet I will regret asking but I am so curious what you’re referring to

13.11.2025 22:59 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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The dawn of the post-literate society And the end of civilisation

jmarriott.substack.com/p/the-dawn-o... "The world of print is orderly, logical, rational. In books, knowledge is classified, comprehended, connected to make arguments, and propose theses..with print culture came the prestige of reason, hostility to superstition, and the rapid development of science"

15.10.2025 01:58 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Dopamine dynamics during stimulus-reward learning in mice can be explained by performance rather than learning - Nature Communications VTA dopamine activity control movement-related performance, not reward prediction errors. Here, authors show that behavioral changes during Pavlovian learning explain DA activity regardless of reward ...

Happy to see this work out today
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@dukebrain.bsky.social @neurosciencenow.bsky.social

14.10.2025 17:34 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Has Your Scientific Work Been Cut? We Want to Hear.

NYT is looking for scientists to tell them about their projects that were cut by the administration for a new series on β€œlost science”: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...

09.10.2025 11:17 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Gif of lab logo.

Gif of lab logo.

Hello world!
Only a year late, but I am now at the NUS Centre for Sleep and Cognition, where I will be directing the Dynamic Brain & Memory lab!

15.09.2025 07:04 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
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🚨 New paper in Nature Methods:
HippoMaps: multiscale cartography of the human hippocampus

Open-source tools & data to explore structure and function of the 🍀🧠 (histology, in/ex vivo MRI, iEEG)

Led by @jordandekraker.bsky.social

docs: hippomaps.readthedocs.io
paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

02.10.2025 11:50 β€” πŸ‘ 83    πŸ” 38    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 2

πŸ§ͺ πŸ‘‡ read the 🧡 for all the posts being cut - health statistics in US will disappear

13.10.2025 04:06 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Motivation as Neural Context for Adaptive Learning and Memory Formation Our memories shape our perception of the world and guide adaptive behavior. Rather than a veridical record of experiences, memory is selective. An accumulating body of work suggests that motivational ...

Motivations are like emotions about (what we know about) possible outcomes. Sometimes incentives spur urgency to act, other times to comprehend. Neuromodulatory systems reflect these motivational moods and shape memories. Out now w @jiahou-poh.bsky.social!
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

13.10.2025 04:39 β€” πŸ‘ 41    πŸ” 15    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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Motivation as Neural Context for Adaptive Learning and Memory Formation Our memories shape our perception of the world and guide adaptive behavior. Rather than a veridical record of experiences, memory is selective. An accumulating body of work suggests that motivational ...

How does motivation shape learning and memory? In a new review w @ralisonadcock.bsky.social, we propose that under different motivational β€˜moods', neuromodulators set distinct neural contexts to determine information processing and memory formation.
doi.org/10.1146/annu...
#psychscisky #neuroskyence

13.10.2025 04:09 β€” πŸ‘ 53    πŸ” 18    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

For decades the NRA and other gun nuts told us that their guns were to protect us all from a tyrannical government. So a tyrannical government is here, they are all sitting on their asses, and the people who want gun control have taken to the streets to defy the tyrannical government instead.

09.06.2025 21:20 β€” πŸ‘ 27964    πŸ” 7914    πŸ’¬ 969    πŸ“Œ 475
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a black background with the words heroes at work ALT: a black background with the words heroes at work

The #BethesdaDeclaration stories are now up on the front pages of both the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Thanks again to the brave folks at NIH who stood up and worked together to make this happen.

1/n

09.06.2025 19:34 β€” πŸ‘ 181    πŸ” 46    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 0
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Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...

Very smart, high ROI initiative from the Spencer Foundation.

Providing bridge funding for canceled NSF grants:

1) directs funds to projects already screened by a top-noch review process.
2) avoids imposing proposal prep costs on researchers.
3) ameliorates the disruption from GOP sabotage.

06.06.2025 23:09 β€” πŸ‘ 779    πŸ” 335    πŸ’¬ 6    πŸ“Œ 10

My quote of the day

I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

Abraham Lincoln

06.06.2025 13:15 β€” πŸ‘ 38    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

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