Raaj Gowrishankar

Excellent piece today in @thetransmitter.bsky.social by @callimcflurry.bsky.social on a paper we’ve discussed at some length here (🧵below); she does a terrific job capturing different reasons to be excited about this work (as well as the controversies).

www.thetransmitter.org/emotion-proc...

How a friend's overdose drove a leading addiction scientist to look for answers After Nabarun Dasgupta lost a close friend to an overdose, he dedicated himself to addiction research and trying to empower drug users with lifesaving information.

After Nabarun Dasgupta lost a close friend to an overdose, he dedicated himself to addiction research and trying to empower drug users with lifesaving information.

Coming up in just a few weeks! @karlakaun.bsky.social and colleagues have great things in store. Prizes available for trainee presentations. Spots are still available, so please consider attending! Looking forward to chatting about growing and connecting addiction neuroscience in the area.

Reteti Elephant Sanctuary
"On this beautiful Friday, we are so excited to introduce you to #Kimani – the little elephant with a big story!"

Tenure-track faculty search of the UCSF Biochemistry & Biophysics Department is open for applications!

We are looking for creative, innovative scientists asking fundamental questions in any area of biology.

Join our vibrant, collaborative, and supportive community!

aprecruit.ucsf.edu/JPF05702

Barcoded Rabies In Situ Connectomics for high-throughput reconstruction of neural circuits Sequencing of oligonucleotide barcodes holds promise as a high-throughput approach for reconstructing synaptic connectivity at scale. Rabies viruses can act as a vehicle for barcode transmission, than...

1/ Mapping synaptic connectivity between individual neurons is extremely laborious. We developed BRISC, a new method that makes it possible to map inputs onto 100s of neurons in the same animal in a matter of weeks! Led by Alex Becalick and @antblot.bsky.social. 🧵

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

a cookie monster is sitting on a tray with plates of food ALT: a cookie monster is sitting on a tray with plates of food

NEW PREPRINT OUT! Being in a state of pain changes how we decide.
📄 Altered Decision-Making Across Acute and Chronic Pain States
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A 🧵 below 👇

That looks magical!

Three-photon microscopy: an emerging technique for deep intravital brain imaging - Nature Reviews Neuroscience Optical microscopy allows neural cells to be studied in the intact brain, but imaging deep neural tissue presents substantial challenges. Prevedel and colleagues outline the principles of three-photon...

A nice Review on 3P neuroimaging in NR Neuro. The images never fail to amaze me. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Screenshot of the top of the article, including the title, authors, and abstract.

What’s better than a one-channel #Miniscope? 🥁 A TWO-CHANNEL Miniscope!

Our new Miniscope2C is a dual-channel, open-source Miniscope that lets you record 2 fluorescent signals simultaneously in freely moving animals.

Read the paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

(1/10)

Our latest on how and why people differ in good decision-making and why some people persistently make poor decisions.

What Is Analog Computing?
You don’t need 0s and 1s to perform computations, and in some cases it’s better to avoid them.
www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-anal...
#neuroscience
Your brain computes without 1s and 0s

Highly highly recommend. The Luján lab will be such a fun and intellectually stimulating environment!

Our new preprint: 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞-𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐦 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.

We describe how the LS guides defensive responses by forming critical computations built from functionally and molecularly distinct cells and their afferent inputs.

www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...

A simple action reduces high-fat diet intake and obesity in mice Diets that are high in fat cause overeating and weight gain in multiple species of animals, suggesting that high dietary fat is sufficient to cause ob…

This was a really fun project: We blocked obesity in mice by making them do a tiny bit of work for their food. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Transient recurrent dynamics shape representations in mice https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.17.659440v1

All the Brians out there are thankful for your service🤗

well its officially official - I graduated yesterday! 🎓 super honored to have also received my department’s promise award in brain science research. pumped to start my postdoc next month!!

microscope (confocal) image of the memory hub of the brain. we use mice whose neuronal processes are green. we mark the connections between two cells in white or red dots and use a line of pink dots to show distance

Please dont forget what #stress might do to your synapses and #memory (so recommended is a relaxing weekend, all). Quantifying dendritic apines in the hippocampus. #FluorescenceFriday 🧠🧪 @martinowk.bsky.social @svmahler.bsky.social #Neurobiologyofstress @mathiasvschmidt.bsky.social

Slow-Timescale Regulation of Dopamine Release and Mating Drive over Days The rise and fall of motivational states may take place over timescales as long as many days. We used mouse mating behavior to model how the brain orchestrates slow-timescale changes in motivation. Ma...

I am excited to share our preprint on how hypothalamic dopamine neurons govern slow changes in motivation over days! Below are our findings:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Synthetic Serum Markers Enable Noninvasive Monitoring of Gene Expression in Primate Brains https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.01.657212v1

Exciting news!! I’m joining the tenure-track faculty at University of Colorado Boulder this fall as an Assistant Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience!

The Sosa Lab will study how memory is shaped by cognitive and physiological demands, including during pregnancy and the postpartum period. 🧵

Congratulations, Mari!

Activity-driven myelin sheath growth is mediated by mGluR5 - Nature Neuroscience Employing pharmacology, genetics and all-optical approaches in zebrafish, Braaker et al. find that neuronal activity influences the growth of myelin sheaths along axons by signaling through metabotrop...

For those who want a distraction and/ or are interested, here's the latest from the group, led by Phil Braaker

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

Cell-type-specific synaptic scaling mechanisms differentially contribute to associative learning https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.14.654005v1

Your opportunity to apply for the #LakeConference on Neural Coding & Dynamics is going to set sail soon! 🛥️

Apply by May 23 to join us for this intimate, interactive conference.

📆 Sep. 28 to Oct. 2
📍 Seattle, USA
🧠📈 All career stages welcomed

More info: alleninstitute.org/events/lake-...

Organization of brainwide inputs to discrete lateral septum projection populations The lateral septum (LS) is anatomically positioned to play a critical role in directing information from the hippocampus and cortex to downstream subcortical structures, such as the hypothalamus. In f...

Lateral septum enthusiast? Interested in learning more about how LS projection populations and their inputs are organized. Check out our preprint in which @jennisisaac.bsky.social and @soniakarkare.bsky.social map out brain wide inputs to 6 LS projection populations. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Congratulations, Malu! Looks great!

Protocol for the quantitative assessment of social and nonsocial reward-seeking in mice using an automated two choice operant assay The complexity of social behaviors makes it difficult to study the neural mechanisms that underlie them. Here, we describe an automated, low-cost two …

Want to compare social and nonsocial reward seeking behavior? 
On STAR Protocols, we provide instructions for the assembly of a 2 choice operant chamber with an easy to use GUI-based acquisition system. Low cost and fully automated. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Simons Foundation Launches Collaboration on Ecological Neuroscience Simons Foundation Launches Collaboration on Ecological Neuroscience on Simons Foundation

We are excited to announce our new Simons Collaboration on Ecological Neuroscience (SCENE)! This program will unite experts in experimental and computational #neuroscience approaches to investigate how the brain represents sensorimotor interactions. www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/04/24/s... #science