Excited to announce that I'll be moving to the Univ of California Irvine @ucirvine.bsky.social next Spring!๐ด
Happily, this is not goodbye to Japan as I'll continue my lab @RIKEN_CBS for some time.
Help spread the word: the new UCI lab will be hiring, DM or email (johaono@gmail.com) if interested!
02.10.2025 04:15 โ ๐ 80 ๐ 24 ๐ฌ 10 ๐ 1
Rest in peace, Pieter.
Thank you for everything and for helping me become the neuroscientist I am today.
26.09.2025 17:12 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
Pieter had a profound influence on how I investigate the brain.
Iโm grateful I stayed in touch during his retirement, where he enjoyed making guitars.
26.09.2025 17:12 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
The microscope we used together (pictured below just before his retirement) was where many of these lessons were learned.
26.09.2025 17:12 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
He patiently showed me stained brain sections with e.g. Fos, calbindin, mu-opioid receptors. Amazingly, he could even infer corticolimbic inputs from clusters of Fos expression in striatal sections.
26.09.2025 17:12 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
I still remember when he asked me to sketch the borders of the nucleus accumbens and justify my choices. โBecause itโs in the atlasโ wasnโt good enough. He wanted my scientific rationale!
26.09.2025 17:12 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
That question led to hours of Socratic dialogue about cell types, neurochemical markers, input-output relationships, and anatomical boundaries.
26.09.2025 17:12 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
Pieter taught me how to use the cryostat and dissect brain regions with precision.
But more importantly, he taught me how to think about โWhat makes a brain area a brain area?โ.
26.09.2025 17:12 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
My obsession with histology, microscopy, and the medial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens began with him.
Itโs something Iโve carried through my postdoc, my time at NIDA, and now as a PI.
26.09.2025 17:12 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
As a PhD student, I learned corticostriatal neuroanatomy, histology, and microscopy under his guidance, even though he wasnโt officially my supervisor.
He was just a generous scientist who wanted to help.
26.09.2025 17:12 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
Many in behavioural neuroscience will remember Pieter from his influential 2004 Trends in Neurosciences review, which helped shape our understanding of prefrontalโstriatal circuitry.
26.09.2025 17:12 โ ๐ 4 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
I recently learned that my PhD mentor, Pieter Voorn, passed away at the age of 70.
He was a superb, โclassicalโ neuroanatomist at VU Medical Center in Amsterdam, working alongside Gloria Meredith, Henk Groenewegen, Harry Uylings, and Chris Wright.
26.09.2025 17:12 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
Flight back has been cancelled so must spend another day in Almeria! Not a bad place to get stranded ! ๐
21.09.2025 14:33 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
Seen today in Brighton: Old-school, non-LLM, analogue spell checking! ๐
07.09.2025 17:29 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
To indulge or enrich: how environmental enrichment affects neurons that promote food seeking
Neuropsychopharmacology - To indulge or enrich: how environmental enrichment affects neurons that promote food seeking
In this recent #ResearchHighlight, the authors discuss new findings pointing a potential non-pharmacological approach for mitigating maladaptive craving behaviors
20.08.2025 15:30 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 2 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
Seen today in Brighton: A tribute to Pac-man on wheels! ๐
05.08.2025 19:39 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
To indulge or enrich: how environmental enrichment affects neurons that promote food seeking - Neuropsychopharmacology
Neuropsychopharmacology - To indulge or enrich: how environmental enrichment affects neurons that promote food seeking
Once again, many thanks to all involved in project! Those on bluesky: @katepeters3.bsky.socialโฌ, โช@scottkinghorn.bsky.social Finally, special thanks to @moever.bsky.socialโฌ and Pelle Wilbers at VU Amsterdam for a nice commentary on our article! ๐https://tinyurl.com/yutzpuv7 14/nโฌ
11.07.2025 18:55 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
Together, impaired neuronal food cue processing from simultaneous prefrontal excitatory 'overdrive' and inhibitory 'underdrive' likely underlies EE's anti-food seeking action, thereby serving as potential neurophysiological targets to develop novel medications that help control food cravings. 13/n
11.07.2025 18:55 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
These findings were initially surprising since reduced reward seeking is generally associated with experimental inhibition of PL. But impaired behavioural control is associated with PL hypoactivity. So increased PL excitatory overdrive post-EE may contribute to increased behavioural control. 12/n
11.07.2025 18:55 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
So increased gas pedal action might mean decreased braking action? We measured Fos in PL inhibitory interneurons. EE reduced recruitment of cue-reactive, inhibitory interneurons reflecting 'inhibitory underdrive', so decreased braking. 11/n
11.07.2025 18:55 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
How does EE impact PL pyramidal cell activity in vivo? We used fibre photometry and measured GCaMP activity and revealed that EE induced a loss of cue specificity and general elevation of PL pyramidal cell activity in vivo during sucrose seeking. So another case of excitatory โoverdriveโ! ๐ฒ10/n
11.07.2025 18:55 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
How does EE impact reactivation of this โoriginallyโ (before EE) cue-reactive, pyramidal cell ensemble? Following EE, we measured tdTomato and Fos expression in FosTRAP2:Ai14 mice after testing for cue-evoked sucrose seeking. Ensemble neurons were reactivated despite decreased sucrose seeking! ๐ฒ9/n
11.07.2025 18:55 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
Might EE tap into this cue-reactive ensemble? We used FosTRAP2:Ai14 mice and measured excitability in tdTomato+ and โ pyramidal cells. EE boosted the baseline excitability of 'originally', or before EE exposure, cue-reactive, excitatory pyramidal cells in PL, resulting in neuronal โoverdriveโ. ๐ฒ 8/n
11.07.2025 18:55 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
First, in FosTRAP2 mice, we tagged cue-reactive PL neurons with hM4Di. Chemogenetic inhibition of cue-reactive neurons in PL blocked cue-evoked sucrose seeking, thereby confirming the function of these neurons in sucrose cue memory. 7/n
11.07.2025 18:55 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
We previously saw that cue-evoked food seeking is controlled via fine-tuning neuronal ensemble recruitment and excitability. Here we investigated how EE promoted suppression of cue-evoked sucrose seeking through modulating excitability- and activity-related properties of PL neurons. 6/n
11.07.2025 18:55 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
Previously, we provided such stimulation via environmentally enriched (EE) housing (e.g. large cage, tunnels, exercise wheels). EE reduced cue-evoked sucrose seeking and neuronal ensemble activity in prelimbic cortex (PL), a brain area that controls motivated actions like reward seeking. 5/n
11.07.2025 18:55 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
Team Director, Lab for Glia-Neuron Circuit Dynamics, RIKEN Center for Brain Science. https://junnagai-lab.com/
I study how the brain makes up the mind
Delusions, Hallucinations
Prediction Errors, Priors
Beliefs, Perception
He/Him
belieflab.yale.edu
Market Expansion & Partner Engagement Manager @assaygenie | Former Academic| Developmental & Metabolic Neuroscience PhD @AnatomyTrinity @TrinityMed1 @tcddublin|
Mostly about grants. Some about education.
MD Student in Neurophysiology | Nociception, Pain and Diabetes | Heidelberg University
Postdoc - https://bsky.app/profile/lukesjulson.bsky.social @ Albert Einstein College of Medicine | Ph.D. JHU SOM - https://bsky.app/profile/martinowk.bsky.social @ LIBD.
Professor at UC Irvine
Studying neural circuits controlling adaptive and dysregulated motivated behavior
Asst. Professor at Cal State, Long Beach -
Our mission is to promote dialogue and the exchange of data and ideas about the molecular and cellular bases of cognition. ๐ง
https://www.molcellcog.org/
Assistant Professor at University of Nottingham, interested in learning and memory.
Senior scientist at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Rovereto, Italy)
๐ง ๐ Functional Neuroimaging, Brain (dys)connectivity and Autism
ERC Grantee
https://www.iit.it/it/people-details/-/people/alessandro-gozzi
PhD student in the @gozziale.bsky.social Functional Neuroimaging Lab
Hi ๐ I'm a postdoc in the #Neuroimmunology and #Imaging group at the @dzne.science Bonn ๐งช๐ฌ Passionate about #ComputationalNeuroscience ๐ง ๐ป and #NeuralModeling ๐งฎ
๐ fabriziomusacchio.com
๐จโ๐ป github.com/FabrizioMusacchio
๐ sigmoid.social/@pixeltracker
Neuroscientist at University of Bristol. Cortical circuits, PFC, interneurons, dopamine, brain development.
https://www.anastasiades-lab.org
CNRS Researcher at the University of Poitiers, Inserm, Neuroscience of Addiction, Brain
๐ฉ๐ปโ๐ซ Professor Neuroscience @Sorbonne_Univ_ ๐ฉ๐ปโ๐ฌ Team leader @IBPS_Paris #memory #VGLUT #science
Science Writer: "Doktor Whatson" (YouTube). Podcast-Host: "Klimakompass mit Claudia Kemfert". Grimme Online Award 2023, Sartorius LifeScienceXplained 2023 award.
Scientific background: Biology & Neuroscience.
Born at 333 ppm.
Behavioral Neuroscientist โข Associative learning โข Decision-making @UC Santa Barbara
KeiflinLab.com
Ramon y Cajal Investigator @University of Valencia. Junior group leader interested in the neural basis of social behaviors. Previously postdoc @Champalimaud Research
https://socialplasticity.wordpress.com/