Paul Sheppard 🧠

Meme depicting Geordi La Forge from Star Trek TNG confronted with the touchscreen cognitive judgement bias images

It's tragic, but I forgot to post this Good Meme when the touchscreen cognitive judgement bias paper came out.
(paper link for context: www.nature.com/articles/s41...)

Certificate for 2nd place male 30-39 in the 56km race

Yeehaw!

Paul standing in a lake after his race showing off his medal

Paul's results. Ran the 56km in 7 hours 17 minutes, landing him in 9th overall and 2nd in his division (M30-39)

I ran my first ultra distance race today, an intense and technical 56km @limberlosttrailrun.bsky.social . It was HOT and I learned a lot of things that I'll do differently next time, but it was some great Type 2 Fun!

It was hot, humid, then rainy; it was a lot. I wanted to go farther in the 4h but it wasn't in the cards today. But what a fun concept and a fun race!

Picture of four pictures of Paul from each hour of The Farthest

Today I ran just shy of a marathon during a race called The Farthest put on by Persistence Racing. Everyone started from the same point and ran in whatever direction they wanted to get the farthest as the crow flies within 2, 4, or 8h. I did the 4h "Half-Farthest".

It must be really frustrating for those who were on search committees that had their searches cancelled to see this. It's a lot of work!

From canceled faculty hiring searches to this in <6 months... 👀

In case you were wondering (you 100% weren't): the mouse in the graphical abstract is "greyer mouse" because "grey mouse" just wasn't grey enough for certain co-authors who will go unnamed...

Purinergic receptor activation rectifies autism-associated endothelial dysfunction Early cerebrovascular alterations affect brain maturation by impacting trophic support and energy supply. Recent evidence in a 16p11.2 deletion mouse model of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) revealed b...

Happy to share the current version of our latest story, currently under peer review. Cool collab with @dablab.bsky.social @manickam-lab.bsky.social and others. We are not only understanding endothelial deficits in an #autism model, but now also capable of rescuing them! #16p11.2 #treatment #P2Y2

So check it out! And many thanks to the whole crew that worked on this! @westernubrainscan.bsky.social @timbussey.bsky.social @lisasaksida.bsky.social @maximoprado.bsky.social @touchscreencog.bsky.social @tcnlab.bsky.social

We also present some interesting data regarding a knock-in model often used as a control for this amyloidopathy model since they do not develop plaques. We found that despite this lack of plaque development, they show more profound decreases in cognitive flexibility across age compared to wildtypes.

We show herein that a mouse model of aggressive amyloidopathy can learn to discriminate visual cues, but, following learning, are deficit in reversing what they've learned (cognitive flexibility) and show perseverative responding.

Impaired Cognitive Flexibility With Preserved Learning in an Amyloid Precursor Protein Knock‐In Mouse Model of Amyloidopathy The amyloid precursor protein knock-in mouse model of amyloidopathy (AppNL-G-F/NL-G-F) was assessed on touchscreen-based learning and cognitive flexibility tasks in comparison with both AppNL/NL and ....

🚨 NEW PAPER ALERT 🚨
🚨 KLAXON KLAXON 🚨

Impaired Cognitive Flexibility With Preserved Learning in an Amyloid Precursor Protein Knock-In Mouse Model of Amyloidopathy

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Well done to all of our affiliated presenters at this year's @canacn.bsky.social Meeting! Great work!

Integrating optical neuroscience tools into touchscreen operant systems - Nature Protocols This protocol extension enables researchers to integrate optically based manipulation and measurement techniques into their touchscreen experimental systems, focusing on optogenetic manipulation, fibe...

This is finally out! Great collaboration with Andy Holmes @timbussey.bsky.social @lisasaksida.bsky.social and @touchscreencog.bsky.social @westernubrainscan.bsky.social trainees www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Norepinephrine signals through astrocytes to modulate synapses Locus ceruleus (LC)–derived norepinephrine (NE) drives network and behavioral adaptations to environmental saliencies by reconfiguring circuit functional connectivity, but the underlying synapse-level...

Thought this would be a nice way to enter the bsky community👇Delighted for Katie (now in Chris Dulla's lab at Tufts). Thank you to our collaborators, to the reviewers and to Cagla Eroglu for the highlight!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Dr. Adebiyi kicking off our second session with an exciting talk about demyelination and repair! #KeepSmyelin

We are back for our 2nd CANGlia meeting in beautiful Toronto for a day of exciting Glial science! #CANGlia2025

Amazing work as always, Lewis!

Come and work with the Translational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab! We are looking for a #labmanager who wants to understand the circuits and mechanisms underlying cognition. Search ID 39142 at: recruit.uwo.ca

Astrocytes, hidden puppet masters of the brain Astrocyte signaling pathways influence neuronal networks and behavioral responses to neuromodulators

Very nice series of papers showing the effects of noradrenaline on brain circuits and behaviour require astrocytes. Congrats to the three labs on this fantastic work!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

FINALLY a mnemonic that is legitimately helpful for this!

diceroll press

My poem "I Fix the Door Open with My Bones" appears in the premiere issue of Diceroll.

Go show them some love!

diceroll.press

The Trinity Review winter 2025 issue 137.1 lying in grass with dandelions

Many thanks to The Trinity Review for publishing my poem "Before the Grassfires Flew" in issue 137.1.

You can check it, and others, out here: www.thetrinityreview.com/download

Thanks Marco!

Race results from the Toronto Marathon

Today I ran my first marathon ❤️

Black text on white background reads "The Bad Thing 2025 / This email confirms you've registered for the following event: The Bad Thing 2025"

Stayed up late last night to register for my fall goal race! Running the 50km at The Bad Thing trail race 🤘🏻