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Alexander Harris

@dralexharris.bsky.social

Neuroscientist/Psychiatrist at Columbia Psychiatry. Circuits. Stress susceptibility & resilience. Reward seeking. Oscillations

3,735 Followers  |  1,997 Following  |  721 Posts  |  Joined: 18.08.2023  |  1.8745

Latest posts by dralexharris.bsky.social on Bluesky

Isn’t it interesting that at least once a week we say ומפני חטאינו גלינו מארצינו?

Not מפני שאבותינו חטאו , not מפני שאויבינו חטאו

The tefilla seems to encourage an internal locus of control

26.09.2025 14:13 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Silver tip roast marinated in wine, shallots & juniper berries

Silver tip roast marinated in wine, shallots & juniper berries

Sh’niyihe l’roast v’lo l’zanav

21.09.2025 19:40 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Computational Ecology and/or Evolution @columbiauniversity.bsky.social.
Deadline to apply September 30.
Reach out if you have questions.

apply.interfolio.com/172496

20.09.2025 15:20 — 👍 32    🔁 46    💬 0    📌 0

Make sure double check that patient’s name before giving a vaccine so it’s not a זריקה שלא לשמה

21.09.2025 13:18 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

דרך ישראל סבא

אלה בנצחנימו, ואלה ברצחנימו הבטחות

ואנחנו בשם נצח ישראל כפינו
שטוחות

🕊️ 🤲

19.09.2025 13:04 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Picture of racks of round challos for Shabbos before Rosh Hashanah

Picture of racks of round challos for Shabbos before Rosh Hashanah

מוסיפין מחול על הקודש ומקודש על החול

19.09.2025 12:52 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

R. Meilich Biderman tells an awesome story about the Ruzhiner Rebbe that subverts the expectation of a miraculous happy ending

11.09.2025 01:15 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

What about detecting malingered psychosis? You could leave that morsel for him (to be nice).

10.09.2025 20:30 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I’m also amused by the contrast of the klezmer violin aesthetic & the electric guitar at the end
4/4

10.09.2025 13:43 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The accompanying narrative video has shtetl scenes with the protagonists speaking in Poylishe Yiddish, while the singer uses Hungarian Yiddish. The kids play turn of the century games like stick & hoop. I wonder who is the audience?
3/n

10.09.2025 13:43 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Looks dire, but no worries! The rebbe gets a heavenly message that in the merit of his compassion the child will recover. It turns out that empathy is a potent mystical tool for getting good outcomes
2/n

10.09.2025 13:43 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 1
Vurka - Avrum Mordche Schwartz | ווארקא - אברהם מרדכי שווארץ
YouTube video by Avrum Mordche אברהם מרדכי Vurka - Avrum Mordche Schwartz | ווארקא - אברהם מרדכי שווארץ

I find this video fascinating youtube.com/watch?v=hrVQ...
The Vurka Rebbe tells his chossid that he can’t perform a miracle to cure his child but he can he cry with him. That would be a lesson about the interpersonal power of empathy, BUT the chossid walks away dejected.
1/n

10.09.2025 13:43 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Thrilled to join this amazing panel to talk consciousness, psychosis and the biology of experience 🧠 🧬

Get your tickets and submit your questions 👇

29.08.2025 14:29 — 👍 11    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0

Does anyone have any insight into how היפיש גוט came to mean decent? Hübsch means pretty

29.08.2025 12:28 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

ChatGPT is like Zeresh: a cheerleading loved one before the fact, a wise scold after the fact.

25.08.2025 12:53 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

This blew me away!

10.08.2025 18:55 — 👍 8    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
Video thumbnail

I still get chills

Meet Mike
*30+ years severe depression
*first hospitalized @ 13y
*20 meds
*3 rounds of ECT
*2 near-fatal suicide attempts

Mike felt joy for the first time in decades after we turned on his new brain pacemaker or PACE

see videos, read paper, follow thread
doi.org/10.31234/osf...

10.08.2025 18:22 — 👍 392    🔁 137    💬 18    📌 35

Here’s my top line overview:

08.08.2025 01:10 — 👍 59    🔁 33    💬 2    📌 3

I dunno. You kinda make sense to me!

Can you help me vibe this code I don’t understand?

07.08.2025 22:58 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Herma of Demosthenes from the Athenian Agora, work by Polyeuktos, c. 280 BC, Glyptothek
^ Origin
In the earliest times Greek divinities were worshipped in the form of a heap of stones or a shapeless column of stone or wood. In many parts of Greece there were piles of stones by the sides of roads, especially at their crossings, and on the boundaries of lands. The religious respect paid to such heaps of stones, especially at the meeting of roads, is shown by the custom of each passer-by throwing a stone on to the heap or anointing it with oil. Later there was the addition of a head and phallus to the column,
which became quadrangular (the number four was sacred to Hermes).

Herma of Demosthenes from the Athenian Agora, work by Polyeuktos, c. 280 BC, Glyptothek ^ Origin In the earliest times Greek divinities were worshipped in the form of a heap of stones or a shapeless column of stone or wood. In many parts of Greece there were piles of stones by the sides of roads, especially at their crossings, and on the boundaries of lands. The religious respect paid to such heaps of stones, especially at the meeting of roads, is shown by the custom of each passer-by throwing a stone on to the heap or anointing it with oil. Later there was the addition of a head and phallus to the column, which became quadrangular (the number four was sacred to Hermes).

 Name and origin
The earliest form of the name Hermes is the Mycenaean Greek
*hermahãs, written e-ma-a2 (e-ma-ha) in the Linear B syllabic script. Other forms of the name of Hermes are Hermeias, Hermaön,
Hermãn, Hermaios, and
Hermayos. Most scholars derive Hermes from Greek (herma),
'stone heap’,  Hermax, ('heap of stones'), hermaion, ('gift of Hermes'), hermaios hill were holy to Hermes.

Name and origin The earliest form of the name Hermes is the Mycenaean Greek *hermahãs, written e-ma-a2 (e-ma-ha) in the Linear B syllabic script. Other forms of the name of Hermes are Hermeias, Hermaön, Hermãn, Hermaios, and Hermayos. Most scholars derive Hermes from Greek (herma), 'stone heap’, Hermax, ('heap of stones'), hermaion, ('gift of Hermes'), hermaios hill were holy to Hermes.

Today’s daf!

07.08.2025 22:54 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Congratulations!!

05.08.2025 14:41 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Congratulations!!!

04.08.2025 13:42 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Yeah dopamine encodes reward but what about when contingencies shift and behavior needs to be flexible? Turns out VTA GABA neuron activity plays a role, check it out in my first postdoctoral research article here!👇

31.07.2025 21:50 — 👍 31    🔁 8    💬 1    📌 1
Post image Post image

'Untangling the multifaceted VTA responses to stress'

by Urszula Skupio, Alexander Harris & Abigail Polter
@ampolter.bsky.social @dralexharris.bsky.social

www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

30.07.2025 12:30 — 👍 11    🔁 8    💬 0    📌 0

Gorgeous

27.07.2025 16:43 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Can I choose none of the above?

27.07.2025 01:48 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

But I guess they have decided to do it this way. Blargh

25.07.2025 22:50 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I see. Although they could give across the board annual steep haircuts to existing grants, no?

25.07.2025 22:42 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0

I don’t get it yet. Is it to use up the budget before the big cut?

25.07.2025 22:01 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Do you have a sense of the ostensible rationale?

25.07.2025 21:38 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

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