Alexander Harris

Good shabbos from #acnp2026
(The calm before the science)

Untangling the multifaceted VTA responses to stress

"Untangling the multifaceted VTA responses to stress"
http://dlvr.it/TPKFpf

@dralexharris.bsky.social @ampolter.bsky.social & Urszula Skupio
@cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social
#SfN2025

מי יתן ה׳
מלך מלכי המלכים
דורש הליכה בדרכיו
נעשה עולם בלי רעב ומלחמה
ימצא שפע טובה ומעדנים כעפר

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

Silver tip roast marinated in wine, shallots & juniper berries

Sh’niyihe l’roast v’lo l’zanav

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

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

דרך ישראל סבא

אלה בנצחנימו, ואלה ברצחנימו הבטחות

ואנחנו בשם נצח ישראל כפינו
שטוחות

🕊️ 🤲

Picture of racks of round challos for Shabbos before Rosh Hashanah

מוסיפין מחול על הקודש ומקודש על החול

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Get your tickets and submit your questions 👇

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

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

This blew me away!

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...

Here’s my top line overview:

I dunno. You kinda make sense to me!

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

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.

Today’s daf!

Congratulations!!

Congratulations!!!

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!👇

'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...

Gorgeous

Can I choose none of the above?

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